Eagles Moves, and Mailbag With Zach Berman!

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Welcome to the ringers, Philly Special Shield Kapati here with Zach Berman of the Athletic,

the return of the ZB3, the return of the mail bag after a one week hiatus and ZB let

me know before, you know, as we came on, the sacrifice he's making to be here with us

today, missing what was it, ZB, the Brayden Man press conference, and Brayden Man and Danny

and Pierce are meeting with reporters, but I am monitoring both, but you do have my

attention.

Okay.

So we don't have his attention.

You do have my attention both press conferences as he's on the podcast.

So you know, first he said I'm making the sacrifice and now he's telling us his mind's

going to be wandering.

No, my mind's not wandering.

It's not wandering.

Now, normally if this was someone else, we would be laughing about it, but for ZB to

miss those press conferences, now we are those remote ZB or those are at the Novakir

conference.

Oh, they're remote.

So that's what I'm saying.

So you have to zoom up on the screen.

Oh, so you actually could, we could have done a last second change.

You could have joined them and we could have started a little bit later.

That would have been fine with me.

That would have been fine with Cliff, but you know what?

We didn't know they were remote.

We thought maybe they weren't person.

So we're not going to stop now.

We're just going to keep going.

And if news breaks, you know, if there's a bombshell in one of those press conferences,

ZB will have it monitored.

I have a feeling and we'll bring it to you here.

Sorry.

We got a lot of good stuff to get to today.

I feel like a lot's happened since we last talked to ZB, not like that major move,

not that big splashy move, but you had a Hollywood brown signing.

You had a, I almost called him Chase Daniel.

You had a Andy Dalton signing or an Andy Dalton trade for the Eagles.

You had the Damien pier signing, which he just alluded to.

I guess something happened with Braden Mann, because he's having a press conference.

You had that.

You had a Jake Elliott restructure in there.

You had a stone smart.

Is that the guy's name?

Stone smart.

Yes.

Tight end.

Tight end.

Stone smart signing.

The ZB three is about what ZB wants to get to.

So I don't know if he's going to lead with stone smart thinking that's going to be big

for social.

That's going to hook everyone in until we get to some other stuff.

But ZB, the floor is yours for the ZB three.

What are we starting with today with all these Eagles news happening?

So the, the first thing I, I want to make sure to mention here is a name that we did

not discuss and you've probably discussed them since then, but you and I did not discuss

them.

And that's Arnold Ebbocketti.

Arnold Ebbocketti, I think, is someone who deserves more attention based on the type

of player that I think he can be.

Now, if you have a Z's Ojalari fatigue or you felt spurned by the Ojalari signing, understand

uply so, right?

Similar profile, early second round pick.

Someone deals had interest in coming out of college.

Someone who had like decent production early on in his career, but then moves by the team

that drafted him, kind of pushed him down the depth chart.

Ebbocketti had had two double digits, I'm sorry, I had two six sac seasons.

So he's not someone who is like a complete unknown or a bust or anything.

He maybe doesn't, he hasn't proven to be a starter in the league, but I think he deserves

a little more attention in the sense that I'm just going to give you some quick numbers

here.

When you compare him to some of the top free agents in this draft class, or I'm sorry,

in this free agency class, among among our druchers, Ebbocketti has a sac or quarterback hit

on 4.3% of his past rushes since he's coming into the NFL.

So how does that compare to the top guys?

Well, Jalen Phillips is 4.6%, Adafoel Oway has 4.3%, Boy Maffe has 2.8%, Cheson has 3.8%,

Joseph Asai has 4.6%, Quitte Pay has 2.8%.

So he's not, he's, and I bring those guys up because outside of Cheson, all of those

guys signed multi-year deals for good amounts of money.

And for what the Eagles are paying Ebbocketti, I think that this is an interesting bet to

make.

And he's a player who will, we'll see if they trade for John Thin Grenard, but I don't

think it's like totally out of the question that he has a decent role for the Eagles and

that.

He's more valuable on the free agent market a year from now than he is right now.

All right.

Now, there was some vagueness there, you know, in your descriptions where he deserves

more attention.

He could have a bigger role.

You know, I need to know, I need to nail you down here, ZB, if you were doing the interviewing

of yourself here, you would say be more specific.

How many sacks do you think he's going to have?

What percentage snaps do you think he's going to play in this world where you're describing

an Arnold Ebbocketti who's going to be maybe more valuable than the average observer would

think?

What exactly are we talking about here?

You know, he's the, he's right now, the third edge rusher on the team, I would think.

You still have the draft.

He could get bumped down exactly fourth edge rusher potentially.

I think the only way he's playing starter snaps is if you have injuries and things are

going sideways.

So what are you saying you like the value or are you saying no, he actually could have seven

sacks next year and be like, I don't know, like a Chris Longish type sign, where he's

a rotational past rusher who ends up playing really well for them.

What exactly are we saying here?

So the reason I couch it is for the reason that that you noted is if they were to draft

someone in the first round, right, or they were the trade for Jonathan Grenard, two things

that I don't think are implausible, you know, two things that could occur, then obviously

it changes the situation.

I do think there's a pathway here to him being a top three edge rusher for the Eagles and

having, you know, six, let's say six to eight sacks, being that type of player for the Eagles

and look with no one Smith's injury history, potentially starting some games.

I don't think, I don't think that's out of the question.

I mean, he sees someone who was productive at Temple and at Penn State.

So he kind of got this pot covered here, right?

And with your textbook and Cliffs All the Modern, yeah, I would agree with that.

And I like the player and he's someone that I know the Eagles have liked in the past,

whether it's a trade market coming out of college, but I don't want to be bold here.

I probably should be more bold and sensei like he's going to be an eight sack guy because

then if he's the fourth player, it changes things.

I think that when I say deserves more attention, you like the signing.

I think I like the signing, you like the value and I think when I say more attention,

how he would brown gets more buzz, for instance, right?

How he would browns a buzzy need.

And I think Epiketti deserves a little more attention than what he's received.

You know, I was thinking earlier today, you mentioned college and the NCAA tournament's going on.

I don't think anything has changed in my sports viewing diet more from college to now being

in my 40s than March Madness in the NCAA tournament.

Really?

Well, I still watch.

I had it on today.

I'm watching.

But do you, I mean, that might have been the best weekend of the college year was March Madness.

Every single year, I mean, it starts at noon on a Thursday.

You got your brackets ready with your buddies, your order and food.

You're sitting down.

Maybe you're indulging in a few beverages in the early afternoon.

Maybe it's a nice day and you're going out watching it somewhere.

And then Thursday, I always thought was the best going out night in college.

You know, you have the Thursday Friday Saturday.

I always thought Thursday was the best is the start of the weekend.

And so you had all that.

It was just such a great event.

Sometimes it fell on St. Patrick's Day.

So you have that kind of combinations where people are out and about already.

So it was great in college.

Then I feel like in my 20s, it was still an event where it's like,

Hey, you know, should we take off, you know, Thursday Friday?

I actually got in trouble once for taking off

during the NCAA tournament.

Have I told this story?

ZB is this familiar to hear now?

Okay.

So I was at filly.com

working of scene hours, you know, just like 12 hours in the office

and going home, blogging afterwards.

So I wanted to write doing all that, you know, not taking any

at that point.

I was in my 20s.

So I felt like, are you actually supposed to take the vacation?

I don't want to, you know, maybe I shouldn't take the vacation probably

because, you know, I want to prove myself in this job.

I'm working up.

So I'm not even taking a lot of vacation.

You know, all the football season, like you're not taking any time off

during football season.

And then you had, of course, the fillies were good during my run there.

So I said, you know what?

During the NCAA tournament, you know, sometimes I get together

with the buddies and watch games all day Thursday.

So I'm going to take off.

I don't know if it was a Thursday or a Friday or whatever.

I go through the proper channels,

put it for my PTO, you know, you put in the request,

emailing people ahead of time, hey, I'm going to be out.

You're some things like reminders, all that, you know,

doing it totally responsibly.

So they approve it.

All right, cool.

She was taking off next week, a higher up.

Hey, she'll, can I see her?

Okay, yeah, cool.

Bring, you know, brings me into the office, you know,

you really put us in a tough spot,

taking off for the NCAA tournament.

I go, what do you mean?

I put in like the, you know, proper approval.

I had, you know, PTO that I barely used.

I thought like this was a good time.

No, so and so, you know, like had to do this the whole time.

And we had to call on so and so, acting like the NCAA tournament

in Philadelphia, this is Philly.com.

I mean, we're talking about the Eagles.

You got the Philly's.

You got the Sixers.

You got the, like, this is not among the most important things

happening in Philadelphia in any given year.

Even when the teams are, God, I don't even remember if the teams

were in there.

There might have been one team in there or whatever.

And so they're guilt tripping me about taking off.

I'm going, I don't even use all my vacation.

And if somebody had an issue with this,

why don't you bring it up when I, I put in the approval, you know,

I put in the request like a weeks before or a week before or whatever.

Why didn't we have this conversation then?

You could have said,

she'll, we need you then.

I want to say, cool.

No problem.

I'll come in.

I'll take these off later.

I thought that was just

Bobo disgraceful management.

If I'm being honest, what do you think?

Yes, you're clear for me.

I agree is that if you're,

you gave them the heads up.

They approved it.

There needs to be an understanding there.

It's not like, yeah,

I agree with you.

So anyway, in your 20s,

my 20s, I felt like it was still a big deal.

You know, you're watching me.

It's still, it's still,

but it's not so much anymore.

Like, you know, my buddy, Leamer, you know,

we were texting this morning.

I was just like, did you do a bracket?

Like are you making any bets?

He's like, I'm not even taking off this year.

I don't know anything that's going on.

I'm like, many of them.

This is a sad state.

We used to be like, all right.

Yeah.

What are we taking off Thursday and Friday?

Just Thursday, you coming over.

Should we meet somewhere,

even working around NFL free agency?

Try to always make it happen.

And now, you know, you just

aren't able to do those things.

So yeah, I have it on.

Well, I watched this, you know,

this morning before we started.

And I'll watch later.

But I do think that's the thing

in my sports viewing diet that's changed the most

over say the last 20 plus years.

Yeah. So I hear what you're saying.

I do think college basketball

has probably changed the most for me

in the last 20 years.

And that I used to be, I don't want to flex

like an expert in this.

But like I was, I was, I knew it.

All the teams, all the players.

I covered it, right?

And now I watch it casually.

I can tell you, it's like something

about the top 30 teams or so.

But I can't, I don't know

what the depth that I used to have.

And it reminds me, you know,

when I was at the Washington Post,

one of my roles was, was I had to

write the capsules, right?

You know, with this big ensue,

I was like, oh my gosh.

And you had to write the capsules.

And I didn't realize like until someone told me

how important these capsules were

because a lot of people like make their picks

based on what they read in the capsules.

So like, if you're, if you're described,

you know, you're, you're unearthing different nuggets,

you're describing the way the team plays.

And like someone's, you know,

someone's reading this 150 word blurb.

And it's like, I, I like the sound of high point, right?

You know, I, I, I really think,

I remember doing one that year for Binghamton,

they were 15C, they played Duke.

They had, they had a lot of joy, guys, actually.

