Terribly Unoblivious
Dive deep into the realms of the unconventional with "Terribly Unoblivious" – a podcast where norms are challenged, thoughts expanded, and openness cultivated. This is not your average dialogue space; it’s a confluence where curiosity meets a willingness to listen to diverse opinions. Every episode is a journey that untangles the threads of conventionality, exploring the world through lenses unfettered by the ordinary. Join us as we engage in enlightening conversations that ignite insights, foster understanding, and provoke thoughtfulness beyond the visible horizons of societal expectations. Get ready to transcend the ordinary and embrace the extraordinary with "Terribly Unoblivious."
Terribly Unoblivious
Thanksgiving Cordial
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Ever wondered what it's like growing up between cultures or how it shapes one's identity? Meet Martin Routai Villavan, a fascinating individual with a Chinese father and an American mother, born in Bangkok and having lived in China and the US. As a technology teacher, football lover, and an experienced traveler, Martin takes us on a captivating expedition of his unique background, sharing amusing anecdotes, and discussing a variety of topics ranging from cultural diversity to sports.
We promise a hearty laugh as we explore the misconceptions that come with our passports, and engage in light-hearted debates around sports, especially football. It's not all about giggles and ribbing as we also reflect on serious issues such as the legalization of marijuana. Expect to navigate through a maze of thoughts and ideas, leaping from NFL team preferences to the history of hemp and the oil industry. With a touch of movie references and a dash of spirited banter, we weave a tapestry of conversation that is both entertaining and intellectually stimulating.
Our final destination? A traditional Cuban box hog roast. But before we get there, we traverse through discussions about outdoor activities like climbing and mountain biking, and passionate talk about soccer culture and coaching. As we bring this journey to a close, we hope you've enjoyed the ride and gained insights into our shared experiences, differences, and the connections we've made through them. So, here's to laughter, learning, and a whole lot of fun. Grab a cup of your favorite brew and join us on this rollercoaster ride of thought-provoking conversation!
Thanksgiving Cocktail and Family Heritage
Speaker 1Hello there, welcome to another episode of Terribly Unoblivious. On today's episode we have special guest Martin Routai Villavan joining Brad and I for a Thanksgiving cocktail. Martin is the son of a Chinese national father and American mother. He was born and raised in Bangkok, thailand, and moved to the United States to study at Co-College in Cedar Rapids, iowa. After graduating with his degree in education, martin spent 17 years as a technology teacher in China before moving back to the US with his wife and kids. Listen along as Martin and I become fast friends and plots remove Brad from the show. This is Terribly Unoblivious. Episode 8, thanksgiving Cordial.
Speaker 3Yep, I said it before and I'll say it again Life moves pretty fast, you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. Driving isn't the only thing.
Speaker 1We've started. I hit the record button.
Speaker 3Yeah, I have eyeballs.
Speaker 1Are they on your penis, because that's called genital herpes.
Speaker 2It's gift to gifts I'm giving.
Speaker 1You want to introduce someone. What do we got? It's not your wife.
Speaker 3Not my wife.
Speaker 1Okay, so do a better job of introductions, Brad.
Speaker 3Second guest, if this goes in order.
Speaker 1That's true, we're not good at chronological.
Speaker 3It's another person. Are you AI? Are you real? Is this real life? Are you an alien?
Speaker 1Red pill or blue pill?
Speaker 3Wait, what did he take?
Speaker 1It's the red pill right.
Speaker 3He took the red pill. Yeah, because if he took the blue pill it would be Viagra. That would have been a different movie.
Speaker 1There has to be an adult film. There has to be one Now that you bring this up, you're absolutely right there has to be, and would Trinity give him the pill, or would Morpheus give him the pill still? Well, I mean it's basically the multiverse.
Speaker 3I mean it is and you could spend things in midair for a long time, and I just wonder what that would lend itself to. Options are endless. Sounds a lot like pool sex.
Speaker 1Today no no, you said suspended in air.
Speaker 3Yeah, without the chlorine burn.
Speaker 1You don't have. You don't have saltwater pools. You know how? I know you're from a poor town.
Speaker 3You don't have saltwater pools, because I'm not from a town, you're a township Everybody's from a township.
Speaker 1Are you sure? Yeah, not a borough.
Speaker 3No, that's a city right.
Speaker 1You're the one that's proof of.
Speaker 3Anyway, it's Defocating right now. Our guest Martin Rue Tyvillavan.
Speaker 2Yeah, you get it yeah.
Speaker 1Is that it? Mm? Hmm, good, how does somebody get a last name like that?
Speaker 2Did you really want me to explain?
Speaker 1I do.
Speaker 2Okay, so Well, I guess you Okay. So, essentially, my dad is Chinese and living in Bangkok. Well, my grandfather actually fled from China into Bangkok. Where's Bangkok? That's Thailand, by the way. Southeast Asia. Where's Hong Kong? It's north of Southeast or northeast of Southeast Asia. Can you drive to all of them From the United States, from each other? Yeah, you could, technically.
Speaker 3Really. Yeah, I thought Hong Kong was an island.
Speaker 2But I mean, there's underground, there's bridges to.
Speaker 3Underground tube. Yes, wow.
Speaker 1Is it the boring?
Speaker 3company. No, the ones that go like under the sea.
Speaker 1I mean they've had. Okay, here's Sebastian. The rest of the episode now.
Speaker 3I can't insult all French people. I don't even want to try, it's not.
Speaker 1Little Mermaid under the sea. Sebastian, Come on, that's where I was going.
Speaker 3I get it.
Speaker 1I don't think he did.
Speaker 3He's got a French accent right.
Speaker 1It's more like a Creole Cajun, yeah, which is French, I guess.
Speaker 3But Sure it Well okay. Louisiana, French.
Speaker 2Okay. So, anyways, in order for my grandfather to actually own land in Thailand or have a business, he had to change his last name, which was Chinese, to a Thai last name. So that's how that came about, and it wasn't actually my grandfather that changed the name. It was, I believe, my aunt, who was the oldest. Changed it to Ruteville of An, which actually translates into beautiful heart. Don't give a Does it, it does.
Speaker 1Yeah, he's never allowed back on the show. It's too heartwarming.
Speaker 3Yeah, I don't like it.
Speaker 2I don't feel like that's true, you know what I could be wrong, but that's just what I was told. Passed down, yeah, so this was your program. This is my grandfather, yeah, my dad's side.
Speaker 1When did that side come to the US then?
Speaker 2So my dad my dad came to the States in 60s and then my mom and they eventually got married. You just saw your dad's from Thailand. Yeah, Okay, so technically he's.
Speaker 1Thai, Chinese but.
Speaker 2Thai.
Speaker 1Chinese, yeah, in the 60s very and obviously completely different country. But was there any because the US is so good at grouping large quantities of people together any Vietnam stigma coming over?
Speaker 2Like all these people. Oh, my God, yes.
Speaker 1All of us. Was there anything when he came over? Was there any kind of? Any any negativity or anything along those lines or anything. Yeah, I mean the, I mean it was the 60s, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2So I mean, there were certain people that didn't end up having certain people that actually didn't go to my mom's wedding because she was married in Catholic church with my dad. Oh, wow, yeah. So that's sort of thing. And by the time my mom and dad got married, my mom's father passed away already, so and I think that would have been interesting within itself.
Speaker 3Absolutely. I was thinking about Hong Kong the whole time.
Speaker 1That's British rule.
Speaker 3But yeah, that's an island right.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 3Okay, nailed it.
Speaker 2But they're part of Hong Kong. There's also mainland Hong Kong as well. Oh, it's Kowloon side, okay.
Speaker 1Don't you remember, oh which? Is that tomorrow, so where Bruce Lee's from Tomorrow never dies.
Speaker 3Yeah, when they go to Kowloon Bay. Yeah, yeah, tomorrow never dies.
Speaker 1But tomorrow to the James 007 movie Tomorrow is not enough.
Speaker 3No, no, tomorrow never dies. Is Pierce Brown. Oh that's, yeah that's what, elliot?
Speaker 1It's the journalist. It's the evil journalist that's trying to create bullshit in the world so that he has more to write about.
Speaker 3So your dad's Thai Chinese, your mom's not.
Speaker 2No, my mom's Irish she's from Ireland? Well, no my mom's American but Irish descent that direction.
Speaker 1You know how? I know I like Martin Nope. He has a couple drinks and he's gone right for the nicotine. I tell you, trust somebody.
Speaker 3He doesn't need drinks to go straight for the nicotine.
Speaker 1Were you a long cut guy back in the day, or?
Speaker 2Short cut you chewed A long time ago.
Speaker 1What a loser have you chewed Twice in my life, puked both times.
Speaker 3Never been back.
Speaker 1Zero. You know why I don't smoke cigarettes.
Speaker 3Because people look down on you. Yeah, I bought a pack of Marble of.
Speaker 1Red 100s for a high school party thinking. I was really cool and I smoked the entire pack in a hot tub and I fell out of the hot tub into a snow bank and was just so sick, never had a desire to pick up a cigarette, ever again.
Speaker 3I did sometime after college I think, and we've got talked about this my habitual randomness of smoking a pack of cigarettes every once in a while, and we were at a bar that still had the cigarette machines.
