Game On, Football is for Nerds ~ Johnny Stanton, Long Snapping, Tabletop Transition (A·B·C·D) Ep 29

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
I.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Am like a.
I'm like One of those ravens.
Is it a raven?
No, a falcon.
You know, like I was asleepUntil I hear that audience noise
like I.
You know, the hood was pulledoff my head and now I'm awake
like that just jolted me, that'samazing, that's amazing.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
It's splash of cold water.
Yeah, we're that.
One of those two things asplash of cold brew against your
face, just waking you up folksright in the eyes.
How's it going?
I am gonna introduce yourco-host today.
He puts the end in end zone.
It is Sandy party.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
And he puts the end in tight end.
It's our host.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Oh my god, I'm fired in the notes it was but banter,
I feel like that covered it.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
I feel like I.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Feel like us both being the individuals who put
the end in two different terms.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
It's really what people come to the show for
hello everyone.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
This is ABCD.
American born chatty.
They see this is a podcastwithin a live stream, within our
lives is to American born theysee it's a pod ducking.
This is for anyone out therewho, like us, is navigating your
cultural identities, plural andyou just want to chat about it.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, I know what we got on tap for you today, all
right.
So this is a special episodeBecause we're not doing the
normal chakra check in and thelevel I mean that's gonna happen
, but it's only gonna happenwithin the context of an
interview with a lovely, lovelygentleman, but I go by the name
of Johnny Stanton the fourth,and that fourth is gonna become

(02:01):
that's very important that youknow that and you will see why
soon he is merging the worlds ofD&D and professional athletes.
He's a former or a and andhopefully current NFL player.
He's still out there making ithappen, but he was with the
Cleveland Browns not long agoand he's a free agent right now

(02:21):
getting back into it but alsoFollow pursuing his passions for
D&D and he's an unbelievable DM.
So we had him on this week,since it's, you know, the
beginning of the football season.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
It is it's football season, baby, that the leaves
are changing.
Sundays Sundays back, mondaysback.
All the football days are back.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
Saturdays back if you're into college football.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Thursdays back.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Where are those days gone all this time?

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Friday.
You had enough of a rain.
You're done.
We're pulling you back.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
I love your finger, wag it's very professionally
busy.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
I can't.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
See what's happening.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
It's the finger wag and in the pointing with your
middle finger.
That's when you know you'vereally made it.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Man, I never put that together.
The pointy, the middle fingeroh, that's great, then we'll
have, we'll pick a day to theweek.
Yes, it's gonna be a specialone as well.
We have a really, reallyspecial one, we're excited.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
I'm so excited for for all of you to enjoy this
interview because Johnny Stantonthe fourth is so inspiring.
But, also, speaking of inspiringfolks, we got to thank our
sponsors who inspire us tocontinue to have the show going.
The first sponsor, of course,is they see quest.
That's right, it's an actualplay TT RPG set in a South Asian
mythology inspired universebuilt by star GM Jasmine, that

(03:43):
bronze girl Buller, with astellar cast including critical
role darling Anjali Bimani,dimension 20 darling Rekha
Shankar, and two more darlingsit's you and me, sandy.
Oh, that's the table.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Oh, we're the darlings.
Oh man, we're getting close,we're getting so close.
We just we just announced thatthey sequest has its own patreon
, so you can jump on there andSupport they sequest directly
and we're putting a lot of coolstuff there yeah, really diving
deep in the process and because,and what we're doing with the
they sequest podcast oh sorry,the patreon is to support a

(04:15):
podcast that is going to bespecific to the they sequest and
specific to the aftershows yeah, haven't you been there?
Like this is this.
Every time I play a game withlike an amazing DM, like a
jasmine Buller, I'm always likewhat else could have happened.
It's like what else are youplanning for?
You know, I know we justcompletely cabosh like all your
ideas.
Yeah, could you spill the beans?

(04:36):
I'm like what happened if wehad gone the other way, if we
had gone into town and like,because you know they plan that
stuff.
So that's the stuff we'rehopefully gonna talk about it.
It's like what else was inJasmine's brain, yep, and you
know we'll give you all theonset shenanigans.
There was a drama.
Okay, mmm D drama.
I mean marriages, divorces,like it was intense.

(04:57):
It's a lot Talk about thatstuff.
So if you want to support thepatreon for they sequest, please
do that.
You can go to patreoncom, slashthey sequest and jump in to
that.
Now, speaking of patreon,should we just go right to our
second?
so we also because you know weneed listen.
We don't want to be studio runpeople at all.
We see what's happening in thedistrict with all these strikes.

(05:19):
The studios, they're not nicepeople.
No they're not good people.
You're the good people, and sowe.
Our second sponsor is, ofcourse, you and our, our patreon
supporters here at effin.
Funny Thank you.
So if you want to join thisillustrious list of do-gooders
who Support winners of thisentire team.
We have a whole team here.

(05:39):
Okay, there's a delvin who'sour technical director.
He's amazing.
There's there's a Kailin who'swho's producing the show with us
.
Now there's there's an on andshot.
There's a lot of folks that areputting their time and energy
into this.
Support us all, support ourendeavors here by going over to
patreoncom.
Slash, effin, funny, eff I andfunny and you can help us out.

(06:01):
Can't find a couple this season.
The creative arts, huh.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, and at the end of this episode we're gonna
shout out the folks who supportus, and we're gonna do it in a
way that's decided by chat.
It's not up to us, that's sowe're gonna.
We're gonna find out the lastcouple ones have been songs and
we decided to Sing three namesat a time, not four, not in the
traditional Western way offilling a measure for Should we

(06:24):
just, should we just say we'regonna do for each, so we make
that no no let's just see whathappens.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Let's sabotage ourselves excellent.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
All right, so should we get to it?
Should we hop into an interview?
I?

Speaker 2 (06:39):
I Think, mm-hmm, that we yeah, you know what yeah
yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, let's doit.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Well, now I'm hesitant, now I'm thinking no.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
I thought I had something else to say and I'm
like my brain didn't catch up toit.
We did our sponsors, we did theshow intro.
Everybody knows what this isabout.
We're live right now.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
We're live right now.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
I'm right now, but we are gonna jump into a
pre-recorded interview because,you know, john Johnny, busy guy,
johnny's a busy guy.
Okay, so he couldn't make itlive today, but give us a great
interview on Friday.
Here it is right now JohnnyStanton.
The fourth time, ladies andgentlemen, it's Johnny Stanton.

Speaker 5 (07:21):
All these people are clapping for me Invisible
audience.
Hey, thanks for having me, guys.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, they are all invisible people.

Speaker 5 (07:27):
They've all been cursed and they're all just
hanging out in Sunday's livingroom.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah, they won't go to Omar's, isn't that?

Speaker 1 (07:36):
yeah, well, you know, it's not as facious.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
I guess.
I guess I mean I'm in an atticright now, so I don't.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
I like, johnny, I don't just that they're
invisible, not that they'retrapped.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
They want to be there yeah they're free to go anyone
they they chose to be in myhouse, you're attic.
Yeah yeah, johnny.
I don't know if you know thisabout yourself, but here's your
bio, johnny, you're aprofessional football player.
You were a full back.

Speaker 5 (08:07):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Okay.

Speaker 5 (08:09):
I'm unemployed right now, but yeah, you're full back
for the University of Nevada,las Vegas.
Oh my gosh, that's close.
I was a quarterback for you andI'll be I.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Played a little bit of linebacker, but that was it.
We got the back part right.
You were a couple there.

Speaker 5 (08:28):
I mean you could be quarterback, corner back and we
could be on defense, butlinebacker has back in as well.
There's a lot of backs in.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
There's a lot of backs, so you're currently a
free agent.
So that part we got right.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yep, you are a self-proclaimed D&D nerd.
I think you are a proclaimedD&D nerd, frankly the public I
have my proven myself yeah.
I think you yeah, you can be onself.

Speaker 5 (08:59):
I got my stamp card last week.
Oh, you got one of my walletnow.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
I still don't have one.
Your online series, athleticscheck, teaches sports and
football.
Folks, nerds, all of themtabletop role-playing Yep, you
teach all that to jocks.
Basically, you're teachingnerdy tabletop nests joy to
jocks.

Speaker 5 (09:21):
Yeah, and and the other way around.
I'm teaching football joy tonerds.
I'm trying to Seems like peopleare enjoying it.
Yeah, I mean art, possibly themost famous one.

(09:41):
I mean I'm surprised you knewwhat a fullback was before a
quarterback, but yeah, that's.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
It's weird.
I've only known what fullbacksand halfbacks are he's working.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
Wait, what is this?

Speaker 5 (09:54):
From the full to half yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
I'm just like, I just wait till you find out about
the eighth back.
Yeah, that's a position I couldplay For me.
Yeah, I'm just a huge JamesDevlin fan, all right?

Speaker 3 (10:10):
so, johnny, we're gonna jump into our, our
interview format.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
Okay, this is the ABCD podcast.
We mostly have South Asians onhere, and so congratulations
during honor a South Asian.
I've always wanted that.
Thank you, yeah.

Speaker 5 (10:24):
Welcome.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Thanks.

Speaker 5 (10:32):
So, we.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
We often ask our guests this, and so I'm I'm
excited to ask you this questionwhat does your name mean?
Yep, cuz you know we have areally interesting name.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
Meaning.

Speaker 5 (10:45):
Johnny, it's foreign, I know it's um, so I think,
johnny, we you know, there's alot, of, a lot of languages have
like little or like, likeloving, like they're, like you
know, spanish as it or ita,right, I think, I think if you
were to translate my name just alittle bit, I think, I think if
you were to translate my nameto Spanish, v Juanito.

(11:05):
So I think I'm like I'm littleJohnny, because I'm the fourth,
john Richard Stan.
That's why the IV is at the endof my name.
So I always get the questionyou know what?
I have the fifth and I have noidea.
I don't know if I'm gonna havea boy.
You know, hopefully I will.
But yeah, that's what my nameis.
I'm the fourth, I'm named.
It's I'm named after mygrandfather, who was the second

(11:28):
junior, Mm-hmm, and through mylife as a fourth I learned the
difference between a junior anda second.
Do you guys know what it is?

Speaker 2 (11:37):
No, there's a difference between.
There's a difference.
Yeah, so think about I like tothink about it like mood
situation family versus like apope.