But, you know, they're, they had some

high profile recruit or some high profile transfers

on the on their team.

And I think I talked up Binghamton

a little too much in that capsule

because I remember the editor being like,

you got to tone it down with Binghamton here.

Yeah. But yeah, I, I used to be really into it.

Yeah, it's like, you know, you read what,

if you're reading a capsule and it's like,

this team can really shoot it.

You're like, I like teams that you shoot it.

Yeah, yeah, I'm going to pick them up with the upset

or it's like, this player, like, I remember James Harden.

Remember that year was like, James Harden is, you know,

this, they were playing Temple, I believe, right?

That year might as well stay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I care. Remember, yeah.

I think they were playing Temple that year.

It's like, oh, man, watch out for this.

James Harden, so yeah, it is very fun.

I'm looking forward to this tournament

because it sounds like there's a lot of great,

there's going to be a great draft.

It seems like all these players are in the tournament

and it seems like it's been a really good college basketball season.

So I'll get into it more.

It's just a little different field than it was back in the day.

Do you like that? I'm still,

but does that, what does it say about my personality?

Did I still got real fired up telling that story?

And that was like almost 20 years ago.

Is that a bad thing?

Is that a good thing?

Does it speak to my ability to hold grudges?

What do you think?

I think it speaks to your entertainment value as a podcaster.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, you're a good storyteller.

You created suspense and climax in there.

I respect it.

Listen, if anyone's listening and you're in management,

you can't be going at the person after you approved their PTO.

That's all I'm saying.

Before and you want to say,

we got this coming up fine.

But afterwards, can't do it.

All right, CP, what's number two on your list here?

Okay, number two, let me pull up the list here.

And I was excited for these.

I'm excited for these still.

Okay, number two is this is related to yesterday's move.

Andy Dalton, Eagle's trade for Andy Dalton,

as your reference, not Chase Daniel, Andy Dalton.

And the Eagles should trade Tandermake.

I believe this.

Oh, I don't think that from my understanding,

these events are connected in a sense that they didn't acquire

Dalton with the McKee deal in minute.

That's that's totally like I can buy that at face value.

Okay, I but I don't think this means that like Tandermake is untouchable.

And actually, I think this leads to the strong possibility

of a Tandermake deal if they like what they get.

Now, the Eagles have traded for number three quarterbacks.

I mean, they gave compensation last year to get Sam Howe

because obviously Tandermake was banged up going into the season,

but they didn't need to give a pick.

They wanted the assurance there at the number three QB spot.

They traded for Gardner Minto when they had Joe Flacco.

So they've done this before where it's like it's a good value for a quarterback to go get it.

So I I'm not like saying the Eagles are are being insincere

with this idea that a McKee deal is not imminent.

But it strikes me as as odd to have any Dalton is your number three quarterback.

You don't need, you know, you need about a 38 year old

making, you know, nearly four million as your number three quarterback.

He profiles strongly as a backup quarterback, I would think.

And I still think that your best chance of getting value for Tandermake is in a trade.

This is the time to do it.

We spoke about it during the offseason blueprints.

So I'll defer to you as to which teams would acquire him.

But I think that the Eagles should be aggressive trying to trade Tandermake.

Because I think Eddie Dalton's solid as a backup quarterback.

Yeah, I think that the salary there that you mentioned is the big thing for me four million dollars.

I mean, I'm looking and I don't believe

that there's a team in the NFL that is paying a third string quarterback four million dollars.

Now, maybe I'm wrong about that, but you look, you know,

you look at some of the guys like Kenny Pickett got four million dollars from the Panthers,

which made Andy Dalton expendable. He's going to be their backup quarterback.

And you just look at the other names kind of in that price range.

That is generally low end or middle range of backup quarterback money.

So I hear what you're saying and certainly it felt like the team's messaging was like,

everyone don't just jump to conclusions that, you know, Tandermake is going to be traded now.

And I get that. It doesn't mean the trade's imminent.

But I still will be surprised if we get to week one and Tandermake is the backup at Andy Dalton's

on the roster as the third string quarterback. I mean, to pay the third string quarterback four

million dollars when you're paying jail and hurts over 50 million dollars and you're telling us

that it's like, it's not just telling us we can see you don't have a lot of flexibility financially.

Like you are up against it in a lot of ways. That wouldn't make a lot of sense to me.

So yeah, I did, you know, I did a little short form video yesterday and I said that I do think

that this is a precursor to a Tandermake trade despite what maybe the team's messaging is.

Now, I don't know if that's going to happen right now, right before the draft.

Are they like, ooh, let's wait till the summer and maybe get all cute with it and say,

hey, maybe a quarterback goes down and now all of a sudden we have the same Bradford type situation.

But I don't believe that they're going to get to week one with jail and hurts Tandermake

and Andy Dalton all on the roster. I think McKee would most likely be moved there.

So in terms of what teams would still be interested, I think the Cleveland Browns are an obvious one.

You know, I think we've wondered before and I don't know if you have reporting on this.

I know I've just wondered from afar if they, if they called about Tandermake in the past and the

Eagle said, no, but how about Kenny Pickett, you know, just last summer. That kind of thing,

maybe the Browns offered a certain level of compensation and the Eagle said, we want more.

But now you're a year later, he is in the last year of his contract.

You have another backup plan. It feels like this would be a move you would make with the team

like the Browns. I mean, the Cardinals, they got Jacobi Berset and Gardner Minshue.

Would they be like, hey, we would like a younger option in New York Jets.

They traded for Geno Smith. But would they say we would like another option, a younger option?

I think probably less likely, but not impossible that the Jets would do it. So I think the Browns

are really the team to me that it feels like might be most interested in a move like this.

So the thing with the Browns is, and correct me if I'm wrong, the word on Tadmunk

is that he wants more of a mobile quarterback. Am I incorrect about that?

I think maybe he's said that, but like he's played before with, you know, James Winston.

And, you know, I think of Tadmunk and I think wants to push the ball down field. But yes, I do

think he made comments maybe to that effect. But no one looks at Shadoor Sanders like he's a,

you know, like they got to play somebody this year. And then, and then Arizona, yeah, they,

they, they strike me as a, as a strong possibility. And because like, I get it that this is a team

that that has their sights set on next year's quarterback draft class. But if I'm Monti Austin

for number one, like, are you going to draft that quarterback next year? You know, and then,

and then, and then number two, what's the worst that could happen if you get a, if Tadmunk

he's good, you're in a good spot. Tadmunk he's not good. You're in the same spot. You're in

now. So I, I, I, I think it would be who them to look at it when Gardner mentioned when you

Kobe percent are your other options. So that's a, that's a team that stood out. But you are

correct about monitoring for potential quarterback injuries, right? I, I think, I think that's

something you can see in, you know, Pittsburgh, for instance, that's, that's a, that's a, a team

you can discuss. But yeah, I, I do that's true. The Steelers don't have anybody. Yeah, I,

I forgot about the Steelers. They have not brought back Aaron Rodgers yet. So they don't, you know,

I don't believe they have like a starting caliber quarterback on the roster. So that's definitely

one that deserves to be mentioned. Yeah. So those are some teams that, that jumped in my day.

I do though want to point out you did a video for the Andy Dalton trade. Yeah.

You did a video for Hollywood Brown. Did you do a video for Arnold Ebbaketti?

I did not because we were recording a podcast. Okay. Yeah. I think Sean was on that day and we

were doing a podcast pretty soon after that signing was announced. So that was, but I do appreciate

you kind of holding me accountable there. Well, I was going to be like, no, no, no, because you said

like, like, people need to make a bigger deal. You were going to strengthen your mind. Yeah,

my parameter was going to be, my parameter was going to be does shield pod. Oh, I'm sorry, does

shield do a VOD on this topic? If it rises to the shield VOD level, then it's like, all right,

it's getting a lot of attention. But you didn't do one today for Damien Pierce, for instance.

No, that's not happening. Yeah. So I'll do respect. Take a pierce at 900 plus yards is a rookie,

by the way. Just point that out. We'll see. We'll see what happens at that number three running

back spot. All right. We'll take a break. We'll come back. I've a third one. Oh, you want the

final, but we're 20 minutes in because of my long story about how I had to get off my chest. So

we're going to take a break or come back. Don't worry. You got plenty of time, ZVave, with your

third point, you know, maybe you'll tell us what we need to know about Damien Pierce since Don't

Smart. I'm going to give you like 15 seconds to check your timeline to make sure Brayton Manant

Man didn't come out and say, we're winning the Super Bowl this year, or Damien Pierce coming,

came out and I said, I look forward to challenging, you know, say Juan Barclay for the starting

running back spot because Nick Seriani preaches competition. If there's something like that,

you can let us know. So let's take a break. We'll come back with all of that.

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All right, we are back here on the Ringer's Philly special. I only gave you like, you know, 10 seconds

C.P. Did you have time to scroll a little bit? Did you did you check those out? Anything earth

jattering from the Brayden Man or Damien Pierce press conferences yet? You're suggesting that I

haven't been scrolling all along here. Brayden Man became a father. He had a child at the same

week as the new contract, so it was a busy week for him. Same thing, by the way, happened

with AK Epiketti. And so a good week all around for these guys and well-timed babies.

Damien Pierce. Well-timed babies, agreed. Damien Pierce has not had, I have the zoom up in my

on the other corner of my screen and Damien Pierce has not appeared yet.

I wonder, I don't know. I don't know about well-timed. I don't know how well-timed these things are.

I think it might be a little bit more lucky, you know, not everybody has your sort of

vision and foresight and planning, Zepi. Now, maybe they did. Maybe that's something you can

ask them about once you get back in the locker room and see just kind of the planning process

for having a child. But congratulations to both those guys. Yeah, the first baby was born in June.

So that was actually well-timed. Sloan, my daughter, was born in January. In between

the bears and the saints post-easy games. Oh, right. I remember that. Yeah. So that was not

particularly well-timed, but she was well-timed in terms of she came in between those two games.

So I was able to make it to Chicago and to New Orleans. So it worked out swimmingly. Yeah, so well-timed

in that regard. Well, that's the most important thing that you were able to make.

And I went to the senior bowl, which probably wasn't the best idea. Yeah, I don't think so.

I think you would, I think I would be recommending a redo on your part. I was thinking about that

recently. I was like, did I really need to go to the senior bowl again? No. Yeah. But, you know,

in the moment, you're in a certain headspace, which we all know, which we all know by now.

All right. Yes. What is your third? Well, first Andy Dalton, and I did say this on the video I did,

but his hair is just immaculate. I mean, talk about a guy who just sort of gotten that glow up

with age. When you see the photos associated with Andy Dalton now with these stories about the

trade, probably the best hair I would say of any quarterback in the NFL. I don't know if that's

controversial or not. You don't know. You're thinking about it. Yeah. Okay. All right. You like that,

though. You like the, I think you use his fiber, the fiber putty that he puts in the hair. How

do you pause it? How do you know that, ZB? You have not met him yet. So you haven't asked him. This

came up in your research that he uses. Yeah. I don't even know what that is. A fiber putty.

Yeah. It's like, um, it's like a pomade gel type, you know, it's in one of those, uh,

and to fiber putty. So it gives a little texture. Whatever he's doing is working. Yeah.