Speaker 1Yeah, they had a lot of smoke canals, so they have camels in here.
Speaker 3They were unfiltered camels, oh boy that's that was my favorite part about going to a. Lone Star steakhouse.
Speaker 1Besides the rye bread you had the rye bread at Lone Star, but then they had the old school pole cigarette machine. You throw the quarters in twist it and pull.
Speaker 3Yeah, that's what this was.
Speaker 1Yeah it's.
Speaker 3I kind of want one of those, and I believe the cigarettes were probably from the 60s that were in there. I mean, who the fuck buys them? God, it's such a weird. You're like, oh, look at this retro packaging. It's like no, they've been in there 40 years.
Speaker 1I went to Chili's for the first time this local Chili's right here for the first time in years, and I mean years. I think I was like 12 or 13 last time I was there and now I'm 32. What am I, 32? So years and you loved it. It was amazing one but then I remember walking in. It was not amazing, jesus, come on. I remember walking in, though, and I remember left was non smoking and right was smoking.
Speaker 3And that, thank God, all this air is between us to block the smoking from the non smoking. It's almost as good as the plexiglass between the booze for.
Speaker 1COVID, so like no, you're not going to pick up what they have over there.
Speaker 3Some of them like the denies and things like that. The, the boost would just be back to back Like this yeah, smoking. This booth is non smoking. You're just back to back to each other. That doesn't work. It was amazing.
Speaker 1It was amazing.
Speaker 3Why does my bacon taste like tobacco?
Speaker 1By the way, do you ever watch any of these ringdinger videos? No, it. I want to go get it done, the worst way.
Speaker 3You want to watch it? No, okay, All right. So where did you?
Traveling, Passports, and Misconceptions
Speaker 2grow up. So I grew up in Bangkok, thailand, for 18 years. No, I'm not Hong Kong.
Speaker 3No, okay just in case anybody else is confused, I think cock Hong Kong. Let me see Two syllables.
Speaker 2I see where you're going.
Speaker 1Very similar Totally different, not as much. Not everyone in the world has much hidden their heart as you do, brad.
Speaker 3Get on my level.
Speaker 1I love the fact that you're not defending yourself right now.
Speaker 3I tell you so you were born in Bangkok, bangkok. You went to school, through high school. Yeah, graduated okay, and then the college moved back states.
Speaker 2well, I move to the states, yeah okay, so you're here illegally.
Speaker 3I.
Speaker 2Mean some. Some think that that could be the case, but no, actually hold American passport, do you hold?
Speaker 1any? Do you hold the passport, chinese passport or?
Speaker 2I hold a type.
Speaker 1And is it fun just to pick which line shorter and use that passport? Yeah, that does. He's from London, so he has a US screen card and he has a London passport or, I'm sorry, uk passport, and he's just like which line shorter? How do you get to pick the lines when you go through customs? There's there's Lines depending on where you're coming from and where you're going.
Speaker 3Okay, well, look at you world travelers. Where have you been? Nowhere. Have you ever been out of the country? Yeah, I went to Canada once.
Speaker 1I mean that counts.
Speaker 3Yeah, across the bridge. Yeah, michigan.
Speaker 1Oh, I know exactly what in Detroit. Or did you go up north towards like? Is that Queens Harbor up there?
Speaker 3I don't remember which one it is. It's a big ass bridge.
Speaker 1It's Windsor, right, oh, it's when. Yeah, it is Windsor. Yeah, I well, when I went to gumball, that's where we crossed tell me where I've been, just seeing it, oh it's.
Speaker 3Ireland.
Speaker 1How do you, how do you go from I've never been anywhere to Canada to I've been Ireland. I went to Ireland, so apparently that's in the US, because it's kind of like northeast United States. How are you so smart sometimes and so fucking dumb other?
Speaker 3times. It's just like you know. That's it. I went to Hawaii, which is weird because that's farther than a lot of places.
Speaker 1That's like halfway to his hometown, yeah.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah. When you look at it on the map you're like, oh, this is eight hours from mainland. That's a, that's a long way.
Speaker 1It's four hours from mainland. How did they get there? They rode the boats.
Speaker 3I think it was aliens.
Speaker 1Oh, he worked it in, I knew it. Martin he has this thing where he has to work in aliens.
Speaker 3I don't worry, it was severe continental drift.
Speaker 1Well, that's a long time. The land bridge was north of that in, I mean, but if you, the land bridge was Alaska through.
Speaker 3You know how there's? Isn't there like the little, the little bay there, like california? You know, you know, I think that's what Hawaii broke off of and just floated out talking about Baja, just floated eight hours Into the ocean.
Speaker 1It has nothing to do with the like five active volcanoes that are directly underneath Hawaii right now. No, no, okay, just make sure.
Speaker 3I mean Aliens. God just wanted it there.
Speaker 1Oh, my background, he just wanted my background is uh, singapore, for whatever reason, I don't know, martin. Have you been to Singapore, martin, couple of times? It's one place I have not been and I want to go in the worst way.
Speaker 2It's um, I don't know. It's kind of like America in Asia.
Speaker 1Brad could definitely get his chicken strips there. I don't like chicken strips.
Speaker 3Which? Which is the country that has the, uh, the semi dictator that kills drug addicts?
Speaker 2Singapore. I mean Kind of I don't know, I can't remember his name. Is it Singapore?
Speaker 1Singapore is not a country, though, to see.
Speaker 3There's a lot of. There's a.
Legalizing Marijuana and American Football Discussion
Speaker 1There's a lot of there's a lot of zero tolerance drug policy over in Asia in general, though, so you could be talking about who talked about that.
Speaker 3Tom's a girl. He has a saying about that. They have like hit squads, they'll go out. I don't know. He's like, yeah, if you, if you're all doped up and you might just Get his squad, so like when you go out to work in the morning, you better fucking wake up and look lively, because you don't want to be mistaken for it being all doped up.
Speaker 2Funny thing, though, is that Thailand opened up with uh Legalizing marijuana, oh they did.
Speaker 1Hmm, still no opium. But yeah, no, I don't know. I've only seen tropic thunder like 10 times. Oh, first you say you rice farmer. You say you poppy farmer. What kind of farmer? Are you Uh.
Speaker 3It's Weird that weed was illegal right.
Speaker 1We're that. We weed the legal where ever ever.
Speaker 2I don't know. There's an interesting theory behind that, though. It has to do with like, well, hemp as well. Yeah, in a combination of like, knowing that hemp could be used as another product and interviewed, interfered with a different product that was already on the market.
Speaker 3So where was? Where? Has weed always been legal anywhere? I don't know, like there's a. There's the whole hemp thing in America about, like textiles and, you know, lumber Paper yeah, all that kind of stuff and that's. Maybe that's partially true, but that wouldn't. That wouldn't explain why it's illegal everywhere.
Speaker 2You know, I never really thought about that.
Speaker 3It's what? Was that the Rockefeller? Was that the? Yeah? Was that what?
Speaker 2it was. I think so was it. I had, though a direct Hemp was always a direct competitor to petroleum Lubricants.
Speaker 1No Well, I thought hemp was always a direct competitor to the oil industry, somehow where there was byproducts of petroleum that were in direct conjunction there, and that's why big oil did not want. Yeah, legalized weed, are you saying?
Speaker 3that big oil may have sway over entire industries.
Speaker 1Remember when they were paying people to get rid of oil barrels, like five years ago? No, they're what. Don't you remember when the empty barrels Dude you? There was people that took warehouses full of oil for almost free. They're getting paid to do it and now they're worth Billions of dollars. Why? Because the oil futures went to shit.
Speaker 3Five years ago. Oh, so they had to control the demand supply? Yeah, maybe, I don't know what. Is a combination well, I thought you were gonna like fill me in on this.
Speaker 1I don't have the time to give you an economics lesson, okay.
Speaker 3Good, because I don't have the patience to take it.
Speaker 1No, you don't you went to school for philosophy, I went to school for economics.
Speaker 3Yeah, but I'm minored in petroleum products.
Speaker 1Is that when you're giving your wife the back door?
Speaker 3No, rude god, you're the worst.
Speaker 1Martin's. Like I didn't sign up for this episode.
Speaker 3We didn't ask Martin the beginning question, okay, hmm, uh, it's not gonna be that one, though. It's just gonna be the most, uh, insulting question that we can think of, given the person. So who's your favorite NFL team?
Speaker 2I mean by default, are you wearing a Eagles hat. Right now I'm not wearing an Eagles hat. It's my college alma mater. It looks like a fucking Eagles hat.
Speaker 3I know green, though, but it's a little bit. Thank you by default special edition. I just hate the Eagles because they took a super bowl away from me. Oh, from you. Yeah, the Patriots.
Speaker 2Oh, oh.
Speaker 3By default.
Speaker 2I'm a Bears fan, but I don't really follow football.
Speaker 3Why FOO?
Speaker 1or FU.
Speaker 2I don't follow American football religiously At all because it's just not of an interest to me. It's too slow.
Speaker 1It's taken 18 minutes for us to get to the very point of what Brad wanted this podcast to be, which was American versus European football. Yeah, I should, I shouldn't, I shouldn't condescend it in that way. American versus world football.