Speaker 5 (11:46):
So if you were, if you were, yeah, omar, if you
were to like name your, your son, omar, you'll be an Omar junior
, it could be Omar the second,like that's possible, if you
want, if they want to go by thatlike every junior is a second,
okay, well, not every, butsecond is a junior.
Not every second is a junior,because if you think about it
like popes, pope John Paul thesecond, he he's not a junior.

(12:10):
Obviously he adopted the name,but it kind of works the same
way.
Whereas, say, omar, yourgreat-grandfather was also Omar,
then you and you would adopthis name as well, then you'd be
Omar the second.
No way, yeah.
So then I guess, if you were tohave, if you were Omar the
second from like a previous,like two generations gap, and

(12:31):
you had a son, you could, hecould be Omar junior the third.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
So this is what a great question we asked to you.

Speaker 3 (12:41):
Well, first of all, you're also teaching us.

Speaker 5 (12:46):
Yeah, and I could be totally wrong.
Don't take my word for this.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
It was confident enough that I'm gonna just
believe every word.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
I'm updating Wikipedia.
I'm updating Wikipedia.
Source of Johnny Stanton.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
But like what I love about that like you have like a
Lord the Rings answer like it'snot oh my parents, like, decided
this, that it was like oh, whata beautiful flower.

Speaker 5 (13:06):
I'm John of Stanton, yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
That's amazing.
Your name is like is, is, isyour, uh, it's like it's your
history.

Speaker 5 (13:15):
It was.
It's funny because I um In highschool you get the opportunity,
like you know, choose whatnumber you want to be on the
football team, and I was.
I was actually very lucky.
I knew I wanted to be numberfour Because that's what my dad
was in high school football.
He was, and he was actuallymore of a swimmer.
And it actually worked onanother way, because he wanted
to wear number four, not onlybecause, well, for one reason,

(13:36):
in swimming the people in thefourth lane is usually the
highest ranked person, becausethey have the least amount of
like a week.
Right to the middle, you getyou're supposed to have, like
the biggest advantage.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
It's where Phelps was every time.

Speaker 5 (13:47):
Yeah, and then you fifth and then third and then
six kind of go out from there.
Um, but the main reason why hewanted to be number four was
because my grandfather was aworld war two pilot.
He flew in the f4?
U Corsair and when he would askhis father like hey, when you
were flying, like what numberplane did you fly?
And it wasn't really like theonly way the my grandfather knew

(14:08):
how to answer it because hewouldn't fly the same plane over
and over again Was, oh, we hadfour on it because it was an f4?
U Corsair.
So that's why he wore numberfour.
That's why I didn't wear numberfour.
Is kind of carry on thattradition.
It just so happened thateverybody thought that I wore
number four because I was thefourth, right, right.
So when I went, I went on to goto before unlv university in

(14:29):
the battle Las Vegas, I went touniversity in Nebraska and four
wasn't available.
So I actually went with five.
And I went with five becauseJohnny five is alive.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
That, that makes perfect sense totally, both
equally valid, both equally asreverent.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
Yeah, did people.
Uh, did people have like radioshack banners and stuff when
they were cheering you on as ajohnny number?

Speaker 5 (14:52):
Nobody cheered me on when I was in Nebraska.
I was a fourth stringquarterback over there at best.
So, no, nobody was cheering meon but that.
That is when I started puttingiv on the back of my jersey.
Uh, well, for one at highschool they didn't have names in
the back of my jersey, but whenI wasn't able to have four as
my number, I started putting ivon the back.
Uh, and then I kind of justcarried on that tradition.

(15:13):
Actually you know what I thinkthat I'm trying to remember.
I'd have to look at picturesfrom Nebraska, because the only
time that I rememberSpecifically wearing iv on the
back of my jersey now that Ithink about it, is that when I
started with the vikings.
Um, you know what I'm blankingon right now because I remember
being really proud audience.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
The in studio audience will find out and they
will post.

Speaker 4 (15:35):
Thank you, yeah, we got this from Nebraska right
here, so that's what that memoryis from.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
There's a reason you can't see delvin it's because
he's also invisible and he's inthe room.
So they oh yeah, but not cursed.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
That was a weird quinketing.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
He just decided to join.
Uh, so super cool.
So look, um, we we often dothis.
Uh, what's called the chakracheck-in.
We check in with our.
Are you familiar with thechakras?

Speaker 5 (16:03):
And with the, I'm familiar with the idea of them
yeah the energy centers thatreside within the body you want
to get those in line.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
You know we're in order to reach a sort of samadhi
state, a meditative state ofpure blissful awareness.

Speaker 5 (16:16):
Okay, uh, yeah, I've never reached it, but I'm sure
hashtag goals, yeah, so checkingin with because right now
you're a free agent, right.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
Uh, checking in with your sort of chakras, your, your
.
You know your current alignment.
How are you feeling about thenew football season coming out?
Uh, you know where are you atwith all that, you know?
Are you trying to get back intothe game, are you?
Are you still trying out forteams like, like, what?
What chakras do you think is uhIs being affected the most here
?

Speaker 5 (16:47):
Um, I only know a hand for them, and I don't want
to.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
I don't want to show my whole ass.

Speaker 5 (16:55):
No I.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
I'll quickly go through them.
There's the crown chakra right,which is the top of the head.
This is your knowledge Chakrauh, there's uh there's the third
eye.
You've heard of that one.
That's the face one.
Everybody knows the third eye.

Speaker 5 (17:09):
Okay now we have it.
We have images on the um, onthe feed, on the.
The feed, yeah, boom, that'syour like intuition, visuals,
imagination.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
Yeah, the throat, yeah the throat.
Yeah, one right here forcommunication, okay, expression,
honesty.
Then the heart chakra, which islove and acceptance and
compassion.
The solar plexus, which is likekind of the top of the gut, so
we're talking like self-esteem,ego, strength, cool power.

(17:37):
Then there's a sacral Okay, soyou're going down to the sacrum
Sensuality, you know, sexuality,pleasure, creativity, emotional
center never sure that one's inline, but yeah and then I Furry
all right, I guess worse as youget older and there's a root
chakra which is like kind oflocated in the tape we call it

(18:00):
the tape chakra here on the ABCnice.

Speaker 5 (18:03):
The podcast I was gonna say a lot of reverence.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, it's your stability, it's your survival,
safety, comfort.

Speaker 5 (18:12):
Oh man, um, I'd say Top of the list probably.
Oh man, I forgot like this was,it was a third eye.
I think third eye is up therebecause I really I've really
allowed myself to since notbeing on a team it's been a year
now since I've been on a teamI've really allowed myself to

(18:34):
really dive into my creativeoutlets.
I I really discovered TT, rpgand D&D as my my creative outlet
and that's allowed myself tohave a lot of growth, trying a
lot of different ways of doingthat.
But I think it's never beenhealthier for me.
Yeah, my, my root chakra is ina rough spot because I'm trying

(18:57):
to figure out how I can, youknow, make money, since being a
free agent is tough and that's Ithink that you said survival
and kind of that old thing.
Survival is a top of my mind forsure.
Um, and yeah, it's.
Uh, you know, moving away fromthe from the chakra centric side
of things I I'm in a Obviouslyfree agency is never a an easy

(19:19):
thing, especially when you'rebeen out of the year the league
for a full year.
That's not most people'sexperience, or at least that's
not most people's experience ofbeing able to get back into the
league.
And that's what I'm trying tobeat the odds to do.
So I I've shown on my socialmedia, it's not a secret I've,
I'm also trying to work at longsnapping, which, if you're not
familiar with football, that'sthe person who snaps the ball to

(19:40):
both the punter and to thepunter when he's holding for the
kicker on for the place kickeron field goals.
So that's what I've really beentrying to focus in on to be
able to extend my career,because you can play a lot
longer as a Long snapper than afull back.
Full backs Pull backs at a toughposition, because not every
team has a full back.
So not only are there limitedopportunities, but full back is

(20:02):
the closest position that thereis to running back, and running
back has notoriously theshortest lifespan of any NFL
player, lifespan being careerspam.
So so, yeah, my my attempt toswitch to long snapping is to be
able to have more opportunitiesand to be able to play for
longer, but all these longsnappers have been in the league

(20:23):
for forever, like there'sforever but, but they've been
yeah, they've been, they've beenalong, they've been long
snapping forever.
They've been in that positionfor so long and I'm trying to
come in as the new guy saying,okay, I can compete with these
guys where they you know they'vebeen doing it, so they can do
it.
So well, I don't think peoplewho realize now I've seen those

(20:43):
like it's seen those.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
Yeah, I was gonna say that I've seen those like long
snapping competitions, like Idon't use videos I saw online.
But yeah, they can.
Like you know, it's likeWilliam, william tell they can
hit an apple off your head.
Yeah, no, it's it's for real.

Speaker 5 (20:56):
And then not only to be able to do that, but also to
be able to block a 290 pound manright in front of you trying to
tear your head off, and thenjust stop doing that and go try
to make a tackle Like that's.
That's the difficult part ofbeing a long snapper, and you're
not trying to be well-roundedlike a linebacker or a receiver
might want to be, who can do alot of different things.
You have to do one thing andyou have to do it Masterfully,

(21:17):
because if you make one mistake,you can lose your job right.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
So yeah, there's only like 32 in the like.
You know there's only two, 32of those positions of nobody's.
You know there's no backup longsnappers problem.
I mean, there's probably likeanother player that can mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 (21:31):
Yeah, I mean, if you make a mistake, if in and you
know, snap over the punter'shead, you're you're gonna lose
your job and somebody else who'sbeen fighting to get a job is
gonna replace you right, yeah,like if you're the long snapper,
you get maximum one opportunityon a drive exactly yeah and
hopefully you make that onemistake like that was it for the
drive like.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, someone needs to make the like the the ace
ventura for long now.
Like the the way think for thelong snapper.

Speaker 5 (22:04):
Well, I mean the laces out part when, when
they're talking about an aceventura like laces out Dan, like
that's usually Long snappersfall, yeah, cuz they're supposed
to be able to put it in a spotwhere the Holder doesn't have to
twist, twist the ball.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
Oh really.
So the long snapper knows like,come on, like they have to like
spiral the ball so Perfectlywhen it's, when it's a deep snap
, which is what we call punsnaps.