Yeah. My care wrote a piece on that. That's a, that's a good, that's a good one. I probably think

like, you know, Sam Hartman probably has the honor for the best hair. This is a little more natural.

I feel probably right? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Um, there's some other good ones. Okay. You know, the hair

product has really improved since I needed to use hair product in my hair. I feel like, you know,

back in the day, you're going, what is like a Vidal Sassoon, maybe a panty and some weird kind of

gel product that you're throwing in there. It makes it all stiff. You're like, this is a

business. It's probably a lot of weird stuff in here. Now I feel like they got the more advanced,

but you know what? I don't need it, but that's okay. Credit to people like Andy Dalton,

who do an RIT. I remember back in middle school, we used to do like the L.A. looks. And I think

that's what it's called. And that thing would, it would form like a crust. Correct. You know what I'm

saying? Like, it was flake. Like, it was hot. You know, I look back and hindsight. And I'm like,

oh, man, yeah, that was, that was the thing back in sixth grade. Yeah. Okay. What do we got?

What's the third point here? Number three here. And I wanted to make this kind of AJ adjacent.

So my, my view on AJ Brown hasn't changed, but bigger picture here in terms of I still expect him

to be moved since we last spoke. It was the whole thing happened last weekend, where it's closed

and then didn't happen. But overall, I think a point that is important to emphasize is that

this depth chart is going to look different, considerably different in September than it is now.

And I think this is more comparable to 2022. And what I mean by that is the owner's meetings in

2022, how your Roseman's discussing, you know, this perceived lack of activity. They haven't done

enough a wide receiver. They haven't done enough a corner. They haven't really done anything

at safety. And if you remember, after it, so the after the draft that year, or after from draft

on, they trade for AJ Brown, they sign James Bradbury, they trade for CJ Gardner Johnson, right?

And I think there's going to be, and that's an addition to the draft. I think there's going to

be moves of consequence still to come. Obviously, one could be going out in terms of AJ Brown,

but I could still see the Eagles adding to multiple spots here. They have nine picks. They have

four in the top 100. They have more calf space than you typically have at this juncture. Now,

part of that could be to absorb a potential AJ Brown trade, but it wouldn't surprise me if they

were to make a move. So wide receiver, certainly a position where maybe a starting, you know,

they're starting wide receiver week one is not on the team right now. That's possible, right?

Tight end, I would say whether it's, you know, maybe more like a tight end to it, but certainly

somebody who could play a lot of snaps, that could be someone who's not on the roster right now.

Right guard is probably the other one on offense, right? If they were to draft somebody who

would maybe replace Tyler Steen, you're saying no. It's certainly plausible. It's hard for me to

really say anything about this offensive line right now because I don't quite know like the type

of player that they're looking what they want. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So Tyler Steen does fit the

profile more of a gest outland guard than I would think, you know, Chris Cooper, you know, Sean

Mannion guard, but I don't, I don't know that right now. So yeah, so perhaps that's on the table.

Okay. Front seven, I would say on defense is pretty much set. I mean, it would surprise me if a new

player, unless they made some kind of big splash edge, but I would say, you know, I think Jalik's

hunt and Nolan Smith starting at edge is probably the most likely scenario, right? Right, but I,

I do think Jonathan Grenargin named the watch here. Okay. That would be interesting. Who would be

that wonder how, how, how, what would that rotation look like? You know, who would be the third

edge? It would be similar to, it would be just like signing Jalen Phillips is my guess. The problem

is I think, you know, with with Grenard, it's two things. You're giving up a pick and you're,

and you're paying a contract. I don't know if I would do it. Like I, I'd be okay with the top three

you have draft someone and see how Nolan Smith plays this year, but there's enough buzz there to

think that it's legit. I didn't ask you with the McKee talk. What do you think would be the

compensation? What, what neighborhood are we shopping in there? If you, if you got an alert on

your phone, Eagles are trading Tanner McKee, where does your head go to? What do you think they're

getting back in return? 27th third that can become a second. Oh, okay. I think the Eagles would love

that. I think it could even, you know, could it be bumped down around a 2027 fourth that could

become a third, right? Would they do that? I think, I think as the neighborhood were shopping,

yeah, and it depends, obviously, where in those rounds, although I guess the team wouldn't know

where in those rounds, they would be picking. But yeah, I would say third-ish, conditional fourth-ish,

if he starts a certain number of games, it gets bumped up to a third, anything like that. So we'll

see what happens there. So our front seven corner, they're set, and then safety is the big one.

I would say right on defense. That is kind of, if you're looking at what's the glaring hole,

where it just feels like maybe they need to add somebody unless they go with a, you know,

a Michael Carter or something like that, safety would be the spot, right?

Correct. I don't love what's out there. I mean, if I, if you were to say,

Zach, like, who are two guys to look for, Taylor Rapp and Jopro Peppers both have backgrounds

with Mike Pell Greeno, the new Secondary's coach. So that could be a potential, you know,

those. Tell it greeno. Wow. Like the, like the bubble water. If I'm pronouncing it correctly,

yes, bubble water. Yeah. Yeah. From the cross player, John tokens. That sounds like a guy

who could have been the hidden coach for team Italia. You know, we were just naming some Italian

baseball players the other day. Pell Greeno could have gotten in there, perhaps with his fellow

Italian Air Nola. True. Okay. Zach's afraid to say anything. All right. All right. So those are

some safeties to keep an eye on. All right. So you think that we shouldn't look at this. We should

not look at the depth chart and say, all right, these are the guys who are going to line up in

week one. You are anticipating some rather significant moves at some point between now and when

they have to play a football game. Well, because I think I'll, well, yeah, I mean, I'm expecting an

AJ Brown move, right? And so then if, if it went AJ Brown traded, then you, to me, it's, it's,

it would be imprudent to go into a season with, with Devonte Smith, let's say a rookie Hollywood brown,

Darius Cooper, Johnny Wilson, like that's, that's not moving the needle for me, right?

No matter if the rookies are first round pick, you don't, I think that's totally plausible that

that's what it could be. You'd be okay with that. I mean, what else are they going to do?

This is, this is the problem with trading AJ Brown. You're going to get worse at the position,

but it might just be the, it just might be where you're at. And maybe you need the coach to figure

it out. You need the offensive coordinator to figure it out. And you're hopeful that your first round

pick can contribute, although that's never a given, because I looked at the Hollywood brown signing,

and I think my take probably differ from a lot of people where I kind of looked at it,

where as insurance for, you know, if you trade AJ Brown and draft a rookie, but the rookies not

ready, all right, we don't want to throw Hollywood brown out there as our second-wide receiver,

but you know what? That's what we're going to do. I mean, who else would they be able to acquire

at this stage in the offseason? Are you talking like a Brian Thomas junior trade still,

or another trade where they would find a starting caliber wide receiver? I actually don't think

that's going to happen. So a player who I think would be a really good fit, if they were to move

AJ Brown, but I just don't know if it'll work financially, is Joanne Jennings.

Because when you talk about like the blocking ability that he brings, which is something that

the Eagles don't have in, you know, the size, the physicality, I think that's, I say they don't

have it. They have Johnny Wilson, the fun thing's a good blocker, right? So I don't want to be dismissive

there. But yeah, I think, I think if Jennings is like lingering, and the Eagles have designs

to trade AJ Brown, and they have money to spend, like a one-year deal, he can reset his value,

or he could have a meaningful role here. And then you draft some on, but you don't kind of force

them in there. It's just, we've seen in the past now, it's a challenge sometimes, unless the

receivers are studed to say, all right, you're going to be a 50, 60 catch guy, right?

Yeah. And so that's where, now I know it's a good receiver class, but look where you're drafting

here. Is it going to be your first round pick? Yeah, that's kind of what I'm curious about.

So, and then you can still make a trade too. But I, I would be critical of their wide receiver

core if it's Devante Smith, Hollywood Brown, and a draft pick. Okay. Yeah, let's, you talked

me into it a little bit there, especially if the price is coming down Jennings hasn't signed

anywhere yet. Maybe it's a reasonable deal where you go ahead and you bring him in.

Stone smart and Damien Pierce, I was joking earlier, but CB, give the people some background

on the two newest Eagles background and potentially what their roles might be.

Yeah, so I don't have my stone smart notes in front of me here, but I'll tell you this is that

he's a tight end who was a, he was a college quarterback, an old dominion transferred or,

or switched to wide receiver, played for the chargers for three seasons before going to the

Jets last year. With the chargers, he had a good year in 24, like relatively speaking.

He caught 16 of 19 catches. He has a bit of starting experience, but he's, he's, he's more of your

move tight end. And if your boy Johnny Mont is the blocker, then Stone smart is, is your, he's, he's

your guy who it's kind of like Tyree Jackson, right? The the quarterback turned wide receiver tight end

who can, who's, who's, who's got some decent athletic ability. So that's Stone smart for you.

Damien Pierce is a player. I believe you like coming out of Florida if memory served.

He was a fun college running. Yes, for sure. Yeah. I, you see, I remember your drafty vows as

well. You remember better than I do. Yeah. Yeah. You, you liked him coming out.

Fourth ground pick with the Texas. I believe fourth round. Got on the field right away.

Was productive as a rookie. I think the best season in his career came against the Eagles on

a Thursday night game. If you remember back the 2022 season, Eagles, uh, it was the same night

that the Phillies played the Astros. Yeah. Bow flew back from Houston. Uh, if you recall, um,

shout out the bow. He, he flew to Houston. And then he felt like he wanted, he felt like he

wanted to write a piece on the Eagles and the Phillies playing at the same time. So he flew back home.

Wow. What was the spent report situation there? Did that go over? Well, what do you tell the editor?

I flew to Houston. I changed my mind. And now I'm flying back here to ruffle some feathers

that just go under the radar. It was a different kind of a different time. Yeah. I'm staying

so far out. I'm not sure if the question. Yeah. I just don't, he wrote not standing. He wrote

not standing piece. He wrote not standing story. Yeah. But I remember in the flight, you know,

the subscriptions paid for the flight type deal. So he, you know, could just be honest about it.

That's interesting. Yeah. I haven't heard that before. So being your career, have you heard of

a sports writer flying to a place and then not like a family emergency or a weather thing,

just changing their mind on how whether they wanted to cover the game and then flying back.

I mean, that's, although I guess on the other hand, you know, he was going to have to fly back

eventually. So maybe you're just changing the, the flight fee. And then if you're not staying at a

hotel where that night, maybe it's all in the wash. I don't know. We'll, our next time we have

or you go on PHLY or I go and we need to, I think that probably needs to be the lead of the episode.

I regret bringing this up. I was, I was trying to set up a compliment. I thought you were on a

great piece. And now you know, the two teams played concurrently. I don't, I do not recommend,

you know, try to pull that off. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Bo has, you know, a way where you,

you are able to pull that off without getting any of those red flags on the expense report

or from the others. All right. Continue ZB. So, so I had a real productive rookie season with the

Texas. His, his playing time's kind of Wayne since then was available last season. I, I heard

the Eagles had a little bit of interest then as well. But he, I think he went to Kansas City.

