The Season with Peter Schrager: Stavros Halkias

Peter starts the show recapping another heartbreaking finish to a season for Buffalo, Tampa Bay’s curios clock management handling on Sunday, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling’s big redemption game. Then, Peter grapples with his ties to both teams in the AFC Conference Championship and revisits his preseason prediction for the Super Bowl. Next, Peter is joined by comedian, Baltimore native, and Ravens super fan, Stavros Halkias. Stavros takes us through his Baltimore roots, the creation and boom of his viral character “Ronnie”, his rise up the comedy ranks, and what it’s like to have his rival fan be Jason Kelce.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
The Season with Peter Scheger is a production of the
NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's Up, everybody, Welcome to
the Season with Peter Schreger. I am Peter Schreger. I'm

(00:28):
joined by my dear sad I guess producer Aaron Wangkoff.
Ban I say sad, He's not always sad. He's actually
a light and it's a wonderful joy to work with.
But Aaron, the Bill's season, it was a miracle run.
You're a diehard Bills fan. We haven't chatted directly since
the loss. Your quick takeaways, then I'll take it from here.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, it's sad, as a is a great word for it.
You know, it's like we need the perfect season and
we always run into this wall. Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid.
It sucks to sit there. And like this whole season,
Kansas City was not great. They seemed like they were

(01:12):
a little weak. It seemed like the magic had finally
run out. The receivers weren't working, Kelsey was slowing down,
and then we just couldn't stop him. You know, Diggs
didn't look like a wide receiver. Won the past six
seven weeks, eight weeks whatever. Bills fans I know are
are excited. There's a silver lining with like loving Shakir,

(01:35):
loving Dalton Kincaid, but yeah, it's tough. I mean, I
don't know. It seems like a fitting end for the
Bill season, but yeah, it sucks.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
It's sad. I feel bad for you. And it's one
of those where it's like if not now when you
had you had the home field. Finally you had this
situation where you're coming into this thing and you're the
hot team. But then I look at it and it's like,
still had your chances. Yeah, yeah, still Josh was awesome.

(02:09):
But I just don't know, Like, here's the untold story
about this, and I think this is not you know,
everyone looks at numbers and stats and salary cap. Players
will play where they are paid most handsomely, and they
don't necessarily look at all the factors that go into
living in a place. But if it's apples to apples,

(02:32):
it's hard to get free agents to choose to play
in places like Green Bay and Buffalo and Detroit as
opposed to a Jacksonville, a Miami and Atlanta. Players want
to be in warm weather. Players want to be where
they can live year round, so you already have that

(02:54):
uphill battle. I think they went big on von Miller,
which has been the greatest signing. Yeah, he wasn't himself
this year. They're still on the hook for that. Gabe
Davis is a free agent. Aj Epenez is a free agent.
Micah Hide's a free agent. Like every year you're gonna have,
it's not gonna be these same guys coming back. So
I do think you can feel different this offseason as

(03:17):
you did other off seasons with the Bills, because it
does feel like this chapter is behind of closing and
now to get all up again about the Bills this offseason.
And Alan has been number one on the NFL one hundred.
He has had the Madden covers, he has had the
golf experiences with Rogers and Mahomes and Brady, He's been
in that conversation and it's like, all right, well we

(03:39):
lost in a division around again and it's like back
to the drawing board. It's tough. It's tough to at
least now fourty eight hours removed, but I would even
I hate being so this is so down to start
what should be an exciting championship weekend podcast with this
the Bills stuff. Dan Fouts is a Hall of Fame quarterback,

(04:01):
an all time legend, he never made a Super Bowl.
Warren Moon is an all time NFL quarterback who had
many playoff appearances, he just never made the playoffs in
every super Bowl. And Philip Rivers, of course, is probably
destined to go to the Hall of Fame and he
never went to the Super Bowl. Sometimes it just doesn't happen,

(04:23):
I know, you know, it takes a long career and
a lot of bucks and bruises before a lot of
these guys do get to hoist at Lombardi. And you know,
in the case of John Elway, he waited till he
was like thirty eight or thirty nine, but at least
he went to five. You know, I think it's tough.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
To with the other three teams that lost this weekend,
the Packers and the Texans, they they're nothing but bright
road ahead of them, like they were working ahead of time.
The Bucks, this was supposed to be kind of a
down year. They're getting their cap in order. We were
the team that we're going into this offseason. Some I
think it's like forty plus million over the cap. We

(05:03):
were losing a bunch of creagents potentially, So it does.
It feels in the context of everyone else that lost
that you could still be really excited for next year
with them, and we'll be excited about the Bills next year.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
I yes, I mean once football's back and you're you're
there watching training camp and Josh is smiling, and I'd
like to think so, but gosh, Tampa Bay. So I
want to take some time in the podcast to go
through this. Tampa Bay's down eight points. Baker Mayfield gets
the ball with a little bit more than a minute
left to go through. It's an interception to Derek Barnes

(05:40):
and the Lions have the ball and the Buccaneers have
one time out left. This is a crazy thing that
happened over the weekend that is not getting enough dialogue,
especially on the national shows and on the national scale.
But we're going to tackle it here because if you
listen to this podcast, you live and breathe football, and
game management stuff comes up with every interview with every

(06:01):
coach or every GM or every president that we interview
game manager and it's such a key thing. And I'm
still scratching my head as we record this on Tuesday morning.
So it's a Sunday afternoon at this at the stage,
there's like forty five seconds remaining. The Buccaneers have a timeout.
It's third and twelve for the Lions, and everyone's ready
for them just to bleed the clock and take a

(06:23):
knee for whatever reason. With nineteen seconds on the play clock,
Frank Ragnow and Jared Goff hike the ball and take
a knee. And now there's a time out left. It's
fourth down and twelve, and everyone from the buccaneer's sideline
is flooding the field to shake hands, and Todd Bowles

(06:45):
is already at midfield shaking Dan Campbell's hand. With twenty
five seconds left, twenty four seconds left, twenty three, twenty two,
Todd Bulls is out there shaking hands, and no one's
calling time out, and everyone from the Bucks is shaking
the Lion's hands, and the clock just bleeds to zero.
Now in real time, I'm freaking the hell out on

(07:05):
my couch and I'm screaming called time out, And I
was so confused and beside myself. I just assumed NBC
had an all time production gaff and had that time
out on the screen on accident and made a mistake
because clearly there's no timeouts left. Todd Bowles would never do.

(07:26):
So the game ends, everyone flips over, Okay, time to
watch Chiefs Bills and I'm like, what was that? What
was that? I'm trying to find there's no real information.
Somebody asks Bulls about it. Bulls basically says it was
a it was a foregone conclusion. We were losing that
game and it was over, like we didn't want to

(07:47):
prolong it. I'm like, what, wait, you really had a
time out? Then they have a full night to sleep
on it. Todd Bowles has a media availability on Monday
morning and they asked him, why didn't you use that
final time out? And I can't imagine this is this
is the response that bull said in that he didn't
want to give Well, I just listen to this.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
It's not a gentleman's agreement. They run field goal range.
We'd have had twelve seconds to calculate it. You after
using that time out to come back from it, then
we would have been down eleven points. It's kind of pointless.
You kind of know when the game was over and
the game was over, who.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
Cares if they likely weren't going to win. You try everything.
That's why you do onside kicks. When you're down twenty one.
You do everything you possibly can to give your team
a fighting chance to win, and they opted not to.
I like Todd Bowles, this is not a Todd Bowles
specific qualm. There are so many people at fault here. One,
what are Frank Ragnow and Jared Golf doing? Why are

(08:46):
they hiking the ball with nineteen seconds instead of bleeding
that clock all the way. Lastly, there are so many
people in that Tampa organization on the sidelines in the
box who can say to bulls, hey, you got a
time out, you gotta time out.