Speaker 5 (22:25):
When it's a deep snap you don't have to worry about
the laces, but when it's a shortsnap, because it's only going
eight yards, you have to do itthe same way every single time.
So when and you want it to showup where the laces are, like
vertical, and so the all the all, the puncher, the holder has to
do is just put it straight downso that it's facing towards the
field goal.
So it's just so the the kickerdoesn't have to look at the

(22:46):
laces.
But that's if you do end upmaking a mistake and the
rotation is a little bit faster,a little bit slower than normal
.
If it's pointing to, like that,a clock or three o'clock, it
doesn't matter because the theholder can rotate it and it's
fine, yeah.
But if it's at six o'clock,which is backwards, that's the
issue.
That's when you run into, like,the kicker will get really
pissed to you because yousnapped it badly, even if it was

(23:08):
pinpoint accurate.
So, yeah, it can get really,really detailed.
That's, I mean, theirspecialist the year.
There's a lot of attention todetail there.

Speaker 2 (23:17):
Totally makes sense.
Very cool that you're, like youknow, finding ways to become
more versatile and more aboutyeah, yeah, yeah and hopefully,
even if it's, even if it nevercomes out to anything.

Speaker 5 (23:29):
You know I I started doing that when I was trying to
join the league to just show myversatility, my ability to
Possibly eke out another guy onthe roster, because every team
needs a backup snapper as well.
So that's what I would do whenI was in Cleveland is.
One of my jobs, even though Iwas on practice squad, was to
Snap for the show.

(23:51):
It was called show punt, so thestarting pun return team would
have to go against the practicesquad guys and Usually if your
team doesn't have a good backupsnapper, the starting snapper
would have to work that as well.
And if you know, you're an old,35 year old dude and I say old
football, if you're an old, 35year old dude who is in his 10th
year in the league.

(24:12):
Yeah, you, you know everypractice snap that you that you
take takes it out of you and youknow if you can have a backup
guy and really it's reallyhelpful.
So that's that was one of mycontributions into the Browns
roster was being able toconsistently be a backup snapper
.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
So let me, because it sounds like you've been in,
like you've known that you wantto be a career Football player
for a while.

Speaker 5 (24:40):
Yeah, I mean, and yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
When did you start to realize you could adapt,
because the way that you'retalking about it isn't such a
passionate and specific andnerdy way it's?

Speaker 4 (24:53):
pretty yeah right.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
You work is like I feel like a lot of people are
just like, yeah, you do thething and you have to be good
enough, and you're like, here'sthe precision.
Like like, listen to the wind,like you break off like a piece
of wheat and just watch it go.
Yeah, when did you realize thatyour Football brain was also
like working towards your D&Dbrain?
Because when you talk aboutTTRPG mechanics Whether it's

(25:17):
just casually at a party oryou're being Well, again like
it's the most like, like the wayI see you visualizing.
Like a battlefield, you're doingit.
It's so specific and tangible.
And can you talk about football?
It's the same way.
When did you realize those werelining up?

Speaker 5 (25:35):
I don't know.
I Think that there's a lot, of,a lot of ways that you can
follow the D&D hobby and a lotof, a lot of different ways that
you can find joy in it.
I think people always talkabout different play styles.
For Alive people with maybelike a theater background or a
comedy background, they'rereally looking to be able to get
like the role play aspectwhether that's getting something

(25:56):
really serious or somethingreally comedic value, where some
people are going into it withyeah and that's me as well, and
but I think everybody can alsofind both sides of it and
finding the joy of my man it'dbe.
So it's so fun to be able tolike really optimize my
character and try to do like themost damage.
Like nobody enjoys Now we can'tsay nobody, but a lot of people

(26:18):
don't enjoy like missing in inbattle and being able to Show
like all the work that you putinto it and give value to the
rest of your party and kind ofshow off a little bit is what a
lot of people find joy in in inD&D and being able to really
think about it not only likeMathematically but also from a

(26:39):
point of view of like how can Ibe the best teammate to other
people?

Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yeah, I love, I love that part of it.
You know, that's like just thelike, the creativity with like
okay, they missed the shot, butyou know, can I ask the question
did at least distract the enemyyeah.
I'm way and, like you know, getyou know, give advantage to the
next person, like, like, orcome up with some Weird reason
why your character specificallymissing actually like, benefits

(27:04):
your team or something like I.
I Love that aspect of itbecause there is no.
You know, you, it's anotherhuman being who's determining
whether you know, whateveryou're doing is effective, right
.
So ultimately, can you just bepersuasive enough.

Speaker 5 (27:18):
Show your work, I think my favorite, my favorite
players.
And am I allowed to curse onthe show Like just yeah, yeah,
sweet, no, just like kind of notnot to Omar you can't.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
Cover my headphones I .

Speaker 5 (27:36):
Think, yeah, like that, my favorite people to play
with are the people who arejust trying to.
I'll be honest, I don't evenknow if I'm gonna swear in the
sentence, we know, I justfucking love to play

Speaker 4 (27:52):
with people who.

Speaker 5 (27:56):
That's why I really love to play with people who
just like Just just beg andplead for, like they try to talk
themselves out of likescenarios and just trying to.
I'm what, what's the like?
There's a phrase that I'mtrying to search for, but I
can't exactly think of it.
But one person that I reallythink he does a really good job
of it is like Emily Axford atthe table.
I think she is Hilarious andjust like is so charismatic at

(28:21):
the table to be able to just geteverybody on her side yeah,
including the DM.
Those are my favorite peoplewho are just able to, like you
said Sunday, but just bepersuasive, but just being in a
way that is just so Natural andnot like you're trying to get
something out of the person Toanswer your question, omar from
earlier.
Like where.

(28:42):
I found like that, thatconnection between the D&D and
football world was I don't knowif I Can't exactly tell what it
was about D&D that allowed me toReally dive headfirst into it.
Like, like I said, I reallyfound a huge creative outlet in
D&D and I think that's thereason for it, like having
staying power within my life.

(29:03):
But I came at it from a Pointin which I you know V I didn't
have a ton of success.
I didn't have the the collegefootball career that would
normally lead to an NFL career.
I got to play my first four IThink four games, maybe three

(29:25):
games even at UNLV as thestarting quarterback before I
got hurt, and they were onlyokay.
My first game was great.
My second game was okay.
We had a close loss at UCLA andthen my third game was was bad.
I didn't play well and I gothurt and I didn't play again
until the next year, which wasgonna be my red shirt.

(29:46):
Senior year is gonna be myfifth year.
I've played four seasons and IDidn't end up winning the
starting quarterback job and Iwas in a position where I'm I
was pretty disappointed.
My football career didn't go theway that I thought I was going
to and I still wanted to findthe field wherever I could.
I asked to play special teams.
I ended up at being asked toplay linebacker on the defensive

(30:06):
side.
So I wanted to get on the fieldno matter where I could and I
did end up getting to play somequarterback that year.
But I was at a point where Iwas, I was kind of exploring
what the rest of my personalitywas and I knew that I had this
nerdy side to me.
I was ever since I startedcollege.
I started becoming a regular atthe comic book shop and I found

(30:26):
, once I transferred to UNLV Iended up becoming a huge.
It's true, I ended up becominga regular at.
This was one store calledmaximum comics and finally, Was
there a comic that pulled you in?

Speaker 2 (30:39):
Was it?
Was there a specific?

Speaker 5 (30:41):
So I I mean Batman is the easy answer.
I really found my IIndividuality in like the
Aquaman comics, because that waslike the beginning of the new
52 and the Jeff John series.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
Oh, really great when he the Triton's the truck right
.

Speaker 5 (30:56):
Yeah, yeah, the first first issue is so good.
And then I think I found myTrue love for comics, not just
like superhero comics in sexcriminals by Matt Fraction and
chips of Darcy.
Oh yeah, one of the best comicseries of all time I have the
whole.
He's so good.
This is a Darcy's, just adifferent person, different kind
of person in the best way, butthat's.

(31:20):
That was my gateway drug intoD&D and just finding my, because
I wasn't a theater kid, Iwasn't somebody who had this.
You know Endless creativeoutput.
I don't keep using that phrase,but it's, it's true.
I finally found this ability toCreate something express myself

(31:41):
create something that hadn'texisted before, even if it was
just in words and was completelyephemeral.
I was something that I got toAffect other people in the time
that we got to do it, and that'swhen I started getting into
DMing, and that's why I startedinto writing my own stories, and
that's when, yeah, go for it.

Speaker 2 (32:01):
No, just what.
What was happening in thelocker room at the same time?
I'm just curious like how thattranslated.
You know, like, were you like?

Speaker 5 (32:07):
oh, I introduced it to my teammates, or at least a
handful of them.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
I know you did in when you were at the Browns.
Was this also in college?

Speaker 5 (32:14):
you do the same thing at UNLV I introduced it to.
So it's that's a similar storythat I tell when, not only in
Cleveland, but also in college,like I would just I I knew there
a handful of of guys who whocould hang, who were cool in
terms of Getting to like talkabout nerdy stuff with not

(32:35):
everybody you can do that withright.
So I found the nerdiest guys inthe team and said, hey, do you
want to play D&D?
And they said, yeah, screw it,let's do it, and we had a great
time of it.
We only had like three or foursessions together but they
really enjoyed you know the, thegroup that they had made and I
had a fun time creating a storyfor them and was this your first
time DMing?
basically yeah, and thankfullyit was for completely new

(32:57):
players, because I had no ideawhat I was.
They couldn't call you out onanything.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
No, yeah, that's, that's really wild.
So what were you?
Was it something I'm justcurious like wait, was it
something like you had to keepsecretive or anything like would
you, were you gonna get madefun of from other players?
Or was it like yeah?

Speaker 5 (33:14):
it wasn't.
I mean, it definitely wasn't tothe point where it is now,
where it's like a major part of,like my life which is yeah,
yeah, I think it's it.
It can feel silly to sayoutwardly, but I don't think
anybody would would argue thatit is a major point in my life.
But at that point it wasn'tnecessarily.
It was still something that Ifound a lot of joy in and was

(33:35):
was learning that I waspassionate about it.
But it wasn't something that Ieven felt necessary to talk
about, just except for with theguys that I played with right.
And then, when I got to thepoint where we were in Cleveland
and I did introduce it to MilesGarrett, who former number one
overall draft pick and ended upbeing my D&D group Once people

(33:57):
found out that we were playing,that we were playing together.
It actually all kind of came outafter I scored my touchdown in
the 2021 season Because I wore acritical role shirt to the game
.

Speaker 4 (34:07):
That was on critical roles campaign three like Not
finale.