Anyways, comes to Philly here. This is a bad running back draft class. So I don't know if the

Eagles are going to draft the back. Yeah, if you look at it, they, they obviously they're

top two or solidified in Saquon and Tank Bigsby. I imagine Will Shipley is there number three,

but Damien Pierce and theory could push Will Shipley. I don't know who Will Shipley is like

cemented that job. Maybe a wrong. But it probably has probably cemented the third job.

Yeah, that would be surprising though. That would be enough. That would be surprising. Yeah.

Here's unseated Will Shipley. Yeah. But Damien Pierce is someone who is like, he's proven that he's,

he can be a legitimate about running back, right? This isn't someone who's just a camp body in the

past. He might be a camp body this year, but he has, he has had production in the league. So we'll

see how, how that goes. And also he's a gator and how he likes his gators and he hasn't really had

them in recent years. I've been in Fred Johnson. All right. So neither of these guys is guaranteed

a roster spot. Maybe death, maybe special teams, but unlikely to play big roles in 2026 unless

their injuries in front of them is how is what I'm hearing from your description. Yeah. And

and first I'll shout out Cliff CJ GJ, not another gator that he's had. That's in the studio chat

here. Yeah. I don't think anyone actually that they've signed. If I go on my list of ins of

of guys coming in and guys coming out in terms of players who I guarantee to be on the team this

year, obviously Rick Wolland on over to Epiketti. But like even Johnny Monk, Grant Calcutta, Damien

Pierce, Stone Smart, I'll go as far as like Andy Dalton, how he would brown. I haven't seen

that contract yet. But I mean, I would say Rick Wolland, Epiketti and probably how he would brown

are the three who like, you know, I would put in Paner, like really strong pencil. I don't know

that's term. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dixon, I kind of rogue. Jonathan Jones, by the way,

Jonathan Jones all over the news. Yeah. My editor is wanting to piece on this. Jonathan Jones

flew himself a pilot, a licensed pilot that's himself to the press conference. Yeah. We're not

crazy to sign his, to sign his contract. Yeah. Pretty cool. So is he solo in that plane?

Do you think like how does that work? I don't know if he came up with his with his wife yesterday

or or not. Good question. Man, that makes me so nervous. You, you flying a plane with just you

and your wife. Oh my God, it's giving me anxiety just thinking about it. Well, he's a licensed pilot.

I know. But still he received a license when he was in doing one. He has a passion for aviation.

For aviation. He grew up in, and he said, he's a self described country boy in

Georgia with, you know, bicycles and four wheelers. He's certainly upgraded his motor transportation

since then. But he, I was, I was actually doing research on on this and he, he had a business

meeting in Huntsville. He was in Atlanta and he had a business meeting in Huntsville. And the

person said that you're going to fly from Atlanta to Huntsville. And he was like, what, there's

commercial flights that go to Atlanta to Huntsville. And the guy said, no, my son's a pilot.

Okay. And so he, he jumped on with his, you know, he kind of spurred this interest in it.

And now he's got, I don't know planes very well. I had to research the type of plane, but it's

a single turbo, a single turbo pop, prop plane. And I've seen videos of him now. And yeah,

it's a cool story. People, you know, I mean, certainly my bosses were interested in it, but I can

tell by the numbers of people who've read this, that this is kind of resonating beyond the

diehardiness fans. So yeah, if you read that piece on the athletic, there's, there's, there's,

there's not much in there on what his role is going to be, but there's a lot in there on his

interest in aviation. That's interesting. I just flies himself to Philadelphia. I think Jimmy Graham

when I was in Seattle, he, he got sort of an obsession with flying when I was out there.

Now, Cliff did the gator chomp when you mentioned Florida, which brings up this question. Cliff,

you can answer this too. If I said you have to, because you know, we got a little college theme

to the show today. If I said you have to go back, you know, you're a junior, senior in high school,

and I tell you, you have to go to an SEC school for college, which school would you choose?

ZB, you want to start us off? Do you have an answer to this? What school came to mind when I

posed that question? So what's our criteria? Just like, we're just looking to have a good time.

Is that what you're saying? No, whatever. I don't know. I mean, the answer for me, the answer for

me would, would, would, would be Vanderbilt for like the academic, but yeah, but honestly, I would

say, I would say now Texas is, is an SEC school. So I would know is that cheating or not, because it

is now, you get an elite school, elite campus, great city. Yeah, I would pick Texas now, but

otherwise, I mean, Baton Rouge is a pretty cool place, but I would probably go Florida.

I'll see. I don't think I would go Baton Rouge. I think, I think Texas, if we're including the

new schools, if we're not, well, when did Missouri join the SEC? It's been a while, right?

Yes, that's a real good journalism school. I mean, that's a good journalism school.

Yeah, although I don't know that I want to go. I mean, maybe I would. I don't know. Missouri,

yeah, if I was focused on, hey, I need a good journalism school. Missouri and Texas seemed like

the good ones to go to looking at the list. I've heard Athens, Georgia, as a nice campus.

Yes, I've heard that too. Okay, so that was one that got my attention. So I think, I don't,

what about, where's Tennessee? Knoxville? Yes, Knoxville. I don't look great in Orange. I don't

know. That probably wouldn't be. Yeah, I don't know that I would want to do that. But you're talking

Texas, though. Texas is, that's true. And I do believe there's a lot of Indians at University of

Texas. So that would have been interesting for me as well. All right, Cliff, what do you got? Any of

those, any of those SEC schools you say I would go here? Man, I think South Carolina would be lit.

Really? Yeah, I think I got it out there from what I heard. LSU is a little bit too,

sweat, look, I love Louisiana, but it's a little bit too swampy for me. You feel me? So like,

I got somebody that's in Northeastern, hard, I can't really deal with that type of,

that type of heat in the summertime or when it gets hot, you know what I'm saying? Yeah,

I think South Carolina, I heard it's cracking out there. So, okay, Cox, what about a test,

what about a Tuscaloosa? No, no one wants to do a Tuscaloosa. Nope. Okay. How are these beautiful,

though? Are these beautiful down there? Yeah, I haven't been to any of these SEC campuses.

I don't think I've been to it. No, actually, well, I've been to Austin, but I don't know,

I did walk around a little bit on that campus. Okay, that one, I've been to, but these real,

real SEC campuses, I don't think I've been to any of these. All right. So these games, what a high point,

this game, this high point game. Yeah, you see the high point is going to win. It looks like,

good. Oh, yeah, they blocked the shot. They blocked the shot. And he got the phone. Yeah,

1.6 left blocked the shot. Duke's down nine to Sienna halftime. Wow. Yes, 11. They're down

11 and a half time, a done 11 and a half time. Yes, done 11 and a half time.

All right. If we're still potting and that's it like the final few minutes, we might just have to

do point by five. Okay. That one is 16.1. We can't be missing that. All right. Jerry, Matt,

Matt, how about that? Let's take a break. Yes. We know this tournament might be crazy. Let's take a

break. We come back and we got to the mail.

This episode is brought to by tax act. Like an expert coach tax act offers step-by-step guidance

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All right. We are back here on the ringers, Billy special ringer, Philly at gmail.com. Get

those emails in. Now, before we get to the emails, a little controversy in the Philly special

family ZB. I don't know. Are you up to date? Have you heard about this? I don't know if you listened.

I don't know if it got back to your second hand. I don't know if the bundle sent to tax. They're

what? You know, the bundle was starting. He was stirring it up. You know, as a little lemur,

listing said, man, the bundle was really playing at loose last episode. He's naming bagel shops. He's

calling out birthday party stuff. ZB, is this something you feel like you need to address here

on the podcast? Yeah. This is on me, by the way. This is my wife. This is on me. What I said,

to cliff, my bed, it's all on me 100%. My wife sent out the invitations and I should have,

I should have been more involved in it. That's on me. And I wasn't saying like there was one

that was lost. No, and then I had a buddy who came in from out of town and was like, it's

cliff going to be here. And I was like, oh, shoot. And Emily's like, you didn't give me clips

info. It's like, I texted cliff. And I was like, I was like, are you are you able to come?

So no, I, first off, I want to stand up for Emily. This was no, no, no, no, this was on me. Great

party plan. I thought I didn't think this would be on ebber. Yeah. Yeah. No, she's, she's

terrific. And it was like, I got to admit, like it was a point of contention. No, like I,

I was like, well, I don't want to have a party. I don't want to organize like I will be a guest

at my party. I'm my hosting, my hosting a party myself. And so the extent of like what I did

was, was give her a point of contact for like the place that she was hosting it at. But she,

I think what she did, if I'm being completely honest, is she used the invitation she had from

a book party. And that was before, you know, you know, you know, cliff and I were cool, right?

That was a very special partnership. Yeah, that was about that was, it feels very early on. So

bottom line, this is on me. Like there's no, there's no rationalization or defense. I apologize.

I wish you were there. But yeah, definitely not on Emily and know what there's no controversy or

anything like that. Just okay. I just don't know. The bundle trying to stir it up. Yeah. All right.

Simple mistake. Yo, who's out here? Man, I'm mad. I missed it, man. Who's there? Well,

listen, I mean, I don't want, I think it was good for you. I didn't think it's gonna be

topic on the show. But also, there was like a limit in terms of like head count too, right? So

I, it wasn't like everyone who was at the book big was at this. There was a certain limit on

head count and, um, and yeah, and, and I have a big family. So that takes up like a good chunk of it.

And so, and it was lots of Philly special listeners though at that. Yeah, at big time.

Yeah, I was already out in the picture. Yeah, I was going over right now. I'm like, I'm like,

I was already out to fix that. Yeah, and it was like Texan. I was like, is this, uh,

it's just rude that she's like, no, Texan now seeming to come. So, yeah, no, that was

really on me. So the good news cliff is that, uh, the only time I see people are Z berms social

functions. So they'll write another book. They'll have another birthday, something else will

happen. And, uh, I enjoy them every single time. Like I said, E berm plans a nice Suarez,

a nice party. So it was good to see, uh, all the listeners there as well are debundo, finished

during the pot. Now, listen, you can, you can fire back at debundo. See, I want to need to do that

right now. But if you need to and say, man, why is he throwing me under the bus like that,

making me look bad? That could have been handled all fair. Um, you know, hey,

someone could have been handled off air. Yeah. That's what lemurs say. He's like, hey,

you're going to get real loose there on the, yeah, bringing this up. Yeah, definitely could have

been handled off air. I agree with that. He said, the bundle said after nine o'clock, you know,

he loses his filter on pot. So we'll, we'll say, uh, that was, that was a fairly special

afterdog. Now, one thing, the invite, ZB, it was very interesting. It was an e-vite,

but it didn't have one of those buttons where you can see who else is invited and who the guests are

because I was looking for that. You know, I like to know, well, am I getting into, you know,

who else is going on this? Who made the cut? Should I text this person? That's them, but they're

coming. So that was an interesting little wrinkle I felt like, uh, to this e-vite. So it's interesting,

you say that because Emily and I had a conversation about that because she's, and I, I, I always like,

by principle, I'm like, you should, you got to hide that list because I'm like, what does it say

about someone if they only want to go because of the other people who are there? Like that's not it.