Speaker 3This is not the only thing that we want to talk to Martin about, but it is the one thing that I really want him to go on a rant on. I Just it's fun, I like it.
Speaker 2What you like American football.
Speaker 3Uh, no, no, not really. Uh, I did when I was.
Speaker 1Uh, hoosier, because you're still there.
Speaker 3Hoosier. Yeah, what's a Hoosier?
Speaker 1I don't know Indiana basketball. Come on, jesus Christ.
Speaker 2I mean, I know that, yeah, I don't even know what a Hoosier still like it's kind of like a.
Speaker 1It's kind of like a redneck, kind of Um negative term for West End Davenporters like your Hoosier, wow oh just Anybody else you want to throw under the bus there, or I? Don't know.
Speaker 3No, that's it. Yeah, at least be a 49ers fan.
Speaker 1And it all goes back to oil.
Speaker 3I thought that was gold. No, 49ers is oil.
Speaker 1It's so much fun to have somebody that's intellectually intelligent on the podcast because we can just sit here and make fun of you 49ers the miners, Uh yeah, uh, like gold miners.
Speaker 2Okay, there's blood. Have you ever seen that movie? There will be blood.
Speaker 3Oh, yeah, yeah, I got drink I got that Dan Dan of the Lewis drink your milkshake. I drink you a milkshake. I don't remember what it's about. I remember something about a preacher and then him really liking milkshakes.
Speaker 1So he needed, he needed the preacher that the boy preacher, because he needed the land and needed the People that were going to the church to be okay with what he was doing.
Speaker 3So they got the cahoots together. They swindled them, they swindled each other. They swindled each other.
Speaker 1Well, they were both like, acting like friends, but they were pitting against each other. It was really. Really. The ending scene was intense, or he's trying to kill the sun in the bowling alley Was that in the bowling alley yeah, it was the bowling alley at the end.
Speaker 3That's all I remember.
Speaker 2I was sad. No, check the bowling alley oil. Did you realize it's so good?
Speaker 1Mmm. Last moheakens, I will find you.
Speaker 3I did watch it over and over again. I did watch it over and over again. Yeah, I used to request, I think gang I used to request the gangs of New York was epic yeah, that's a good one too.
Speaker 1John C Riley was in it King's in New York. Yeah, he was the policeman.
Speaker 3Oh yeah, yeah, that's right, I don't watch that again.
Speaker 1There's a lot of guys in that.
Speaker 3Mm-hmm. Uh, I would request the orchestra. Uh, last of the moheakens at like school dances. I feel like, can you, you play this real banger?
Speaker 1You're like the guy that puts like who lets the dog out five times on the ami before you walk out of a bar and just let Everyone listen. Who lets the dog out on repeat?
Speaker 3It's just me sitting on the floor smoking a piece of pipe with a tomahawk.
Speaker 1Is that one of you? Is that one?
Speaker 3you knew what I'm not gonna go there, uh, but yeah. No, that was a good one. I like that one a lot. Um, what else, what else, what else, what else that was it.
Speaker 1He was only in like three movies Day in the day, lewis.
Speaker 3Yeah, the scarlet letter was he? In that one, the scarlet letter. We had to watch that.
Speaker 2He's done some other things too, remember.
Speaker 3Well, what's a little?
Speaker 2can you?
Speaker 3imagine people still uh Chastising and and judging people for being promiscuous in this day and age.
Speaker 2Still imagine if we still did that.
Speaker 1I love it, we're talking about we still deal. It's my favorite, you know this is why do you?
Speaker 3Why do you do it?
Speaker 2I'm Never said I did.
Speaker 1Uh, I had this conversation. Uh, happy Thanksgiving everyone. By the way, it's the day after, uh, so my, my, like my family that's in town, all from california, uh, la, san diego. But the la family has a family friend. She's a 20 year old girl living with them and I thought you're gonna say living with daniel day loose. No, but she is supposedly dating, but not Having sex, with a 60 year old man in la. That is very, very wealthy and my cousins are appalled by it. My aunt's, like what are you gonna do? And I'm kind of in the same boat. Like she's over the age of 18. The guy's obviously a predator, but what I mean, what do you do Is is he or is?
Speaker 3she, I think, I think.
Speaker 1I well. Well, that's true.
Speaker 3I think. That's where I say I think it could be mutual.
Speaker 1I think it's mutual, then that that's where I fell on it. It's like, yeah, he likes younger people.
Speaker 3I mean it could be neither.
Speaker 1You kind of know where you stand in those situations, though it could be neither, because if you're, you ever talked to somebody that I mean you talked to a 20 year old. You just you're where you're at in your life. You're, you're. It's a little different. You're you kind of you're not gonna get a lot of substance out of it Not saying they don't have good ideas or thoughts or opinions, but there's not a lot of depth quite yet.
Speaker 3Okay, so start making a list of everybody that you hate.
Speaker 2Well there's there's not a lot of 20 or a bad child at the top of that.
Speaker 3Okay, that's a pretty small group.
Speaker 2That's it. That's. That's just interesting. What's interesting? The fact that she's she's 18. Is this correct? She's 20. Oh, okay, she's 20.
Speaker 1She's 20 Um, but I think she's probably making.
Speaker 3I should say she's making.
Speaker 1I don't think I don't think it's taxable income at that point. It's just gifts.
Speaker 3You know. What really works, though, is when your friends and family tell you that you shouldn't date someone that works all the time.
Speaker 1And that was my point to my cousin though, which was like my, it's full might.
Speaker 1My aunt is been great. She's like. I'm here to support her. I'm not condoning it, but I'm not saying anything negative, because at some point that relationship will probably end and she's going to need a guiding, lighter life. Who she's not going to run to in a time of needing safety is all the people that have been talking Mad shit to her and trying to control her for the past hour, many months. So all you can do is try to provide a safe space. Yeah, so, and my cousin? He's male and he's what. 20, 28 he doesn't understand that.
Speaker 1He's like well, somebody just talk some sense into her. Like Tyler you're, I get what you're saying, but it's not that easy.
Speaker 3All is fair and love and war, except huge age differences and chemical warfare.
Speaker 1All right, you get one superpower. What is it?
Speaker 3I breathe mustard gas.
Speaker 1I breathe mustard gas. Really out of all them. You choose that. Do you want to paint shitty watercolors to Hitler like he didn't.
Speaker 3He didn't breathe mustard gas. No, he hated mustard gas because he got mustard gas in World War one and that's why he didn't use chemical warfare.
Speaker 1Oh, the fucking beacon of light. I'm not saying that, I'm just giving you a history lesson.
Speaker 2Thanks, martin one superpower, I'd say flying.
Speaker 3Yeah, I'm gonna fly, mm-hmm. Yeah, oh wait, oh no, Dr Strange.
Speaker 1Yeah, he kind of falls into a weird category because he has other things that do things for him. He's got magic, but he's Cape lets him fly. It's not even him. So he kind of gets like time travel, that's magic right. So, so I guess magic is it Magics your magic is not a skill. I'm just saying magic is your superpower. That gives you many of the superpowers that you would want. What it's, it's oh.
Speaker 3OK, yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, speaking of magic, when I was in Seattle haven't had this deck of cards since I was like 14 years old.
Speaker 2It's a magic shop in downtown Seattle.
Speaker 1I walked right by. I got super excited, went in, got one of my old magic decks.
Speaker 3Weird Very excited. Another 30 year old white male going into a magic shop, surprise, yeah.
Speaker 1Is that a common thing? It's got to be. You're not wrong, it's got to be.
Speaker 3They got to be either 12 or 40.
Speaker 2You're going to have a beard anomaly. They have a beard.
Speaker 1When was the last of the Mohicans? Ninety two Age of innocence.
Speaker 3I, so you know the he hasn't done anything since.
Speaker 1Phantom Thread.
Speaker 2Ah, he supposedly said that he's like semi-retired, he's done because he said it.
Speaker 1He said method acting was getting too hard for him.
Speaker 3Yeah, it's too intense. Yeah maybe don't do it. That seems logical. I feel like you'd be a method actor, though I wouldn't make more than one movie probably. I did that. Yeah, yeah, I mean, if I method acted like last of the Mohicans. I would be stuck. I would just be scalping people and shooting people at 200 yards with muskets.
Speaker 1When did Jim carry? Is it man?
Speaker 3on the man on the moon.
Speaker 1Is it the one he did?
Speaker 3I haven't seen that one.
Speaker 1And what's his? What's his?
Speaker 2Wow, you haven't even seen it in interstellar either.
Speaker 3No, I haven't. I watch real space things.
Speaker 1Neil DeVast I meant Andy Koff.
Speaker 2There's legitimate things in that they cross check a lot of that.
Speaker 1Hmm.
Speaker 3There's a lot of not legitimate things in it, uh-oh.
Speaker 1What did I do? That's OK.
Speaker 3All right. So, uh, what did you grow up playing? What did you play? Sports wise.
Speaker 2I mean at the end of the day, I was quite blessed I was able to play baseball in Asia. I played a lot of football, soccer um played ice hockey, golfed um play basketball it is. And my in my rebellious time I did a lot of inline skating and skateboarding. No ping pong, no ping pong.
Speaker 3Oh, this is some badminton, some badminton. I love badminton, pickleball.
Speaker 2So then you non existent, not existent.
