November 14, 2024 • 34 mins
Welcome back to the Vikings Tailgate presented by Ticketmaster - The official ticket marketplace of the Minnesota Vikings. Hollywood actor and writer James Roday Rodriguez from 'Psych', 'A Million Little Things,' and 'Buddy Games' joins the show to talk about his lifelong love of the Houston Oilers and Tennessee Titans. James looks back on his childhood memories of Earl Campbell, the thrill of 'The Music City Miracle,' his announcing experience at the 2022 NFL Draft in Las Vegas, and his longtime love of fantasy football. All of this and more is on today's episode of The Vikings Tailgate presented by Ticketmaster - The official ticket marketplace of the Minnesota Vikings.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Unreal is back with their limited edition Vikings drop, so
head over to Younarl dot com for more details. Hey guys,
it is Titans Week here on the Tailgate and I
could not be more pumped for this week's guest. I know,
I know, I say that every single week, but boy,
(00:22):
oh boy, do we have a treat this week. Every
once in a while, we step out of the stand
up comedy world and into the Hollywood world, and we
have a diehard Titans fan this week. You might know
him from I believe, one of the best comedies of
all time, the show Psych. He also was in A
(00:42):
Million Little Things.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
He directs.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
He was in Buddy Games with Josh Dumel and Nick Schwartzen.
We have the incredible James Rode Rodriguez. This is a
really fun one.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
If you like the show, please make sure you're subscribed
to it and maybe leave a little review that would
really really help us. Thanks for tuning in and enjoy
the show.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Everybody today Recket Reckett for bad man, I mean, all right, everybody.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
We are lucky enough to be joined by the great
James Rode Rodriguez, die hard Titans fan, James, But you
are not a Tennessee guy. Right, you are one of
You are one of the rare fans who have followed
a team from their old place to their new place.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yeah. I think it's it's a rare breed of us
who whose loyalties are so myopically dedicated to a group
of men on the grid iron that when they change uniforms,
we change with them. And the truth is, I lived
in San Antonio. I grew up in San Antonio, so
(01:56):
I had no I had no real affiliation or loyalty
to the city of Houston. I picked the Oilers as
a very very young child, primarily because everyone else in
my family were Cowboys fans, and I was found and determined,
even at that early age, to become the black sheep
of my own family. It was very important to me,
and it just so happened that Earl Campbell was sort
(02:18):
of the face of the franchise back then, who had
like a player to latch onto. Before I even really
understood what, you know, the rules or how football worked,
I just knew there was this guy and when they
handed him the ball, he ran like over people upright,
And you know, until you know guys like Jamal Lewis
(02:39):
and now Derrick Henry came around, Like, there just aren't
a lot of running backs who punished defenders, you know,
the way that Earl Campbell did. That was sort of
my introduction to football, because Dallas was like, you know,
I don't know, I felt like there were a bunch
of pretty boys and their cheerleaders had almost as much
attention as they did, and they were America His team,
(03:00):
and I don't know, none of that appealed to me, right,
And the more that I was chastised for being an
Oiler fan, you know, the more my love for the
team grew and my hatred for the Cowboys grew, and
then I became very attached to all those teams of
the eighties and early nineties. You know, run and Shoot
(03:22):
was a great time for us. We underachieved, but it
was still a really fun team to watch. And then
you know, Steve and Eddie were the team, but those
were the guys that took us, you know, to Tennessee.
So there was no way I was going to abandon
those guys. Those were my guys. And frankly, it's more fun,
you know, to watch a game in Nashville than it
(03:43):
ever was, you know.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
In Houston. Yeah, it's funny you said a couple of things.
You know, we have a strong connection to a punishing
running back here. I just remember some of the moments
in AP's career where he would run a guy over
and it's almost this primal, like you can't even understand
why you connect with it so hard. Yeah, but it's
it's just so competitive and aggressive and the it's nuts.
(04:08):
But I also connect to that the finding a play.
We were so lucky. I was a kid in ninety
eight when Randy Moss came on the scene, and when
you have one of the people who's the greatest to
ever do it, and they do it in almost this
sounds corny to say, but almost this artistic way that
yet you just you just sink into it, in that
(04:29):
moment where the world isn't the world yet as it
actually you're still full of hope as a kid. It
just having a guy like an Earl Campbell or a
Randy Moss really makes you a different sort of fan
of a team.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
I hardcore agree, and I wonder like if Campbell hadn't
been on those Oilers teams when I was, you know,
figuring out how to live and take care of myself
in very basic ways. If I had, if I would
have perhaps migrated to another, you know, another team altogether
out I wasn't going to be a Cowboys fan. That's
(05:02):
that's what I knew. So I kind of owe it's
a campbell for like, oh, well, there's this other team
in Texas and they have this guy. I'll just go
with them. Otherwise those man, I might be sitting here
as a fellow Vikings fan on this pod.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
You know that'd be better you. But we also shared
a guy. I mean I Warren Moon. I mean, I
don't know what your complete experience was with him as
an Oilers fan, but even the time he spent in Minnesota,
it has that I never quite understand why he doesn't
consistently exist in that greatest quarterback conversation. I mean, I
(05:37):
understand why, right, he couldn't come into the league. He
spent time in the CFL. But if you just package
who he was and how he threw the ball, he's
one of my favorite guys to ever watch play.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, he was a great pure passer, and he was
you know, he was a bit of a cerebral assassin
as well. I think what keeps him out of that
conversation is that at least in Houston, they gave him
a lot of toys. Sure, we also had a pretty
good defense, and you know, we couldn't even get to
an AFC championship game. So there was something, there was
some kind of disconnect, There was something lost in translation
(06:10):
where he could not lead a great team to the
promised land. And I think that's that's ultimately what holds
him back. Because the yards obviously are there, the stats
are absurd, the mustache was on point.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Haul of fameustash.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
But yeah, man, you gotta win. You gotta win in
this league to be considered to be considered one of
the best.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Well maybe that's the problem here where we're just so
used to, like, you know, on the Statue of Liberty,
they have the tired and hungry. I feel like we
had we should have a like a Viking statue of
Liberty that just says, give us your old and almost
retired if you have if you can really throw the
ball and you're in your elder years as a quarterback,
We're like, huddle up, man.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So we didn't.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
It's not like we thought he was going to lead
a team here. Let me let me ask you this.
I think our two franchises share collectively the two best
moments in the last forty years, the Minnesota Miracle and
the Music City Miracle.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Is does that play for you, guys? Resonate?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I mean both neither of our teams have won a title, right,
We've both been close us four times you in this
painstaking one yard way, So it's this damaging sports trauma thing.
But do you does your guys fan base hold that moment?