But as she asked her point, her point is like, people like to know who's invited, who's not

fighting, you know, do you say something? I was like, I'm like, but you know, my, my, my biggest pet peeve,

or not my A pet peeve that I had. That's my biggest. But if you, if you tell someone about

something and they're like, who's going to be there? Is it not enough that I'm there?

You get that? It's like, no, no, no, no, because like, you might have smoke with somebody that's

going to beat her. So you're gonna do that. That's what I do that. Well, it's like you, you get that

at the combine sometimes when it's like, you're, you know, it's like, do you want to go to dinner

tonight? And then someone's like, who's going to be there? It's like, wait, what is this like,

yeah, that's like you got to see, you got to see who else is at the table. So yeah, that's,

that's probably all that's, that's probably organic from conversations that we had. I don't

think that came out specifically to this. All right, there you go. A little one other piece of

housekeeping here. You remember the honorable Judge Wilson had the idea of people buying ZB's

books, donating them to nonprofits, libraries, schools, and prisons of what, you know, a wonderful

idea. Don't, don't, you know, help ZB out. And then maybe you're sparking a love of sports,

a love of sports, writing, reading, whatever, at these various places. If you are someone who'd

like that idea and are going to follow through, please be sure to email us at ringerphillyatgmail.com.

I'll just say maybe there have been some media inquiries of, you know, some, some reporters potentially

saying, Hey, if that actually happens, that would be a very interesting story. And maybe the

Philly special gets a little pop in us, you know, in certain publications. So if you do follow through

on that email us, ringerphillyatgmail.com. Last thing, shout out Jacob, met him this morning,

getting a pump in. Looks like he was getting some chest working, boil listener of the ringer's

Philly special introduced himself. So good job. You know, Jacob making sure he's looking like Cliff

and getting that work in while also listening to the ringer's Philly special. So always nice to

meet the listeners in the wild. All right, it's mail bag time. We start off with a serious, well,

I don't, I don't want to overdo it. We start off with a real life issue with a listener looking

for legit advice. And I don't think it's an easy one. So ZB stop scrolling, braid a man, press

conferences. Cliff stop watching. I am listening. You got to actually listen to this one. Okay,

this is Corey. Corey says, she'll see to us and ZB. I'm a lifelong Eagles fan from New Hampshire

and Temple Owl alum writing in looking for guidance on a situation amongst friends that quite

frankly, I'm over and want to move past. I've had the same large group of friends since I was a kid

and five years ago, everything changed. My two closest friends had a situation where one of them

had been dating a girl for over four years. And let's just say the other friend has been dating

her ever since and there was definitely some overlap. Needless to say, the first friend now

despises the other and never wants to be in the same place and also had an unrealistic expectation

that all other friends never speak to him again. Everyone else in our friend group has been able

to see and hang out with both guys, but the scoring friend has this unrealistic expectation of me

that I cut all ties. We've spoken about it a couple times over the last five years and I've never

committed to cutting ties, but I've also never said me and my wife still see them.

Well, I am still friends with both and the current couple are probably me and my wife's closest

couple friends. Here's the issue. This year everyone is turning 40. The scoring friend hasn't

gone to a single party and has said he won't go to anything that his ex and our other friends

are at. I will be turning 40 in June and I love nothing more than a great party. My problem is I

don't see any scenario where I can't invite both guys, but it's absolutely going to be a problem.

It makes me not want to even have a party while my wife wants to throw one. So what do I do?

Do I have the party until the new, not new couple that while we love them, they just can't come?

Do I invite both and risk my other friend completely losing it on me and feeling betrayed

a real possibility? Or do I just skip a party altogether and continue pretending I'm not friends

with both? What does the council say? Any advice would be appreciated because I am honestly done

with this. Thanks in advance. Go birds. And of course shout out Sizzle. Wow. I had a

one issue here. Cliff notes. Let's say let's give them names like Cliff does. Let's say this is

from Corey. Let's say Corey's telling us a story. Mark and Stacey were dating for four years.

They're all friends. Then all of a sudden Dave's dating Stacey. It wasn't on the up and up.

It wasn't after a breakup. Now Mark hates Dave. But Corey's friends with both Mark and Dave

and he's couple friends with Dave and Stacey. And now he's having a birthday party. What?

Yo, how did you maneuver that? Well, though, you really you really just came up with that right

then in there? I just came up with names. You schooled me on the names Cliff over the years.

All right, Cliff. It's how you become a Netflix star doing stuff like that.

All right, Cliff. Cliff was reacting quite a bit to that story. So I'm going to go to you

first, Cliff. What should Corey do in this situation? Not an easy one. Yeah. First of all, his

homie, whoever's dating to now girl violated broco to a umph degree. That's that's crazy.

I like that. Yes. If you if you're a man's like because he said they were all close friends.

They grew up together and right. I'm sure New Hampshire ain't really the biggest state. So I'm sure

you. No, no, no, not everyone there knows it. Yeah. But no, this is big enough

that you don't have there are other girls. You don't have to date exactly. But, but for

the homie to do that, that's a crazy violation of broco. So a number one, um, I'm already,

I'm already don't like the guy to end up dating a girl now. Dave, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Dave, thank you. You gave David a name. So I already don't like him. But if I was um,

our, our writer in here. What's his name?

Cory. Cory. Yeah.

So if I'm Cory, just shirt the responsibility to just take it off

yourself. Like don't feel the need to say like, Hey, I can only

invite him or I can only invite them to just say like, Oh, look,

this is my birthday party. I don't care about your drama. This

ain't really my problem. But all they are invited. So take it

or leave it. Look, if they show up, they show up, if he show up,

he show up, you're not about to be fighting at my party. It's not

about to be no smoke. It's not about to be no issues or anything

like that. This is, this is my time, my party. So y'all got the

option. If y'all want come, he might be there. If you want to

come, they might be there. Point blank period. Just take the

responsibility off your hands. You know, let them know like, Hey,

this is how it's going to go. That's, that'll be my personal

truth. I never buy it. It's rich like that. But that, that, just

take it off your plate. Like don't pick sides. Make them make

the adult decision. So you say invite everyone to be up front

that the other person's going to be there. Yep. I'm not here to

answer any more questions. You guys decide what you want to do.

Yeah. No, feel some type of feelings either way. Exactly. If you

feel some type of way about it, then I don't know, man, like that's

it's tough. Like I love both y'all. I love all y'all. So yeah,

you know, I'm sorry. ZB your thoughts. Well, it sounds like a

wonderful reason to get out of a party. If I'm beyond

sorry, dear, I really wanted to have one, but we can't do these

friends. Oh, I could have brought this up. Yeah. Yeah. No, in

all seriousness, I'm with Cliff is that I think you're 40. Be

adults here. Okay. You talk to your friend. You say, look, you

say, I'm still friends with both of them. You know, I'm still

friends with both of you. Okay. I know you guys don't get along.

Totally get why you don't need to interact. You can stay on

opposite ends. I'm giving you the courtesy now. If you don't want

to come, because you don't want to be in the same room with

triggers, remember, total we get it, right? But I'm not going to

exclude somebody for your sake. Yeah, I mean, advice first

because you wouldn't want me to exclude you for that person's

sake. So I'm not going to choose inviting you both and it's up to

you. But if you come, the expectation is be adults here, right?

You know, we don't want a scene from Jerry Springer coming out

to that liquor going that we're going to start flowing. That's

a killer makes it all difficult. Hey, you know, you know, that

cost of me goes, you know, what's that start floor? Yeah, watch

out. I know. Yeah. So it's it's not or that or a couple bears

deep. You know how that get? Yeah. No, it's just especially they

have it sounds like they haven't literally haven't been in the

same room together. Yeah. In the years we talked to each other

and they've been talking bad about each other for these years

too. Well, they didn't know each other well like this. Bro, that's

such a cobweb of like messiness. But I don't know, I feel like

one of them, I feel like other couple Rebecca or either homie

Rebecca, if if it came down to it, just because like, you know,

there is the percentage chance that, you know, either he shows

up or they show up. Yeah, or maybe you say, all right, I'm

going to pop in right when it starts, you know, just say hello,

maybe we should happy birthday and then get out of there type

thing. But I think you guys are right. You know, I, I

understand why Mark was at mark. Yeah, I understand why it

feels the way he does and feels wrong. Perfectly, he was wrong.

Perfectly. Sure.

Understandable for sure. Like, yeah, violation, he's not at

false. The other two are at fault. Specifically, like you said,

Dave is at fault. That's not cool. Don't be doing that. But

like ZB said, it has been five years. It's your 40th birthday.

Life is short. You know, it now, it is unclear to me, I would

like the detail has there been any kind of apology from the

new couple, you know, because that is obviously warranted

where they got a cut, you know, hopefully at some point, they

came out and said, we didn't plan for this. It was wrong. It

was terrible. You know, we understand if you never want to

talk to us again, but you know, we're sorry for how it went,

at least some acknowledgement that what you did was wrong

because it, you know, it sounds like what they did was wrong. And

then I think from there, like Cliff said, you invite both, you

have to, you know, you're going to have to have the hard

conversation with the one guy that we still hang out with these

other two. If you don't want to come, I totally understand. If

you do want to come, great, maybe we do something else on the

side, I feel for you, I empathize, but you know, we have it cut

them out of our lives. So we don't agree with what they did, but

they're still our friends. You kind of say that to him. And

then the balls in in their court, you know, like you said, Cliff,

I could see if you're the couple, just being like, let's,

we don't want to, you know, create something. Let's we'll sit

this one out, especially he said they're their best couple

friends. So you're going to see them all the time anyway. It's

not like you're not going to see them. Hey, we'll sit out the

party, not a big deal. It's one party. Let's let our other,

let's let the other guy go. And then we can figure it out. But

you know, if everyone shows up, if there's an apology, it's

going to be awkward. But maybe it's a good first step where

if this situation, because this situation may arise again in

the future. And it's like, all right, maybe we can be in the

same room together. We don't have to be friends. We don't

have to interact. But at least it's not, you know, the rest of

the friend groups not feeling that stress. So a very tricky

one, Corey, I would definitely want, you know, follow-ups on

this to know what happened in any further details. Go

ahead, Cliff. He could pull up with a bad, you know, and

might, you know, me because I was thinking he had moved on.

If there was a baddie in the picture, but then we're all good.

He's the baddie, you know, he put over the baddie, he went to

the park. Yeah, he doesn't sound like there's a baddie in the

picture. Played a jealous. Played a jealousy game. Yeah,

played a jealousy game. Yeah, maybe, maybe Corey, you got,

you said June, you got a few months here to find him a baddie.

Cliff said it's. I'm sure there are a few baddies. Yeah,

sure, at least. Yeah, you better get an apology.

Make a mistake. Make a mistake. Exactly. What's the biggest

town in New Hampshire? Manchester? I don't know.

Is that a manchester? There's a manchester somewhere.

Yeah, probably manchester is my name. We sound just like

Ignorant Philadelphia. It's like a different country.

It's not, I mean, look, I've lived in New England,

and it is a different country, but I want to know how big

New Hampshire is. What's the biggest city in New Hampshire?

Yeah, manchester is a big city. Yeah, come on, come on.

You come at me with geography. Yeah, I got that.