Speaker 1Pickleball has been around since the 60s. Fuck, you know it hasn't, ok.
Teaching, Travel, and American Football
Speaker 3Ok, let's go right now. No, so then you came back to America, went to college, majored in education literature.
Speaker 1Education. Ok, went to be a teacher. Yes, how long?
Speaker 2Um brick and mortar 17 years.
Speaker 1Sounds like a long time yeah.
Speaker 3You went to college for 17 years.
Speaker 2No, I mean, I guess you could say like being in academia is like an extension of college, because you're always constantly learning and trying to inject different approaches of teaching and learning and trying to be contemporary, are you? I try to.
Speaker 3Is everybody.
Speaker 2No, what did you teach? I started off as a seventh grade science teacher and then I moved into technology, which is kind of like a broader terminology, and I guess for a job I'm in teaching and that would be to help support teachers to get other teachers and students on board with the latest and greatest technology that would help support learning. What school district I was at first at Lindmar and then I moved overseas.
Speaker 1Good basketball, lindmar, yeah, always been a good basketball Good basketball.
Speaker 2I'm actually during my time. I'm going on a tangent. We had one kid that was there that went to UNC.
Speaker 1Oh, michael Jordan, Was that like 08?, 09? When?
Speaker 2was that.
Speaker 1Yeah, around that time I know who you're talking about.
Speaker 3Yeah, I am, he was good. It's past Michael Jordan's time? Yeah, I think Michael.
Speaker 1Jordan was going to divorce around that time.
Speaker 2He was retiring. He was playing for the Wizards Washington.
Speaker 1Wizards Player owner. He was player owner. He was kind of like Will Ferrell. And what's the basketball movie that Will Ferrell did?
Speaker 2Super, super, super stars no.
Speaker 3Wow, this is just a riveting semi-pro.
Speaker 1No.
Speaker 3Example of you guys trying to think of movies.
Speaker 1What do you want to talk about, Brad? It's your podcast. Go for it. You know what? I actually ran the analysis the other day because I can do that. Uh-oh Brits poem. Hi, I ran the analysis the other day. Do you know how much you talk versus? I talk I 80-20. Oh shh, oh boy.
Speaker 3See, but we flip flop that Win. So I get Great success. I'm so glad. King of the Castle, king of the Castle, oh my God, 80-20.
Speaker 2That is so.
Speaker 3I do 80% of the research. Okay, I'm not talking this episode.
Speaker 1Okay, Whatever man there's. Just my family all came home. Everybody's here.
Speaker 3We're going to pause real fast, just to let this all go through. People are bringing crates.
Speaker 1Okay, we had a little interruption there. Family came back in. I'm hosting People. As you can tell, we were doing a movie. Pop cinema culture rewind there for a second but, Brad didn't really appreciate that we were talking about how I talk too much. Yeah, yeah, 80-20. You have a lot of good things to say. You have a lot of dumb shit, but there's a couple of nuggets of gold in there.
Speaker 3You understand that I have to try really hard for the dumb shit, right.
Speaker 1No.
Speaker 3You don't think so.
Speaker 1I think you're faking it until you make it Wow. Okay, that's why you don't want cameras. Well, that's. Because, everyone's going to see.
Speaker 3That's why my plan's going to work, because you don't even realize it's a plan.
Speaker 1You don't even know what you're talking about.
Speaker 3Go watch the show and see how brown your eyes are.
Speaker 1My eyes are brown, yeah, full of shit. Okay, well, so Martin, school for you growing up. Obviously we're just talking about you and teaching, but you have perfect native English. Did you grow up in school with English? Did you grow up with Thai? How did you know what was the language like growing up?
Speaker 2Gotcha. When I tell my story, people immediately don't understand where I'm coming from.
Speaker 1This is a Midwest voice. You see what I'm talking about I completely understand it.
Speaker 2Look at it. He's even wearing a flannel. He's easy, he's cold outside.
Speaker 1That song got canceled. Be careful, we don't want to go off the air. This is true, true story.
Speaker 2They tried to cancel it, but it's still here. I went to an international school, an American-based curriculum Okay.
Speaker 1So Fahrenheit and not Celsius.
Speaker 2I would say an amalgamation of both. I had some British teachers.
Speaker 1I had some.
Speaker 3Aussie teachers, you guys say the Pledge of.
Speaker 2Allegiance no, we didn't. Did you have a theme song?
Speaker 1We did.
Speaker 3America, fuck yeah.
Speaker 1England's a weird place because they're on metric but they use miles per hour still. They're there yeah.
Speaker 2It's weird.
Speaker 3Don't say yeah, I've been driving around England for a long time. I've never fucking been there.
Speaker 1You went to Ireland. Almost the same, is it? Oh, they would beat you for that one.
Speaker 2Oh, I know.
Speaker 3The IRA is probably planning to haze it right now.
Speaker 2It's not the same. And then, yeah, so, coming back to me, spent summers in the Chicagoland area, because that's where my mom's from. Okay, is your mom and dad still over?
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2So my mom and dad still live in Thailand when did they move back to Thailand after your? Dad came here 80.
Speaker 180? How old was your dad then? And your mom, I guess how old were we both?
Speaker 3Good, I'm not the only one that sucks at this question.
Speaker 2Geez, put me on the spot for that. My dad's pushing 80. My mom's 73.
Speaker 1Yeah, so they moved to the 80s. We're talking over 30, 40 years, 40-ish years ago. So, they're in their 40s. They're in their late, late, late 30s.
Speaker 2Yeah, early 30s. My dad was late 30s, my mom was early 30s.
Speaker 1And then are you one of how many? Two, one of two Younger or older? I'm younger, okay, you have an older sister.
Speaker 2Yeah, 76. She's 76? Born in 76. Wow, that's better.
Speaker 3I thought the same thing by the way, I was real quick trying to calculate math there and it was not making sense.
Speaker 2Oh boy, oh boy.
Speaker 1Is she stateside?
Speaker 2Is she still in here? Yeah, she stateside.
Speaker 1So you both came back.
Speaker 2She's been more predominantly like America just works for her. America doesn't work for you. Just some moments where it doesn't, there's some moments where it does, oh you want to hear this what works?
Speaker 3Let's go positive. What works? What works? Yeah, what do you like?
Speaker 2Well, there's some pretty good systems in place. I guess an general understanding, like getting to different places, can be difficult. It just yes. It doesn't make sense that we don't have a rail, a proper rail system. That is one of my gripes as well.
Speaker 3It's just Especially when you go overseas and it's kind of funny because we were built on the rail system Rock full Vanderbilt. Was he like a conductor, or what? Okay, never mind, I'm done.
Speaker 2I can't I can't Vanderbilt more like overbuilt?
Speaker 3I'm heading to Asheville, north Carolina.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, I got a friend in Asheville Heading there a couple weeks, are you?
Speaker 3Yeah, we're getting there.
Speaker 1We're going to go see the what's the Vanderbilt estate down there, the Biltmore.
Speaker 3Oh, they have pretty paint colors.
Speaker 1Like pastel, yeah, okay Cool.
Speaker 3They have their own line of paint colors.
Speaker 1The Biltmore does I think so. Are they like I?
Speaker 3can't remember who they were through.
Speaker 1They're a through company Like associated with Back to Martin though, because you're boring, he's intellectual. Okay, jesus, we've got the rail system. It is a gripe.
Speaker 3American football is a gripe.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's just. It's too overdone, it's over baked, and I mean the no relegation system in America is not.
Speaker 3Yeah, okay, you want to get into it. Yeah, okay, it's not good.
Speaker 2Yeah, I understand the capitalism and people buying or having the money to like Okay, I've got like X amount of billion dollars. I'm going to say that I'm going to build a team in Vegas or whatever Right. Let's say they want to build a team in Montana, for example, and they're going to put up a team there. I'm sure the Montanese would really love this. I think that's just ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous, okay.
Speaker 3So here's a question. You have an established team, you have a fair amount of money, you have how many fucking people that play football in the United States? American football, american football, yeah, how many, how many players, how?
Speaker 1many, or are they allowed? They're allowed, like what? 45 or 55 on a team 55 on a team right.
Speaker 2You can't put together a winning team right, you can't put together a winning team. I just don't understand it. Why do you need 55 players? Because they get hurt all the time.
Speaker 3Uh 55 on a team.
Speaker 2Yeah, you got to have offensive line, defensive line.
Speaker 3You can have force string dude.
Speaker 2I just don't get it.
Speaker 3Haven't you ever seen any given Sunday?
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1I have seen that More of a replacements fan myself Uh. I Because. Ken Arruse is just the guy. It's actually John Wick, but Actually that's a true story too, John Wick.
Speaker 2No, the replacements yeah. Yeah, I mean, if you sock like, I just think they should get rid of the pads, okay, and speed up the game, okay, and then it'd be okay, like you get a play clock, like, screw the play clock, get that off, okay, wait, no play clock.
Speaker 3Why Just?
Speaker 2keep it running. Make a move. That'd be rugby then, but you still have that stop and go part.
Speaker 3Okay, so what about, like, the pitch clock in baseball? Like baseball's a slow sport too, and now they're trying to kind of they have to speed it up because they're losing viewership.