Speaker 4 (08:58):
Use it.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
I'm gonna put my hand up here and say I
never coached. I've never been an offensive lineman who's been
having my knees chopped at fifty nine minutes of a game.
I've never been a defensive lineman who's had to have
the same thing happened to him. Maybe this is something
that's just a unwritten code, but like it's a one
score game, Aaron, I know that that the NFL page

(09:21):
turns that people move on. If I'm a Bucks fan
this morning, it is it is Tuesday morning. I am
still really really disappointed with how that thing ended, and
that my team played their asses off like Baker was awesome,
and those receivers stepped up and Kate Aughten had the
game of his life. And I don't know if they
win that game, I don't know if they tie that game,
it still to get a two pointer. It doesn't matter

(09:43):
the fact that we're shaking hands and conceding the game
at at that time. It really rubs me wrong and
upsets me, and I kind of am left cressfallen just
at that. Everyone in the NFL too, just kind of
being like, yeah, well, that's just what you do.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
And it wasn't. This isn't Week eighteen, and Tampa's already
out of the playoffs, and it's just like, you know,
let's get our make sure our guys are healthy. They
he could have won and gone to the conference championships.
I mean, even whatever the chance, whatever the percentage chances are, Yeah,
I'm with you on that.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
Just I feel for those Tampa fans. Quick things before
we get to our guests. One Marquez Valdez Scantling. This
is a guy I loved when he was in Green Bay.
I loved saying his name He was a guy out
of South Florida who was always the big target threat,
the big play threat for the Green Bay Packers. He
did not have a good regular season this year. Now
he wanted to ring with the Chiefs. Last year great

(10:39):
had a great playoff game for them last year. This year,
did not have a good regular season. Was often the
punchline and the punching bag amongst football fans for the
Chiefs wide receivers room. You know, he dropped the pass
against the Eagles, and he had some other bad, egregious
drops this season. In the moment that mattered mvs. Marquez Valdez,

(10:59):
Scantling had two different thirty yard catches in Buffalo and
I could not be happier for that dude and for
that story. I love the redeeming guys. Who you know what,
would you trade a bad regular season for one epic postseason? Yes,
you always would. And I love that Andy supported him
and that Patrick went back to him. I use first

(11:22):
name basis on these guys because I feel like I've
been through the wreckage and through this entire season with them,
with all of the wide receiver room issues and how
Rashi Rice the rookie had to step up and be there.
Number One, Mark Quez Valdez scantling when Rice was covered
and Kelsey was covered twice in man to man situations,
got open for big plays against the Bills, huge catches

(11:43):
for him. That's what champions are made of, which leads
to my other quote. Rudy tom Janovic used it, and
I love my MBA and Aaron. You know, I would
almost rather host an NBA show sometimes in NFL how
much I'm involved with it. And you know Bill Simmons
and I talked about the Orlando Magic to start off

(12:04):
Friday's podcast I did with him. Rudy tom Janovic won
title with the ninety four Rockets. They struggled out of
the gates in ninety five. They make a trade. They're
bringing Clyde Drexler. They're the sixth seed, they're the sixth
seed in the playoffs. They have to go in win
nine different road games on this playoffs run. They end
up defeating the Orlando Magic in the NBA Finals, and

(12:27):
in his press availability, he would be a lot more
emotional about it. But in the heat of the moment
when they hand them the Larry O'Brian Trophy, Rudy tom
Jonovich lists what his team did six seed, nine road victories,
the whole thing, and he says, don't ever, don't ever
underestimate the heart of a champion. That's what these Kansas

(12:49):
City Chiefs are. Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion.
All those guys stepped up. Kelsey was awesome. All the qualms,
all the worries, everything we had about the Chiefs going
into this game. They did their job. And those backups
who had to play and do big things on defense
did those big things on these And now they head
to Baltimore where they're underdogs yet again. And gosh, can

(13:12):
we just set the seat on this Baltimore's atmosphere, So
you've got an awesome home field M and T Bank,
which is hosting its first AFC Championship game ever. This
is the first AFC Championship game being played in the
city of Baltimore since nineteen seventy one. And Aaron, I
gotta call it like a I'm really conflicted here, all right.

(13:32):
My wife, Erica is from Baltimore, and she's not just
one of these, you know. I'm from Baltimore, and that's great.
Her father David, her mother Sarah, or her brother Brian
are die hard Baltimore sports fans. I'm talking season ticket
holders for the Baltimore Orioles, season ticket holders for the

(13:55):
Baltimore Ravens, and well you I'd say, oh, that's nice,
that's no, these aren't. This isn't because they're ballers or anything.
This is because they put there. They put their funds
to those two teams and to Maryland sports. I'm talking
University of Maryland Terrapins too. Like they are hardcore. My
father in law has been to every Baltimore Super Bowl ever,

(14:18):
that includes Superbowl super Bowl three. He went to Colts
versus Jets and was there in person as a kid
watching Joe Namath beat beat Don Shula and the Colts
in that Super Bowl. And of course they've seen the
Ravens now win in two thousand in Tampa over the
Giants and twenty thirteen over the forty nine ers in

(14:39):
New Orleans. Of course they're going to be at the
game on Sunday. However, I have a streak going where
I have picked the correct Super Bowl champion the last
several seasons. I have a Super Bowl prediction that we
can timestamp, and you know what, let's play the clip.
Let's give my Super Bowl prediction right here from right

(15:03):
before Week one in September. Who I picked my winners
from the NFC The San Francisco forty nine Ers. I
think they play a punishing brand of football that is
with Nick Bosa or without. I think their defense always
sets the standard. And as much as I love Demko Ryans,
I don't think they missed that much of a beat
without him. They keep ongoing. They've got young talent at

(15:25):
every position there and then on offense, Kyle Shanahan is
a mad genius. I think he finally has a quarterback
that can operate his offense that he believes he can
put in trust and really get them over the hump.
He's a former mister Irrelevant and that is okay. I've
got McCaffrey as my MVP. I think Deebo has a
big year. I think Ayuk is a big year. I
think Trent Williams might going out on a swan song

(15:46):
here in his last couple of seasons, but I think
he's still the best tackle in the league. I am
going with the San Francisco forty nine Ers as my
team out of the NFC. As for the AFC really
really struggled with this. Yeah, I can't pick against the Chiefs.
I don't care if Chris Jones is I don't care

(16:07):
if Tyreek Hill's not there. I don't care if any
of those guys aren't there. I can't pick against the Chiefs.
The Chiefs have been the standard and last year was
a great lesson. I stuck with them. I pick them.
The wins Super Bowl despite losing Tyreek Hill. I think
I might have been in an island on that and
that sounds wild considering how much success they have. I
will not pick against Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelcey until

(16:27):
I am forced to. And I am not forced to
pick against them. They are still at the peak of
their game. I had a chance to spend time with
them this offseason at that big Slick Charity Classic, and
I was hanging with them, and I swear to god,
I left that thing being like, those guys are great.
And then I talked to us some people around the league,
and I'm like, I don't know. They seem like to
be having a little too good of a time this
offseason with the golf and this, and they are concerts
and it's like Mahomes and Kelsey are everywhere in the

(16:49):
podcast and you want to start turning away and then
you're like, holy crap, they're just so good. I am
going with the Chiefs. I don't know how they get there.
I don't know if it's through a one seed and
they they host all these games at Arrowhead. I don't
know if they've got to go on the road. But
like I said, if it's one of those deals, eyes
will not deceive me. And if there's a fourth quarter
and Patrick Mahomes needs to get it done in a

(17:10):
big spot, he has gotten it done every single time,
I'm going with Kansas City. Now, this was a Super
Bowl a few years back in Miami. We go from
one party city to the next. We go to Vegas.
Forty nine Ers versus Chiefs, the Super Bowl champions for
the Super Bowl in Las Vegas on CBS. Drum roll,
please aeron. The Kansas City Chiefs will be your first

(17:34):
back to back Super Bowl champion winners since the New
England Patriots did it in two thousand and three and
two thousand and four. I am going with the Chiefs.
I love what they are all about. I love that
people are doubting them, and I love the fact that
Mahomes and Kelsey are ready to go. And so then
last week I go on Bill Simmons' podcast and I'm

(17:55):
coming in there full of gust, though, and that thing
is a monster. It's got millions of listeners in them.
Bill's are underdogs, and I say, pick the Chiefs out right, Bill,
the Chiefs out Right. And then I go on Good
Morning Football on Friday and I give this amazing the
emotional soliloquy slash monologue about how the city of Kansas

(18:16):
City has adopted me in so many ways and has
brought me in and has made me feel like one
of them. And I do the charity event big Slick
with them, and gosh, I'm not from Kansas City, but
this Chief's ride has been incredible. And I'm gonna dance
with the guys who took me to the dance, and
I'm gonna ride with the Chiefs all the way through
and through, no matter who the opponent is. And they

(18:38):
win and I get no personal joy out of that.
I think it's cool when I pixe right, but I
really believe it. I really believe that they are still champions.
And until you beat the champion. I can't pick against
the champion, So now it comes to a head Chiefs personally,
I have a lot of a lot of ties to
that team. Right now, my chips are on the table.