Speaker 5 (34:12):
What's the opposite of that premiere?
That's when we decided, okay,you know, I asked the guys hey,
it would be cool if you took apicture and, like I, posted
about it.
I think people would get a kickout of us playing together,
because it was all secretivebefore that.
Yeah, yeah.
And then sports illustratedwanted to do a story on us.

Speaker 1 (34:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (34:27):
ESPN did a story on us and it just became a much
bigger thing than just a littlehome game.
So I'm curious about becausethe ESPN thing that was, that
wasn't too long ago right thatESPN.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
No, that was like.
That was like a couple monthsago.
I got featured last October30th, I want to say our 29th.
Okay, it does it does and itwas supposed to come out earlier
than that.

Speaker 5 (34:50):
If you, I'll keep the story short, but we recorded
that last July during trainingcamp and for those that don't
know, like tell us what.
What it was like, what the sure.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
So if you want to watch it, if I can play it, sure
, so if you want to watch it, ifI can plug my little dinky
website, stanton IV comm.

Speaker 5 (35:14):
Is this is Stan Ivey or is it trying to stand?
Ivey, I got a check.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
Ivey calm.

Speaker 5 (35:19):
Oh, you did, you lose me.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
Now I got you oh wait , okay cool.

Speaker 5 (35:26):
So if you go to say my V comm, you can see the story
that ESPN did on us, and thiswas so.
The Sports Illustrated storycame out right after, I believe,
the 2021 season.
One of their writers came outto watch our penultimate session

(35:47):
of the season to be able tokind of document it and be able
to watch us play and kind of seewhat it was like watching these
NFL players be nerdy around thetable, and this was at Miles
Garrett's house and they took acouple pictures on an iPhone and
ended up getting publishedonline and then in print on

(36:10):
Sports Illustrated for Kids,which I thought was super cool.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
That's great.

Speaker 5 (36:13):
Yeah.
So that story came out.
A couple months later, duringthe spring, when I came back to
Cleveland we were havingpractices, the ESPN beat writer
for the Browns came up to me andsays hey, read that Sports
Illustrated article.
I'm so bummed because we wantedto do a story about that and

(36:35):
I'm like I mean, you still can.

Speaker 4 (36:37):
Like you guys didn't get like the jump on or anything
.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
It's not over now.

Speaker 5 (36:40):
Yeah, it's not exclusive.
So he said, yeah, I want to getit on, like like Sports Center
or something.
I'm like, okay, well, you know,good luck with that.
Like let me know and you knowyou get any headway with that.
He comes back to me a monthlater says, hey, can we get a
session going where we canrecord you guys and you know,
get like these really high techcameras in and get all lighting
and stuff.

(37:00):
I'm like sure, let's do it inthe summer.
Like let's make sure.
Like you know I was.
I was nervous about making theteam and like I don't want to
necessarily have to focus on onthis.
All the other games werehappening during the season.
So I said, sure, like let's,let's get something on the books
.
We ended up getting the Wizardsof the Coast involved.
They sent out a terraindesigner, like somebody who had

(37:25):
like this huge collection ofpieces to create this really
cool battlefield for us, and weended up playing this awesome
game in front of like two TV,like high quality cameras with
crazy lighting and like reallyclose in zoom ins on like these
crazy minis, and it was reallycool.

(37:45):
That happened in July.
We're trying to figure out whenthe turnaround for it was.
I was hoping it would come outsometime during training camp
and I don't know how how honestI can be to be completely honest
on a podcast, but there weremitigating factors and stuff
that came out during trainingcamp.

(38:06):
We had there might theCleveland Browns were the focus
of a lot of off season talkduring that off season and it
had to get pushed back becausesome news came out.
So because it got pushed back,I started getting a little
nervous.
I'm like, ok, I can see thewriting on the wall.
Yeah, now you can.

(38:27):
You can you understand what I'mtalking about?
Just without saying it, you cando some if you follow football

Speaker 4 (38:30):
you know I'm talking about the.

Speaker 5 (38:34):
I started getting nervous because I knew the
position I was in and I.
There was a chance that Iwasn't going to be on the team
and as time went on I couldrealize that was going to be
more and more clear.
And they said, ok, we're goingto try to do it right for one.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
I'm just like it's more and more clear in that
moment, because they're justlike not you like, are they not
using?

Speaker 3 (38:51):
the back as much and you just like clearly getting
with my position, because aboutthe fullback position right?

Speaker 2 (38:58):
Is that like, it's really something you have to
like game plan in?
It's not.
It's not a given position,right?

Speaker 5 (39:04):
Like yeah, no, not every not every team has one,
and the Browns were one of theteams under Kevin Stefansky to
bring in back in the fullbackafter a couple years where they
didn't have it.
So I was looking forward to the2022 season because I was told
that this was going to be myyear, but because we had we had
a new quarterback, we decided toswitch the offense and we

(39:25):
weren't going to use thefullback as much and my my
usefulness was starting todwindle, despite trying to teach
me tight end and running backin all these different positions
.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
It's like in the moment, like you could see, like
you saw the writing on the wall, I guess I mean, yeah, I could
like hindsight.

Speaker 5 (39:43):
It was a lot more clear.
But I was trying to keep a lotof hope and trying to count on
myself.
I don't know if you know I'msure that if I had rocked the
world as a tight end, I wouldhave made the team, but I hadn't
been learning that position.
You know it's complete.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
Yeah, that's so hard.
Yeah, how can you expect itlike just jump into right?

Speaker 5 (40:03):
So it was.
It was, I was putting a toughposition.
I ended up getting cut.
And then, when that, when thatwas realized, the ESPN reporter
said hey, we're going to have tofigure some things out.
Espn producers Well, we'regoing to have to figure some
things out because, you know, westill think that this is going

(40:24):
to come out, but we're justgoing to have to time it
correctly.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
Right, so some heat died down, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (40:30):
So they made a new cut of it, just kind of adjusted
my title really, and said, hey,we're going to show it this
this day or something.
And right before that, milesGarrett gets into a bad, bad car
crash.
He was okay, but he ended upmissing a game and because that
was in the news, they didn'twant to have that, you know, on
the same news cycle.
Oh my God.
And then finally they said,okay, we have good news, it's

(40:54):
coming out.
It's not going to be on theMonday night football intro,
though.
It was going to be on Mondaynight football leading up into
the Monday night football gamebetween the Browns and the
Bengals, but that spot got takenand he got taken.
He got cannibalized becauseMiles Garrett had this thing,
his.
His team decided to like, wentto ESPN and said hey, we got the

(41:16):
kid from Stranger Things, milesand I, miles and the kid are
going to go trick or treating.
Miles is going to be dressed upas Vecna.

Speaker 4 (41:24):
And you guys are going to put this on Monday
night intro before the the thegame you got that.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
I got that, I got that, I got that, you got that.

Speaker 5 (41:36):
And then it was great , so that it got TV time and it
went on.
You know, went on Sunday, theday before the Monday night game
on, like the four o'clock houror something between games.
So it was great, it was verycool to be able to have that
happen.
But it's just the story of itcoming out.
It was it was wild and longwinded Sorry.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
I know, like, I think that like it's not only have
you, because we met at lastyear's Comic Con.
I think was the first time wemet in person.

Speaker 5 (42:01):
I think so.

Speaker 1 (42:02):
And like to me it was like I was instantly struck by
how good your presence is in thenerd space, because they feel
like we're like.
I'm like used to go to comicbook shops when I was just like
you know, in high school andstuff, and it was there were

(42:22):
clicks Like, there were like asmuch as we want to be, like no,
it was the cool accepting thing.
It would be a thing where it'slike you never played D&D before
, then you will never play itever, or whatever, and it was a
lot of like.
We were still kind of figuringout like the nerd space and you
know, new Star Wars movies cameout and I think that was very
you know, you can go back andlook at those comments to see
how it was a couple of years agoand I feel like it is.

Speaker 5 (42:45):
I was still in that space.
I think it's still worthdefinitely not a bit In a lot of
worlds.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
But I love like the work you're doing, to be like
hey, stop putting yourself in asquare.
Like stop putting yourself in,sticking to like a label and
limiting yourself of what youcan be into but also what you
can do.
Like you talking about this, Iwould have been so discouraged
and I feel like you just bringan energy of like, let's go,

(43:10):
let's just keep going, like, nomatter what.
And I feel like right now, withlike the strike going on for us
, with a lot of stuff going onin the world, that's such a good
energy to sort of bring toeveryone to be like hey, if
something doesn't work out,shift two inches to the right,
and you know, and go down untilthey stop you.

Speaker 5 (43:27):
Yeah, you know I my whole mindset going, going about
this kind of new journey isdon't allow, like you said,
don't allow yourself to be putinto a box and even if you fits
nicely into that box, like don'tfeel like you only need to be

(43:47):
in that.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
Like don't there is.

Speaker 5 (43:51):
There are so many like like, false labels that
people put on you and you don'tneed to be limited by what those
labels are.
You can feel free to identifyby it, but don't feel yourself
limited to it, don't you know?
There is, I'm trying to.
My whole thing is I'm trying tobreak down the nerd jock binary

(44:11):
like false binary because,there shouldn't be, you know,
this rivalry or whatever, or youknow it's an 80s stereotype.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
at this point, I think that really doesn't.

Speaker 5 (44:21):
I don't.
I don't know.
It's been a long time sinceI've been in high school, but I
feel like it doesn't reallyexist anymore but because I feel
like the kids are a lot moreaccepting than they used to be.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
They're very good, it seems like that.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
Yeah, again.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
I hope so.
It seems like for my nieces andnephews I'm not in high school,
but that they don't it doesn'tseem like the clicks.
Yeah, I know, I don't know ifyou can see the gray in my hair,
but definitely not, but itseems like the clicks have
frayed a little bit, right,right, I don't know.
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (44:46):
There's always going to be clicks.
I just think that the rivalryor like the, the forced rivalry
amongst people and kind of likethe hierarchy, I think, might
not quite exist the same way itused to.
But again, I have no idea.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
We're all too old for that.
Yeah, To know firsthand butyeah no it's really cool.
So tell I guess, tell us, bringus into athletics, check like
what's where you're at with thatnow, what's going on with it?

Speaker 5 (45:12):
Well, there's, there's a lot that I want to do
with it.
There's a lot that I thinkthere is.
There are a lot ofpossibilities that I, that I
that I have in my imagination ofwhat combining the world of
TTRPG and sports can mean.
You know the people that can beinvolved, because I'm not the
only person by any means thatthat has one foot in both those

(45:33):
worlds.