So you got Manchester. You get all the baddies, man.

The second biggest city is Nashua.

Third biggest city is Concord. Okay. We got two.

Yeah, Concord. Yeah. Fourth biggest city is Derry.

We're not. We can't be named. They got to be a baddie.

One of them cities, man. There's got. Can you name two people

from Manchester? Oh, I'm sorry. Go on.

From New Hampshire. Can you name two people from Manchester?

Chip Kelly. Boom. Yes.

And I'm trying to think of which of his New Hampshire buddies he brought with him.

So there's a few notable. Ryan Day or now?

Ryan Day. Yeah. Manchester Central. Good job.

Yeah. Also Adam Sandler's from Manchester.

Okay. Really? I'm really.

No, he's from Manchester, New Hampshire.

All right. If anybody knows

any baddies in New Hampshire, ring or filly at gmail.com.

We'll pass that along.

Okay. There you go. All right.

Mike. I got to be one in Nashville.

I'm very interested in that story.

That's a crazy story. I want to follow up.

I mean, very messy situation. That's a crazy story in New Hampshire.

All right. Mike says, dear crew, long time first time.

Very long time.

She'll I was a dedicated moving the chains.

devotee as an undergrad at St. Joe's

while manning my work study job in the computer lab.

Remember, keep computer labs.

We're old. First of all, Mike, thank you.

That warms my heart.

That there was a St. Joe student reading my blog.

As I'm trying to break in and getting yelled at

for taking a day off to go watch the NCAA tournament

that you were enjoying my work, Mike.

So I appreciate you sticking with me for such a long time.

All right. He says he's sticking up for ZB here.

I think ZB got too much hate for his pithy

relationship advice. On one hand, it was easy for me.

Flex, he says, when I first saw my now wife

strolling through the doors of our new teacher orientation,

unconcerned that she was 34 minutes late.

I knew she was going to be the one or there was going to be no one.

I recognize most are not blessed with this clairvoyance.

Still, I have watched relatives and dear close friends almost ruin their

relationships, hemming and hawing.

Woe is me, they seem to say.

I've been punching above my weight class for the past four years

with a dazzling partner with whom I share interests and love spending my time.

And when will I know this is the right one?

I mean, if you don't know, I should have just used ZB's line.

And though I think it speaks for itself,

I recognize it may not actually make the point.

I try to be empathetic and a good listener.

And so I would like to offer to the wider world,

the advice I have given to all those in this situation

who are still trying to figure out, quote, if they know.

Go on a trip together.

Go far from home.

Make it something that requires you to create an itinerary.

Make it last five days, at least five days, but less than two weeks.

The itinerary will require you each to lay out your values

and ideally compromise.

Or if you can't compromise, now you know.

Far from home introduces all of the friction and stress of travel.

Did your partner just try to race up the aisle and deplane before everyone?

Heathen, now you know, at least five days is also enough time

that something is guaranteed to go wrong

so you can see how each of you responds to uncertainty.

This is important data with real stakes.

Being jolted out of the comforts of your routine

can help you see each other new and assess whether this is the person with whom

you are ready to spend the rest of your life.

If you or your partner melt down because you missed a metro stop

on public transit, it's time to get off this relationship train

before you go get to toddler with a blown out diaper station.

If you can't commit to the ring at this moment,

at least commit to a trip.

And if you can't commit to that, then you already know.

Thanks for all you do.

Shout out, Sizzas.

ZB.

All right, so he's got an addendum.

If you don't know, you already know,

he says playing a trip, a little bit mini vacation,

at least five days, shorter than two weeks,

and that's going to put you through the ringer here

of some of the things you might face in a committed relationship,

a marriage, and you're going to have a better idea of whether this is someone

you want to spend the rest of your life with,

your thoughts ZB on whether this would be a good move for not.

That was a great relationship advice there.

I honestly, if you don't know, you already know

advice typically comes after a vacation.

So actually, this is a little bit, or after a trip.

Now, five day trip, I mean, to me,

like anything longer than a weekend,

is either the combine or your honeymoon, right?

So, so, so, uh,

but he's not joking.

I will have people love you will have,

but ZB is actually not joking.

I bet if we looked at his family calendar, but sorry.

Yeah, two, three days is just long to be, that's long to be a way.

But yeah, no, so typically, when I say that,

it's not like you should know the first date.

It's usually, you're at that point,

where do I propose, do I not propose?

And my advice to them is if you don't know, you already know.

Now, I'm willing to concede that that might not always be the right advice.

And I'll also people, you know, people take, take getaways

at different stages of relationships.

I mean, admittedly, we went away

and earlier than I thought we were ready,

but it was,

constructing the dating stage.

Yeah, during the dating stage, she wanted.

Yeah, it was, we started dating in, like exclusively dating,

if you will, in April.

And she wanted to go away before football season that year.

Right, training camp.

We reported late July.

And, and so we ended up going away the week after July 4th.

And I'm like, this is a little too soon here.

I mean, but it was amazing.

You know, it was, so to, to, to,

I apologize.

I didn't write down the name of the, of the listener.

What's his name?

This is Mike to know.

Yeah, to Mike's point, that was probably like an inflection point

in the relationship.

Like I learned, even though it seemed premature for me,

it, I learned a lot about her and us when we went away.

And so I could see how if you are like on the fence

and you hadn't gone away yet, that, that, that would be a good,

because I, I do think you, you learn a lot about someone

when they're out of there, like comfort zone, if you will.

And traveling by nature, you're out of your comfort zone.

All right, Cliff, here's my issue with this.

Let me hear it is.

I don't agree with this advice.

Now, I would have been, you made that clear.

A couple different.

Is he being, is he be just explained?

It worked for him.

I don't agree with this advice.

I never took a trip this law.

You know, I, like, it was like, all right, weekend trip.

It wasn't worth five, six days.

With just some, I mean, trips are guaranteed

to lead to arguments and fights.

That's the thing.

It's, it's just undisputed.

It's going to be something.

Any couple, anyone who's been in a relationship

listening to this, when you, when you have a trip plan

or you're going on a trip, it's never like this is great

from the, you know, we're leaving for the airport.

So when we get back, oh my gosh, that was amazing.

No, there's going to be arguments.

There's going to be fights.

And I feel like when you're married, it's just part of the deal.

You're like, all right, we're going to work through it.

We have fights, arguments, that's okay.

We're married.

I worry that if you're not married, and you're using this

as a test case, that you might be more likely to, like,

break it up or be like, oh, this isn't the one.

Oh my gosh, we had three fights over the course of that

seven-day trip.

We're actually, that's probably not abnormal

to have those fights.

So I worry that this could actually backfire

and have you say, all right.

I didn't know, but now I know.

She, you know, and he or she, they're not the one

where maybe they might have been the one

and you had a bad test there.

So Clip, what do you think about this as an experiment?

Oh, I mean, look, I've been on, you know, trips,

you know what I mean, with my-

Flex?

With what I'm not like, that is-

No.

You know, trips, don't need to flex.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

No, but I wouldn't say that ever made or break,

you know, makes or break a situation.

Okay.

I feel like just how you're connecting,

how y'all get together is really what makes or break

any type of relationship.

Like whether y'all just y'all vibe in on the same level,

y'all kind of got a good understanding for each other.

There's, you know, a level of love there,

there's accountability there, there's understanding.

I feel like that's what makes or break a relationship.

Like a trip is, I mean, that's five days out of your element.

Like being in your element is more important

than being out of your element if anything.

Like, the trip might show you some things.

I might show like how you react.

Like you said, I think you mentioned like how you react

to this stuff, like how you handle different situations,

airport etiquette, like all that, you know, extra stuff,

but really like the day to day is what's important.

Like how are y'all when y'all just kicking it?

How y'all when y'all just, you know, this is a long day,

you come home from work, you stress out, you know,

how are you, you want to watch a game or something?

Like how y'all talk to each other?

How y'all bounce back and forth with each other?

Like I think that's what truly makes or break

a great relationship is like the love y'all got for each other.

Man, that's beautiful ZP.

So if you tell us, he's right.

Yeah, seriously.

Wow.

Just be honest.

Yeah, like like trips and all the, you know,

exterior things like really just,

you know, it was like, are we cool?

Like do we, are we friends?

Like are we, you know what I'm saying?

Like, do we?

I like that.

Do we well set what you said that means that?

I would say.

Do you enjoy each other's company in a way to, in a way to like,

all right, like even if I'm like annoyed,

it's still all love, like even.

Man.

I might be at a, you know,

I mean, you probably won't reach a breaking,

a real breaking point,

but you could be at a breaking point for whatever.

And it's still like, all right, man, like she hears,

it's all love.

I don't feel no type of animosity or anger towards her

that's in a real way of saying, hey, I'm outta here, you know?

Play through the adversity.

Yeah.

Bringing it back to sports or the understanding.

A lot of people will be quick to give up on stuff,

but like, yeah, sometimes, no, we'll talk like,

sometimes you just gotta, I mean, fight through that.

I mean, again, this relationship of advice

from somebody that's not married or not, like,

so take that with you.

We get good relationship.

It's good.

No, but that's just how I feel about this.

That's my outlook on stuff.

Cause like, I respect genuine connection.

Like, I don't, all the fake, like, in today's day,

and they just a lot of that.

It's a lot of fake, transactional, you know, just,

I don't even know, like, I don't even know how to describe it.

Just, just superficial.

Yeah, like, just performative, just weird stuff

that I just, I want no part of, you know?

I don't think I can call anything performative anymore

when I'm doing videos from my car, you know?

But you work in, you know, you're not even working, okay?

Yeah, you work in, like, I'm talking, like,

if you performative in day and where it's like,

oh, you gotta do this for me, you gotta chase,

and like, all the weird stuff you hear on TikTok

and Instagram, like, I'll be looking at this stuff

just laughing like, damn, like,

this really what the game has come to, huh?

People, I, bro, every time I see videos on, like,

Instagram and TikTok about people talking about relationships,

I never hear the word love, bro, it's always about,

yeah, you gotta chase, you gotta pursue,

you gotta do this, you gotta do that.

Like, it's like, yo, though,

we're having a real, yo, I really like you,

y'all really like you, let's make it happen.

Like, maybe you need to give us a little vertical thing.

Oh, I can't.

Well, you just said, you're just beautiful.

Yeah, we don't have a love advice,

we have a love advice segment every week, right?

Yeah, that's fantastic.

I will say, when he wrote the thing about, like,

if they de-playin' improperly, I mean,

there are things fun that could be a deal breaker.

You know, everything else might be perfect,

but if they're getting up and trying

to de-playin' improperly, or they're, you know,

to be talkin' rudely to the TSA pre-check person,

or their stuff there, they'd be like, yeah,

I don't know if this is gonna work out.

So, there you go, interesting love advice.

Yo, de-playin' is gonna make it happen.

I mean, that's a make-up, that could be a make-up shot.

So Larry David, yeah.

Yo, yeah, that's funny.

Mike D. from Brooklyn says,

thanks for the shout-out, Cliff knows nothing gets-

We're Brooklyn it!

Cliff knows nothing gets New Yorkers fired up,

like hearing your neighborhood, bed style, fly Eagles fly.