(19:01):
I have put my name on it. I believe that
they are gonna be the Super Bowl champions this year.
I still believe in them. My Homes has been great
for my career because I was early and on him
and he's been super nice to me. And long before
Kelsey was with Taylor Swift or long before Kelsey was
this international superstar, Kelsey was a guy that I would
talk too often. And I really like what Kelsey's up to,
and of course Andy Reid is so special. I believe

(19:24):
the Chiefs will win on Sunday. However, I'm going to
this game as a fan. NFL Network's not sending me,
Fox isn't sending me. I am going with my wife
and my son, and we are going to sit with
my father in law, my mother in law, and my
brother in law, who are probably gonna be wearing Jonathan

(19:44):
Ogden jerseys and Chris McCallister jerseys. And you name it.
The hideous old Ravens logo with that gross yellow like
they still rock that stuff. They rock the Camo pants,
the whole thing. And I've got to make a pick
on Good Morning Football, like publicly, and then I've got

(20:05):
to walk into that building as like a trader of
some sort and sit amongst the fans. So I am
telling you right now, Aaron, I feel really torn personally,
but also like I got to live with that. Hey
if the Chiefs win, like the looking at an empty
stadium and my son crying tears because he's a Ravens fan,
just like his mom and just like his grandfather, and

(20:27):
then b if the Ravens win, like I might get
thrown at me there because they look at me as
like some sort of Chiefs fan because I'm on television
talking about the Chiefs how they're gonna beat the Ravens.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
Your thoughts, well, I love whenever I look into the
stands and I see groups of people there together and
they're in mixed jersey. So someone is there rooting for
the Chiefs and someone's there rooting for the Ravens, and
they're next to each other, they're talking to like throughout
the game.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
That's beautiful.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
I love, like you know, I hate whenever it's some
story about like fans got into a fight, we're throwing
drinks at each other. But if they're like you know,
they're as friends and family, that's great. I think you'll
have a little bit of buffer because you'll be around
a lot of Ravens. God, man, I don't know. I mean,
this is the first time they're going to the conference championship.

(21:13):
That's not going to be in Kansas City.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
I'm not wearing I'm not gonna wear yeah, oh Chief stuff. No,
I wouldn't wear Chief stuff ayway, but I'm not gonna
wear any NFL I think stuff. I'll see if I
could just blend in.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
Just getting Oriels jersey and wearing.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
Win, I'll be elated, Like my family's gonna be excited.
Lamar is an amazing story. This is very very specific
to me when you've got family that loves the Ravens.
But I've kind of put my eggs in the Chiefs basket.
Who do I think will truly win? I honestly think
the Chiefs win like twenty three twenty and it's one

(21:51):
of these awesome games and I cannot wait. I'll be
there taking the train down Sunday morning, and of course
I will be on Good Morning Football Monday morning, so
I'll take the train back late Sunday night. Here's here's
a quick battery before we get into our guests of
what I think. I think we're gonna get Taylor Swift right,

(22:13):
So I'm writing Taylor Swift's name down. I would imagine
I haven't spoken to him. I would imagine our podcast
buddy Paul Rudd is in the house because that's a
train rider, a drive away. I think you're gonna get
Jason Kelcey with Taylor Swift writing that down. I think
Josh Charles. You know Josh Charles's work, great actor, but
he diehard Ravens fan. You know him from the Good
Wife and from Dead Poet Society. He is the most

(22:35):
hardcore Ravens fan that I know up here in New York.
He'll he'll be in the house. I wonder if Stone Street, Wriggle, Oh,
Heidi Gardner stay Night Live, diehard Chiefs fan. They have
SNL on Saturday night. I believe I'm sure she can
make it down Sunday. So I think you're gonna get
a really cool scene. And then, of course the images

(22:58):
of those Ravens fans by the way, I've been to
a million Ravens games. Why are they all dressed in costume?
All those Ravens fans they dressed and like robes and
they wear like browns and they're like dressed is like birds.
I love Ravens fans and that makes a great segue
to our guests today. I'm not sure how this is

(23:19):
gonna go. Our guests is one of the funniest people alive.
He is a sensation on YouTube, on TikTok, on Instagram,
and also on Netflix. His comedy specialists called the Fat Rascal.
He is a Baltimore native, and his character Ronnie has

(23:42):
taken over Baltimore social media pages and has even been
a guest of the Ravens because of just how damn
funny he is. I have no idea where this goes.
It could go off the rails. He is a hilarious comedian.
I love his podcast with no further further ado, Our
Guests after the break is stavros Halkis, all right, I'm

(24:12):
so excited for our guests today. They're fans that like
are celebrity fans, and they wear a hat and they
go to a game and it's like, yeah, no, I
definitely love the team. I definitely I love the team. Yeah, no, totally.
I could talk your team. And then you ask him
a little bit about the team and you realize quickly
that said fan is not really a fany just from
that area. Then there are guys like Staby Baby. This
is a halk Is he is on the podcast, and

(24:35):
before I even get into it, I have to tell
the listeners here who listened to this? And usually I've
got an NFL coach or an NFL general manager, like, right,
this is this is like a like one of my
dream guests because I listened to you. I go back
to your previous podcast, which you won't name the name
of it.

Speaker 5 (24:53):
Should be, but even like Pandemic Sponsors, But even.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
Pandemic, you and Sam Morrill had the basketball podcast, and
I would listen to that podcast. But now Staby Baby
is one of the most popular podcasts in the land.
Stavros Halkias is a Baltimore native through and through a
Greek American first generation save.

Speaker 5 (25:16):
That's right, I'm the first one of my family born here.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
Yeah, okay, so Greek American who has the pulse of
the Ravens fan base and has now found a whole
new thing, like whole new market and whole new fan
base with a character he does at the games known
as Ronnie Stavi. Where do you want to start? This
is an incredible run that the Ravens are on, and

(25:38):
you are part and sold this thing. From the fan perspective,
it's crazy, dude.

Speaker 4 (25:42):
Yeah, thanks for having me on. By the way, I'm
a fan as well. I love your stuff and it's
crazy to be on an actual like the Ravens. Should
I start doing a character? I grew up in Baltimore.
I remember when we got the team. I remember, you know,
I was a football fan before the Ravens existed, Like
I remember, you know, rooting.

Speaker 5 (26:01):
For uh, just watching the play.

Speaker 4 (26:04):
I was really a Viking fan because okay, Randy Moss
was so good when I was I was, like, you know,
like I was young, I was like eight or I
don't exactly remember what it was, and he was so good.
So I made that the purple transition came real nice.
I remember, like I remember, like like that, I go
back to before the team existed. I go back to
being mad watching football and Thanksgiving at our family friend's

(26:26):
house because I come from a very Greek family. Where
my parents do not understand football. It's all about soccer.
We played soccer, well, I played high school football, and
my mom would come to my games and she would
like hear at all the wrong times, you know, like
I was in nose tackle. But I also kicked off
because I played soccer, and so she would just cheer

(26:47):
at the kickoffs, thinking I scored.

Speaker 5 (26:49):
A goal, you know what I mean, Like that's what
she understood.

Speaker 4 (26:51):
So there was no football happening in my immediate family,
but we had family friends we'd go to on Thanksgiving
and that was my like introduction those Thanksgiving games, and
I remember being mad. I was like, well, why don't
we have a team, And it was like pretty quickly
after that, I was you know, I was there. I
remember you go into a pun pass and kick contest.
We had Testaverdi out there, We had Stover out there.

(27:15):
I like I I have been a fan of Ravens
since it has come to Baltimore, and so I just
started messing around one day where I was just like
we've had and Lamar got me back in right like
I was kinda I love the flat goron obviously that
was the best.

Speaker 5 (27:31):
But it was like we had a weird little lull there,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (27:35):
And it was like and I was also starting to
actually be an adult with responsibilities.

Speaker 5 (27:40):
You couldn't yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (27:44):
I could just get you know, with my friends and
just watch games and just gamble, you know, with a bookie,
and just that was my whole life. I was like, oh,
I should I started to travel for stand up and weirdly,
Sundays are travel days, you know. And I was like
and also, you know, uh, just I was just kind
of losing my you know, I was just kind of lose.

Speaker 5 (28:04):
I was like, that was cool.

Speaker 4 (28:05):
I was a die hard as a fan as a kid,
and the teams were great.

Speaker 5 (28:09):
I enjoyed some great stuff.

Speaker 4 (28:10):
But I was like, maybe it's time for me to
kind of like become a much more casual fan.

Speaker 5 (28:14):
And I remember Draft day Lamar.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
I was like, wait, this guy's not gonna fall There's
no way we're getting I.

Speaker 5 (28:21):
Was literally headed on in the background as I'm.

Speaker 4 (28:23):
Just you know, doing chores or something, and he keeps falling,
and I'm like, oh great. I remember being like, great,
the Patriots are gonna ever this guy and and and
they're gonna you know, they're gonna go right from Brady
the like I always thought, I never bought into, you know,
the whole the he's not gonna be good. I thought
the guy was awesome. And when we drafted Lamar, I
was like, I'm this is fifteen years I'm in, Like,

(28:47):
it's not the moment I knew. Yeah, I was like, so,
so I just re became a Diard fan and I
just started doing these dumb videos when we had a couple,
you know, a couple because starting from that the MVP run,
it was such a magical year, like watching Lamar really
become as himself that first time and then losing to

(29:08):
the Titans was so brutal that, you know, that first
playoff run that they had, and so that it kind
of but from then until now, we've had a lot
of these weird seasons that you can tell there's talent
on the team, and we had the whole contract dispute,
we had the whole everything, and so it was like
I was doing a lot of just I was frustrated
as a fan, and so I just channeled all that

(29:31):
into like a Baltimore Towney character named Ronnie from you know,
I don't want to get into too much specifics of
the OFT's.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
Let's paint, let's paint where Ronnie's from and what Ronnie's
life is, because I think it is fair. Yes, so
you could say there are different types of Ravens fans
and they come from all wars of life and all
different Yes, yes, that's all different cultural backgrounds. But Ronnie's
a very Ronnie's a very specific one that I have
met and we get tweets from and they have their

(30:00):
thoughts on whether it's Jimmy seafood or their place that's
in their suburb, like it got.