Speaker 3 (45:33):
Right.

Speaker 5 (45:36):
And I want to bring?

Speaker 2 (45:38):
Are there others that that we may have heard of Like?
Who are the others that arelike kind of Well, miles?

Speaker 5 (45:41):
Garrett, like my teammate Travis Fredericks, is a
.
He is the CTO at Demi Plain andhe was an all pro lineman for
the Cowboys for several years.
Oh wild yeah.
So then there is a lot of WWEwrestlers Zager Woods.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
Because they're already are peeing.

Speaker 5 (46:07):
I know exactly.
That's all.
That's what they're doing.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
It's such to me.

Speaker 5 (46:11):
Tim Duncan reportedly .
What's that?
Yes, exactly Like really,really physical arping, and Tim
Duncan reportedly was.
If you know who that is, he's aHall of Fame basketball player.

Speaker 2 (46:25):
Yeah, portedly was a player.
Yeah, oh was he.
I didn't know that.

Speaker 5 (46:30):
Reportedly.
I don't, he's not the mosttalkative guy, so I so it could
be could be a false story thatwas put out there, but that's
what I've heard.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
And he'll neither confirm or deny.

Speaker 5 (46:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
Because he doesn't talk.
Okay, that would be dope toplay D&D with Tim Duncan.

Speaker 5 (46:47):
I get.
I get asked a lot like thenumber one person that I can
play D&D with, and I think thisis inside of the world of sports
and outside.
I don't think it has to belimited to that for this answer.
Yeah, it's March on Lynch.

Speaker 4 (47:00):
I think if I had to get March on Lynch, at a table.

Speaker 5 (47:03):
it would be an epic moment, because I don't know if
you guys saw him on murdermurder Right, yeah, yeah.
Hilarious.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
I did not see him, but have you had any interaction
with him before?

Speaker 5 (47:15):
Like no, I'm only like two degrees of separation
from him, as I am with, likepretty much anybody in the NFL.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
But if you approach from the football angle, we
approach from the improv angle.
I mean like we can get him yeah.

Speaker 5 (47:29):
Yeah, I think we can, we can, we can get him.
Um, he is notoriously hard totackle, um, but I think yeah.
No, there there is a lot ofthings that I think that I could
.
That athletics check can become.
Right now it's and it's aTikTok and Instagram like series
that I'm doing, yeah,introducing these two worlds to
each other.
But, you know, a podcast is apossibility, not to, you know,

(47:55):
compete with you guys.
Whoa, whoa, whoa whoa whoaSunday nights.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
What are you talking about?

Speaker 5 (48:05):
Yeah, I mean there's a lot of things that I think it
can be and I'm just kind oftesting the waters and seeing
what the audience is, because Ialways say the Venn diagram
between those two fandoms is alot bigger than people think.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
Yeah, it's also.
Just, it's such perceptionbased right Cause like in a way
you are like think about all thepeople playing fantasy football
.
Yeah like you're tracking statsand building your own team and
like you're basically peopledon't know that they like both
sides really.

Speaker 4 (48:33):
Yeah, there's a lot of people.

Speaker 5 (48:35):
A lot of people fought back as like, growing up
as nerds and maybe me made funof that.
For that they they had thisidea of what sports is and the
pre-sports, and it's the sameway the other way.
Like you know, you grow up as ajock and you kind of feel like
I.
You know, I knew that.
I felt, and one of the one ofthe things the reasons why I've
really tried to spread the wordof like being more than one

(49:00):
thing is that within the NFL,you're, you're looking for just
like I was trying to become along snapper and become like a
backup long snapper for for ateam to just like barely make
that cut.
If that's what it comes down to, guys are afraid rightfully so
to give the front office anyreason to cut them, yeah, and

(49:28):
anything can be perceived as aweakness.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (49:33):
An interest in something outside of football?

Speaker 2 (49:35):
Yeah, consider the week I was exactly wondering
that because I, you know Ifollow the Patriots a lot, so I
read all the like Belichick loreabout how he's.
So you know everything footballright Like it feels like any
reason to cut you is a reasonhe'll, he'll basically take.
So I was curious about that,like, how do you, how did you
navigate that?

(49:56):
I know you're not to say thatanyway, but yeah.

Speaker 5 (49:59):
Well, I didn't end up being like a thing it wasn't
anything to become navigablenavigable Because I was able to
handle the job outside of that.
Like it's.
As long as you can take care ofyour job, that's.
That's what it comes down to.
And on top of that, when itstarted becoming a thing where I

(50:20):
was able to include my charityand raising money for for stuff
like Red Nose Day, we had thislive event that we ran at a
organ cafe in Cleveland where wegot my teammates Miles Garrett
and Wyatt Sellard to play withIf you Wadoway and Abrea Iyengar
in front of a big audience oflike a hundred people and bunch

(50:42):
of people watching on Twitch,and we raised like nearly
$20,000 for it.
So when, when they got toattach their name to that
anything to make the team's namelook good then they're going to
, they're going to help out on.
So you know, when it came downto getting ready for last season
, they decided to have me in onone of their social media things
like hey, draw your D&Dcharacter that you used for that

(51:04):
, they used for rolling for RedNose Day, and I think they got a
bunch of views on on socialmedia.
So when it started becomingvaluable to them is when it like
, and that's what that's whatthe NFL is like.
They'll they'll do anything tomake sure that that it's
increasing their public value.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
And it's like reaching into, like.
I mean we're.

Speaker 5 (51:28):
We're talking about the like, it's what's good for
the world and good for society,but like, just in terms of a
company, you're getting accessto a whole new like realm a new
culture, yeah, a new market, andthat's what I'm trying to show,
like the world of TTRPG and tothe world of NFL, is like you
have these huge populations ofhuge diehard fans that you can

(51:50):
be, even if you just get afraction of them, it's, it's
better for the bottom line.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
Yeah, yeah, I was yeah.

Speaker 4 (51:57):
Yeah, my initial vector into football actually
was my D&D DM inviting us toplay fantasy.
Like, hey, you like this gametoo, and like that's actually
what.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
I should get into it.

Speaker 5 (52:07):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
In many ways football .

Speaker 4 (52:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Yeah, football, right , I think.
I think football is like thenerd, it's kind of the nerdiest
sport right, In a way baseballis the nerdiest sport.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
You think?

Speaker 5 (52:26):
I'm not stats.
The stats I mean football isgetting there with the stats.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
No, but I think that, like I don't know, I feel, like
you know, with the, what arethey called?
The A64s or whatever.
It is like the, the, the playbreakdowns that you could that
that they're doing now.

Speaker 5 (52:40):
There's the all 22, all 22s, yeah, something like
that.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
It's like you know it's, you know, it's like a
physical, live version of chess,in a way.
That's what they say right,like, like each team is sort of
positioning their players andthen, like, they hit, play
essentially, and then you watchyour.

Speaker 5 (52:57):
I mean, football is chess, baseball is straight math
, like you.
There are so many decisionsthat are purely mathematical
decisions.
It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
Okay, interesting, I also feel like the turn base in
baseball is really easy forpeople you know you're going to
get where you're like well,what's initiative?
This one's actually reallystraightforward Someone's going
to step up and then you're goingto make this and it's going to
be in a post check, Like thepitch versus the batter, and
then once you get you rolled ahit, and if you hit, then we can

(53:29):
figure out two more steps oflike the tough ones basketball
to relate to it, because that'sjust like nonstop and soccer.

Speaker 2 (53:34):
I just think oh, yeah , see, I think I'm going to
argue back for football, becauseI feel like it's like okay,
like you know, there's clearoffense and defense, so you know
that there's like all right.
How many mobs are you know howmany, how many bad guys are
there?

Speaker 4 (53:45):
that I got to fight Like okay, there's 11.

Speaker 2 (53:48):
How many are my party 11.
Okay, so where am I going toplace everybody, like you?
Know like physically on the onin this space.
How far am I away from the?
How far is the cornerback, youknow, guarding me on this play?
So I should do a, I should do astop and go, or you know, I
think that there's that you'reall protecting, which is you
know it's the.

Speaker 5 (54:06):
it is the ultimate sports.
Macguffin, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:09):
And you get the two territories on either side.
Yeah, as the end sounds.

Speaker 5 (54:14):
It is.
I mean it is just an active,it's large wargaming yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:18):
Yeah Well, in terms of the like you're saying, the
Venn diagram is closer to a fullcircle than people you know
will admit.
I believe we have a little gameto kind of bring both worlds
together to show us just howalike these two are.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
Now, now, usually, usually, Omar and I, either Omar
and I and I or Delvin run thegame.
But we figure, look, johnny isa DM, a GM, you're coming into
my world.
Yeah, and we want to sort ofexperience, athletics check, you
know, in our own way.
So Johnny is going to berunning the game and we are

(54:53):
going to be competing, me andOmar, against each other.

Speaker 5 (54:56):
Yeah, so, um, what we're going to do and I'm still
working on a name for it.
I have a working title and ifyou'll allow, me.
I'm calling this mascot ormascot.
It's a bad name to becompletely fair.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
It's a really bad name or mascot.
Is that what you said?
Yeah, no, the second partdoesn't make sense.

Speaker 5 (55:17):
Um the uh.
So what I'm going to give youis a list of 12, 12 team names.
Okay, Some of them might bereal professional,
semi-professional, collegesports teams.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
Okay, okay.

Speaker 5 (55:34):
Some of them might be made up.
Okay, there are a lot of sportsteams that use fantasy naming
conventions, right, and your jobis to figure out if I made it
up or if it's been.
It was every.
Every team name is made up atsome point.
If this is an actual team name,got it?

Speaker 1 (55:54):
So if it's a mascot or a mascot, you say mask off.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
Is that what you said ?

Speaker 5 (56:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:01):
Mask off, Like yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
Like face off, mask off, yeah, oh no.

Speaker 3 (56:07):
I think it's the perfect name I thought you said
a mask goth and I was like Idon't like that idea, mass Jerry
, the first team is the cure.

Speaker 4 (56:17):
Uh, I'm going to go in.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
Mass goth.

Speaker 5 (56:22):
All right, all right, team one All right, it's a
little bit progressively harder.
Oh okay, Team one Orlando magic, oh team.

Speaker 2 (56:31):
Yeah, that's, that's a real team.
I know that.