Speaker 1Yeah, that is purely. What they're doing now is purely to keep that sport alive.
Speaker 3Yes, okay. So why do we love NFL so much?
Speaker 1NFL only stops the clock towards the end in certain play. There are only certain instances that stop the clock, Otherwise it keeps running. Football and basketball, that's why the referee swings his arm wildly. When he points forward with the left arm and then swings the right arm, what's that mean? It means it keeps the clock rolling. It means we're continuing on, and then, when they wave their arms above their head, that's when it'sstop it. Yeah, it's too much Okay.
Comparing Sports and Leagues
Speaker 2It's too much Okay. You want to get rid of the pads? Get rid of the pads so that you know that you hit below the bottom 22 man roster Play both ways.
Speaker 1Yeah, I don't have an opinion one way or the other.
Speaker 1I don't you never really get rid of the pads. I have friends that were college football players and they're really, really smart guys, but when it comes to them stepping foot on the field they turn into the biggest dumb motherfuckers you'll ever meet, and it is they'll go ahead first. They don't. They're like we know it's dangerous, we know it's a thing, but they're like in the heat of the moment we're not like you could take all the pads off of them and they're not going to be going. This might hurt a little bit.
Speaker 3They're like, yeah, let's bring it on. I feel like NFL is a little bit like UFC or like the Mark McGuire home run deal.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 3Where it's just like if this is what you want to see, like, let's just, let's just do this. Do you everybody juices, the everybody goes all out.
Speaker 1It's issue that professional cycling, in my opinion, because everyone's choosing. Yeah, I agree the issue with the NFL is those guys? So rugby, everyone's like oh, nobody wears pads and rugby they're constantly emotion to your point. You're not really start stop NFL. Those guys are running for five seconds. Those guys, they are track stars for the first 50 yard.
Speaker 1I mean they can say they for 50 yards, they can keep up with you know, they can keep up with some of the best runners in the world and they're 260, 300 pounds. That's a lot of mass coming at you. Yeah, it is aggressive. The argument is, if it didn't, if it was kind of a rotating revolving thing there, would it be as much? Start, stop. You know momentum game, but it's like rugby with the UFC. Essentially it is very much it's a combat sport.
Speaker 3The athleticism is there for sure.
Speaker 1There's a lot of money there.
Speaker 2I mean it's because it's entertainment at the end of the day, but it's you know you have alignment, that's 400 pounds that can run, but my my, my, my, my, my stepdad from London.
Speaker 1I'm a massive, massive world football fan. I probably bigger fan than I am of American football. But you know, you watch the Beckham documentary. You watch the Figo documentary on Netflix right now. Have you seen that? The sport there are? They produced a time.
Speaker 3Must be nice to have time to watch TV. Guys Figo the.
Speaker 1Figo documentary is unbelievable. By the way, it's it's if you've never been to Spain, but when you go to Spain you've been to both places. It's really kind of drives at home.
Speaker 3This is so much more fun than I anticipated 80, 20, right, but uh not to their, their.
Speaker 1It is. There are so many clubs and so many teams in the world, and then it always boils down to is it La Liga? Is it Syria? Ah, is it Premiership? Is it Boondisliga, is it? You know what's the league? And they also, I mean they can go anywhere they want. I mean shit, beckham came to the MLS, you know, uh it, there's almost an overabundance at times which it's like what is the definitive, what is the league? And that's what they're trying to do right now. That's what AC Mollons are attempting to do with their. They're trying to do the um, they're trying to do the Champions League on steroids, which is like the well they've tried it in the past right With like the super league type thing.
Speaker 1And that's that's that's what AC Mollons trying to put together right now, because then you get away and nobody I mean the clubs want it, because it'll, it'll cement them into into a situation, but then there's FA Cup, then there's Premiership.
Speaker 1I mean, well, there's FA Cup, then there's Champions League, then there's I mean, there's all these other side games. It's side quests. It's kind of fun, you got, you're going for the league, but then you're kind of going for the side quests. The NBA is doing that this year, though. Are they going out to? Are they going out to the world now?
Speaker 2I don't know what the NBA is doing is that they actually have a in in NBA tournament. So not only are you going for the, the title at the end, you know, with the playoffs, but they actually have an in in tournament in the NBA.
Speaker 1Really, yeah, I did not know like a bracket play yeah.
Speaker 2So you go to the nation? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, oh wow, they're doing like a March Madness.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1But, yeah.
Speaker 3The NBA is so boring.
Speaker 1I cannot stand NBA. I love college basketball. I love basketball Like college basketball is pretty good.
Speaker 2I was actually watched it yesterday. I was just like actually it's pretty interesting.
Speaker 3College sports in general are more interesting to watch Not soccer, it's just not there, but baseball, like I've watched college baseball If you've been in Omaha.
Speaker 2you've been in the college world series I think those kids should be hitting with the wood bat, though I don't.
Speaker 3I agree with that. There's high schoolers hitting with wood bats now they should just be wood bats. And they still get them out, but the especially baseball.
Speaker 1It's not every sport, but the college baseball players that make it to college baseball, their bodies are at the same shape and size they're going to be by the time they get to the MLB. There's not a lot of development, because that's in no yeah.
Speaker 3They could drink more beer.
Speaker 1No, Geez, all right, now we're going to go to the old school Phillies clubhouse.
Speaker 3What I mean. It's something.
Speaker 1Mark Wood over there used to drink a case of beer before the game.
Speaker 3And I mean I'm just saying pictures don't have to run a lot, I do think.
Speaker 2MLB was savage. They should have kids just play wood bat. Once they get to a point where they can actually hit, make contact on the ball consistently after you know, using the aluminum bats or whatever they're using now. They should switch over.
Speaker 3I just think that you should get to put teams together, and baseball is the easiest one to do it because they're set up in leagues already, as you know single A, double A, triple A, like. You already have that, that system there.
Speaker 2Oh, are you talking about like, yeah, let's stay?
Speaker 3together and in Europe. Yeah, oh, we talked about this. Yeah, yeah, like set up like English football style.
Speaker 1The NFL.
Speaker 3No baseball.
Speaker 1Baseball yeah, oh you, because they had the infrastructure. The infrastructure is already there with the.
Speaker 3FA Cup we also. All you do is is make everything independent again.
Speaker 1So there's no, which is how it used to be, and there's no farm systems. Yeah, no farm system.
Speaker 3And have at it, because then you you're giving guys a shot instead of you know what that doesn't allow you to do, though. I don't know. Monopolize boredom.
Speaker 1It's. It doesn't allow you to put the movie theater, the shopping malls, the theme parks all in one area, because you know consistently people are going to come to this year after year. Because if your team's in, you know in one A, nobody's come into that.
Speaker 3Yeah, but I think the other, I think the other thing and somebody. I saw a clip on this the other day when they were talking about English football or whatever they're like, no matter what the game is, if you're watching world football and a goal is scored, a goal is scored. It is infinitely more exciting than any home run, three point shot, touchdown, anything it's just, it's just better.
Speaker 1I saw four goals at Camp Nou when I was in Barcelona and it was every goal you thought was the work. Like you're saying, it was a World Series game or a Super Bowl game, but every goal the night or it was 103,000 people, I think, is that stadium or something like that. Yeah, and it was just. You could feel the stadium shaking, yeah, but people are so like.
Speaker 3People will say I'm like. You'll say I'm a Bears fan. You know I'm not a. I'm not a diehard Bears fan, whatever, but I'm a Bears fan. You don't even watch the games, right?
Speaker 2And then people do watch the games.
Speaker 3They're like they're cheering, you know whatever, but we're. We're watching a Premier League game on the weekends and fucking just screaming at the TV. Yeah. And it's better than people are screaming in the stadiums at NFL games.
Speaker 1That's because you have a problem.
Speaker 3But it's worldwide. Everybody has that problem. Yeah, everyone's got that.
Speaker 1Why don't you tell the world and when I say the world, are 50 people that download this podcast. You're well. When did you become? When did you become a food to both fan? How many years ago, Like one? Yeah, this is my favorite part about you, and you, just you're all in.
Speaker 1I do you never had to experience this? They got games everywhere on TV. Now I remember going to the obscure channels when I was in middle school and high school at random times at night, trying to just pick up a replay of what was played.
Speaker 3Oh, you had table as a kid. That must have been nice. Yeah, what was that?
Speaker 2I see Tansa yeah.
Exploring Football Culture and Coaching
Speaker 3So it was. We talked about this a little bit, but the Phoenix was got really into it and he had always been.
Speaker 1You sure you weren't one of those like aggressive parents that like pushed the kid that way because you fell in love with it? I didn't. I didn't love it. Okay, you sound like one of those, Are you?
Speaker 3are you a tiger? I didn't love it. I coached him in rec. You a tiger, mom? I coach no Tiger, brad no.
Speaker 1Brad Tiger, I don't I know we're going to bring Phoenix on this podcast?
Speaker 3I'm going to ask him, independently of you. I have video of, or like some I don't know. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, and I'm going to ask him or like some, some photos or something. It's him and like you six, you seven, something like that. You know, in the rec program he just he's being like a six or seven year old, he's just like digging around. I was just watching because I wasn't coaching at that time.