From Redding, but been here since 2001,

a lot of birds fans here,

also sent my oldest daughter to Temple

and happy to report that she had a slight Philly accent

when she was just back for spring break,

proud parent moment.

Random thought, Cliff's last name

doesn't get mentioned on the show monitor.

He's always just Cliffy too, or Cliffy dose.

I know everyone else's last name, but was thinking

that if I was hiring, and Cliff came in,

he wouldn't have the same name recognition.

Of course, Philly special will live forever,

but work it in, put some respect on his name.

Go, Brooklyn, go birds, get your Sizzle in,

and mind your steps.

You should just Sizzle in.

There you go.

So Cliff, do I, now I have,

this is, you know, I have actually thought of this recently.

I'm normally going Cliffy too, Cliffy dose.

Do you want me to work in the Cliff Augustin?

How would you say it though?

How for the name?

How would you say it though?

How would you say it though?

Augustin, I just said it, I need it.

No, no, no, I'm saying like, how would you do it?

You gotta show me your entry,

like you gotta tell me your entry.

All right, welcome.

Like, let's say you gotta be out,

let's say we gotta Zach on, you know, again, right?

Okay, yeah.

Three, two, one.

Don't edit that.

I'm just, this is the thing that people promise me.

Three, two, one.

Oh, welcome.

No, the ringers, Philly Special Shield Kapati here

with Zach Berman of the Athletic.

And of course, ace producer, Cliff Augustin,

we're talking about.

You gotta edit, you gotta edit a sock there.

So you gotta do something with it though.

Well, you gotta mix the name and sock, I think.

Can you, can you do the, yeah, I think it's just mixing,

I think he's right.

I gotta mix in the name a little bit more.

You know what, all right, I like it.

Let's, let me hear this next pot.

Next pot we do, I wanna hear it is, I wanna hear it.

Or maybe the end of this one, if I remember.

Oh, oh yeah.

Mike D, good note, Mike D from Brooklyn.

All right, Matt says, Shield.

First, thanks, thanks to you.

And all of the ringer Philly crew for the entertainment

and information you bring to birds fans every week.

I decided to reach out as I had a suggestion

for your short form vertical videos.

As my suggestion is not original

and you would likely have a credible claim

to the intellectual property

I will not be seeking compensation

if you were to make use of my suggestion.

If I'm not mistaken, a recent Kapadia family

European vacation featured videos of you doing

the Indian Uncle Walk in various European locations.

Bring it back to media PA.

Give us your takes as you casually stroll around media

or perhaps other places of Eagles or Philly lore.

Slow walks, fast thoughts.

The flaw in my plan, of course,

is that the walk requires both hands to be clasped

behind your back and the challenge this would present

in recording said video.

Nothing a content creator of your caliber

can't solve with some ingenuity

and or family slash child labor.

Also, a suggested nickname for all the month heads.

Munchkins, he says.

Shoutouts is a Matt from Canada,

not to be confused with former Steelers OC, Matt Kenner.

Matt from, so this is Matt from Canada.

This is it Matt, Canada, who had one of my favorite

streaks that I got obsessed with.

The Steelers had not had a game with 400 total yards.

Do you remember that?

It was like, it was an unbelievable street

where they just, they could not crack 400 yards

regardless of situation.

So yeah, you mentioned the issue there, Matt.

If I have the hands clasped behind the back,

then I can't hold the phone.

So I would love to incorporate the Uncle Walk,

but I would need someone else to be recording

the video there, Cliff, right?

There's no way around that.

Yeah, pretty, I mean, you got, you got people,

you got people, you got people.

Yeah, I do.

You got a wife, you got kids, you know?

Yeah.

You can see if they can help out every once in a while,

you know what I'm saying?

Maybe once you do the little walk,

you do the little stroll.

I straight ahead, camera angle to the left.

No direct eye contact, just give your thoughts off

and let them rip.

Okay.

I like this one.

I like the first spot you ran too, you know?

Car, anywhere.

Good lighting in the car.

I didn't know because the car is surprisingly ZB

quite comfortable to be in there.

You're sitting down, you're holding the phone up,

but it kind of rests on the, you know,

the gear thing in the middle there.

And so it's pretty steady there where I felt okay,

doing it.

Where are you with this ZB?

You're doing some videos.

You know, you're consuming some videos.

You might have some feedback from me.

Well, I'm trying to learn from you.

You're on Netflix.

I mean, you're doing awesome.

This is an omnipresentation.

I know, but still, right?

You're, yeah, it's like far better for me.

Yeah.

No, you're doing really well.

How's, are you editing them yourself?

I am editing them myself.

Good job.

I've learned.

Yeah.

Thanks to, you know, some people at the ringer said,

you can just do this in Instagram.

Oh, what?

We have captions.

Yes.

And then I took Cliffs Advice,

which I think has really helped.

Cliffs Advice, Zach.

You might want to think about doing this.

You got to have the overlay on the cover

that gives a little pop about like what is it about

to get people to click in so that they're not

just seeing my weird face with a hat on

and they're just scrolling by right away.

So I think that was great advice from Cliffy too.

Yeah, it is.

As there's like access things with photos

that you can use and not.

Yeah, that's, you know, I haven't delved

the actual adding photos to it.

Okay.

Yeah, but you're doing awesome on it.

Number one.

Yeah, I mean, I'm impressed.

I'm not as big on the car as not as big on the car.

This is like, I see some, no, no, you're a national type.

I see some national types do this.

And first off, she'll, you're all about like car safety here.

It looks like you're in the car.

Are you driving when you do this?

Oh, I'm crazy.

I'm parked.

Okay, you see people do this sometimes.

I was going to drive way about to leave.

You see people do this sometimes on the ride to work

and they're filming you.

That's crazy.

But no, I mean, to me, it's like, I want to see a little bit

of nature.

I want to see a look.

I want a backdrop.

I care about the backdrop.

Yeah, wait till the springs.

Yeah, wait till the spring.

It's gloomy out here in the Northeast.

Yeah, we'll be outside soon enough.

Yeah.

The problem with the backdrop is the wind.

Yeah, if you do it outside the wind,

it'd be my combined videos.

I had to denoise that stuff and it was hard.

So the wind makes a challenging.

But yeah, I always let you know, take me, you know,

give me a sense of place.

Give me somewhere in media, you're your favorite,

you know, I'm outside in my favorite coffee shop right now.

I'm on my morning walk.

Like I want to, you've done the walk.

But I want to, I want a sense of place.

I feel like the car is too generic.

Okay.

I like that.

And if you go to any favorite spots,

if it's a local joint,

exesive, they got some social media in a collab with them,

you know what I mean?

Get the numbers up a little bit.

Okay.

Then maybe get a free coffee in there too.

Yeah, it's telling me like,

well, here are my questions.

As I, you know, we're diving into this brave new world.

Do I focus more on the Philly content,

the NFL thoughts, or both?

Because I've actually found that the, you know,

the Philly content seems to be performing better

than the NFL thoughts.

So I'm thinking maybe I make it more,

unless there's a big, there's gotta be a big NFL story.

Like I think I did one for Max Crosby

and that one did, did pretty well.

But unless it's a big NFL story,

maybe I just focus it more on the Philly aspect.

That was one question I had.

And then I was thinking,

do I need to do something to create user habits, you know?

Like when we had Birds 24-7, we had the wake up call.

Every single day,

you come to the site at 6 a.m.,

there's something new for you.

And I've noticed friend of the pod,

Ria Hughes has been doing these for WIP.

I watch them every morning.

She's like, you know, she must be recording on it,

like 5.30 in the morning.

Here's what we're talking about today on the morning show.

And I'm like, this is, I like watching those,

because I'm like, what are they talking about?

What are the topics in Philadelphia sports right now?

Who's on the show today?

And so I was thinking, do I need to do sort of a version

of the wake up call on these so that people know,

like, I wake up, I'm checking my phone,

and there's going to be a video there for me every day.

Those are the two thoughts I've had as we continue this.

TTD, trust the data, right?

See what it's like.

See what it's like.

Yes, see what it's like.

See what the data's showing you.

That's the great thing about all these videos.

You can see how many people are watching what?

You can see how many likes.

You can see how many engagements.

You can see how far they go into it.

I, yeah, I mean, I would, I would,

I would trust the data.

Also, I took your advice.

I put a video on it on TikTok,

and I don't have the notifications on my phone,

I forgot about it.

I pulled it up with my daughter,

and man, I mean, the response you get on TikTok is huge.

So, oh, see, I don't get the response on TikTok.

No, you get more, you get a lot more views than you think.

It's not.

I didn't even know Zach was on TikTok.

I'll give you a follow.

Yeah, yeah, I'm going to start doing it more

because I pulled it up.

So, yeah, but I'm saying,

but like you can see the data for this,

and it, it's let the data speak to you.

So, if your, if your Eagles ones

are doing better than the NFL ones,

then stick to the Eagles ones.

Okay.

It doesn't just go to, like the people that follow you,

like a lot of, yeah, the algorithm is just there.

So, there's going to be more people

that view your videos on TikTok and Instagram by far.

I mean, honestly, the thing that would do the most numbers

is ZB.

My advice to ZB, you didn't ask for my advice.

I'm always what she'll, I want the shield

capacity of career advice, whatever she'll do it.

I told that, like buy stock and shield, man.

She'll grant it.

All right.

I would tell you to be less professional.

With you mean, yeah.

I don't want you treating it like a standup,

like you're on an EC sports failure ESPN.

That's good, man.

I want you doing some, the weirder you can get

while still being somewhat in your comfort zone,

you know, whether you're getting a haircut, you know,

you're at the barber shop.

Hey, I'm going to do one here real quick,

whether you're going for a walk,

whether you're going out and sneaking

a little water ice in or something

as the weather gets high.

Those types of things I feel like from you,

even if you were just doing something in the,

making something in the kitchen, you know,

you're getting some food together

and you got the phone there and you're telling me,

say, I feel like those would be among

the most popular videos in Philly social media.

Well, I appreciate that.

I've actually, so my wife and some friends

give me the feedback, like don't do your videos

like you're, you know, you're giving a report on ESPN,

like a South County ESPN, like just beat yourself

and the other, like, I think being the number one thing

that I get from, from people when they get to know me

is like, you know, they have this idea of like,

is it really like, you know, like, like,

rigid and silted?

But then they're like, yeah, buttoned up.

And then they're like, if, if you just like put some

of the stuff you do out there, people would be into it.

But I, yeah, so it's, it's a good point.

It's uncomfortable.

Yeah, sure.

Exactly.

And I kind of like being the, you know,

the buttoned up sports writer, but it is, you know,

it is 2026.

I got to do better with that.

So I hear you there.

Exactly. My best advice on social media is, you know,

just be you.

It just literally just be you, man.

That's all it is.

Right.

Yeah.

But if you lead into being him, then that would do numbers.

I feel like, you know, you feel like you feel like you

hold him back a little bit.

Yeah.

I feel like his personality, his personal stuff.

It's still being him.

It's not in authentic.

But I feel like that's what I personally, as a consumer.

And I think I speak for our audience,

would like to see more off.

Exactly.

I'll say I switch, switch it up a little bit

and just be more of, actually you and not the full buttoned

up reporter.