Speaker 5 (56:33):
That is a real team, correct.
Good job yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
But but sounds fantasy.

Speaker 5 (56:37):
It's exactly that's why I put it on the name, put it
on the list.
So the Orlando magic hey, wegot an active, active list here,
awesome.
Obviously it alludes to DisneyWorld being in Orlando.
Right, this was part of the NBAexpansion in the late 1980s,
along with the Miami Heat.
Other team names that Orlandoconsidered were the Orlando

(56:58):
tropics and the Orlando juice.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
Yeah, I'm the juice.
And then there was a wholebunch of jokes about OJ and like
yeah, okay, yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:08):
I'm just saying that I was around for the expansion.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
I'm old, I got to be honest.
I think that there's a lot ofterritory you run into by
calling your team the juice, thejuice there's.

Speaker 5 (57:18):
I think that's a great Jersey, personally,
although the magic do have, Ithink, one of the best jerseys.
I think one of the best jerseysin the NBA depends.
Right, you can't be Yep, sorry,okay.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
It's tricky.

Speaker 3 (57:31):
Whoever pitched that in Florida was really like okay,
well, no bad ideas, but no badideas, no bad ideas.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
No, but no bad ideas.
Team two All right here we go.

Speaker 5 (57:42):
Yeah, the sleepy hollow shadows, oh, okay.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
So okay, are we like playing on a team together, omar
, or?

Speaker 1 (57:53):
are we playing against or against?
I'm saying it's not real.

Speaker 3 (57:57):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
Okay, there is so there.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
I know that sleepy hollow is a real place.
I visited sleepy hollow Okay,and I feel like I'm a brag.
It's not as cool as you think.
It was fine.
There was a bridge there.
It's problematic.
Here's the bridge, but it lookslike a regular bridge.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
It was a bridge.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
Like awesome.
So I figured that they're goingto have to name their team.
Something Like if there is ateam there like wouldn't they
want to play into somethingscary, or you know whatever.
Okay, so you're going teambecause it's a real.
Yeah, like exactly.
So I'm going to go like okay.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
I assume maybe are there high school teams on this
list.

Speaker 2 (58:37):
No, high school teams no high school teams.
No high school teams, no highschool teams.

Speaker 3 (58:45):
So these are semi pro .

Speaker 2 (58:46):
See, that's where I think it's faked it's college to
professional I don't thinkthere's any.
Yeah, okay, I'm going to sayalso say fake Sorry, because I
don't think that's correct.

Speaker 5 (58:58):
There is no sleepy hollow shabbos that I could find
on the internet.
There is us to sleepy hollowsthat I could find of in the US,
the one I believe that you'refamiliar with, sunday New York.
Yeah, it's just north ofYonkers, and there's actually a
second one here in SouthernCalifornia.
It's an unincorporated townbetween Chino and Yorba Linda,

(59:19):
up in the hills.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (59:23):
Should we all go?

Speaker 2 (59:24):
That's amazing.

Speaker 3 (59:26):
I started a team called the shadows there.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
Okay, all right.

Speaker 1 (59:30):
All right.

Speaker 5 (59:33):
Team number three, the Salem University Specters.

Speaker 1 (59:37):
That's good, mm-mm-mm .

Speaker 2 (59:42):
Okay so.

Speaker 3 (59:45):
I'm going to say Specters are a ghost.

Speaker 2 (59:47):
Yeah Right, they're ghosts.

Speaker 1 (59:51):
I'm going to say it's I'm voting real, just because
I've been to Salem Massachusettsand they're all about it.
It's the only town in Americathat's themed.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
It's their identity, I mean I've been to Salem a
bunch, so I'm from New Hampshire.
So, like all of our high schoolwe had so many.

Speaker 5 (01:00:08):
So I'm going to say it's a classic Halloween trip
for the New England area.

Speaker 2 (01:00:11):
Yes, oh, we did it all the time.
I did it like three times.
I saw the seven gables like amillion times in my life.
So, yes, I'm going to go realas well.

Speaker 5 (01:00:20):
They're super into witches, let's go, got both the
on that one.
That is a fake team name.
Yep, yep, yeah.
So that one is obviously.
Salem has a long history withthe witch trials and I think
it's a good one.
I think it's a good one.
I'm going to say it's the onlytown in the United States that's

(01:00:42):
had a lot of that.
But both of you coming up,coming up, no, on that one.
But you sell plenty of moreopportunities to score here.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
We have a lot of game left.
Number four Okay, here we go.
The Seattle Kraken.
Okay, that is real.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
Sorry, I mean no, it's.
I don't know, I'm not sure.
Are you guess first?

Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
No, no, what does that have to do with?
How does how, can it be ahockey team?
It's a.
It's a water based creature.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
That's a really good point.

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
Frozen underneath the ice, that's a really good point
yeah, who knows about the MiamiDolphins?

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
Yeah, the Marlins.
Really, we started as a swimteam, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
It's a real team.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
I'm going to say real .

Speaker 5 (01:01:30):
It is correct, that is a real team, the newest NHL
expansion team.
Their first year was in 2021.
And they named themselves thatbecause In the Puget Sound, that
is the that is a native areafor the giant Pacific octopus.
Oh yeah, even though I feellike the Kraken is more of like
a giant squid.

Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:01:51):
And then also a mythical creature Like the
pirate movie.

Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
I think it's the only time that that I've seen one in
real life.

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
Also, I'm from San.

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
Jose, why did I get stumped on that for a second,
when you're like but, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I have a problem with teamnames that don't have a plural.
It really, it really goes thewrong way.

Speaker 5 (01:02:13):
Oh sure, well, I mean , the Orlando Magic is there,
miami Heat is there.

Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
Miami Heat, orlando Magic, it's just it's hard.

Speaker 5 (01:02:22):
It's hard to because then you're like are you a
Kraken?
Cornell, big Red, alabama,crimson, tide, yeah, the
individual player Is that personis like?

Speaker 2 (01:02:33):
is Dwayne Wade a heat Singularity?

Speaker 1 (01:02:36):
How do you feel about the band trap, or is he a unit?

Speaker 2 (01:02:41):
Yeah, I don't love it .

Speaker 5 (01:02:45):
Are you, hello?
I am a member of train.
I am a train.

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
I am train.

Speaker 5 (01:02:53):
Okay, team number five the New Orleans Night
Stalkers.

Speaker 3 (01:02:58):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (01:02:58):
Sounds racy right, which I guess New Orleans is.
It's like what if they justtook the night out of their name
?
I'm going to go the opposite ofwhatever you say, sonny.
That's enough for me.

Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
I was going to say that In that case I'm saying
it's real.

Speaker 4 (01:03:13):
Okay, I'll say it's not real.

Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
Because I want to see .

Speaker 1 (01:03:17):
That is fake.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
No.

Speaker 3 (01:03:20):
Yeah, I was hoping you would go real, yes.

Speaker 5 (01:03:28):
Yeah, no the.

Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
Okay, so Delvin made an image of the Night Stalker.
It's cold.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
Check the Night Stalker.
She has a lot of time.

Speaker 4 (01:03:38):
And.

Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
I think I feel like the D&D side of the more, like
that I know there's a NightWalker.

Speaker 5 (01:03:43):
I don't know if there's Night Stalker, I forget
whatever.
Team number six.
We have the Washington Mystics.
This is my chance to come back.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
I'm saying it's real.
The Washington Mystics, theWashington Mystics, they're up
in.
Olympia Is the capital ofWashington.
Oh, oh, it's so Washingtonstate.

Speaker 2 (01:04:07):
See, I immediately went DC.
Wow In my brain, the Mystics, Idon't know.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
Yeah, I'll say fake, then you said, it's a real DC
team, though that's a secretsociety.
It's the Illuminati.

Speaker 5 (01:04:25):
Are we going Omar?

Speaker 1 (01:04:27):
What are you getting?
I'm saying real, I'm sayingWashington state.

Speaker 5 (01:04:30):
I'm saying deep.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
You're saying fake.

Speaker 5 (01:04:32):
Yeah, I'll say fake.
That is a real team.
That is a WMBA team Owned bythe same owner as the Washington
Wizards.
That is a Washington DC team.

Speaker 1 (01:04:43):
Now, I just feel.

Speaker 5 (01:04:44):
Has a tight.
I do enjoy that because a lotof the WMBA teams have the same
owner in the same city, so theLA sparks are also owned by the
bus family, I believe, and theyit's.
The Lakers Sparks aren'tnecessarily similar, but they
have a similar logo.

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
Yeah right.

Speaker 5 (01:05:03):
Phoenix has the sons and they have the WMBA team, the
Mercury, so there's a lot ofones that are around the you
know kind of complimentary teamnames.

Speaker 2 (01:05:12):
Even though I didn't ask I'll, I'm okay with it.
That's true.

Speaker 5 (01:05:18):
Yeah, team number seven, we have the Hartford
Hydra Fake.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
I'm going to go fake.

Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
Connecticut right.

Speaker 1 (01:05:28):
I'm saying real because that's great, you like
it.

Speaker 5 (01:05:33):
You do like Hydra, I love it but, I think, it's also
no iteration.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
I feel like that puts us in a lot of cities, a lot of
cities do.

Speaker 2 (01:05:43):
I sure do.

Speaker 5 (01:05:45):
The Hydra, unfortunately, is fake.
No, yeah, so the there are somany minor league team names
that are just absolutely buckwild, and one of them is my
favorite.
The Hartford yard goats Is adouble A affiliate of the
Colorado Rockies.

(01:06:05):
Hartford, connecticut, doeshave a baseball team.
They have a professional team,but it is not the Hydra.

Speaker 1 (01:06:10):
Well, I feel a little bit like we could combine those
Multi-head of goat.

Speaker 5 (01:06:16):
Oh sure, yeah, I mean the goat is usually part of a
hydra, two of two.

Speaker 3 (01:06:21):
Oh no, that's a chimera.

Speaker 5 (01:06:22):
Chimera's had the goat head.

Speaker 3 (01:06:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
Goat draws.
I like it, the goat draws.

Speaker 1 (01:06:27):
Okay, so sound deep, you're squeaking ahead.
You want a head?
Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak.

Speaker 5 (01:06:32):
Yeah, Delvin, what's the scoreboard looking like?

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
Anyone's game currently.

Speaker 5 (01:06:38):
And how many are left ?
We have five left.

Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
Okay, if you guys want to go this far.

Speaker 5 (01:06:46):
Feel free to shut it down.
All right, we have DaytonDragons.