Speaker 5 (30:07):
Crab cakes.

Speaker 4 (30:07):
Yes, yes, No, Ronnie is like I grew up in Greektown,
which is southeast Baltimore, and it kind of borders. There's
like a suburb technically a suburb that is worse somehow
than Baltimore City. Like it's like people, it's like it's
like just become it was I say, I say in
my act, it's like it was like white flight happened

(30:29):
and they instead of it's like people that were like, oh,
we have to get away from these urban centers, too
many black people moving in and then they just pick
made a city than the city they fled. And that's
and Ronnie is descended from that where it's like just
these kind of like dumb ass It's just like a
dumb ass that had you know, that just lived his

(30:50):
family left Baltimore a couple generations ago. They live in
a trash suburb. They're just like, you know, uh, like.

Speaker 5 (31:00):
Small time criminals. You know, my weed deal.

Speaker 4 (31:02):
The guy I bought weed from was like, you know
growing up, was a Ronnie style guy.

Speaker 5 (31:07):
You know.

Speaker 4 (31:07):
They're just like, you know, just white, just a nice
are nice type of white trash that everybody has their
own special kind of towny and we have like vintage
and it is like what's nice about it? It's a
cousin of the minute. All the mid Atlantic trash is
kind of connected.

Speaker 5 (31:24):
So it's like Pittsburgh.

Speaker 4 (31:25):
Even the Pittsburgh kind of yinser accent is sort of
that's an offshoot Philly definitely has. That's definitely Philly is
probably the closest Delco.

Speaker 5 (31:35):
Yeah, the Delco that the very hard Oh's. You know.

Speaker 4 (31:39):
I do a bit about it on my first YouTube
special on my first special on YouTube, where I just
kind of like, you know, they're just guys that have
way too much confidence for no reason. Have never achieved
anything in life. Uh don't, don't realize they're being racist,
but like, you know, like that, the character was always
the Ronnie loves and listen, I love Joe Flacco, but

(32:00):
Ronnie like loves Joe Flacco in a way that's like
he thinks modern. He thinks the Ravens last season when
Lamar was injured should have offered uh, you know, the
I believe he was on the Jets. He should have
offered the Jets Lamar in two first for flats for
the current day Flaco.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
And it works so perfect because the last name, it's
just it's perfect for the aga.

Speaker 4 (32:24):
Oh it's beautiful. I mean that was meant to be.
And shout out to Joe. He is that run. I mean,
I love you know, when we drafted Joe, I remember
that too, because you know, Baltimore was a quarterback wilderness.
I mean we went from like we we went with Dilpher,
we had Tony Banks, we went we you know, we
went with Dilfer and then I remember everyone saying like

(32:46):
Burdback's gonna be the savior, you know, like I remember
that that was our big free agents splash. He sucked
as soon as we got him. He completely went in
the tank. And then and then there's Bowler where we're like, oh,
this guy. And it was always like this thing of
you know, Brian Billick was because again offensive genius, and
it's like, okay, he had a defensive team. Now he

(33:07):
drafts his guy, he's gonna put his system in. And
it was Kyle Bowler, which no, you know, Kyle Boler
got a second contract somehow, salute to him. He figured
it out. He was dogs, you know, he was not good.
We had Chris Redman as a starting quarterback. Like it
was like we just went through it. And then when
Joe gets drafted, it's like, all right, this guy looks good.

(33:30):
And it's like but he he's from Delaware. It's like
we got to get It's like it's like it's like
he's just that's where we go to the bea. He's
like he's he went to Rahobi's Beach University.

Speaker 5 (33:40):
What is this? And then and then you.

Speaker 4 (33:42):
See that secret yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, University
of Secrets. But then I saw I saw one of
those beautiful spirals, and I was like, I'm all in.

Speaker 5 (33:52):
He was perfect.

Speaker 4 (33:53):
We were so good for so long with him and
and I love I definitely, I definitely know that I
just want to be on the record.

Speaker 5 (34:00):
No disrespected Joe, one of my favorite players.

Speaker 4 (34:03):
But those guys really, you know, they latch onto him
Ron these favorite players are all you know, Todd Heap,
Tony Sarrah Goosa. There's a pattern. There's a pattern, you know.
But I saw I'm doing these dumb videos when just
to like just to get some steam out, just to like,
you know, make fun of these guys, but also there

(34:25):
it's a it's a safe space for me to get
all my dumbest fan takes out, you know what I mean,
Like there's a part of me that you know, just
believes all a little bit of it, and.

Speaker 5 (34:35):
They just kind of kept I was just doing them
for fun.

Speaker 4 (34:39):
And you know, it's not like my audience, my stand
up audience is like a big sports not a big
sports fan. But you know, like I did the bat
if anything. If I had any fans, it was like
basketball fans. Because I used to work for MSG, me
and my Sam Moreau, we did a we did a
show for the MSG network.

Speaker 5 (34:54):
I was a writer for it.

Speaker 4 (34:56):
Then me and Sam did our own basketball podcast for
years and I was just a really big hoops junkie.
But these videos were really just for me. It's not
even like my fan base like them. Some people were
mad that I was doing.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
Your podcast is all life advice stuff and like yeah great,
and then you have this whole other character, Ronnie, that
I think is like as a whole of their life
with a whole other different fan base, and.

Speaker 5 (35:19):
It was really just for me. Like that's the thing.

Speaker 4 (35:20):
It's like there was no strategy of like like in hindsight,
it was if you're going to be cynical, you're like, well,
football is the most the most popular sport, you need
to It's like it's almost like somebody in a boardroom
was like, hey, you really got to hit this quadrant,
you know what I mean. But that was that was

(35:41):
not it at all. I just I just loved I
was doing it really for me in a way where
it's like I could have even not posted these videos
and just done it as Catharsis.

Speaker 5 (35:51):
And then I started.

Speaker 4 (35:51):
Putting them out and uh, you know, they were doing
pretty well. And I think when I was promoting my special,
I went on every platform possible my first special, and
so part of that was the you know, the Barstool Guys,
The Cat and uh pft, I went on one on
their show. But I love that show, and I think
that was kind of I did the character there because it's.

Speaker 5 (36:11):
Like you got to do it, you know, that's just
fun to do. They get it. And I think that's
when it kind of picked up a little bit.

Speaker 4 (36:16):
And then it just coincided with this magical Raging season
where it was like, you know, it's been a it's
been a crazy lucky year for me, and I think
it all kind of like, and I don't want to
nobody clip this if it goes bad, but my my
thirty fifth birthday is February eleventh.

Speaker 5 (36:33):
I'm just saying. I'm just saying it feels.

Speaker 4 (36:37):
You know, it's starting to sitting, just starting to swirl,
starting to feel really good.

Speaker 5 (36:42):
And look, Lamar's I'm sorry, I'm hopped up. I just
woke up. I'm pumped to just be talking Ravens when
we're so good in.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
Late January talking Ravens late January.

Speaker 4 (36:52):
We're Lamar and Lamar approved every every hating pieces wrong
that I mean that second half. Me and my brother,
I take my I take my brother Nick to these games.

Speaker 5 (37:03):
Trainer he's a trainer.

Speaker 4 (37:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think he wants that
publicized right now. I think he wants to maybe to
get me in the gym a couple of months before
he starts taking ownership of it. But yeah, we did
a training series and I've only gotten fatter since then.

Speaker 5 (37:18):
I don't know how it's helping.

Speaker 4 (37:19):
His business, but I'm there with my brother, and that
first half was It's an amazing experience. You know, the
Ravens let me somehow these dumb videos. The Ravens were like, yeah,
come do I couldn't curse on the official ones, but
it's like they still let me do.

Speaker 5 (37:35):
I still, you know, I get to write these things.

Speaker 4 (37:37):
I get to still be a criminal that the Ravens
led into their thing, and so they gave us great seats.
We're sitting there watching the whole game, and that first
half was like that kickback was like, damn, this.

Speaker 5 (37:51):
Is how a worst team beats a good team.