Well, look, I turned 40 on Sunday.

Maybe I'll do, I'll do like a weekly,

I have like a goal to start the week.

Like, you know, something non-sports related.

I like the non-sports related.

Yeah, listen, if you need, well, you got your wife,

you got your family, if you need to second him.

Because I do always get nervous.

I'm like, I kind of want someone to watch this before it goes up.

Just so it's like, oh, she has something in his teeth.

You know, like, it's kind of a little jarring to just record

something of yourself and put it up there

without anyone seeing it, no editor or anything else.

So I'm still trying to get over that as well.

All right, we'll keep it going.

Listen, closer we get to 10K for me and 3K

for Philly Special on Instagram.

The closer we are to the smoothie video

that a nation has been awaiting.

So listen, get those numbers up.

People have been following and we'll continue

to do those videos.

Hey, you got a home, figure out a price

for the bracket Jones too.

Yeah, you put that on me, the bright, you know,

with the tweet, this is Cliff's thing.

I wake up to a thing and say, oh, she'll say it.

I knew you was going to say that.

I said, the prize will be you get to spot Cliff, you know,

get his little attention.

Someone said, how about a squat?

I said, whatever, you know, any type of thing he needs

to spot for, maybe we'll let you do that.

We should do it.

We should do it a breakfast thing though, like I said,

like pop up on his come kick it with us.

I think it'll be dope.

I don't know if it's somebody that doesn't know.

We need to get a little more ambitious

with what we asked for before we're inviting people

to come to Sabrina's with us, you know,

but we can do that eventually.

All right, Sergio in Connecticut says,

hello, Ringer, Philly Gang.

I am an almost day one listener of the Philly special pod

and the mailbag additions are some

of the most electric listening experiences I've had

while getting my steps in and minding my business.

Also wanted to give a little input

into the Costco free sample situation.

So regular listeners know that ZB

was a little, he felt, what did you feel like ZB?

You had to sell to the Costco sample person

that I'm really thinking about buying this, right?

Yeah, so I had to get, yeah, I'm not just grabbing your food

that, oh, tell me about your product.

What are you offering here?

You know, like you want it, like I'm not just,

I'm not just you're getting free samples.

I'm actually considering being converted here

as a customer.

Yeah, so he says, mostly to put ZB's mind to rest

that he does not have to make such an effort

to fame interest in the product being sampled.

You pay for your Costco membership

and the samples are one of the many ways Costco tries

to say thank you to its members.

In my experience, working at two different Costco locations

in the span of the last 16 years,

the workers handing out the free samples

do not care either way.

A simple thank you would more than suffice.

Love the pod, keep up the great work fellas

and as always, shouts to SZA,

always wanted to say that.

So there you go, we have Sergio

who is working two different Costco's ZB

and says, you don't need to put on the act.

You just take a sample, say thank you.

Everyone moves along and you're all good.

That's good to know because I lay it on the pick.

I'm like, what is this here?

Wow, and where can I get this?

And yeah, yeah, I can see the nutrition content in this

and then I'm always like, you know what?

I got my wife gave me a list today,

but next time I come,

you got to keep it over here.

Okay, all right, we're gonna,

I'm gonna put this on the budget for next set.

Oh yeah, yeah.

You try to convince Miss Margaret

that you really want these things to be something like.

I have this thing about like I want to make people feel

like empowered or important or that, you know.

So it's like, it's from that part of me, if you will.

So if you walk away from the cell,

how does that make them feel empowered or important?

Well, like you did a great job selling me on on this cracker.

Did they know because you didn't buy it?

No, I'm coming next time to buy it.

I have a list.

You can't, I can't.

That's the list.

There's probably a group chat among them.

Yeah.

Oh, that's sure.

I'm coming next time.

That's the famous words of somebody that's definitely not

coming back next time and definitely not buying that product.

That's like the equivalent to your homie getting off the phone

with your homie because you're in a rush to do something else.

Yeah, I'm gonna call you right back and you just don't call it.

Yeah, no, I am like, I have a thing I do not,

I do not deviate from up to from a shopping list.

I, my wife, I talk about like budget control

and I say, I say the reason why you spend more

than we allotted on this is because I'm like,

what made you guys just like, oh, this looks good.

No, we don't do this looks good, okay?

You came here for X.

You leave with X, okay?

X plus Y, X plus Z.

What did you forget some of the list?

Wait, what if you forget some of the list though?

And you see it and you're like, oh, I forgot about that,

John, I need it.

That's the point of the list.

The list is not like a recommendation.

I am going, I am going, and by the way,

she said, you said this isn't Costco.

This will be the grocery store.

You know, get apples.

I'll call her out.

How many apples do you want?

I don't know, just get apple.

No, I need to know exactly.

I need to know the precise number of apples here

because it's like this.

Oh my God.

Yo, thank you.

Yeah.

The nice part about adulthood TV is that you can say,

this looks good.

I have the means.

I'm going to try it out.

I mean, this is the whole point earned in the paycheck.

The best way to make money is to save it, right?

So, all right, there you go, all right.

We have one last email.

I believe this is our youngest mailbag submission ever.

This is from Alice, who says, dear mailbag, my name is Alice.

I am 10 years old and in the fourth grade.

I live in New England and I have worn Eagles gear

to every sports Jersey school spirit day since preschool.

The boys in my class who started liking the Eagles last year

and don't believe me when I tell them that in my house,

we bleed green.

My dad is a big fan of your podcast

and he plays the mailbag on family road trips

to my grandparents house and the whole family enjoys it.

I find it funny and it makes the trip go faster.

We discuss the problems that the people have and your advice.

We usually agree with you, but not always.

I thought I would write in with a problem of my own.

In the fourth grade, kids have a limited number of pencils.

Everyone has a bag of supplies that they brought in

at the beginning of the year

and everyone started with 20 pencils.

Now that it's February,

a lot of these pencils have disappeared.

We are not allowed to write in pen most of the time

so pencils are very important.

Our teacher does have extra pencils,

but there are a lot of us and those pencils are also limited.

This brings me to my dilemma.

Kids in my class lose pencils a lot.

If a kid finds a pencil on the floor,

they will either give it to a classmate

or keep it for themselves.

My mom bought me a package of pastel pencils

and I am the only one in the class

who owns pencils in these colors.

My pencils are pink, purple and light blue.

I had a small pink pastel pencil that fell off my desk

and a day or two later,

I saw a kid in my class using that same exact pencil.

I was unsure of what I should do.

Was my pencil fair game because it was on the floor?

Should my classmate have returned my pencil

because it clearly belonged to me?

Should I ask for the pencil back?

How much time needs to pass

before it is no longer my pencil?

And if I find a pencil on the floor,

how much effort should I put into finding its owner?

Does it matter if it is a regular number two pencil

or a distinctive pencil?

What are the ethics of this situation

and do they change at the point in the school year

where the pencil supply is smaller?

I really hope you can help me figure this out.

Go birds.

I love that.

I love birds.

That was amazing.

We're going back to the day.

I'm sure with the help of our parents very well.

If you could write that well, the fourth grade,

I mean, you're going to be writing more books than ZB.

I feel like you're a career.

But we appreciate you and the family listing

that warms my heart that you're all listening in the car

on the way to your grandparents house.

So she's got the pastel pencils.

Normally, it's kind of finders keepers with the pencils

because they're all the same people lose them.

But she knows this is her pencil.

Someone else is using it.

Now, I did have the, I was able to ask Lila about this

because she is in fourth grade.

So I said, what would you do?

But before I get to that reveal ZB,

let's start with you and then get to clear

what your advice would be for Alice.

Great need, by the way.

Yeah, I think pencils are fair game.

I think one, even though it's your distinct pencil,

pencils are fair game in my opinion,

is that once that pencil is out of your possession,

like a free pencil to me is like,

it's like living a newspaper on a subway, right?

It's no longer your newspaper.

And so I hear it because it's a,

I never had a pastel pencil.

So maybe those are different,

but I just feel like you get a pack of pencils.

You know you're not, you know you're gonna lose some pencils

and it's like paying it forward.

You're gonna get a pencil that you find.

You're gonna give a pencil, so be it.

All right, all right, Cliff.

So ZB says, Alice should not ask

for the pastel pencil back.

She dropped it, it's gone, you gotta move on.

What say you?

First of all, shout out to Alice, man.

That was beautifully written.

You must go to a nice school up there in New England.

Sure, that was some great writing right there.

But, you know, I got to throw it back.

So back in my day, you know, when I was in the fourth grade,

I was in a young boy,

St. James Elementary School.

You know, you know, the first like two weeks,

you got your own pencils,

because we had the desk, right?

Were you at all the school supplies?

That was perfect, man.

Yup, yup, yup.

And we had the desk where everybody, you know,

leave the stuff in the desk or whatever,

you can take stuff out, whatever,

and people will rotate and whatnot.

And, you know, all the time, all the time,

pencils go missing, you lose a pencil,

pencils break, pencils run out of the,

especially with the ones that you,

hit the top off, you click the top down,

they'll run out of the glass.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mechanical joints, mechanical joints,

they run out of lead, right?

Like, pencils are a pencil, man.

Unfortunately, you do got some nice pastel pencils,

which I'll tell you folks for giving you those,

those are real, real fancy.

Like, my folks isn't giving me that.

My mom gave me the pack.

And number two,

hey, here goes sharpener, here goes the number two,

you good.

But, Zach is right, man, he's 100% right, man.

Pencils are all fair game.

When it comes to pencils,

what goes around comes around,

you know, unfortunately, you see this kid,

I don't know if she necessarily like,

it's friends with this kid or Alexa's kid

or whatever, I don't know the relationship

or whether you want to get it back or not.

But, you know, I think you just gotta let it be,

you just gotta let it be.

It's a pencil at the end of the day.

It's okay, you probably have more, you'll probably get more,

you know, little Johnny's that sits next to you

might give you a pencil one day if you run out of pencils.

It's fine, man.

Just let it be, letter rock, it's cool.

It happens, it happens.

So, in this episode, we've had fictional characters,

Mark, Dave, Stacy, Cliff gave us a Miss Margaret

and now we have a little Johnny.

So, I mean, unbelievable cast of characters

in this episode, all right.

So, I asked Lila what Alice should do,

what is the proper etiquette for a fourth grader?

And she said, she disagreed with you guys.

She said, you actually can, you ask for the pencil back.

However, it's a trade situation.

You now provide them with a normal pencil.

So, you say, that's my pastoral pencil.

I dropped it, can I have it back?

I like to.

Here's a Dixon Ticonderoga for your troubles.

You still have a pencil that I get my pencil back.

So, there you go.

I don't know.

We wasn't trading pencils in school to like,

we used to trade another stuff, but not pencils.

Well, all right, well, maybe.

Now, I guess they could potentially say no,

but I do think fourth graders are generally,

you know, pretty kind at that age

where they would say, okay, I've been sitting next to you

all year.

I've seen your parents got you the nice pencil.

Fourth graders wear.

What's that?

Fourth graders wear.

I don't know.

I found the coach in some fourth graders.

I'm like, this is a great age.

Yeah.

Oh, you, maybe I'll meet you here.