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
Real.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
Dayton Dragons.
I feel like you should tell uswhat type of team like what
sport it is.

Speaker 5 (01:06:58):
Yeah but that's too easy, Okay fine.

Speaker 3 (01:07:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:07:03):
I know I want to be able to poke holes.
All right, dayton Dragons,dayton Ohio, dayton Ohio.
Why would they have a semi-proteam in any way, shape or form
is what I'm trying to wonder.
No offense, it's a semi-proNASCAR team, I don't know what's
confusing about that.
Oh yeah, I guess that's right.
They have the NASCAR stuff.
Okay, I'm going to go real.

(01:07:24):
I'll go real.

Speaker 5 (01:07:25):
NASCAR Is everything of Daytona.

Speaker 2 (01:07:27):
Oh, I am, I'm going to go fake.
What did you say?
You said real.
I said real I'll go, fake I wassaying of Daytona.

Speaker 5 (01:07:40):
That one is real.
The Dayton Dragons are a high Aaffiliate of the Cincinnati
Reds and they actually have the.
They broke the record for mostconsecutive sold out games in
2011, with 815 games in a row.
They had 815 games in a rowthat they sold out their
professional stadium.

Speaker 2 (01:07:59):
Who's their affiliate ?
The Reds, the Reds, the Reds?
I don't know if they were, thenbecause they shuffle all the
time.

Speaker 1 (01:08:07):
Yeah, which I don't.

Speaker 5 (01:08:08):
I don't know how that works, oh yes that's true,
funny enough, I was actually atthe college team.
I was on the college team thathad the longest consecutive sell
out record, which is theNebraska Cornhuskers football
team.
Their record is 389 games in arow that they have sold out.

Speaker 2 (01:08:25):
Wow, so this was 815.

Speaker 5 (01:08:28):
815.
I can imagine that Nebraska'sfootball stadium is probably a
good amount bigger.
Yeah, because they hold like90,000.

Speaker 2 (01:08:37):
Yeah, there's like 90 .
It's like it fits 90.

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
Yeah, our podcast is sold out.

Speaker 5 (01:08:43):
Thanks to the invisible friends in Sandy's
house.

Speaker 2 (01:08:45):
Yeah, all seats.

Speaker 4 (01:08:46):
Well, there are you know that many games in a given
football season, whereas in ourgames.
That's one season.

Speaker 5 (01:08:55):
Next team we have the Stony Brook Seawolves.

Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
God, that's good.

Speaker 2 (01:09:01):
A Seawolf is like a wet dog.

Speaker 1 (01:09:06):
That's really good.

Speaker 2 (01:09:07):
It's just a wet dog.

Speaker 1 (01:09:09):
I'm going to say fake , as much as I want it to be
real.
I feel like the alliterationgame is burned out.
I'm going fake.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
Stony Brook.
I don't even know where StonyBrook is.
Is that what you said, stonyBrook?

Speaker 5 (01:09:18):
Stony Brook is in New York.
These are all real places.

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
Okay, I'm going to say the place.
I'm saying the place is fake.

Speaker 3 (01:09:28):
The.

Speaker 1 (01:09:28):
Seawolves are real, but they're just.
They're just.
Springfield Illinois.

Speaker 2 (01:09:33):
Stony Brook Seawolves .
I'm going to say.
I'm going to say fake as well.

Speaker 5 (01:09:39):
They are a real team.
They're a real school, stonyBrook, I think, university
located in Stony Brook, new York.
It is named after the Lincolnmyth, which is a native people
in the Pacific Northwest of theGona Cadet I think I'm
pronouncing that right A humanturned sea monster that brings
good luck to you if you see orhear it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:00):
That's rad.

Speaker 5 (01:10:02):
Yeah, and I think that there's also the University
of.
Alaska and Anchorage is alsothe Seawolves.
I think I saw that when I waslooking yeah, there's a few
Seawolves.

Speaker 2 (01:10:13):
Listen, I'm sorry, but that mascot does not look
very wet.

Speaker 5 (01:10:17):
It could have made a little wet underwater.

Speaker 1 (01:10:19):
Didn't you want anything from the Aquaman movie
the latest Avatar?

Speaker 5 (01:10:27):
All right, next one we have Trinity Christian
College.
Trolls, no way.
No, you can't the Trinitytrolls I can't be right.

Speaker 1 (01:10:40):
I'm going.
Yes, you're going.
Yes, I'm gambling.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
What a Christian college.
Call themselves trolls, when,like no trifectas right there,
or something.

Speaker 3 (01:10:53):
Jesus is right there.

Speaker 2 (01:10:55):
In Jesus.
Yeah, the Jesus is the Trinity.
The prayers.
Wait, did you say the school'sname was Trinity?

Speaker 5 (01:11:03):
Trinity Christian College trolls.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
I'm going.

Speaker 2 (01:11:06):
They can't call themselves a Trinity.
Trinity, yeah, the fight inChristians.
I'm going to go fake.

Speaker 5 (01:11:18):
That is a real school , real team name in Palace
Heights, Illinois, right outsideof Chicago.
Look at that logo.

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
Wow, yes.

Speaker 5 (01:11:26):
That's a real logo.
I love it.
I think that they recentlyredesigned it based on their
website.
Originated the team nameoriginated from a troll that
guarded the entrance of the golfcourse upon which the campus
now sits.

Speaker 2 (01:11:41):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (01:11:42):
I assume it was a some kind of like garden troll,
like a garden gnome, not like areal troll that guarded the
entrance no.

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
Why would it be a?

Speaker 2 (01:11:49):
real troll.

Speaker 1 (01:11:51):
Also shout out to the university for replacing a golf
course just because encounter alot of water problems that I
feel.

Speaker 5 (01:11:59):
I believe that it was a similar, similar naming
convention.
As you know, there's, you see,santa Cruz here in California.
They're the banana selects, butthey named them that kind of
jokingly and then it becameserious and they became proud of
it.
Same thing, I think, with theuniversity of Irvine anteaters,
your university of California,irvine anteaters.

Speaker 2 (01:12:17):
It was a joke.
It started as a meme, basically.

Speaker 5 (01:12:21):
It started off as a meme and then, like, voted on by
students and then becameserious and they have a full,
full-fledged sports program.

Speaker 1 (01:12:28):
They could have the trolls because everything there
is themed after Lord of theRings and it's a ring campus and
stuff but anteater.

Speaker 3 (01:12:35):
Yeah, it still works.

Speaker 5 (01:12:37):
Yeah, all right we got two, left we have Omar up by
one.

Speaker 1 (01:12:40):
Anyone's game, but if I get this next one, that's.
It Sound deep.

Speaker 5 (01:12:44):
Number 11.
Yeah, the Boca Raton CommunityCollege basketball Bass lists.
Oh my god, I'll say that onemore time because I flubbed over
it.
Boca Raton Community College.

Speaker 2 (01:12:56):
I'm going to say fake only based on the flub.

Speaker 1 (01:12:59):
I'm going real because of the flub, because you
were so scared at the sight ofthe basketball.

Speaker 2 (01:13:04):
Yeah, horrified, I turned a stone you guys, I'm
saying real, I'm going fake,here we go.

Speaker 5 (01:13:12):
It is fake.
The Boca Raton Bass lists arenot a real team.
However, the Florida launch,which is a professional lacrosse
team, is located in Boca Raton.

Speaker 2 (01:13:24):
That's a great name.
Yeah, launch, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:13:27):
And that's a great like a symbol they're selling me
.

Speaker 2 (01:13:30):
They're selling me on these, no.

Speaker 1 (01:13:32):
Get some more lies names.

Speaker 5 (01:13:34):
I'm getting like let's get the podcast to just,
you know, throw some moneytowards the sponsors, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:13:40):
Yeah, launch, I love so many of these.
I get the feeling of likelooking at like a Pixar, like
movie, like concept art bookwhere.
I'm just like yeah, that'sreally cool.
That's someone's best work.
That's pretty rad.

Speaker 5 (01:13:54):
Although have you seen?
Like so okay.
So I was at UNLV when theydecided to re redo the logo of
the rebels.
And you know, the rebels are alittle bit of a problematic name
.
They are red and gray.
It's not technically supposedto be the Civil War South, but
they are.
They are supposed to look likea old timey soldier and their

(01:14:14):
colors are red and gray.
It's not a hard logic yeah.
So they're they're having talkswith them possibly changing
their logo.
But they did try to re orchange their team name.
They did try to redo the logoand they did it pretty badly,
Like I was at the school at thetime.
It was not a very clear lookinglogo.
It was.
They actually read condos.
So that it's not that.
It's not that new logo anymore,it's back to the original one

(01:14:37):
with the man with the bigmustache.
But there are bad logos.
I think the LA Chargers, whenthey first moved up from from
San Diego, tried this one logowhere the L and the A are like
the lightning bolt symbols andeverybody ragged on them and
they're like oh, that was justlike a concept.
We're not actually doing that.

Speaker 2 (01:14:55):
One Right All the helmets.

Speaker 5 (01:14:57):
Exactly, so there are bad logos that come out all the
time, but the Florida launchnailed it.

Speaker 1 (01:15:06):
Okay.

Speaker 5 (01:15:07):
Last team were tied up.

Speaker 1 (01:15:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:15:09):
This is it, guys.
Six to six.

Speaker 1 (01:15:12):
We choose what.
One chooses real, one choosesfake.
This is how it happens.

Speaker 5 (01:15:16):
I mean, if that's the way you guys want to go, team
number 12.
And you guys might already befamiliar with this one the
Albuquerque isotopes.

Speaker 2 (01:15:26):
Okay, I'm going to say I think it's real.
I'm going to say it's real,there's a good chance of it's
real.

Speaker 1 (01:15:34):
The thing is and here's where I'm like
interesting, are you playing 40chests with us, sir?
The isotopes are theSpringfield isotopes in the
Simpsons.

Speaker 2 (01:15:45):
Oh shit, Well, okay, I'm going to say real.
So I'm locked in.

Speaker 1 (01:15:50):
Okay, I'm saying fake it's, it's Simpsons, it should
be Simpsons, okay.

Speaker 5 (01:15:55):
While inspired by the Springfield isotopes, the
Albuquerque isotopes is a realteam name, the AAA affiliate of
the Colorado Rockies.
The Rockies you have all thecool names.
Sondee wins by one Albuquerquethey were.
They were inspired by theSpringfield isotopes from the
Dancing Homer episode of theSimpsons.