Speaker 4 (37:53):
They hanged around and it was every and at first
I felt a little bit about what everybody was criticizing
Lamar for where it was like this season, I think
what really separated him was he just proved the thing
I think everybody who believed in him thought, which is like, no,
this that he can pass as well as he can run.
That's what makes him super elite. And I think in

(38:13):
the first half maybe you could argue he went a
little too like, you know, abandoned his reads and just
ran whenever, whenever things were getting a little dicey. And
then that second and I'm sitting there with my brother
and I'm like, dude, the vibes are a little right now.
That's where I said going to the second half, but
I didn't. I was like, we're not panicking yet. Here's
what needs happened. He's got to come out, we get

(38:34):
the ball, step on their throats, prove who he is.
And you say, like your best case scenario, you say
it out loud, and you think it's not gonna go
that good.

Speaker 5 (38:42):
But at least it went even better.

Speaker 4 (38:45):
Now, it went even better than I possibly could have expected.
And I was like, that's it, that's the guy. It
all snacked into focus. And I think that first half
was good because I also think it's kind of us
exercising a little bit of our total. You know, we
had a couple of weird We had a couple of
weird losses too. I mean, this team could have had
like one.

Speaker 5 (39:05):
Loss if you really Steelers. This Brown's game was weird.

Speaker 4 (39:12):
This the first Steelers, like, you know whatever, the last
Seelers game we don't have anything to play for, it
was raining, who gives it? But that first Steelers game
we should have won for sure, And so it just
felt good. It felt like we're really it's good to
muck up a little bit. Sometimes coming out of the
by it could be weird. Teams can feel flat, and
it really felt like we did that. And I am

(39:33):
pummed to be playing the Chiefs. I'm pumped to like
to get Lamar, Like Lamar Vus Mahomes is what you want.
You want him to go out there and prove it
because I've you know, I've always thought he's just good.
I really truly believe that. I mean, Mahomes is the man,
of course, and he's he's got the Super Bowls. But
when Lamar puts it together, and let's not forget this
is you know, Lamar was kind of thrust into a

(39:54):
weird situation, whereas like Mahomes got to kind of slowly
come along, had a better had better weapons right away.

Speaker 5 (40:02):
You know what I mean. I mean Lamar, who was
Lamar throwing to until this year?

Speaker 1 (40:06):
You're crazy? It is different.

Speaker 5 (40:07):
Yeah, And it's like so it's I feel like Lamar
is finally at a plaace.

Speaker 4 (40:13):
Where he has the team that matches his talent, and
I'm happy. And it's almost like, you know, the cowards
way is not having to face you know, the guy
who's his generations, you know, top.

Speaker 5 (40:27):
But I don't want the cowards away. Let's go earn it.

Speaker 4 (40:29):
Let's let's go beat these mothers and then go to
the super Bowl and you know, whoever, whether it's I
think both those teams hopefully, like you know, I'm not
even in if it's not us, it's someone else category
because I can't even think that way.

Speaker 5 (40:43):
But like, good for the lines if they're there, the Niners.

Speaker 4 (40:46):
You know, those are both good teams that are are
very worthy super Bowl opponents.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
So you guys, you guys bet both of them.

Speaker 5 (40:54):
Yeah, both those teams up, which you know that's a
good sign.

Speaker 4 (40:58):
It's not it's not the you know, you never, especially
a guy like Shanahan, you never want to like it's
almost like exactly give them too week and you know
he finally won his first game trailing in the fourth quarter.
So you know, you don't want you don't want to
get him hot.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
But I listened to to you talk football. It's like,
you know you're I listened to Dan soder talk about
either his boy McDaniel with the Dolphins or his Niners,
and it's like, you guys, know know your stuff. Who
are the comedians? And I know your crew is like
normand and Soda and Joe listeners. Who are the ones
who are like football fans, not just oh there's a

(41:34):
football game on all hang with the boys?

Speaker 5 (41:37):
Yeah, I mean Liszt definitely listens Patriots.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
Who is he?

Speaker 5 (41:41):
Who's he Patriots? Of course? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but
he knows.

Speaker 4 (41:44):
I mean, he's a he likes like he'll just go
to a college He'll be on off and he'll go
to like a college basketball game of two unranked teams.
He just loves the like he loves sports is like
a traditional American way, like in the he loves it
as part of the culture. And obviously he's been very
lucky to have the Patriots be so good for so long.
You know, so you said it's Soda, He's literally boys

(42:05):
with McDaniels, like, but he's been a he's been a
football fan of his whole life. It's super important to him.
Dam is definitely more of a you know, Sam is
definitely more of a hoops guy.

Speaker 5 (42:18):
But hoops he knows everything about.

Speaker 4 (42:21):
And then you know, Bill Burr is kind of like
the I don't know Burr personally, we've barely met, but
it's like he's kind of like the super fan. I
mean that mother loves sports so much, and so it's
like guys that run with him all. You know, Paul
Verzu I'm gonna have on my podcast soon. But he's
a big sports guy.

Speaker 5 (42:37):
I mean, you have.

Speaker 4 (42:39):
That's what's interesting is like a lot of a lot
of comics and obviously Shane Gillis, I mean, Jane is
a huge play Shane.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
Shane was talking to it. He was he was being
interviewed by like I think the ovonn last week and
he's talking about how Gabe Davis of the Bills one
of his best friends. I'm like, what is this crossover?
I love yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (42:54):
Yeah, yeah, No, they're Gabe Davis does like does touchdown
celebrations of like fat little Brazilians that like Shane, his
little videos Shane has seen like he does, Shane's chordatorographed
touchdown celebrate. I'm trying to get to that. I'm trying
to get to that level of touchdown celebrations. But you know,

(43:15):
but yeah, Shane is a huge football fan for sure.
But yeah, man, I mean there's a lot of you know,
a lot of these guys, A lot of people love it.

Speaker 5 (43:23):
You know, it matters a lot to people.

Speaker 4 (43:25):
And then you know a lot of sports, a lot
of comics or fans of other sports too. Basketball fighting
is huge obviously. But yeah, those are I mean, those
are especially my circle. Those are the guys Soda for sure,
Soda and Shane, I would say, for sure.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
When you really blew up from my eyes from like
a national standpoint or got more mainstream was when you
had the YouTube special. I think it was post pandemic,
and it was like when that hits and all of
a sudden you're looking at it and there's twenty million
views on YouTube, like your life changes overnight.

Speaker 4 (43:54):
Right, Yeah, it was really weird because you think, you think,
like you start doing comedy and you're like, I'll get
on HBO or I'll get on Comedy Central. Or I'll
get on TV and that's when people will know who
you know, that's when like, that's where I'll get a
little notoriety and maybe people know who I am. And
really what happened to me was just posting on the

(44:16):
internet what like it was like. And to be honest
with you, it was like it was like before the special.
It was my weird little strategy to post crowd work
clips that I never thought would be the successful.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
Crowd which is.

Speaker 5 (44:32):
Of course, sorry.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
Controversial right now with a lot of these comedians who
strictly do crowd.

Speaker 5 (44:36):
Work, right, and I get that too.

Speaker 4 (44:39):
I mean, so basically, crowd work is, you know, there's
stand up comedy and crowd work is like any moment
that's kind of off the cuff, you're talking.

Speaker 5 (44:46):
To the crowd.

Speaker 4 (44:47):
Traditionally, it's like you know your acts, the jokes you
write there prepared and there's a little bit of there's
a little bit of you know, improvisation or if something
happens in the room, you address it and I think
for the moment.

Speaker 5 (45:02):
And there were.

Speaker 4 (45:03):
Always some comics who their thing was all crowd work,
all talking to the crowd, all improvising, and they were
really good at it, and they kind of like really
worked on it as as skill, and I think for
most of us, you would do a little of it.

Speaker 5 (45:15):
Like the way I approached it was.

Speaker 4 (45:17):
Like I didn't want people to think I was a
kind of robot. Then I was just going to get
out there and do my jokes. I always saw crowd
work as a way to engage the crowd a little bit,
talk to them for the first five minutes or so,
maybe make some jokes, really form some because that's what's
special about stand up is every show is its own thing.
Every show is different and every audience. I mean, you'll

(45:40):
never even if you do the same exact jokes, you'll
never have that group of people in the same room
under the same conditions ever again. And I really enjoy
that because every show is a little different, the energy
is a little different, and so I always wanted to
kind of ingratiate myself by not just going right into
my material but kind of talking to people. But that
was always, you know, I would do it for five

(46:02):
minutes out of an hour, and when I was and
I had to self producer special because nobody was interested
in my hour.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Did you try shopping it like you were on the
four for years. I mean, know, you opened for Robert
Kelly for years, and like you go and you have
these meetings with like Comedy Central and HBO and Netflix
and TB and whatever else, and they're just like, no,
we're not interesting.