And do you hold that moment is like the pinnacle
of the franchise, you know here it's kind of everybody's
(07:33):
obsessed with it, but every once in a while you
find people who they don't quite want to celebrate it
because it's not a title, I think for.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Me, and I would know, I wouldn't speak for the
for the fan base as a whole. But of course
it's a highlight, of course, and it's one of the
most unbridled, like singular moments of childlike joy that I
enjoyed as a grown man. But I think more than that,
(08:00):
for me, it was the scales of football justice somehow
balancing out what happened to us against the Bills.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
And the greatest comeback.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
So it was basically just even the playing field again,
So it's hard for me to let it exist as
on its own island, as like the greatest moment in
Titan's history, when in reality there was this deep, deep
black hole that was sucking us down, and that moment
kind of pulled us back up to like terra firma.
(08:35):
So it's kind of like a palette cleanse. But it
was a beautiful It was a beautiful moment, to be sure,
but the fact that it was against the same team
in the playoffs, like, I couldn't have scripted that better
in terms of like, hey, let that one go, and
that's sort of what it allowed me to do.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Man.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
That's really interesting because as I'm thinking about it in
real time, the similarities are wild because the Vikings had
that far view where I and as a Viking fan,
you're trained it's almost generational punishment where your dad's like, hey,
just don't get your hopes up, man, no matter what happens,
just don't buy in. And when farv hit Sydney Rice
up across the fifty in that championship game against the Saints,
(09:15):
I in my head, as a young adult man, went,
oh my god, we're going to the super Bowl only
to only to just be shattered. But yeah, then when
they get that Minneapolis miracle, it is against Sean Payton,
He's in the building doing the skull. So yeah, I
think I'm going to take that attitude on and really
(09:35):
view it that way, because you're right, it's kind of
like it almost makes the universe even.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
That's fun.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
It helps me. It helped me, you know, get over
that for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I Mean, it's been a weird couple of years for
you guys, and it's kind of hard to see where
it's going, right.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
That's very it's very kind. That's a very kind way
of putting it. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
I'm doing my best.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah, you know, I saw I'm a die hard hoops fan,
right and you want to talk about tortured fan bases,
there isn't a single one across sports that goes through
what Timberolves fans have been through and so but yet
and still, when Cage went to Boston and he won
a title, I really found myself rooting and was able
(10:21):
to get over how much I wish that was our success.
What is it like to watch Derrick Henry when everybody
kind of thought he was washed. I think even some
people in Tennessee to watch him like almost be on
pace for two thousand and be leading this and like,
is that hard, especially with it being the Ravens or
are you enjoying it a little bit?
Speaker 3 (10:42):
I couldn't be happier for the King Man. I did
not want him to spend what was arguably his last
one or maybe because the guys seems to be inhuman
two years in his prime, you know, stuck, stuck in Tennessee.
So I was worried that, you know, Jerry was gonna
(11:02):
sign him and put him on the Cowboys, because that
happened with it, that happened with Eddie George was very
tough for me. I wanted it to be the Ravens
because I figured, you know, sharing a backfield with Lamar
Jackson is every running backs you know dream, and you
know what it would open up for him as long
(11:24):
as he still had something in the tank, like would
be formidable. I never thought that he would be on
pace for two thousand yards like this is beyond my
wildest expectations for him. But short of the Titans winning
a Super Bowl, which you know, we know is not happening.
You know, Derek getting a ring is probably the happiest
(11:45):
I could be as as like a you know, in
terms of a range of outcomes, like I'd be thrilled
for the guy.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yeah, that's fun.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
That gives you kind of a rooting interest in a
season that doesn't necessarily feel like it has a huge one.
It's really interest when teams go through, like the level
of change that you guys are going through. The NFL
is different than the NBA. Because you're a Spurs fan, right, yeah, Okay,
you you understand that, Like the NBA is this unique
(12:13):
beast where it is so hard to build in a
small market, and you know, there's really two teams who've
done it and done it well in the last thirty years.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
It's the Warriors and the Spurs. And to.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
All these teams bottom out even as OKC does it
right now, you wonder how long will it hold? Is
it real? Can they get to the level where they
truly compete? Same thing we're feeling with ant in Minnesota.
The NFL kind of you know, do this salary cap.
It kind of has this parody and this never ending
(12:49):
hope of like you generally usually two to three years away,
do you are you able to sell that to yourself
right now?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Have you?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Like, what are the things that you're seeing in this
season that at least go oh man, because I mean
the Vikings as they kind of got towards the end
of the Zimmer area, you know, the narrative was you
have a quarterback who you know makes a lot and
the defense doesn't have anything there and then all of
a sudden, incomes O'Connell, incomes Quasy. Two years later, everybody
(13:21):
thought we were gonna be a disaster this year nationally
and they're I mean, they're seven and two and crushes.
I just think there's this eternal hope in the NFL.
Is there any of that like bought in your mind?
Speaker 3 (13:32):
There always is before the season starts. I'm really good
at convincing myself, just just doing the calculus and like,
all right, well, we have completely overhauled the defense. We
have a brand secondary. We brought in an offensive minded
head coach who's gonna, you know, install a brand new
(13:55):
offense where we're gonna throw the ball, like, even if
we suck, we're going to look completely different and we're
gonna suck in a new and potentially exciting way. And
we're going to put up points and that'll be fun.
Like we go seven in you know, ten or eight
(14:18):
to nine or whatever it is, it adds up to
seventeen that that's acceptable if we're not making the same
mistakes and doing the same you know stuff that we
were doing under the previous regime. I just need to
be a culture shift, because to me, what's the point
of firing Vrabel if you're not going to like blow
(14:41):
it up and make make the team a new in
somebody else's image. And what's truly fascinating to me this
season is that we're hamstrung by the exact same issues
that we had last season. We still have an offensive
line that can't get it together. We still can't get
(15:01):
off the field on defense, So what should be a
pretty good defense gets worn out by the end of
the first half, and then we just get run up
in the second half and we can't score more than
seventeen points on offense. And I don't understand how all
of those things could have could have carried over.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Through all the changes through a whole new.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Group of dudes, new leadership, new head coach, new offense,
like you name it, everything's new, same old problems. It's
it's pretty wild.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
You guys have one of the craziest statistics I've seen.
I don't know in one hundred years. You're the number
one ranked yards defense, you allow less yards than anybody
in professional football, and you give up the twenty ninth
most points. I like, when you're researching the game, I
don't even know what to do with that.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yeah, and a lot of it came from that game
against Detroit where oh shit started, they started every drive
inside our thirty because our special the special teams breakdown
was like next level. That definitely pumped that stat But
to that end, we have we have to have the
worst special special teams in the league. And you know
(16:15):
that that guy's just hanging on to the gig. I
guess you know he's I don't know, Callahan's a loyalist,
whatever it is. But it seems almost as if there's
like a fatalistic acceptance that, all right, this entire season
is going to be dedicated to like learning what we
(16:35):
have starting at quarterback, and you know, to that end, great,
let's let's red shirt the whole season. But by the
end of by the end of this year, like I
as a fan, I want to know that Will Levis
is a guy or not. And you know, I guess
(16:57):
that is the measure by which I'll use whether or
not this season and held any value you know in
the canon of Titan's lore is like, all right, we
either found a quarterback, which would surprise me after what
I've seen, but I'll give the kid the benefit of
the doubt because you know, plenty of guys have started
slow in this league. Or you know, we said we
(17:20):
we said we were going to do it, and we
followed through. But we set this this guy up with
weapons and and we gave him a chance to succeed,
and he didn't. And so you know, we're moving on.