Speaker 1It is a culture. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3And then he got into it and so I think sometime around COVID, the coach that we now coach with, and so we're kind of assistance now. So it's Kurt. He didn't coach that year and we didn't really have a season, but we kind of did some stuff. And so I kind of was just like I'll help out whatever you know, whatever I can, and then kind of just started getting a little bit more into it.
Speaker 3And then when Corbin started up and decided that he really wanted to do something, that's when I had to decide that I actually had to learn how to coach this thing for real, which means that I have to learn something about it.
Speaker 1So you watched Green Street Hooligans one time.
Speaker 3No, I haven't seen Green Street Hooligans yet You've never seen them.
Speaker 1No, now I know what I'm getting you for Christmas, yeah.
Speaker 3Let's call this episode what Brad hasn't done. It's really easy, yeah, that list is long, I'm gonna start telling Mark. So, anyways, when?
Speaker 1we're gonna do this and not when, like, and you're gonna be like what's up, I'm like nothing, we're not podcasting, and you're gonna see like five episodes go out.
Speaker 3Like what it's fine, it's fine. So then I think, we were at a meeting one night for soccer and I started asking Martin about like what's, how do I play a seven on seven? And then he just starts going hey, you get this, this, and then you circle around here, and then they can do this. And then I was like oh okay, so I knew there was a lot.
Speaker 1It's a chess match.
Speaker 3I knew there was a lot happening. It's a chess match, more than what I was aware of, and then I think the second time we really talked about it was when I quit drinking the night.
Speaker 1Which time?
Speaker 3The night before I quit drinking. Which time this was on a pedal pub, god, I don't know, oh, he has to.
Speaker 2How many times I've heard about it.
Speaker 3You may, he's a pedal pub. How? Many times I've heard Brad talk about it. You were.
Speaker 1Yeah, you were on the pedal pub. Yes, where'd you guys go? Downtown Denver Ike's.
Speaker 2They don't do that anymore because of Brad.
Speaker 1They're not a lot. Well, they were never allowed to drink on the thing.
Speaker 3They're not. That would have been smart. Yeah, it was not, it was not, I don't know. But yeah, at the end of the night he's doing this thing again. And I was just like there was so much shit that I I mean obviously my baseline was zero about what I knew, as most Americans are About it Mm-hmm, I mean not just the game, just in terms of coaching. And so then I kind of started down that road and then started watching. He was like, oh, watch this, watch this. And so I started watching the Amazon.
Speaker 3Yeah it was a big mistake. I should have never told him yeah, he loves it. The what? What are they? All or nothings on Amazons. They're different series, so they've done some rugby ones. They have a bunch of football ones.
Speaker 1They did the all blacks.
Speaker 3Yeah, they did the all blacks, so they've done some different things on that, so I went through and started watching some of those and Did you watch Southampton till I die?
Speaker 2On Netflix.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 3It's good.
Speaker 1I mean, but that's, and that's what I talk about.
Speaker 3No, that was Sunderland, oh sorry.
Speaker 1Sunderland until I die. But it's a culture, it is in the DNA.
Speaker 3Yes.
Speaker 1And that's, I think, my favorite. I think I've got to experience some very cool things in my life. One of them is Humblebrag, understanding how deeply rooted this is. I've been in London with my stepdad and his family for England games that are World Cup qualifier or, or we were over for the European Championship one time Just and the it. You can just feel it in the air, no matter where you're at in town, ever you can. There's before the game. There's there's excitement, but there's also trepidation. There's anxiety and you can just tell.
Speaker 3You know, the thing in the US that probably has the closest atmosphere to it Hunger games, hockey.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, mm-hmm.
Speaker 3That's what I would guess, because hockey fans are fucking there for it.
Speaker 2Mm-hmm yeah.
Speaker 3It's team. It's the chirping outside the stadium to the opposing fans.
Speaker 1They've been the redhead stepchild in American sports forever, and so it is very much like an underground kind of. But that's punk culture, if you will. It's got a little bit of that.
Speaker 3Yeah, honestly, I think that's the, because everything else is just it feels superficial. And you know basketball, baseball, like you have fans that kind of go back and forth to each other but you don't separate the fans.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1That's another degree.
Speaker 3No, you guys can only sit in this corner. You're not allowed to intermingle.
Speaker 2And you don't have a total hero. And nobody else does that. You don't have a total hero. That's literally saying fuck you.
Speaker 1They don't have sheets or like they don't have the massive claws over sections where you're like we won't sit 2000 fans in our stadium because we can't have them next to each other, because fights are going to break out.
Speaker 1And I mean I've been to many games over in England and Ben would be like we're not going down, that we're not going down that alley and if we get separated you stay with the people in red, like it is very much what's the Dr Seuss book, where it's the stars and not star Right, that's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3No, I feel like that's it, toast down.
Speaker 2I feel like that's a very war two thing yeah.
Speaker 3It's war two.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's what it sounds like it is. What is it, dr Seuss? So I was watching. It's not the sneeze I was watching these, the sneeze, yeah.
Speaker 3The Sneaches, the Sneaches.
Speaker 1The Sneaches gets Sneaches. Yeah, pretty much, but Ben was like you do not. This is the protocol, for we're getting separated. This is where we go, we're not going to play this game.
Speaker 3So I started watching all of those things and just trying to figure out a little bit about teams and cultures and that was some insight that previously hadn't been exposed like that, really through series like that, I don't think.
Speaker 2I mean no, you're exactly right. I mean there's.
Discussion on Soccer and American Sports
Speaker 3You don't just get to go into the walk rooms and hear what the coaches are saying and things like that. So I watched several of those and then the last one I watched was the Arsenal one Biggest mistake in my life. And so McKellar Teta comes on there and I'm like I know that guy. I know that guy because I'd watched the man city one, which was a previous series, when he was the assistant coach there.
Speaker 1And I was a big Arson of Anga fan Arson yeah.
Speaker 3And just so. It's kind of him setting up this team that he's newly taken over and some of the struggles that you have to encounter in the environment and attitude that he wanted to create in the club. And so it's. It's not a small club, it's a big club, but he's trying to get it back on track. As to this is, this is the vibe that we're going to take.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 3You know, in terms of how we play and how we interact with fans and and all of that, and the, the relationship that he took with his players was something that kind of resonated with me. So then that was, I don't know, early, late 20, 21, early 2022, something like that. So then 22, 23 was my first Premier League season that I watched and I was like you know what I'm, I'm in with Arsenal, I like, I like, I think he's going to do something.
Speaker 1You've been talking to us this whole time.
Speaker 3And.
Speaker 2I agree, so rude I can't believe you're in our.
Speaker 3So and my team is doing great and meanwhile, like the, you know the mothership.
Speaker 1Who's Martin?
Speaker 3Manchester United is just fucking going down the tubes. I'm a Manchester United fan as well. Well good for you guys.
Speaker 1Sir Alex Ferguson.
Speaker 3Not there anymore.
Speaker 1No.
Speaker 2I like how you're laughing.
Speaker 3You're so young, so he does. So he had a. He had a rough time. I Arsenal starts out phenomenal last year and it's just Martin going. There's a. It's a long season, it's a long, it's just still go down. It's still to go downhill. There's a lot of, a lot of games left to play, you know. And so now when, when they're in like the middle of the table, I was like you know, it's a long season. You guys got a lot of chance to come back, work your way back.
Speaker 1So who is the? Who is the? Who is the Eastern? He was the Eastern European, or Burbacab Burbacab when he, it was him and Ronaldo going after the goal title. This was back in like oh nine 10, when they're there. When he was playing at Manu, he was a goal scorer. He was a leader at a slay for Spurs. No, I'm talking about who is the Eastern European that played at Manu? Well, there's.
Speaker 2Burbacab yeah, and, but when Burbacab came on, he was not there. When Ronaldo was there.
Speaker 3I saw to Madrid. I saw an example of child abuse the other day. In what way Somebody had a Tottenham hat on their child. No, it wasn't Burbacab.
Speaker 1It was. Oh yeah, no, it was to meet your Burbacab. You're right. Sorry, he was the goal scorer that year. He's Bulgarian.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 3Oh, so the thing that I do like about soccer is that they're from everywhere. Players are from everywhere.
Speaker 2Well, one could argue on on this episode that you know, nfl players are from everywhere, but they're all American at the end of the day. Right, I mean, you've got, you've, you've a few like okay, so you've got a couple of NFL players that are but it Australian, that are doing their, their kickers. Yeah, you know in that regard, but I think, at the end of the day, that's what makes soccer. It's a complete, unique beast in its way, because they're pulling all these players, because they're scouting from all over the globe, because it's so accessible. Right, football is not accessible. This is my argument. It's not accessible because you have to buy the freaking pads and then that's just what it tears everything down. All you need is a pair of boots, that's it. Do you need your pads?
Speaker 3I think soccer is interesting because you can play it at a young age without a high level of skill.
Speaker 2Yeah, you can play with flip flops. That's what I grew up doing.
Speaker 3I didn't say like you have to have $200 cleats, so with you, take six year olds and put them in a basketball game, you know like you got 10 foot hoops and you can't travel and you can't double dribble. Well, that game sucks.
Speaker 2Yeah, because they can't do it.
Speaker 3They can't do it Right. And same thing with, like baseballs like that and footballs like that.
Speaker 2So what are the? What do they make the sports like that?
Speaker 3I don't have a problem with them making the sports like that. I have a problem with them making it competitive at such a young age without kids having the ability to have that skill. Like, yeah, they don't have that skill, there's six Right. So that's, my niece plays basketball and so for the past year or two, like those games are ruthless, like second grade girls basketball. So like, yeah, cause they, they don't know, they can't dribble.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 3And they can't shoot, so they're the ones that win, are super aggressive, to the point where it becomes a little bit more like, you know, a rugby match than a basketball game. So it's like, yeah, they shouldn't be playing that competitive of a game. It should be slowed down and stopped and broken up and, you know, allow them to learn to perform some of the skills Like well, the ball gets stolen from her. Every time it's like, yeah, cause she can't dribble, she can't dribble, she doesn't know how to protect the ball. It's easy to take the ball away, you know, whereas in soccer it's like, yeah, nobody can dribble, but everybody can take the ball away and it's really hard to score a goal. So it seems a little bit more even overall, I guess.
Speaker 2I think there's just too many more technical aspects in American sports. Maybe I'm. Soccer is technical. Once you get upper, once you understand the game and how to manipulate the game, it can get just unbelievable, but I do.
Speaker 3I do feel like if you have somebody that is a seven year old and they're, they're very athletic, like they can be pretty decent at baseball. They can be pretty decent at basketball, you know, like if they can catch up, they can throw decent. You know, I feel like everybody sucks at soccer at seven If, let's say, they're just starting out Okay, you didn't suck at soccer, fuck you. I can see that. Look on your face.
Speaker 2I was brought up on your time. I was a prodigy. I was a prodigy.
Speaker 1How'd you end up in Oregon?
Speaker 2My wife, my wife.
Speaker 1How Wife? How many kids Two.
Speaker 3Both desperate to play NFL.
Speaker 1That makes me happy. I like one.
Speaker 2I like one life.
Speaker 1Just kicks you in the face Life finds a way they like enough. They like, they like American football.
Speaker 3No.
Speaker 1Do they know what it?
Speaker 3is.
Speaker 2These I mean my youngest is like this is too slow. How old are your kids? I got an eighth grader and a fifth grader.
Speaker 1Eighth grader and fifth grader yeah.
Speaker 3Yeah, it's. I don't even know NFL teams at this point. I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't really tell you. I enjoy sports, but I do not make it.
Speaker 1The only, the only effort I really make to watch sports is golf. I mean, like from being honest.
Speaker 3That's fine.
Speaker 1What I enjoy about golf is that, by all intents and purposes, the greatest golfers in the world.
Speaker 2When we're talking about physicality, aren't the greatest golfers in the world.
Speaker 1The greatest golfers in the world, tiger Woods. And people will tell you like does he have a good swing? Yeah, is it the best swinging they've ever seen? No, is his. Is he more physically superior than anyone else in anyone given category? Absolutely not.
Speaker 1The difference with Tiger was he. His dad raised him to think that he was God on earth and he hit every shot like he was God on earth. He did. I mean, he just he'd have a bad shot and it was kind of like and to bring up a really bad sports analogy, because I, you know you guys don't want to talk about American football but Brett Favre, through so many interceptions, but he didn't care, he'd sling the football down the field and if he threw an interception it was. It was Ted Lasso. I'm a goldfish, don't care, I'm going to go down next play or next drive and I'm going to sling one right down the field the same way I did last time and it's probably going to work. And that was Tiger. He'd hit a bad shot and go watch me fix this and you are all going to be odd and that's you could say to some degree. But he, finally, he finally. Well, it's talkers the same way, like you could be a very quiet player.
Speaker 2So, like Ibrahimovic, it's going to be very quiet. I mean, now he's retired, but very quiet in the game and all of a sudden, oh, he just scored. He didn't do anything for 85 minutes and all of a sudden scores.
Speaker 3Yeah, but in youth sports you can see that where you have very talented, very athletic kids and when they're used to winning they're used to doing well and when it doesn't go well, they lose their mind.
Speaker 2And they.
Speaker 3This is unfair, this isn't right, this isn't whatever, and their next instinct is to every sport, though they say that it's not retaliating and they make a mistake.
Speaker 1That's what you do when you're down. It's not what you do in your head. Yeah, I think life in general, though.
Speaker 3I think that's something that's coming around in the football aspect of okay, we got scored on, you know, the managers are now like all right, let's go, let's, we're not going to drop that. Let's get our heads back in it and play our game, yeah, until you're five.
Speaker 2Yeah, Five, Five, yeah. Well, yeah, we're three deep.
Speaker 1It's like oh oh boy, Ben Ben always said is his, the worst place to be is two up.
Speaker 2He's like yeah, he goes to two.
Speaker 1Two nil is the worst he goes because all it takes is one goal for you to start feeling doubt.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 1And then all of a sudden, and you do, you see it, you'll see teams up to zero, all the time One goal and then it just flips. By the way, World Cup Championship or the World Cup final game was, I think, one of my favorite games to watch.
Speaker 3Well, I watched it with my mom and mother-in-law.
Speaker 1And they probably understood nothing.
Speaker 3Oh no, I have video of just going off. Yeah, yeah, Neither. Neither one of them like big football fans, you know.
Speaker 1I mean, they obviously watch their grandkids and stuff like that and they're learning about it and getting into it, and even that last 20 minutes was the most ridiculous amazing.
Speaker 3I have. I started taking video because I was getting so worked up. I know I was just enjoying the moment of them getting so worked up. That was it the penalty, or I?
Speaker 1mean there was something the save was unbelievable.
Speaker 3There was something in there where just they stand up off the couch and then something happens and they're like fuck, I was just dying, you know. But it's.
Speaker 1That was a good game for the US. That needs a lot of energy like that, like big moments and not necessarily watching the chess match being played. I think that was good for your or world football as a whole.
Speaker 3I think a lot of well, same thing, like when Messi came over or whatever, and whatever it takes to get people to start watching, they get excited about it. But there's video that Shannon took of when Phoenix was down in Morton doing the soccer tournament down there and she thought she was videotaping just the very end of the game and they ended up. She ended up getting the third goal. So we were like two, one and ended up going up one more Damn, and it was just the sidelines. You know, all all the grandmas over there were just just jumping up and down and screaming and this is for 13 year old kids, you know. So it's, it's exciting, I mean have, you have, you have.
Speaker 1We've talked about this. Have you watched the Tour de France documentary yet on Netflix? Bikes.
Speaker 2But bikes are interesting.
Speaker 1It's. I please, because we talk about you, talk about football or your world football. It is, it's chess match, it's. I'm gonna slowly start working certain areas to try to create as Martin says, it is a.
Speaker 3It's a continuous test.
Speaker 1Mm-hmm and that is testing but that is testing, but that is an experiment. That but and that is, that is what cycling is While you're hitting your, while you're pegging your heart rate for three and a half four hours and Making your legs endure some of the hardest physicality, and not just but. Then you have to be thinking straight. I mean, it's one thing to do something and just be like I can brute-strength through this, right it's. And it's another thing to be testing your physical limitations while trying to stay cognizant of what your role and Responsibility is in that moment. And that's what those cyclists do. And they, granted, they have walkie-talkies, they have team coaches, they're all working together as a unit.
Speaker 1But yeah, they still have to be able to perform and think.
Speaker 3Whatever, you're doing something at a very high level. After I stopped climbing, when I was back here, the only thing climbing ones, twos like one, yeah, one, yeah, like ones. Yeah, I'm one, just one. Basically, a little belay, it's a little fucking sidewalk.
Speaker 1I know, yeah, just a little belay, little top rope action. Good for you, buddy, proud of you, thank you.
Speaker 3She learned learn to tie not to you, obviously, are not a climber, because they don't belittle each other. Good job, right, thanks, hmm.
Speaker 1Do you want to go grab my harness right now?
Speaker 3It's out in the garage. That's not a climbing harness.
Speaker 2Okay, Do you proper carabiner, steve? I do too.
Speaker 3No, I got black. I use key chains, oh yeah.
Speaker 1Those are my favorite. They're like I got this carabiner from this water bottle. They're like good luck. Yeah they're just O-rings, whatever, you see that little hairline fracture right there. You don't want that. Okay, continue don't even know okay, the next thing was cams, right out there good for you, okay, good for you.
Speaker 3Recline was suppressor salon. No, that was fake. Oh no, that was actually real Tom.
Speaker 1It was Tom cruise mission. Possible too Was that real.
Speaker 3No no, brad Pitt, angelina Jolie.
Speaker 1Mr Mrs Smith. Yeah, that was real. Hmm fake, those real fake. They put her up on a little like a little cart.
Speaker 3I don't know. I think it was all CGI. Hmm, mountain biking was an ex-closest thing, the climbing For me.
Speaker 1You mountain bike.
Speaker 3I used to hmm at a very, very, very low level, but it is the. You're moving fast, it's a physical action, but your Mental space needs to be spot-on Because because you're always thinking, just like climbing, it's a puzzle that you're solving if you're looking at the next move you're screwed you have to be looking.
Speaker 1Three to eight steps ahead of you.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah. So with with mountain biking, as you, as you build speed, where you look for glory you look is where you're going. Yes, so if you're.