Speaker 5 (46:22):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (46:23):
I mean I think a lot of that was the pandemic.
I think, you know, some of these places were kind
of rethinking their strategies. A lot of them were kind
of cash strap, and I think I just didn't have enough.

Speaker 5 (46:34):
People didn't know me as a stand.

Speaker 4 (46:36):
Up comic thing give me as a podcaster, and I
don't think I had enough clout to really make it happen.
So I tried a couple of places were sort of interested,
but I didn't want to wait around, and I just
decided I'm gonna shoot it myself.

Speaker 5 (46:50):
I'm gonna put you know, a bunch of money into it.

Speaker 4 (46:53):
But I had no I had a small YouTube following,
but I didn't have a big one. So I figured
I'll post old jokes and get people to like because
people had been, you know, on TikTok, people had been
engaging with comedy that way. This is like twenty twenty one,
I think, when so I had seen it, and Sam,
like my buddy Sam, had been doing really well other comics,

(47:13):
Mark Norman had been doing really well doing short form stuff.
And I remember thinking like, ah, that's dumb, that's a
waste of time. I was, and these guys are in
theaters off the strength of that, and so I'm like,
all right, Well, I got to figure something out.

Speaker 5 (47:24):
And so I posted.

Speaker 4 (47:25):
Old jokes because I was also a purist, right, I
was like, crowd works, bullsh it's it's all about the jokes.
And then I posted all the old jokes. I didn't
want to do it anymore, and that they were gone
in like six days. And then I was like, all right,
I guess let's see. And I had been preparing. I'd
been trying to get a crowd work. I'd been trying
to get a comedy ES Central half hour for about

(47:46):
a year, and I think maybe that would have happened
if the pandemic didn't happen. So I had recorded every
set I did for a for a year. I was
on my I was on my ed red you know,
play what you know, watching the game tape back.

Speaker 5 (48:00):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, this joke.

Speaker 4 (48:05):
We got to get it down in two minutes. It's
running long, you know, And so I would I was
a nerd, and then I would watch a lot of
my old film, a lot of my old shows to
kind of squeak jokes. And so I just cut up
all those random moments of crowd work that I told
you before I never thought would amount anything. I was
just doing to ingratiate myself to the crowd. And I

(48:26):
was like, we'll see if anything happens here, and just
they started doing so well.

Speaker 5 (48:31):
I was shocked.

Speaker 4 (48:32):
And I had about a year's worth of those clips
and I just posted them to try and get people
to follow me on YouTube, and it really worked. And yeah, dude,
from that moment on, it was like it was like
there was no big moment. There was no big like
my life has changed moment. There was like one day
it was actually in Vegas. I was shooting a short
film and a bunch of you know, Vega is such

(48:54):
a populated area walking down walking back to Fremont Street. Yeah,
and I was getting that and I was like, what
the hell is going And it was like people that
you know, it was like older couples, it was like night,
younger women. It was just like not you know my
my podcast which we cannot legally can't say the name
of because it has has a bodily fluid in the

(49:15):
title of it. It was pretty successful and it helped
me like get my start and start touring. But it
was it was like very online, very niche, and so
I'm not just out in Vegas and it's just like
all age groups, all different types of people, and it
was like, I was like, what the hell is going
on here? What happened? And it was justgy people watch YouTube.
It turns out who knows and who knew? And it

(49:37):
really completely changed my career and I'm so thankful for it.
And you know, a year later, got a Netflix special
and hopefully hopefully knock on wood, my favorite team's going
to the going to the super Bowl to.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
Turn it up the right way. Yeah, The Fat Rascal
is the Netflix special, which I loved and I texted you,
I'm like, it's tremendous. It's great.

Speaker 5 (49:54):
Appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
Yeah, the Ravens putting their social media team and letting
you kind of do your thing. I'm amazed by it.
Like to be validated that way where your stuff is
so blue usually and so and you're so smart that's
the thing. I listened to your podcast and like it's you,
and it's it's your producer and you guys have on
a guest every week and then you take calls from listeners.

(50:15):
But like, you're really smart, you're well read, and like
I could tell that this this, this is fun, but
you also could probably do anything you wanted. Then you
choose to do this comedy route and then to have
the Ravens.

Speaker 4 (50:27):
I don't know about that. I appreciate it, but I
think this is have these skills. These are the skills.
If this goes away, I'm I'll tell you that much enough.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
You're thirty five. You're doing all right. And I love
that you're in a story of queens. That's where you live.

Speaker 5 (50:43):
Anywhere.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
I love that you're You didn't do the Austin, Texas thing.
You didn't follow everyone.

Speaker 5 (50:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love it. Austin's cool. It's a
nice place to visit. You know. I liked it. They
have a scene there.

Speaker 4 (50:57):
But ultimately, and I thought it, to be honest, I
thought about it. Yeah, a lot of you know, a
lot of my friends live down there. But I just
do love New York. I love the East cost I mean,
I'm an East Coast guy. Really, That's what it comes
down to. I love Baltimore. I I have a place
there still, and I'm trying to spend a little more
time there. You know. My family's all over there still,
and so I like being on the East Coast. I

(51:17):
just like New York is the best city. It's that's
the best city.

Speaker 1 (51:21):
The same thing. You know, my co host and you probably.

Speaker 5 (51:24):
Should be living in l A.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
Yeah, it should be there every weekend for Fox, but
like here in New York.

Speaker 5 (51:29):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
You know my co hosts nothing against them, they got families,
they love it. They're in the burbs there in Jersey there,
and I'm like, I live in Brooklyn. I love it here.
I just I get feed off the energy, and I think,
you know, there's also the sense of pride that like, yeah,
we stuck around like we're here, We're no, it's justick.

Speaker 4 (51:45):
And then it really when people talk about New York,
it really sounds like someone making an abusive relationship at work,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (51:51):
Where it's like, yeah, no it is.

Speaker 4 (51:53):
It's expensive and you know, I don't have an extra
room and the get my guest room.

Speaker 5 (51:58):
You cannot stay with.

Speaker 4 (51:59):
Me sorry hotel uh and yeah my heat hasn't worked
for two months. But hey, greatest city in the world, baby,
But I I feel that bride where it's like, yeah,
it takes a lot to make it work here, and
I'm very I am happy to be able to kind of.

Speaker 5 (52:12):
Found my niche.

Speaker 4 (52:13):
And you know, because it first couple of years I
was here, man, I was like so depressed. I'm living
in a three bedroom with and it was like it
was brutal.

Speaker 5 (52:23):
But we did it.

Speaker 4 (52:24):
We're in Queens, were doing well. We got we got
a podcast studio, my spare bedroom. I'm living.

Speaker 5 (52:28):
I'm living the dream.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
So the Ravens, they they're like, we're gonna bring you
in officially as like at Ravens, and you're gonna like
represent us. Of course, there's rules and grounds and rules
of what you can say, what you can't say and
all this stuff, but like, how surreal you're wearing. I
think it was an Ogden jersey. You're you're there on
the field, and I'm like, my wife is from my
wife's from my wife from Baltimore. She's diehard Ravens. Her

(52:52):
family's on it. She's like she's like your your comedian
friend is doing stuff with the Ravens social media. I'm like,
he's what.

Speaker 5 (52:59):
I know.

Speaker 4 (53:00):
I know it is really funny to get the because
the Ravens are so cool and because like they let
me do you know, I do some on their channel
and obviously I have to I can't be it because
the character is ignorant, uh, sexually explicit race tolerance, you know,
you know it's like and so obviously I can't do

(53:20):
that stuff. But there is a there is still a
like a humor to them where it's like, yeah, you
can do a joke, you can do a version of
this that doesn't have to be dirty. But to their credit,
they're not the stuff. I still do the character on
my own and you could, you know, you could work
with a with a brand or like an organization. It's like, hey,
while you're doing this stuff for us, can you on

(53:40):
your own stuff? Can you like not be is dirty?
And to their credit there let me do whatever I will.
They're like, hey, do whatever you want, like that's your thing.
I just can't do it from like like that. The
only the only thing they ever asked are like, hey,
don't do it when we give you field access, because
then it looks like we're basically signing all do this.

(54:01):
Do this from a public place where it was clear
you're doing it of your own volition. We're not gonna
step on your freedom of speech. But you know, so
they're they're the coolest people in the world to work
were within. Truly, I'm shocked and I feel so lucky
to be able to do this. I mean, it is
a dream come true where it's and it's like, you know,
I've had a good year, things have been great, and
I've done some cool stuff, but from it it just like,

(54:23):
you know, I literally was a little, a fat, little
sixth grader going into going into school the next day
on with a huge Papa John's hangover, just like celebrating
that win.

Speaker 5 (54:36):
I remember that.