And that's that. I guess that's that's what the season
is for the Titans. And you know, when you're a
diehard fan and it's that kind of mechanical and like perfunctory, Uh,
(17:42):
that's when I just am very grateful for fantasy because
we like what a lame duck season.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
It's hard to invest in that you're exactly right if
you if you have a piece of hope, like if
even like let's say you drafted a wide receiver in
the f I remember when we had Stefan Diggs in
his first year mid level draft pick game four, he starts,
we're not a great football team. All of a sudden,
he takes a couple of balls to the house, and
you go, oh, like you did anything to convince yourself
(18:10):
that next year is going to be the year. Sports
Soccer rooms are like really unique places, I think, and
we all kind of joke about the cliches where they're
like we're a family and it's us against the world.
You're like, nobody's against you, but I think they truly
believe that it's just You're like, it's such a you know,
you know, as being such a public figure, it's such
(18:33):
a unique place to have everybody looking at you. And
then in sports there's a lot of what you do
right and wrong that it just cements these places.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
And I wonder early in.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
The season because I didn't know that I didn't know
if the Titans were going to be good or bad,
but I thought they were going to be competitive. And
then a couple of those interceptions by Levis early where
they were like Sage, they were the interception version of
Sage Rosenfels helicopter fumbling the ball, and my nephew, who
(19:04):
is my adult nephew who is a gambling maniac, was
real high on the Titans boy, and he was at
my house for one of those interceptions, and I was like,
I'll just go outside for a while.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
I guess I don't want to be a part of this.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
But do you think there was like do you think
something like that, because it seems like since those moments
it just hasn't come back at all.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
No. I mean, I think Mason Rudolph shows you who
the Titans really are sure, which in a way is
even more depressing because you realize, oh, here's a guy
that will lead this souped up, new designed offense to
six wins, like a six win team with a decent
(19:52):
backup who will come in and manage the game. So
that to me was like watching Levis make mistakes that
if you saw, like in a bad football movie, you
would be like, well, this is the worst attempt at
real football action. Yeah, was one thing, but at least
the like I don't at least the mask was still
(20:13):
on in a way because you're like, well, he can't
do this. Every week he got hurt and Mason Rudolph
came in. It was like, oh, well, this is just
our ceiling and we suck. And that was really depressing,
Like because if we're a six win team, six win
teams you know, aren't close to two winning championships.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Well, and the problem is there's a bunch of two
or three win teams. You find yourself and like, what
I think is the worst place in football is like
you're in the no man's land where you can't go
get the guy you want necessarily and you can't get
out of the spot you're in, and then you just
you just get stuck there. Do you You said fantasy?
Are you you pretty deep into it? Have you ever
heard of guillotine fantasy?
Speaker 3 (20:54):
I'm in two guillotine leagues this season.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Isn't it it?
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Like so I could never do fantasy because because I
just dislike too many teams.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
It's just I'm so bad at it.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
I should take this like, oh I'm not I pass
up a Packers wide receiver to just draft somebody horrific.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
But the Guillotine league got me in. Man.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I just it is just this different beast that I
am obsessed with.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
I love the format, still alive in both in both leagues,
they're very different leagues. One is kind of a mix
of entertainment industry types and a few like fantasy expert types.
There's a lot of carryover from the Dynasty League that
(21:39):
I'm in. And the other one is started by Michael Fabiano,
who is a fantasy expert guy, and it's kind of
a mix of like people that follow his show in
me and a couple of people that are on his show.
And it's it's interesting to sort of watch how different
fantasy players approach at because like Cabiano for example, for example,
(22:03):
burned through and he's honestly, he's like the best fantasy
player that I know, high stakes, week to week, guote
and you name it. He blew through his fab and
like the first I think three or four weeks, he
loaded up his squad and he just sat back and
and he's consistently been, you know, either first or second
(22:26):
in points every week. Obviously, the risk that comes along
with that are bye weeks and injuries you don't have
any money left, you know, Versus the people that are
kind of safely you know, maybe you know, nibbling here,
nibbling here, waiting for a specific player, and then you
(22:46):
got the people who go down and get chopped with
nine hundred and eighty dollars in the bank and you're like, well,
you you clearly didn't know you know, what we're doing here,
and and it's fun to kind of watch, you know,
people approach this. I think it's the newest format in
chantasy and try to figure it out. And it's I
(23:08):
love the idea that the stakes on a weekly basis
are as high as they can possibly get.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yes, yes, like being.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Part thirteenth movie, but you're you know, you're instead of
a character, you're a fantasy team.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Yeah, it's it's amazing, and it eliminates that thing that
sucks about regular fantasy, which is, oh, some guy, Oh
we just didn't know that. You know, Romeo Dobbs was
going to be the best receiver in the league one
year and then all of a sudden, who ever drafted
and wins the league, you know, And and you have
the amount of people who will kind of give up
on the league a little bit if things don't go
(23:46):
totally right for them, and so I think it eliminates that.
And it's just you're exactly right, it's the highest stake
every single week. Let me ask you a fan experience question.
So you guys to announce a draft pick for the
Titans in twenty twenty two. So now we've been talking
(24:07):
long enough that I can see that thing between like
that's sitting behind your eyes.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
That I also have. We're like, I'm a psycho, right,
and when they.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Let me near, Like I say this on the show
all the time, it's insane that this organization occasionally lets
me on the field without a spotter. What was it
like to do? I mean, that had to have been surreal.
And were you able to pull it together at the draft?
And have you had any other fan experiences where you're
just so close you're like, ah, don't get up, don't
(24:39):
say anything.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
That was definitely the one. Then it was an interesting experience.
I put together a crew of my dudes, like three
dudes from high school, my best friend, and two other
great friends that I've held on too from the high
school years. We went to Vegas, which is where the
draft was. I knew that Billy White Shee's Johnson was
was announcing the first round pick and we didn't have
(25:04):
a second round or so I was. I was supposed
to do rounds three till like the end. I was
like gonna be the utility draft announcer. I go and
do the third round pick, which is tackle Nicholas Petite.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Freer, Hall of Fame name, Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Name has yet to perform like a hall of famer.
I feel guilty, like maybe if someone else could had
had read that draft card, he'd have a different career.
These are the kind of the kind of pressure that
I put on.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Myself that yeah, that's that's what happened.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
But they give you a card that gives you the
name phonetically pronounced, so anytime you see someone butcher a
name at the NFL draft, there's zero excuse for that.
Like you, they tell you how to say it, They
put it on the card with its with a phonetic
spelling beneath it, and you go out there and all
you have to do is read off the card. But
(26:02):
then I thought I was doing all the other picks
and something got lost into translation. And the representative of
the NFL, which is a woman whose name escapes me,
but she she comes on every year and starts like
doing the filler picks, like when there's nobody there to
do them, Like God bless her. She comes out. She
(26:24):
has absolutely no like emotional awareness whatsoever. Like she reads
these cards like as if she's at the DMV asking
the next person to come up in line. And I
get there, ready to go, and it's the Malik Willis
pick and I see the card And at that point
(26:46):
we were all kind of excited about about hitting Malik Willis,
and I'm like, yo, I'm here, I'm I'm here. I
got it. She didn't want to give it up, dude.
This was this she like she presents as someone who's
like I am here to represent the NFL. I wish
that it was someone for every pick, but in the
(27:07):
event that there's not, I have to go out and
I have to do this. Then when I was like, yo, dude,
I got this, Nope, she wanted the Malik Willis. She
wanted it.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah, you never.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Know to hear her say the words. So I just
went out there and like video bombed her while she's
doing it, Like I don't know if it made the coverage,
but I'm literally like dancing behind her on both sides
as she as she makes the pick, and then as
she walks off the stage. I rushed the mic to
(27:40):
be like we did it, tighten up, and it took
the microphone off on me. Treatment I did I suspect
that I might not be invited back to the NFL draft,
or maybe I'm giving myself like maybe I'm I'm giving
myself way too much credit. Like nobody even cared. But
(28:00):
I had the weird moment where it was like thumb
on one side, thumb on the other, Malik Willis card
in the middle, and like I got flexed on.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Yeah, yeah, there's there is just something about if you
are a real fan I like, and I think that's
a good thing.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
I think.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
You know, you've had a fantastic career and you've been acting.
I don't want to say right out of school, but
you you've had a you know, you've had some success
early and it's been going on for a long time.
Did at any point, because you're clearly, you know, a
fan of a lot of older television and cinema and stuff,
At any point, did being on the set, seeing the
(28:40):
way it was made, you know, being really in the
guts of it, did it affect that childish love for
it at all?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
I mean it was romantic. You know, I started my
career shooting on film. You know, it was it was
everything that I hoped it could be and more I
got really lucky with my first couple of jobs, and
then Psych was the best job ever. There were very
few things that like, very few dreams that got shattered
(29:10):
by the actual mechanism of filmmaking. I mean, I knew
it was you had to be different than theaters, so
there was no comparison for me. I was ready to
accept a completely different experience and a completely different approach.
And yeah, I mean I love them both, but for
very different reasons. I I love theater because there's there
(29:32):
is no equivalent of you know, jumping out of a
plane without a parachute, you know, artistically. And I love
film because you know how much magic can be made,
and how collaborative of a process it is, and how
you know, you really kind of are only as strong
as your weakest link in that. And that's a completely
different medium.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
That's that's amazing that you've been able to keep that
because when you when I kind of related to sports
like you, you obviously can carry that, like be that
way at the NFL draft, like being here on this
show and then being like I think it is I've
almost at this building. Had to keep a distance to
not learn too much, to not see too like I.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
It has to.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
It has to remain this escape, which I think for
everybody who's also on this show that you can't see
right now, Like you said, the whole collaborative. Everybody who's
paying attention to me right now is like, yeah, we
get it. You don't want to get close. You could
do a little more of the work that would be helpful,
but but it is, it is. It is pretty cool
to be at you know, my dad is that way
(30:36):
to be at that point in your life doing the
draft and still into it enough that hey, like I
always say, I'm not gonna let a sports event ruin
my life or my family life, or you know, you
get disappointed. But to still have that like joy, Yeah,
to wanna to want to run out and hype up
a Malik Willis pick that you're not supposed to be
(30:57):
on the stage for that's great.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Yeah, And and I still have the joy, and I
still have the hope. And I think where I've managed
to find some balance is you know, I don't, like
you said, I'm not down. My life is not over.
You know, we lose if we lose a bad game,
if we don't make the playoffs. You know, my best
friend who I grew up with, just walked in the
(31:20):
apartment and he remembers the days where I would, you know,
I would pout like a child we lost, and those
days are over. I'm too old for that. So I
feel like I'm invested in all the love of it,
and I you know, obviously a Titan super Bowl would
be a wonderful, wonderful gift for all of the fan
(31:41):
base and those of us that have suffered for so long.
But at the end of the day, I think sports
exist to lift us, not to squash us. So you know,
you roll with the punches. By the way, just for
the record, a good buddy of mine from college named
Wayne also just came into the apartment, and I didn't
want you to I didn't want him to think that
I was leaving him out by just mentioning my lifelong
(32:06):
best friend who goes all the way back to San
Antonio with me. There was just there was a moment
where I actually thought it, and then and then they
texted it to me, like, Hey, there's there's two of
us here.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
There's two of us here, and I think it's important
just to be super clear to rank your best friends.
Oh yeah, well very specifically describe how they came into
your life and when, Thus they never lose that desire
and fire to appease you.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
That's right. And these two both go way, way, way
way back. I mean high school and college are both
for me and a man of my age. Those are
old old friends.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yeah, but I mean one of them definitely older.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
It sounds like one's a little ones. Well, one I've
known longer. But we're all the stream age, but only
one of us consistently pulls off garden gnome chic. And
I'll let let them know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
So dumb, I'm gonna make you do the thing everybody hates.
Maybe Wayne wants to pitch in.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Here's listening.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Oh thank God, give me a give me a prediction
for this weekend. Give me a score prediction. I know
people hate that. Yeah, I don't mean to do it,
but give me a score prediction.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Well, it's an easy question for me because we score
seventeen every week, regardless of who we're playing or what
the spread is. So I'm going to say Titans seventeen,
Kings thirty one.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
God, I'd love for you to be right, that's a
good score.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
It's a get right game for you guys. I don't
know what happened against Jacksonville. This is going to be
a nice palette cleansing win. I think the Titans will
go up seven to nothing.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Okay, much like Wayne, they will come in late for
a victory.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Yeah, I mean, I'll say that maybe we finished the
half down seventeen ten something like that, and then we finished,
you know, we've finished the game. It'll be thirty one ten,
and then I'll say either Calvin Ridley or Nick Westbrook
Akini catches a absolutely meaningless, you know, touchdown late to
make it thirty one to fourteenth.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
I'd really like this to be one of those water
Boy moments, you know, where the clock strikes and they
look over at Kathy Bates, who's correctly predicted the score.
I'd love to run this back next week. Dude, you're
the king. Thank you so much for doing this, all right, man,
go Mike's thanks again to James Rode Rodriguez for joining
the show. Hey, and if you love this, there's more
(34:25):
of it on our podcast feed, along with all of
our other episodes, So head over to your favorite podcast
app and download the Vikings Tailgate and while you're there,
maybe you write a review that would be great.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Give us a five stars that would be great.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Also, huge shout out to Ticketmaster, the official ticket marketplace
of the Minnesota Vikings, for helping us make this show happen.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
We will see you all again next week.
Unreal is back with their limited edition Vikings drop, so
head over to Younarl dot com for more details. Hey guys,
it is Titans Week here on the Tailgate and I
could not be more pumped for this week's guest. I know,
I know, I say that every single week, but boy,
(00:22):
oh boy, do we have a treat this week. Every
once in a while, we step out of the stand
up comedy world and into the Hollywood world, and we
have a diehard Titans fan this week. You might know
him from I believe, one of the best comedies of
all time, the show Psych. He also was in A
(00:42):
Million Little Things.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
He directs.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
He was in Buddy Games with Josh Dumel and Nick Schwartzen.
We have the incredible James Rode Rodriguez. This is a
really fun one.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
If you like the show, please make sure you're subscribed
to it and maybe leave a little review that would
really really help us. Thanks for tuning in and enjoy
the show.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Everybody today Recket Reckett for bad man, I mean, all right, everybody.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
We are lucky enough to be joined by the great
James Rode Rodriguez, die hard Titans fan, James, But you
are not a Tennessee guy. Right, you are one of
You are one of the rare fans who have followed
a team from their old place to their new place.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yeah. I think it's it's a rare breed of us
who whose loyalties are so myopically dedicated to a group
of men on the grid iron that when they change uniforms,
we change with them. And the truth is, I lived
in San Antonio. I grew up in San Antonio, so
(01:56):
I had no I had no real affiliation or loyalty
to the city of Houston. I picked the Oilers as
a very very young child, primarily because everyone else in
my family were Cowboys fans, and I was found and determined,
even at that early age, to become the black sheep
of my own family. It was very important to me,
and it just so happened that Earl Campbell was sort
(02:18):
of the face of the franchise back then, who had
like a player to latch onto. Before I even really
understood what, you know, the rules or how football worked,
I just knew there was this guy and when they
handed him the ball, he ran like over people upright,
And you know, until you know guys like Jamal Lewis
(02:39):
and now Derrick Henry came around, Like, there just aren't
a lot of running backs who punished defenders, you know,
the way that Earl Campbell did. That was sort of
my introduction to football, because Dallas was like, you know,
I don't know, I felt like there were a bunch
of pretty boys and their cheerleaders had almost as much
attention as they did, and they were America His team,
(03:00):
and I don't know, none of that appealed to me, right,
And the more that I was chastised for being an
Oiler fan, you know, the more my love for the
team grew and my hatred for the Cowboys grew, and
then I became very attached to all those teams of
the eighties and early nineties. You know, run and Shoot
(03:22):
was a great time for us. We underachieved, but it
was still a really fun team to watch. And then
you know, Steve and Eddie were the team, but those
were the guys that took us, you know, to Tennessee.
So there was no way I was going to abandon
those guys. Those were my guys. And frankly, it's more fun,
you know, to watch a game in Nashville than it
(03:43):
ever was, you know.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
In Houston. Yeah, it's funny you said a couple of things.
You know, we have a strong connection to a punishing
running back here. I just remember some of the moments
in AP's career where he would run a guy over
and it's almost this primal, like you can't even understand
why you connect with it so hard. Yeah, but it's
it's just so competitive and aggressive and the it's nuts.
(04:08):
But I also connect to that the finding a play.
We were so lucky. I was a kid in ninety
eight when Randy Moss came on the scene, and when
you have one of the people who's the greatest to
ever do it, and they do it in almost this
sounds corny to say, but almost this artistic way that
yet you just you just sink into it, in that
(04:29):
moment where the world isn't the world yet as it
actually you're still full of hope as a kid. It
just having a guy like an Earl Campbell or a
Randy Moss really makes you a different sort of fan
of a team.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
I hardcore agree, and I wonder like if Campbell hadn't
been on those Oilers teams when I was, you know,
figuring out how to live and take care of myself
in very basic ways. If I had, if I would
have perhaps migrated to another, you know, another team altogether
out I wasn't going to be a Cowboys fan. That's
(05:02):
that's what I knew. So I kind of owe it's
a campbell for like, oh, well, there's this other team
in Texas and they have this guy. I'll just go
with them. Otherwise those man, I might be sitting here
as a fellow Vikings fan on this pod.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
You know that'd be better you. But we also shared
a guy. I mean I Warren Moon. I mean, I
don't know what your complete experience was with him as
an Oilers fan, but even the time he spent in Minnesota,
it has that I never quite understand why he doesn't
consistently exist in that greatest quarterback conversation. I mean, I
(05:37):
understand why, right, he couldn't come into the league. He
spent time in the CFL. But if you just package
who he was and how he threw the ball, he's
one of my favorite guys to ever watch play.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, he was a great pure passer, and he was
you know, he was a bit of a cerebral assassin
as well. I think what keeps him out of that
conversation is that at least in Houston, they gave him
a lot of toys. Sure, we also had a pretty
good defense, and you know, we couldn't even get to
an AFC championship game. So there was something, there was
some kind of disconnect, There was something lost in translation
(06:10):
where he could not lead a great team to the
promised land. And I think that's that's ultimately what holds
him back. Because the yards obviously are there, the stats
are absurd, the mustache was on point.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Haul of fameustash.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
But yeah, man, you gotta win. You gotta win in
this league to be considered to be considered one of
the best.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Well maybe that's the problem here where we're just so
used to, like, you know, on the Statue of Liberty,
they have the tired and hungry. I feel like we
had we should have a like a Viking statue of
Liberty that just says, give us your old and almost
retired if you have if you can really throw the
ball and you're in your elder years as a quarterback,
We're like, huddle up, man.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So we didn't.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
It's not like we thought he was going to lead
a team here. Let me let me ask you this.
I think our two franchises share collectively the two best
moments in the last forty years, the Minnesota Miracle and
the Music City Miracle.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Is does that play for you, guys? Resonate?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I mean both neither of our teams have won a title, right,
We've both been close us four times you in this
painstaking one yard way, So it's this damaging sports trauma thing.
But do you does your guys fan base hold that moment?
And do you hold that moment is like the pinnacle
of the franchise, you know here it's kind of everybody's
(07:33):
obsessed with it, but every once in a while you
find people who they don't quite want to celebrate it
because it's not a title, I think for.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Me, and I would know, I wouldn't speak for the
for the fan base as a whole. But of course
it's a highlight, of course, and it's one of the
most unbridled, like singular moments of childlike joy that I
enjoyed as a grown man. But I think more than that,
(08:00):
for me, it was the scales of football justice somehow
balancing out what happened to us against the Bills.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
And the greatest comeback.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
So it was basically just even the playing field again,
So it's hard for me to let it exist as
on its own island, as like the greatest moment in
Titan's history, when in reality there was this deep, deep
black hole that was sucking us down, and that moment
kind of pulled us back up to like terra firma.
(08:35):
So it's kind of like a palette cleanse. But it
was a beautiful It was a beautiful moment, to be sure,
but the fact that it was against the same team
in the playoffs, like, I couldn't have scripted that better
in terms of like, hey, let that one go, and
that's sort of what it allowed me to do.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Man.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
That's really interesting because as I'm thinking about it in
real time, the similarities are wild because the Vikings had
that far view where I and as a Viking fan,
you're trained it's almost generational punishment where your dad's like, hey,
just don't get your hopes up, man, no matter what happens,
just don't buy in. And when farv hit Sydney Rice
up across the fifty in that championship game against the Saints,
(09:15):
I in my head, as a young adult man, went,
oh my god, we're going to the super Bowl only
to only to just be shattered. But yeah, then when
they get that Minneapolis miracle, it is against Sean Payton,
He's in the building doing the skull. So yeah, I
think I'm going to take that attitude on and really
(09:35):
view it that way, because you're right, it's kind of
like it almost makes the universe even.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
That's fun.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
It helps me. It helped me, you know, get over
that for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I Mean, it's been a weird couple of years for
you guys, and it's kind of hard to see where
it's going, right.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
That's very it's very kind. That's a very kind way
of putting it. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
I'm doing my best.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah, you know, I saw I'm a die hard hoops fan,
right and you want to talk about tortured fan bases,
there isn't a single one across sports that goes through
what Timberolves fans have been through and so but yet
and still, when Cage went to Boston and he won
a title, I really found myself rooting and was able
(10:21):
to get over how much I wish that was our success.
What is it like to watch Derrick Henry when everybody
kind of thought he was washed. I think even some
people in Tennessee to watch him like almost be on
pace for two thousand and be leading this and like,
is that hard, especially with it being the Ravens or
are you enjoying it a little bit?
Speaker 3 (10:42):
I couldn't be happier for the King Man. I did
not want him to spend what was arguably his last
one or maybe because the guys seems to be inhuman
two years in his prime, you know, stuck, stuck in Tennessee.
So I was worried that, you know, Jerry was gonna
(11:02):
sign him and put him on the Cowboys, because that
happened with it, that happened with Eddie George was very
tough for me. I wanted it to be the Ravens
because I figured, you know, sharing a backfield with Lamar
Jackson is every running backs you know dream, and you
know what it would open up for him as long
(11:24):
as he still had something in the tank, like would
be formidable. I never thought that he would be on
pace for two thousand yards like this is beyond my
wildest expectations for him. But short of the Titans winning
a Super Bowl, which you know, we know is not happening.
You know, Derek getting a ring is probably the happiest
(11:45):
I could be as as like a you know, in
terms of a range of outcomes, like I'd be thrilled
for the guy.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yeah, that's fun.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
That gives you kind of a rooting interest in a
season that doesn't necessarily feel like it has a huge one.
It's really interest when teams go through, like the level
of change that you guys are going through. The NFL
is different than the NBA. Because you're a Spurs fan, right, yeah, Okay,
you you understand that, Like the NBA is this unique
(12:13):
beast where it is so hard to build in a
small market, and you know, there's really two teams who've
done it and done it well in the last thirty years.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
It's the Warriors and the Spurs. And to.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
All these teams bottom out even as OKC does it
right now, you wonder how long will it hold? Is
it real? Can they get to the level where they
truly compete? Same thing we're feeling with ant in Minnesota.
The NFL kind of you know, do this salary cap.
It kind of has this parody and this never ending
(12:49):
hope of like you generally usually two to three years away,
do you are you able to sell that to yourself
right now?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Have you?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Like, what are the things that you're seeing in this
season that at least go oh man, because I mean
the Vikings as they kind of got towards the end
of the Zimmer area, you know, the narrative was you
have a quarterback who you know makes a lot and
the defense doesn't have anything there and then all of
a sudden, incomes O'Connell, incomes Quasy. Two years later, everybody
(13:21):
thought we were gonna be a disaster this year nationally
and they're I mean, they're seven and two and crushes.
I just think there's this eternal hope in the NFL.
Is there any of that like bought in your mind?
Speaker 3 (13:32):
There always is before the season starts. I'm really good
at convincing myself, just just doing the calculus and like,
all right, well, we have completely overhauled the defense. We
have a brand secondary. We brought in an offensive minded
head coach who's gonna, you know, install a brand new
(13:55):
offense where we're gonna throw the ball, like, even if
we suck, we're going to look completely different and we're
gonna suck in a new and potentially exciting way. And
we're going to put up points and that'll be fun.
Like we go seven in you know, ten or eight
(14:18):
to nine or whatever it is, it adds up to
seventeen that that's acceptable if we're not making the same
mistakes and doing the same you know stuff that we
were doing under the previous regime. I just need to
be a culture shift, because to me, what's the point
of firing Vrabel if you're not going to like blow
(14:41):
it up and make make the team a new in
somebody else's image. And what's truly fascinating to me this
season is that we're hamstrung by the exact same issues
that we had last season. We still have an offensive
line that can't get it together. We still can't get
(15:01):
off the field on defense, So what should be a
pretty good defense gets worn out by the end of
the first half, and then we just get run up
in the second half and we can't score more than
seventeen points on offense. And I don't understand how all
of those things could have could have carried over.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Through all the changes through a whole new.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Group of dudes, new leadership, new head coach, new offense,
like you name it, everything's new, same old problems. It's
it's pretty wild.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
You guys have one of the craziest statistics I've seen.
I don't know in one hundred years. You're the number
one ranked yards defense, you allow less yards than anybody
in professional football, and you give up the twenty ninth
most points. I like, when you're researching the game, I
don't even know what to do with that.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yeah, and a lot of it came from that game
against Detroit where oh shit started, they started every drive
inside our thirty because our special the special teams breakdown
was like next level. That definitely pumped that stat But
to that end, we have we have to have the
worst special special teams in the league. And you know
(16:15):
that that guy's just hanging on to the gig. I
guess you know he's I don't know, Callahan's a loyalist,
whatever it is. But it seems almost as if there's
like a fatalistic acceptance that, all right, this entire season
is going to be dedicated to like learning what we
(16:35):
have starting at quarterback, and you know, to that end, great,
let's let's red shirt the whole season. But by the
end of by the end of this year, like I
as a fan, I want to know that Will Levis
is a guy or not. And you know, I guess
(16:57):
that is the measure by which I'll use whether or
not this season and held any value you know in
the canon of Titan's lore is like, all right, we
either found a quarterback, which would surprise me after what
I've seen, but I'll give the kid the benefit of
the doubt because you know, plenty of guys have started
slow in this league. Or you know, we said we
(17:20):
we said we were going to do it, and we
followed through. But we set this this guy up with
weapons and and we gave him a chance to succeed,
and he didn't. And so you know, we're moving on.
And that's that. I guess that's that's what the season
is for the Titans. And you know, when you're a
diehard fan and it's that kind of mechanical and like perfunctory, Uh,
(17:42):
that's when I just am very grateful for fantasy because
we like what a lame duck season.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
It's hard to invest in that you're exactly right if
you if you have a piece of hope, like if
even like let's say you drafted a wide receiver in
the f I remember when we had Stefan Diggs in
his first year mid level draft pick game four, he starts,
we're not a great football team. All of a sudden,
he takes a couple of balls to the house, and
you go, oh, like you did anything to convince yourself
(18:10):
that next year is going to be the year. Sports
Soccer rooms are like really unique places, I think, and
we all kind of joke about the cliches where they're
like we're a family and it's us against the world.
You're like, nobody's against you, but I think they truly
believe that it's just You're like, it's such a you know,
you know, as being such a public figure, it's such
(18:33):
a unique place to have everybody looking at you. And
then in sports there's a lot of what you do
right and wrong that it just cements these places.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
And I wonder early in.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
The season because I didn't know that I didn't know
if the Titans were going to be good or bad,
but I thought they were going to be competitive. And
then a couple of those interceptions by Levis early where
they were like Sage, they were the interception version of
Sage Rosenfels helicopter fumbling the ball, and my nephew, who
(19:04):
is my adult nephew who is a gambling maniac, was
real high on the Titans boy, and he was at
my house for one of those interceptions, and I was like,
I'll just go outside for a while.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
I guess I don't want to be a part of this.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
But do you think there was like do you think
something like that, because it seems like since those moments
it just hasn't come back at all.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
No. I mean, I think Mason Rudolph shows you who
the Titans really are sure, which in a way is
even more depressing because you realize, oh, here's a guy
that will lead this souped up, new designed offense to
six wins, like a six win team with a decent
(19:52):
backup who will come in and manage the game. So
that to me was like watching Levis make mistakes that
if you saw, like in a bad football movie, you
would be like, well, this is the worst attempt at
real football action. Yeah, was one thing, but at least
the like I don't at least the mask was still
(20:13):
on in a way because you're like, well, he can't
do this. Every week he got hurt and Mason Rudolph
came in. It was like, oh, well, this is just
our ceiling and we suck. And that was really depressing,
Like because if we're a six win team, six win
teams you know, aren't close to two winning championships.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Well, and the problem is there's a bunch of two
or three win teams. You find yourself and like, what
I think is the worst place in football is like
you're in the no man's land where you can't go
get the guy you want necessarily and you can't get
out of the spot you're in, and then you just
you just get stuck there. Do you You said fantasy?
Are you you pretty deep into it? Have you ever
heard of guillotine fantasy?
Speaker 3 (20:54):
I'm in two guillotine leagues this season.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Isn't it it?
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Like so I could never do fantasy because because I
just dislike too many teams.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
It's just I'm so bad at it.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
I should take this like, oh I'm not I pass
up a Packers wide receiver to just draft somebody horrific.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
But the Guillotine league got me in. Man.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I just it is just this different beast that I
am obsessed with.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
I love the format, still alive in both in both leagues,
they're very different leagues. One is kind of a mix
of entertainment industry types and a few like fantasy expert types.
There's a lot of carryover from the Dynasty League that
(21:39):
I'm in. And the other one is started by Michael Fabiano,
who is a fantasy expert guy, and it's kind of
a mix of like people that follow his show in
me and a couple of people that are on his show.
And it's it's interesting to sort of watch how different
fantasy players approach at because like Cabiano for example, for example,
(22:03):
burned through and he's honestly, he's like the best fantasy
player that I know, high stakes, week to week, guote
and you name it. He blew through his fab and
like the first I think three or four weeks, he
loaded up his squad and he just sat back and
and he's consistently been, you know, either first or second
(22:26):
in points every week. Obviously, the risk that comes along
with that are bye weeks and injuries you don't have
any money left, you know, Versus the people that are
kind of safely you know, maybe you know, nibbling here,
nibbling here, waiting for a specific player, and then you
(22:46):
got the people who go down and get chopped with
nine hundred and eighty dollars in the bank and you're like, well,
you you clearly didn't know you know, what we're doing here,
and and it's fun to kind of watch, you know,
people approach this. I think it's the newest format in
chantasy and try to figure it out. And it's I
(23:08):
love the idea that the stakes on a weekly basis
are as high as they can possibly get.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yes, yes, like being.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Part thirteenth movie, but you're you know, you're instead of
a character, you're a fantasy team.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Yeah, it's it's amazing, and it eliminates that thing that
sucks about regular fantasy, which is, oh, some guy, Oh
we just didn't know that. You know, Romeo Dobbs was
going to be the best receiver in the league one
year and then all of a sudden, who ever drafted
and wins the league, you know, And and you have
the amount of people who will kind of give up
on the league a little bit if things don't go
(23:46):
totally right for them, and so I think it eliminates that.
And it's just you're exactly right, it's the highest stake
every single week. Let me ask you a fan experience question.
So you guys to announce a draft pick for the
Titans in twenty twenty two. So now we've been talking
(24:07):
long enough that I can see that thing between like
that's sitting behind your eyes.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
That I also have. We're like, I'm a psycho, right,
and when they.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Let me near, Like I say this on the show
all the time, it's insane that this organization occasionally lets
me on the field without a spotter. What was it
like to do? I mean, that had to have been surreal.
And were you able to pull it together at the draft?
And have you had any other fan experiences where you're
just so close you're like, ah, don't get up, don't
(24:39):
say anything.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
That was definitely the one. Then it was an interesting experience.
I put together a crew of my dudes, like three
dudes from high school, my best friend, and two other
great friends that I've held on too from the high
school years. We went to Vegas, which is where the
draft was. I knew that Billy White Shee's Johnson was
was announcing the first round pick and we didn't have
(25:04):
a second round or so I was. I was supposed
to do rounds three till like the end. I was
like gonna be the utility draft announcer. I go and
do the third round pick, which is tackle Nicholas Petite.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Freer, Hall of Fame name, Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Name has yet to perform like a hall of famer.
I feel guilty, like maybe if someone else could had
had read that draft card, he'd have a different career.
These are the kind of the kind of pressure that
I put on.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Myself that yeah, that's that's what happened.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
But they give you a card that gives you the
name phonetically pronounced, so anytime you see someone butcher a
name at the NFL draft, there's zero excuse for that.