Speaker 1If you're looking right in front of you, you're gonna be.
Speaker 2You're fucked yeah that's see, that's my argument with American football is like, okay, they scored it on somebody, go back and score on them. It's like I. My argument with with soccer is like you can have those pre meditative or preemptive strikes if you will Set in in the team camp already before they. They go on the pitch Like we're gonna eat up 15 minutes. Just make sure no goals scored, because you know clock is running, or Grind it down, grind it all the way down and then it's your job to figure out how to score in 10 minutes left. Okay, I don't. I don't feel that in American football.
Speaker 3I mean, I feel running the clock out.
Speaker 2Well, yeah, I mean, I just don't feel it.
Speaker 3There's a. You almost think that it American football should be a lot tighter games Overall because you have time in between every single time to think, scoring every single time.
Speaker 2That's my argument.
Speaker 3So if you look at, and so my brother-in-law coaches with me for Corbin steam and I'll send him some clips, and he played soccer, you know. But now I'm kind of more into like professional soccer than he is, and so I'll send him clips and he's just so he understands the technicality and the difficulty of it, whereas I, until very recently, never kicked a soccer ball ever.
Speaker 1So it's, it's it seems a fun thing in the world to watch.
Speaker 2Oh my gosh, have you seen a blade?
Speaker 1No, did you ever play indoor with us?
Speaker 3I don't play. I never played anything.
Speaker 1They not playing the bond team with us? No, oh man, you know why, cuz you're probably like oh Martin, would Martin would really probably just be disappointed in us.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah. Well, that's why I said there my kids YouTube videos.
Speaker 1I can't fucking do this. That's another story.
Speaker 3That was, that was my eight-year-old can do things that I can't do.
Speaker 1That was pure brute force. It was amazing. We got asked not to come back, martin. We won the league. We won the indoor league twice. So it was a bunch of. It was a bunch of through what it was cross with bond, through meat heads. It was. No no no, it was our, it was the gym that, brad, nice to belong to, and we put together a team the only people that played besides Ben were the females.
Speaker 1It was a coat. It was a co-ed league. I think it was 8v8. I think it was four males, for I think it was indoor. I think it was eight. I think it was eight versus eight. It was four females and four males. Okay, had to be on the court at the same time.
Speaker 1I're on the pitch at the same time. Sorry, yeah, oh, oh. B was only if you went over the over the play. It was. It was basically. It was a. It was an old hockey rink, sure, so it was if you went over that was the only way it was OB, otherwise you got to use the wall.
Speaker 1Okay, well, we were faster, bigger and stronger than everyone and and if it would have been an open field We'd have been so screwed. All the other teams had way more finesse and feel than we did. Yeah, but we were faster, we were stronger and I remember watching Jake Kimmel with the ball with his foot three times and still score a goal because he was that much farther ahead of somebody.
Speaker 1We just we and we like, and the other teams were all good soccer players or football players and they were getting so mad that they couldn't beat us because they we had no skill. But they couldn't like what boxing out like we just keep our arm here, they weren't getting in. It was like you're not, you're not gonna touch the ball, I'm sorry You're not gonna be able to do it, and yeah. And then Tony got absolutely hammered one night and then the goal they tried to the goalie from the other team tried to start a fight with him.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 1And then Jake Priest came out of the goal and then the guy like looked at his team and looked at our team and everyone Our team was like ripping shirts off, ready to go, and the goalie went back to the goal, put his gloves back on. You want a Donnie Brooke? It was. I was just like what is going on? I think a fight's gonna break out at 10 o'clock on a Sunday night over Wreckley soccer Happens yeah been there.
Speaker 3Yeah 12? U tournament we almost had and sidelines cleared yeah, oh god, not ours. Like the fansides too, that was a tournament.
Speaker 1I think the worst part about this one, though, is Ben Ben scored a goal from three-quarters back. I mean, it was, it was, it was more, it was he was. He was behind the halfway.
Speaker 2Yeah, why do?
Speaker 1you want to know he'd shipped him. Yeah, it was. It was in the first three minutes salt. And then the goalie was getting mad at us Tort later. And then Ben was like, why don't you worry about saving goals? And then that's when it was like, oh no, so that's not good. So my, my stepdad played semi-pro over in England and that was.
Speaker 3That was the other Thing I was talking about. At one point I was like what's your? You know what club do you follow? It was Charlie.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's what. That's my team on the Charlie. I'm a trolling guy. Yeah, I'm chosen athletic.
Speaker 3Yeah, that's fucking great.
Speaker 1Great.
Speaker 3Good, you guys know everything.
Speaker 1I'm actually amazed how little you know. I don't know anything. I'm giving you a two-minute warning by the way, we've got two minutes two minutes, Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3Well, all right. So Martin Martin wasn't born in Hong Kong. It's been established world football is better than American football.
Speaker 1He is more gray hair than I thought an Asian would have.
Speaker 3Don't, don't, we didn't, we didn't oh wow, we didn't even get there.
Speaker 1I'm sorry, I didn't realize it was that much. I thought it was just salt and pepper on the sides.
Speaker 3No, he's a year younger than me. How do you Younger, older than him? I don't, yeah.
Speaker 1Okay, um. I still don't, but you just turn 40, though.
Speaker 3No, it was your for yeah, I just turned 40, 41, was that it?
Speaker 1was that your cove it Well what was that?
Speaker 3I just turned 40. What was that party that you had? Yeah, it was 40.
Speaker 1What was that? How old are you Sure?
Speaker 2Okay, come on, brad.
Speaker 1Look it up, google, he's 42, 42. No, I'm not, so you're 41. Mm-hmm, when did the gray start setting in for you? Mm-hmm, I'm. I keep my sides really short because this is all good, it's pretty much all gray, and I'm waiting for the big reveal. I can't wait.
Speaker 3Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 1Can't wait to be the silver Fox.
Speaker 3No, that's fun. It's more fun when you don't have a receding hairline.
Speaker 1So I have a receding hairline. Yeah, he's got fishes V.
Speaker 2It's got the wheels peak yours is.
Speaker 1Yours has 10 years on us, yours way more aggressive.
Speaker 3I have also started treating mine so thank you for pointing out all of my flaws during this podcast. This was been amazing. Yeah, we're all gonna go to Turkey together. What Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1Turkey has the best hair. What, yeah, they do?
Speaker 2plugs, plugs.
Speaker 1Yeah, but it's not like what you think of plugs. It's a total hot glue. No, they take, they. They take the roots from other parts of your body and then they really inject them in and then it actually takes it. It's amazing. When I flew through Turkey to come back home, there was a bunch of people on our flight that had obviously just gotten hair jobs.
Speaker 2Really, we're gonna do a Stewart Holden's where we notice. You know this.
Speaker 3Never been to Turkey.
Speaker 2Have you been to Turkey? No, but I know that. Okay, where do you go?
Speaker 3Okay, well, thank you.
Speaker 2We can all go to cool airport. It's cool. They were stupid easy, all right.
Speaker 3Last thoughts, brad no.
Speaker 1Why cuz Martin last thoughts, sorry for your dragon, you and those podcasts which is totally gonna get terribly probably. That's not true. They're gonna fire me.
Speaker 3In a future episode we'll talk about something important.
Speaker 1I'm going to have my friend Luke come on the podcast. He's a d-back. He played in college for football.
Speaker 2Oh, this is being good.
Discussion on Cuban Box Hog Roasting
Speaker 1And it's and he's he's not a huge like it's funny, he he's people be like oh man, sports he's like I played college football and you're not gonna get anything out of me. And sports he's like I don't follow it, I don't do any of it. But Every once in a while I get a little bit of drip information from him. And the way he talks about defense is you would think it is your chest master. I mean, he can get some intricate things about, like okay, I'm four inches this way because I'm trying to lead this guy that way, but actually I want him to come back because my buddy's gonna start skirting in around break. So there is a little bit of that which I think would be fun to kind of discuss, which I think there's probably a lot of overlap.
Speaker 3There's the time thing, the time thing, it's a time thing, it's a star stop. But it's two different, two different styles again.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 3I mean speaking of time. So we're out of it, we're out of it. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1Are we sure?
Speaker 3Yeah, dylan's got to go to.
Speaker 1Hog roast. So we got a whole hog Roasting for us right now, but we're gonna go do that.
Speaker 3Where at Crow Valley Is it like on a green under the green? No, they put it in the ground.
Speaker 1They have one of those Cuban boxes like the big, the big wooden metal 10 boxes that they so it's like a scar. It's gonna be like 70. It's gonna be like 70 pounds. It's called a we're gonna do this real fast Cuban pig. It's called a Cuban box no, it's look it up, urban Dictionary code Urban Dictionary. It's a cat. The bodies at the floor. It's a kaha la kaha China model. It's one of these actually I saw actually I'm almost positive that it is a Chinese Descent. The the origins of the box, so shop.
Speaker 3Latin touch.
Speaker 1Yeah. So what they do is they put the. We put the pig in the box and then you put the coals on top of the tin and then it. Anyway, all right gang, I'm sorry for that. I'm sure you're all really loving us right now. Bye, say bye Brad, bye Brad.
Speaker 2You're still here. It's over, go home go.