Speaker 4 (54:37):
I still remember the day I'm in my med I'm
in you know, I sent my immigrant mother to buy
me a jersey, completely misunderstood, got me a weird mesh
practice jersey. You know all the you know, I had
no I wanted to. I wanted to Sarah Gusa, you know,
I wanted to. I want I wanted she comes with
the just the weird, wrong thing. But I'm in that
little weird mess Jersey day after, Like, I remember this,

(54:59):
this team has meant so much to me, and so
for all the like cool, you know, getting a SPECIALS grade,
getting to like do some acting stuff is cool. I
got to work with great really people I admire so much.
But from just like a human being, like your inner
child thing.

Speaker 5 (55:14):
It's like I'm on the field.

Speaker 4 (55:16):
I know Ravens like I you know, I'm wapping up
Gino Stone. My boy had seven interceptions. As you know,
he almost led the league. Uh he got robbed by
the way from the Pro Bowl. That's fucking bullshit.

Speaker 5 (55:29):
Who got it?

Speaker 4 (55:30):
The Steeler safety? Yeah, get that Monca Minca, Minca, the
Steelers Mica. Gino Stone should have been in the in
the Pro Bowl. You can bleep it out, but I
want that in there, donating.

Speaker 5 (55:46):
The rest of the show.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
You get in there. That's my oneder Man Green Eminem.

Speaker 5 (55:50):
That's it's surreal, dude. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
Two things before before we wrap. Uh, you had me
this week when you mentioned the term Pulaski Highway. You
said that, and I'm like.

Speaker 5 (56:03):
That is so.

Speaker 1 (56:06):
Would you mind doing a sanitized version of Ronnie maybe
sixty seconds just to give the listeners as we've been
building it up just a feel for sure? Sure sure,
uh stoppy baby taking?

Speaker 4 (56:16):
Yeah, yeah, here we go, Okay, here we go.

Speaker 5 (56:20):
Ravers are going to the super Bowl. Bring on the Chiefs.
Mahomes ot over rated.

Speaker 4 (56:24):
We're gonna tell him you, we're gonna he won't be
able to walk after this game. Kelsey, he's a podcast
to you. That guy ain't a tight end.

Speaker 5 (56:32):
No more. Hayes don't work.

Speaker 4 (56:34):
Overrated, Pat don't know where he is? Is that Andy
Readers at Wolf for Brimley on the sidelines. I don't
know we're winning the super Bowl? Baby, I put it.
I just opened up a credit card on my son's name.
I bet fifty thousand dollars on the Ravens winning.

Speaker 5 (56:48):
Let's do this. Let's go Ravens.

Speaker 1 (56:51):
Perfect. It's perfect.

Speaker 5 (56:52):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (56:53):
It's perfect. Did you don't even say the words Jacoba
Jones or Joe Flatch.

Speaker 5 (56:57):
Keb Yeah, I did. I mention Kobe Doo. That's another
surreal thing. He was just at the thing. It's dude crazy.

Speaker 1 (57:05):
Uh will you be there this weekend?

Speaker 4 (57:08):
So I have a I have shows in Dallas. It's Saturday.
I get my last show Saturday at midnight. I am
taking here's how much I love the Ravens. I'm taking
a five thirty am flight to get there. It's the
only direct I could find.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
What is this Dallas to Baltimore now.

Speaker 4 (57:27):
West bro That's how much I love the organization. I'm waking,
I'm sleeping for one hour.

Speaker 5 (57:32):
I'm gonna be hopped up, but I can't. I couldn't
miss it.

Speaker 4 (57:35):
I could like if the Ravens is right year, the
AFS Championship the only the first time we've hosted. We've
always gone through, you know, we've never been renumber one seed.
When we got to the super Bowl, Uh, it's special.
And that being there last week was so special. I'd
gone to regular season games, but man, I mean you
saw it in the how many how many false starts?

(57:56):
And I've seen Patrick Mahomes talking about how he has
to use a silent account. It's one of the few
places we're not going to make it easy on them.
I want to be a part of that. I you know,
they gave the opportunity, they invited.

Speaker 5 (58:05):
Me, So what am I gonna say no to that?

Speaker 1 (58:07):
I'll make it.

Speaker 4 (58:08):
I mean to be honest with you, I was real
close from cancering those Dallas shows. I canceled on them
last time, so this is the makeup and and to
be clear, I canceled last time because I didn't I
shot my special the night before and I was like,
I want to go to Dallas and do I want
to have a barbecue and take the next day. So
I cancel on them to just get up with my friends.

(58:31):
So I can't really again, I'm canceling for a football game.

Speaker 5 (58:35):
This time is like real disrespect.

Speaker 4 (58:37):
And Dallas has been throwing enough and they will continue
to be to be going through enough.

Speaker 5 (58:41):
They still got McCarthy over there there.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
They'll figure it out.

Speaker 4 (58:44):
They're not they're not winning, so they you know, they
at least need a uh couple pick me up that way.

Speaker 1 (58:51):
The other thing is this Chiefs team comes with a
certain celebrity factor to them, with Taylor and Jason Kelsey
and the whole thing. Well received in Baltimore, taunted. How
does that go?

Speaker 4 (59:06):
Yeah, it's it's interesting. I don't think they will be
well received. I mean, they are so famous where it's like,
you know, and you don't want to be. It's the
other thing, it's like, ultimately it's still like it's Taylor's rip.
She's a you know, superstar, you know, billionaire pop star.
But ultimately it's like it's a player's girlfriend and it's
kind of a move to be loved ones, you know

(59:29):
what I mean, you don't want to like like you know,
and even the fact that she you know, it is cool.

Speaker 5 (59:35):
But at the same time, it's like, uh, you know,
I don't know that everybody will be as enlightened as
I am.

Speaker 4 (59:40):
Peter, I've gotta be honest with you, buddy, I don't
know that everybody will feel that way. Like Jay and
I love them. I do, unfortunately love the Kelsey. I
like what they're doing, so it does. And Jason, so
like that's like Jason if Travis Travis, you know, pretty
boy tight end. Travis is in the stands and his

(01:00:00):
brother's on the field. But you have the cool salt
of the earth dad, you know what, Like he's he's
he looked cool in Buffalo. At the same time, it's like,
at the same time, if he's coming out in those stands,
I don't think it'll be as friendly.

Speaker 5 (01:00:13):
As it was in Buffalo. You know.

Speaker 4 (01:00:15):
It's like because you think the thing you understand with
with guys like Baltimore Natives, they think they can fight
Jason Kelsey. They're wrong, they're obviously gon'll get their split,
but they think they can take him. There's a guy
who like got kicked off his high school football team
for stealing catalytic converters in the parking lot, who thinks

(01:00:38):
he would have gone all pro.

Speaker 5 (01:00:39):
If it wasn't for that.

Speaker 4 (01:00:40):
And he he has gout, he hasn't lifted a weight
in ten years, and in his mind, he would fold
Jason kelcey up. So that's the thing to be worried about.
Is like the unearned Baltimore confidence, you know, when you
have somebody showing you up like that. But it sucks
to you know, I don't like being I don't like

(01:01:02):
having to be aimed against.

Speaker 5 (01:01:04):
I don't like that being.

Speaker 4 (01:01:05):
My fan enemy is Jason Kelsey because he's got he's
that's a.

Speaker 5 (01:01:09):
Powerful brother, you older brother energy.

Speaker 4 (01:01:11):
You know, he's away he's also look, let's be honest,
he's away from the kids.

Speaker 5 (01:01:14):
He's away from Yeah, he's not that team that fell apart,
team that fell apart.

Speaker 4 (01:01:19):
Towards the end, he's probably just getting fucked up enjoying
seeing his brother, Like you understand, and who knows what
what celebrities will be in that box. They had a
they had a hilarious lineup last time. But I don't
know everybody's making the trip. I mean, they man the
trip to Buffalo.

Speaker 5 (01:01:34):
I don't know. If I make the trip to Baltimore,
that'll be interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
I'll be there also. I'm gonna look for your pre
game hopefully i'll come. Dude, what's the jersey? Are you
going with Ogden again? Or have you had any luck
finding any any other? I mean, Michael McCreary would be
pretty bad.

Speaker 5 (01:01:48):
As I thought. McCreary. I love McCrary. I am.

Speaker 4 (01:01:52):
I am literally in communication with Tony Sarah Goose's children
to try and get Sarah Goo.

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
Yet they're harder.

Speaker 5 (01:02:00):
They're harder to find than you think. What Tony nine
ninety eight, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:02:10):
I So if it's a it's I've been kind of
going with the old school, like I did and read
the last time. If it's not, If it's not Goose,
I might go ed reads my favorite raven of all time.
But also also karmically, maybe it's time to get to
Lamar Jersey. Agot support my guy as he's this is
a big one for him. I mean this is yeah,

(01:02:31):
let's let's take let's take my homes down. So I
have a lot of I have a lot of I
might save for this, you know, I don't want to
get ahead of myself. If, if, if, and when, I
might keep the powder dry because Goose, you know, it
would be a great tribute, great raven, one of my
favorite obviously when you're when you're a chubby little Greek
guy and you see a chubby Italian.