Like you, they tell you how to say it, They
put it on the card with its with a phonetic
spelling beneath it, and you go out there and all
you have to do is read off the card. But
(26:02):
then I thought I was doing all the other picks
and something got lost into translation. And the representative of
the NFL, which is a woman whose name escapes me,
but she she comes on every year and starts like
doing the filler picks, like when there's nobody there to
do them, Like God bless her. She comes out. She
(26:24):
has absolutely no like emotional awareness whatsoever. Like she reads
these cards like as if she's at the DMV asking
the next person to come up in line. And I
get there, ready to go, and it's the Malik Willis
pick and I see the card And at that point
(26:46):
we were all kind of excited about about hitting Malik Willis,
and I'm like, yo, I'm here, I'm I'm here. I
got it. She didn't want to give it up, dude.
This was this she like she presents as someone who's
like I am here to represent the NFL. I wish
that it was someone for every pick, but in the
(27:07):
event that there's not, I have to go out and
I have to do this. Then when I was like, yo, dude,
I got this, Nope, she wanted the Malik Willis. She
wanted it.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah, you never.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Know to hear her say the words. So I just
went out there and like video bombed her while she's
doing it, Like I don't know if it made the coverage,
but I'm literally like dancing behind her on both sides
as she as she makes the pick, and then as
she walks off the stage. I rushed the mic to
(27:40):
be like we did it, tighten up, and it took
the microphone off on me. Treatment I did I suspect
that I might not be invited back to the NFL draft,
or maybe I'm giving myself like maybe I'm I'm giving
myself way too much credit. Like nobody even cared. But
(28:00):
I had the weird moment where it was like thumb
on one side, thumb on the other, Malik Willis card
in the middle, and like I got flexed on.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Yeah, yeah, there's there is just something about if you
are a real fan I like, and I think that's
a good thing.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
I think.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
You know, you've had a fantastic career and you've been acting.
I don't want to say right out of school, but
you you've had a you know, you've had some success
early and it's been going on for a long time.
Did at any point, because you're clearly, you know, a
fan of a lot of older television and cinema and stuff,
At any point, did being on the set, seeing the
(28:40):
way it was made, you know, being really in the
guts of it, did it affect that childish love for
it at all?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
I mean it was romantic. You know, I started my
career shooting on film. You know, it was it was
everything that I hoped it could be and more I
got really lucky with my first couple of jobs, and
then Psych was the best job ever. There were very
few things that like, very few dreams that got shattered
(29:10):
by the actual mechanism of filmmaking. I mean, I knew
it was you had to be different than theaters, so
there was no comparison for me. I was ready to
accept a completely different experience and a completely different approach.
And yeah, I mean I love them both, but for
very different reasons. I I love theater because there's there
(29:32):
is no equivalent of you know, jumping out of a
plane without a parachute, you know, artistically. And I love
film because you know how much magic can be made,
and how collaborative of a process it is, and how
you know, you really kind of are only as strong
as your weakest link in that. And that's a completely
different medium.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
That's that's amazing that you've been able to keep that
because when you when I kind of related to sports
like you, you obviously can carry that, like be that
way at the NFL draft, like being here on this
show and then being like I think it is I've
almost at this building. Had to keep a distance to
not learn too much, to not see too like I.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
It has to.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
It has to remain this escape, which I think for
everybody who's also on this show that you can't see
right now, Like you said, the whole collaborative. Everybody who's
paying attention to me right now is like, yeah, we
get it. You don't want to get close. You could
do a little more of the work that would be helpful,
but but it is, it is. It is pretty cool
to be at you know, my dad is that way
(30:36):
to be at that point in your life doing the
draft and still into it enough that hey, like I
always say, I'm not gonna let a sports event ruin
my life or my family life, or you know, you
get disappointed. But to still have that like joy, Yeah,
to wanna to want to run out and hype up
a Malik Willis pick that you're not supposed to be
(30:57):
on the stage for that's great.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Yeah, And and I still have the joy, and I
still have the hope. And I think where I've managed
to find some balance is you know, I don't, like
you said, I'm not down. My life is not over.
You know, we lose if we lose a bad game,
if we don't make the playoffs. You know, my best
friend who I grew up with, just walked in the
(31:20):
apartment and he remembers the days where I would, you know,
I would pout like a child we lost, and those
days are over. I'm too old for that. So I
feel like I'm invested in all the love of it,
and I you know, obviously a Titan super Bowl would
be a wonderful, wonderful gift for all of the fan
(31:41):
base and those of us that have suffered for so long.
But at the end of the day, I think sports
exist to lift us, not to squash us. So you know,
you roll with the punches. By the way, just for
the record, a good buddy of mine from college named
Wayne also just came into the apartment, and I didn't
want you to I didn't want him to think that
I was leaving him out by just mentioning my lifelong
(32:06):
best friend who goes all the way back to San
Antonio with me. There was just there was a moment
where I actually thought it, and then and then they
texted it to me, like, Hey, there's there's two of
us here.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
There's two of us here, and I think it's important
just to be super clear to rank your best friends.
Oh yeah, well very specifically describe how they came into
your life and when, Thus they never lose that desire
and fire to appease you.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
That's right. And these two both go way, way, way
way back. I mean high school and college are both
for me and a man of my age. Those are
old old friends.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yeah, but I mean one of them definitely older.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
It sounds like one's a little ones. Well, one I've
known longer. But we're all the stream age, but only
one of us consistently pulls off garden gnome chic. And
I'll let let them know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
So dumb, I'm gonna make you do the thing everybody hates.
Maybe Wayne wants to pitch in.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Here's listening.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Oh thank God, give me a give me a prediction
for this weekend. Give me a score prediction. I know
people hate that. Yeah, I don't mean to do it,
but give me a score prediction.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Well, it's an easy question for me because we score
seventeen every week, regardless of who we're playing or what
the spread is. So I'm going to say Titans seventeen,
Kings thirty one.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
God, I'd love for you to be right, that's a
good score.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
It's a get right game for you guys. I don't
know what happened against Jacksonville. This is going to be
a nice palette cleansing win. I think the Titans will
go up seven to nothing.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Okay, much like Wayne, they will come in late for
a victory.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Yeah, I mean, I'll say that maybe we finished the
half down seventeen ten something like that, and then we finished,
you know, we've finished the game. It'll be thirty one ten,
and then I'll say either Calvin Ridley or Nick Westbrook
Akini catches a absolutely meaningless, you know, touchdown late to
make it thirty one to fourteenth.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
I'd really like this to be one of those water
Boy moments, you know, where the clock strikes and they
look over at Kathy Bates, who's correctly predicted the score.
I'd love to run this back next week. Dude, you're
the king. Thank you so much for doing this, all right, man,
go Mike's thanks again to James Rode Rodriguez for joining
the show. Hey, and if you love this, there's more
(34:25):
of it on our podcast feed, along with all of
our other episodes, So head over to your favorite podcast
app and download the Vikings Tailgate and while you're there,
maybe you write a review that would be great.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Give us a five stars that would be great.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Also, huge shout out to Ticketmaster, the official ticket marketplace
of the Minnesota Vikings, for helping us make this show happen.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
We will see you all again next week.
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