Speaker 2 (01:16:16):
Man, I feel like you should get an extra point for
that.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
Honestly, what is this goof troop like for knowing
the?

Speaker 2 (01:16:22):
logo that that font is something else I mean they
probably, you know, againinspired by the Simpsons, like
something cartoony, right yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:16:30):
Minor League Baseball has the best names and isotopes
were kind of the start of thattrend towards, like, having
goofier names.
Apparently their first year ofbeing a minor league team, they,
they, like, had the most mostmerchandise sold throughout like
the Bullmeyer leagues.

Speaker 2 (01:16:47):
That's it.
It's all about the merch.
Yeah, what a perfect team.

Speaker 1 (01:16:51):
I'm upset that I lost but I'm glad that we went out
on the isotopes because in thethesis of there is more in like,
more in common with athleticismand like D&D and nerdiness, a
team that was like someone went.
Hey, what if we named ourselvesafter you know the Simpsons?
And everyone went that's prettygood, sounds pretty good.

Speaker 2 (01:17:15):
It'll sell some merch , it'll sell some uniforms, I
mean, because that's the thingis like I was a Red Sox fan.
So if I go to a Pawtucket RedSox game I'm not going to buy
the Pawtucket Red Sox jersey.

Speaker 5 (01:17:24):
Yeah, oklahoma City Dodgers, yeah Red.

Speaker 2 (01:17:26):
Sox jersey.

Speaker 3 (01:17:30):
Amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
Dude.
Thank you for bringing the game, johnny thank you for playing.
For being on the pod.
It was wonderful.
Where can folks remind themonce again where they can find
you and what you're up to next?

Speaker 5 (01:17:44):
Well, I'm doing weekly episodes of Athletic
Shrek on my TikTok and Instagramaccount you can find me there
at Johnny Stanton IV, as well asall social media you can find
me there.
But thanks so much for havingme guys, and hopefully I'll have
a podcast that I can have youguys on at some point.

Speaker 2 (01:17:59):
Oh, great, and as you shout out yourself, is there
someone else you want to shoutout Like we, like sort of like
passing the torch kind of thing,is there?

Speaker 3 (01:18:07):
another.

Speaker 2 (01:18:08):
D&D athlete or nerdy athlete or whatever.
Sure Go go for Jamal.

Speaker 5 (01:18:16):
Williams, the running back right now starting going
to probably end up back up forthe starter over there in New
Orleans Saints.
He is a huge anime nerd and islike loud and proud about it.

Speaker 4 (01:18:28):
Right, right.

Speaker 5 (01:18:29):
Right, right.
So yeah, go give him a follow.
He's a good follow on socialmedia and just an overall
entertaining guy.

Speaker 2 (01:18:36):
Amazing and draft him on your fantasy team.

Speaker 5 (01:18:39):
Yeah, he's a good pick, to be honest.

Speaker 2 (01:18:41):
Yeah, sweet, all right, thank you so much, man,
and we hope that, of course, youknow.
If you make it back in, youknow that that'll be my again
second favorite team.
Sorry, I'm a Pats fan.
Unless you end up in the Pats,and then my life is complete.

Speaker 5 (01:18:55):
So, if you could do that for me that'd be really
great.
Yeah, I'll make sure to putthat on the list.

Speaker 2 (01:19:01):
Yeah, we're always rooting for you, man.

Speaker 5 (01:19:02):
Thanks guys, you guys are awesome.
I really appreciate you havingme on.

Speaker 1 (01:19:05):
Right back at you.
What a great interview, what agreat gentleman.

Speaker 2 (01:19:12):
Gentlemen, indeed, I just love, like you know, you
have a preconceived notion ofwhat you think like a
professional football player,you know what might be, but you
know, if you you know in termsof stereotypes and he belies it,
he betrays all thosestereotypes, right, he's like,
he's so vulnerable, he's not,yeah, he's like humble, he's
kind, he's like.

(01:19:33):
You know.
Just, it was a great interview.
It's a super interesting pointof view and yeah, yeah, I just
really enjoyed that interview.

Speaker 1 (01:19:43):
What a good dude.
Well, we could go on and onabout it, but we do have one
last segment in our show whichis the Day C of the Week.

Speaker 2 (01:19:55):
Noises.
Indeed.
Indeed, Our Day C of the Weekis another honorary Day C,
Because our producer, the guywho launched our show with us,
Diego Lanau, is moving on.

(01:20:17):
He's leaving the show.
We love the guy, we wish himthe best and wanted to shout him
out.
I think it's.
You know, I don't know if thisis an unofficial rule or not,
but if you do 27 episodes of ofan all Day C podcast, that

(01:20:38):
officially makes you you know, Ithink so You're in.
Yeah, you're in.

Speaker 1 (01:20:44):
I think you're absolutely in.
Diego is one of the nicestpeople I've ever had a chance to
work with.
He is so complimentary, takestime out of his day to
acknowledge what everyone elseis doing really well, and then
also when we were applauding himon our last meeting, he he

(01:21:06):
pushed away.
He's the most like humble guy.

Speaker 2 (01:21:09):
He's not here to like he couldn't take any praise.
He couldn't handle it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:13):
Yeah, he could not handle it at all.

Speaker 2 (01:21:14):
You can feel him blush.
You can feel him blush throughthe, through the internet.
Yeah yes, talented, smart dude,great writer, and really helped
us up at the show together.
So we wish Diego nothing butthe absolute best on the next
leg of his journey.

Speaker 1 (01:21:32):
And on the on to wish him well and to send him out.
I want to remind everyone ofthe joke that he was the most
proud of.

Speaker 4 (01:21:39):
Yeah, it was on our pride episode.

Speaker 1 (01:21:43):
He came up with this segment named let's Get Proud,
and he was so proud, so gettingabout it.

Speaker 4 (01:21:51):
So proud of that.

Speaker 1 (01:21:53):
He never flaunts his own stuff at Ever After that
segment, Like when we weretalking about he was like I
really I like that title.

Speaker 2 (01:22:01):
I really nailed that one.
Well, let's get proud indeedthat.
Oh, this is your line becauseyou're the host.
Sorry, I won't say it, please.

Speaker 1 (01:22:11):
That's right, folks.
This has been our show.
Oh, don't give me that.
You're going to be saying thisnext episode, as always, if you
want to see our lovely faces.
All the VOD, that's video ondemand and other ways you can
hang out with us or in the shownotes.
Hey, if you could do us alittle favor, if you do me a
personal favor, break the showanywhere that you find podcast.

(01:22:32):
If you do San D Full personalfavor, maybe leave a comment,
because it really, really,really, really helps us out.
It brings a lot of attention tothe show and let's just keep
having fun.
We can bring our friends on,like Johnny Stanton the fourth,
and just talk about bridging thegaps, bringing the world
together.
It's all good stuff.
If you've got any comments,suggestions or feedback, you can
send those to ABCDpodcastshowat gmailcom, or hit us up on

(01:22:56):
Discord, which is a great funplace.

Speaker 2 (01:22:58):
Sure is the effing funny discord we're always
hanging out there.
Please drop in.
And our second sponsor shoutout.
That is, of course, Daisy Quest, the TTRPG that stars us, me
and Omar and the other greats,the other great Daisy TTRPGers
out there Anjali, Rika andJasmine.
So please go to daisyquestcom.

(01:23:20):
You can sign up for thatmailing list where you can
directly support the show rightnow on its own Patreon at
patreoncom.

Speaker 1 (01:23:27):
Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.
Last but absolutely not least,we got to thank you, our
Patreons and listeners.
In fact, we are going to listoff some names really quickly,
but we don't know how.
We don't know how we don't knowhow we're going to say this.

Speaker 4 (01:23:42):
The way you'll be doing it today is in the style
of a 1940s new.
Okay, you ready for your latestLove it.
Yeah, absolutely, this is ABCDspan.

Speaker 2 (01:23:57):
All right, it's time for the news.
These are the top people in theworld.
Here we go Joshua O'RyanTalbiam, carlo Benjamin Lowe,
hunter P Brown.

Speaker 1 (01:24:06):
We've got also Miranda Hollinger.
I'm getting this on the wirehere, michael.

Speaker 3 (01:24:09):
Long, raylin Fox, selena B.

Speaker 1 (01:24:12):
Adam Nickerson coming in hot.

Speaker 2 (01:24:15):
Hey Omar, a few more just popped in right here.
No, it's like Sarah H Dodek andKetopulate Jeremy O'Brien and
Varun.

Speaker 1 (01:24:22):
My goodness, my goodness, every morning when I
have my delicious steak and eggs, I got to say a thank you to
Moldy Bort, phillip Dizon,kathleen Schlegel and Ducati.

Speaker 2 (01:24:32):
That's right.
Well, also the word I got.
I'm just drinking straightshots of gasoline and I am going
to thank Reverend Cattino,brandon Pace Monroe, maxwell,
jeremy Schwartz for giving methe idea.

Speaker 1 (01:24:42):
And not last but not least, we got to send it out to
our good boys on theMid-Atlantic Seaboard here, but
take it away, Of course.
This is going out to HansSalslow, 8-Bit D, Andrew FL,
Chris Sims and Dan Wally andNebish Heretic.

Speaker 2 (01:24:59):
And where will we be without our effing gods, the
people contributing at the toplevel?
I'd say we'd be out at seadialing SOS via Morse code
without Laura Clarke, scribblesand flapjacks and paid in.

Speaker 1 (01:25:17):
Well, that's right, folks.
You heard it here first.
The show is produced by KatelynMahoney.
The show's technical directorand sound designer is Delvin
Neville.
The show's executive producersare Sandeep Parikh and Anand
Shah.
This is edited by Sean Mayher.
The music is by Harshal Sasodiand Jasper Singh.
This has been folks and effingfunny production.
What do you think is beingworse?

(01:25:39):
Every time it's so funny to mebecause I got only good.

Speaker 3 (01:25:45):
I heard.

Speaker 1 (01:25:46):
Sean's feelings.
Folks, thank you so much forjoining us.
We will see you next week.

Speaker 4 (01:25:55):
Oh wait, because I'm the host.
That's right, I forgot.
I thought it was.

Speaker 1 (01:25:59):
I keep defaulting to you On behalf of Sandeep Parikh,
your co-host this week, butyour host next week.
I'm Anand Shah.
May your checkers be alignedand smothered in chutney.

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