Speaker 5 (01:02:51):
That's just and I played I ended up playing nose
tackles do when I played school. So I love I
love Goose. So you know, either way, though, we've got
I've got a lot of decisions to make to I
got a lot of decisions to make.

Speaker 1 (01:03:02):
You my last one for you, and then we're gonna
let you go because you've give it us way too much.
So appreciate it. You know, it's Vegas, it's it's glit's
it's glamour, it's a whole thing. There's a legit chance
that it's the cities of Baltimore and Detroit in the
first Las Vegas Super Bowl. How amazing? How good is that.

Speaker 4 (01:03:22):
A lot of a lot of Grandma's Social Security checks
are going to be put on the roulette wheel that weekend.

Speaker 5 (01:03:27):
I'll tell you that much.

Speaker 4 (01:03:29):
There's gonna be a lot, a lot of a lot
of money that cannot be afforded to be gambled.

Speaker 5 (01:03:34):
We'll be gambled that weekend. I'll tell you that much.

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
That's awesome. Stoppy Baby, your podcast is called Stoppy's world
S t A A.

Speaker 5 (01:03:44):
V y vy vvy.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
Sorry, you've played the Beacon Theater, You've played a bunch
of big places. Where where can we see you the
next few weeks? If we want to see your stand.

Speaker 4 (01:03:56):
Up next few weeks, I'm ending the two of these
of them make up dates. Uh so I have Dallas
with the Majestic Theater. If you want to see me
the night before I fly back to Baltimore to see
thee to watch the AFC Championship game. I'm there that Saturday,
and then the next weekend I'm making up actually.

Speaker 5 (01:04:13):
Detroit, So hopefully Detroit.

Speaker 4 (01:04:15):
Hopefully you're in the Super Bowl and you're celebrating, but
come and celebrate by coming to see me.

Speaker 5 (01:04:18):
I'm in Detroit. I'm in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Speaker 4 (01:04:21):
I had to make up those dates too, and then
we're done for a little while just watch.

Speaker 5 (01:04:25):
I have two specials out there. YouTube specials out there
for free.

Speaker 4 (01:04:29):
You can get that right now called Live at the
Lodge Room and then if you have Netflix, the special
I just put out a couple months or last month,
I guess was Fat Rascal. So you can watch me
on the internet if I'm not coming to your town
anytime soon.

Speaker 5 (01:04:42):
And I put out a bunch of stuff online.

Speaker 1 (01:04:44):
Too, just amazing online. Good luck this weekend, dude, Thank
you for joining.

Speaker 5 (01:04:47):
Us, Thank you brother, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
Aaron stop vi baby, the Pride of Baltimore. What'd you
think you know?

Speaker 2 (01:05:00):
I'm thinking about like Baltimore and Lamar having to be
on top of his game and like see pressure and
scramble if the pressure's coming in. That was me keeping
track of every single time he cursed on air that
I need to make sure we bleep out.

Speaker 1 (01:05:14):
That was He was great.

Speaker 2 (01:05:16):
I mean, he's I've seen his videos from when he
would record him in his car doing raven stuff like
it's so great. I love him, and I also didn't
know I've I needed the like celeb fan fight between
Jason Kelsey and Stave and that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:05:33):
I bet you Kelsey knows who stab is. He's that
popular online, Like I bet you, like it's not the
first time he's seen him and if he especially lives online,
which I think the Kelsey's do with their podcasts and
with their YouTube content, like I feel like they've probably
seen some of his work. But I actually, you know,
I hit it a little bit. Like I listened to
a lot of these comedy podcasts and he's one of
them because when I'm not doing football, just like the

(01:05:55):
zone out and laugh and like I think he's really funny,
and I meant it when I'm saying how smart he is.
They talk ball, and like I want to be like
a guest on their pod sometimes like it's there's it's
they follow the game and it's him and it's Dan
Soder and Sam Maurile and like I appreciate that. And
as much as the Taylor Swift stuff has brought in
an audience for the NFL, Like there's also this comedy

(01:06:17):
world where I mentioned it, Shane Gillis is best friends
with Dave Davis, and I saw Cole Beasley was on
THEO Vaughn's podcast. Like the comedy world in the NFL
has always had a connection and we'll see it in
NFL Honors with Keith and Michael Key and all that.
But like there's also like this podcasting world where those
guys love ball too, and I just think it's great.

Speaker 2 (01:06:36):
Yeah, I think I always love obviously when there's someone
like you who knows football and has connections to the
inside and like can can speak to football in a
way that I am on a unable to, Like you
have like this historical knowledge and these connections, and that's
so important and a valuable listen. And then there's this

(01:06:57):
totally other way of listening to football where it's like,
here are two guys who are just like joking around
and maybe like they watched the game together like with
a couple, and they were you know, like they had
been riding dirt bikes earlier in the day or whatever,
like a totally different view of the game than what
you've got, which is an amazing thing to have both

(01:07:19):
of those sides.

Speaker 1 (01:07:19):
I love it. The Ronnie character, he nailed it, who
who he died? Like, I don't have a face for
that character. Don't like you, you don't need to know
what that means, just like you watch it. The accent
is so funny and the way Stobby looks it works
so perfect. So I'm happy for his success. I mean
he's being humbled. This guy's a megastar. And you might
be like, well, I don't really know his name. I'm

(01:07:40):
not familiar. Is that is? That is he as big
as Dave Chappelle or Joe Coy or Chris Rock In
today's comedy world, podcasting is where money's made, Touring is
where money is made, and YouTube is where money is made.
And I assure you, like he's not stressing that he
doesn't have a Comedy Central half hour or that he's
on Jimmy Fallon One Night.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
Yeah, and like he said, his newest special Thatt Raskell
on Netflix. Now everyone's Netflix homepage is different, but it's
like right there on my owning splash.

Speaker 5 (01:08:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
So yeah, check out check out live from the whatever
it was called Live. How many you I want to
know how many? I said twenty million. I don't think
I don't think that's far off.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
What's it got Live at the Lodge Room has six
point three million?

Speaker 1 (01:08:29):
Yeah, so I was a little generous. Still, six point
three million people have clicked and watched a full hour
of comedy that's pretty good. Quick notes before we wrap
this thing. I got the note last night from a
source and it's just getting public now. Fifty million Americans
was the average number of that Bills versus Chiefs game.

(01:08:52):
Eyeballs wise, in a world where word cutting has hilled,
you know, television in a lot of ways, fifty million
people and at one point in between nine to fifteen
and nine thirty, fifty five million people were watching as
a collective whole. The NFL's king. The NFL is king,
and we'll have two great games this weekend. I don't

(01:09:14):
know if it'll hit Bill's Chiefs, but Lions Niners sure
brings a big audience to Fox. That game kicks off
at six thirty, and of course the early game, which
I will be at, Chiefs versus Ravens. Aaron awesome, Pod
loved it. We didn't even hit any of the coaching
stuff that's going on right now. I have tons of
insight on that. I guess we'll wait till next week
to hit it. I do want to do the season
with Peter Schragger delivering results presented by Uber Eats. It's

(01:09:36):
time for delivering results presented by Uber Eats. I'm gonna
give love to Dre Greenlaw, the linebacker for the San
Francisco forty nine Ers, who in the biggest game had
eight tackles and two huge interceptions. Now Greg Olsen and
Kevin Burkhart were screaming their heads off to get down,
to get down, to get down. Well, he thought he
was going to run that one back at the end.

(01:09:57):
I so appreciate guys who stepped up in the biggest
moments and in that game for the forty nine Ers,
their two best players might have arguably been Juwan Jenning
and Drake Greenlaw, who do not get much love, but
have been there all season long for them. Dre Greenlaw,
of course a long time member of that team, and
he saved his best for last, which I so appreciate.

(01:10:19):
So as we say that, I say this, it was
delivering results presented by Uber Eats, where you can get
almost almost anything. It's the official on demand delivery partner
of the NFL. Order. Now, guys who are on a
hot streak here, I'm picking every game right. My picks,
as I've already said, are going to be forty nine
Ers and the Chiefs. That's who I think is going

(01:10:39):
to the Super Bolt. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I'm
not too proud to come on the next day and
say I had it wrong. The truth of the matter
is I predicted it in September and I'm going with
it now. Niners versus Chiefs. That's how it's laid out
in my head. We'll see how it goes. For Aaron
Wan Kauffman, Jason English. For all the folks on the
West Coast, this was the Season with Peter Scheger. A

(01:11:01):
nice little small podcast that does a really good number,
and we appreciate doing it, hopefully appreciate listening. We'll do
another one next week. All right, guys, enjoy Championship Weekend.
The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the

(01:11:23):
NFL and partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts.