Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
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Here we go. This is the Skip Bayless Show. Episode 35. This is everything I cannot share with you during the two and a half hour go through the throat debate show called Undisputed. This is the un-undisputed. And in episode 35...
I will give you the backstory of going to Lil Wayne's 40th birthday party last Sunday night. Then I will tell you why the NFL world is sleeping on Cooper Robert Rush of My Dallas Cowboys and why I love it. Then I will take you behind the scenes of the workout photo shoot I did for this month's Men's Health. What a story that is.
And finally, I will tell you about the single most devastating, excruciating loss I have ever suffered in my sports fan life. Happened last Saturday night. But first up, as always, it is not to be skipped. And first up, I'm going to your questions. I'm going to take one from the audience, from Jason from Queens, who asks, who all was at Lil Wayne's birthday party?
Great question, complicated answer. Here goes. Tuesday, September 27th was Dwayne Michael Carter Jr.'s 40th birthday, as you probably know, given that he was born in 1982 in, as you probably know, New Orleans. So it was that Wayne invited my wife, Ernestine, and me to his 40th birthday party
which actually was last Sunday night, two days before his birthday on the 27th on Tuesday. This was to be held at a hot spot on Restaurant Row on La Cienega Boulevard in West Hollywood out here in the Los Angeles area, a hot spot called The Nice Guy. But this invite immediately posed a huge problem for me.
Sunday nights during NFL season are just absolutely huge to Undisputed. They are the biggest, the longest, the hardest nights of my year. NFL Monday ratings are everything to us on Undisputed. And Sunday nights are sacred to me. They are obsessively dedicated work nights. The invitation said cocktails at 8, followed by dinner at 9.
I try, especially on a Sunday night, to get to sleep by 9:00 or 9:30, because as you probably know, I must be up by 2:00 a.m. out here in LA, 2:00 a.m. sharp, ready to hit the ground, literally running on my treadmill. So I texted Wayne and I said, "Hey, just checking, but you know how early I have to get up on Monday mornings during the NFL season. Do you think you'll arrive
at the party by 8ish. That way I continue to text. We could see you as well as everyone else. And then we could bounce by, I don't know, 9:30 or so. And I could maybe get four hours of sleep. Quick point of order. The restaurant is about, I don't know, 15, 20 minutes from where Ernest, excuse me, Ernestine and I live, which is near the Fox lot here in West LA.
15 to 20 minutes from the nice guy in West Hollywood. Now, point of order number two, please understand this. If the party had been held on a Thursday night, then I definitely would have just pulled an all-nighter for my brother Lil Wayne. I would have just gone straight from the party to the studio and been just fine. But the problem is, for me, before an NFL Monday show,
and then facing Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 2:00 AM alarms, an all-nighter to start the week might just finish me. So Wayne responded via text, "I got you. I'll try to be there by 8:00, and if I can't, I'll let you know." So I told Ernestine, "There are very few people that I would do this for on an NFL Sunday night,
but I'm going to do this for Wayne. And she immediately responded, no, there's no one on this planet you would do it for except him. And I said, you got me. So did I ever try to get my ducks in a row during the day on Sunday after the Brady-Rogers game? I immediately jumped all over all the potential topics that we could do from the day that had just ended ahead of the obviously Sunday night game. Talked to our producer, Tyler Korn.
We went over this idea and that idea, this potential, that potential before he called Shannon to get his takes. And then I gave Tyler already a list of all the video that I would need for Monday's show on the Brady game and the Baker game and the Tua game. Then during the first half of the San Francisco-Denver game, the Sunday night game, I laid out all my clothes for Monday. I'm not talking about the ones I would wear on air. I'm talking about what I would wear
to Fox, to the Fox lot at four o'clock in the morning, very early Monday morning. I laid out all the vitamins that I always take just before I leave about 345. And of course I laid out all my running clothes so that I would be ready to jump on that treadmill about 230. So no stern, excuse me, no stone unturned. I was prepared. So we left home around 730 out here in LA. And of course,
We were among the first to arrive at the Nice Guy. That restaurant had been, of course, shut down for the night just for Wayne's party. Heavy security at the door, huge waitstaff waiting inside. In the end, there seemed to be more waitstaff than guests at the party. And the main room ceiling was filled with hundreds and hundreds of gold balloons.
all above one very long table right down the middle of the room that would be for Wayne's immediate family members, probably extended family members also, with Wayne's seat at the very head of said table. Now around that table and around the room were, I don't know, eight to 10 booths that were open seating for the party, each one with a place setting featuring a black and white
I guess you'd call it like a throw pillow with a logo just made for the party that said L over a W with just over the inside tip of the W a 4-0, Lil Wayne 40. And at each place setting already wrapped in cellophane was a huge cookie, black and white icing with the same logo inscribed.
Each plate already had a dinner menu on it featuring three entree options. You could go filet mignon, you could go smoked salmon, you could even go chicken parmesan if that's what you desired. This was going to be a very special night and it was done five star bright. So Ernestine and I chose a booth that was about three feet away from where Wayne would eventually come to rest and sit and then it began.
As more and more guests arrived, a parade of Wayne's close friends, family came over to say hi and to talk some sports. Wayne's main man, Mac Mane, was front and center. He came over quickly, as was DJ Scoob. Ernstine, I've known him for a long time. Also, some of the young artists that Wayne now champions, such as Yella Beezy.
who did grow up in Dallas, where I lived for a good long while. A city I know very well with a pro football team I really, really know. And Yella Beezy is from Dallas and has gotten very tight with Micah Parsons, Ezekiel Elliott. They actually bowl together. I think they're in a league together. And did Beezy and I ever engage about them Cowboys? What a conversation we had. So now I'm trying and failing to
to watch the fourth quarter of the San Francisco-Denver game on my phone while I'm getting more and more lost in sports talk with guys who really, really know sports. I'm going to say this again about Lil Wayne. Nobody, nobody in the entertainment realm knows sports or has ever
a deeper obsession and passion for sports or thinks more deeply about sports than Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. No one, trust me. And so in turn, when I talk sports with Mac or Scoob, any of the other close friends of Wayne, it's not one of those in one ear and out the other, you know, surfacy, silly, just kill the time sports talks. It carries weight.
It inspires me. It intrigues me. It stimulates my brain. It fuels my sports fire. And Sunday night, I was on fire. I was in my element. Most fun I've had in a long, long time, asked Ernestine. This is all part and parcel of the deep bond that I share with Wayne, who, by the way, at this point was said to be on his way, but still had not arrived.
deep bond I share with Wayne, whose foundation is sports. That's what we share on the deepest level, knowing, living, breathing, talking, sports. So allow me a quick aside here. Call me crazy if you want to, but this is a point I will speak straight from my heart.
I've always felt a little more comfortable talking sports with black people than I do with white people. Not to say that I don't love talking sports with white people or people of any color, because trust me, I do. But I just always felt just a little more comfortable. I've been a little more inspired in general. This is generalizing, obviously. When I talk sports with black people, it's men or women or both.
Off camera, as Ernestine will attest, I can get a little quiet sometimes. I can be reserved, but not around black people. Wayne, his friends, they push my buttons. They bring me out of my shell. I feel like they bring out the best of me, as does Shannon Sharpe.
as did Stephen A. Smith. If I can go back to my earliest days in the business on the old Jim Rome show, my original debate partner, the late, great Ralph Wiley, maybe you remember him from Sports Illustrated, pushed my buttons. I don't know. You can call me crazy on this, but I even hark back to a woman I've spoken of on this podcast before, the woman who basically raised me
Her name was Katie Bell Henderson. She worked for my grandmother who didn't have a lot of money in Oklahoma City, but she did travel for her work. She was gone much of the time and she entrusted her household to Katie Bell. And because my household was such a wreck, given the dual alcoholics that were attempting to raise me, my mother and my father,
I spent much of my time with Katie Bell, who taught me everything I know about life. Right, wrong, up, down. I learned it all from Katie Bell. And occasionally, just occasionally, Katie Bell would take me to her church on Sundays. This is, I don't know, I could have been 8, 9, 10, 11, 12-ish. Occasionally, we went to her AME church in Oklahoma City. And I was immediately struck by
by Katie Bell's church because it was just so different than the Epworth Methodist Church that I attended. I was the only white person there and they treated me like such a special guest. And the services were just so spirited and just so passionate and so emotional, so much more than the sleepy, dull, boring ones that I knew.
And at Katie Bell's church, I experienced genuine tears of joy. And that congregation worshiped with all its might, with all its heart and soul. That inspired me. That stuck with me. And maybe, just maybe, crazy as it might sound, I look back and I feel like it set a tone for me in my career. And I've said this before, but the single greatest thing ever said to me in my career was on live TV,
from the great Isaiah Thomas, the one who's in the Hall of Fame, the one who played for the Detroit Pistons. He said to me once on first take on live TV, "You'd be welcome in any barbershop, in any neighborhood in this country." Single greatest thing that ever happened to me in my career was that statement. Thank you, Isaiah. So obviously I was deeply honored that Wayne did invite me and Ernestine to his 40th birthday party, but in a great weird way,
I was thankful for the time I got to spend with his family and his friends before he arrived and obviously, naturally became the center of attention. And even though I knew we wouldn't stay, his man Mac sort of walked me through the after dinner program that Mac had put together. Wayne is so blessed to have Mac Mayne as his manager, as his rock, as his guiding light, as his inspiration.
Yeah, you can also argue that Mac is really blessed to have Wayne, but it's just as much vice versa and to think that the two of them knew each other when they were in the five-year-old range back in the 17th Ward in New Orleans. It's such a powerful partnership. But Mac did open up his phone and he showed me the birthday message videos he had been able to record. It was a cavalcade of stars.
It just drove home to me once again, just what a legendary superstar Wayne is at only 40 years of age. He's like a one man, one name, Mount Rushmore. At least that's the way I view him. And it seems like so does everybody else because I'm watching these tribute videos from Drake and Janet Jackson, 2 Chainz, Nicki Minaj, Floyd Mayweather, and even Barry Bonds. Barry Bonds. I'm watching Barry Bonds pay tribute to Lil Wayne.
and I'm just naming a few. So Mac had a screen set up where Wayne could see it near the long table in the middle of the room so that he could absorb all these video tributes after dinner. And then Mac told me that he had managed to arrange for the great Keith Sweat to fly in just for this night as a show-stopping surprise for little Wayne
because Wayne has long loved "Key Sweat," been inspired by his voice, and especially by "Don't Stop Your Love." That's his favorite song. So Mack even had Wayne's favorite DJ flown in from New Orleans. This was a DJ that had inspired Wayne way back in his earliest days with Cash Money, earliest days of rapping. It was all so very cool and so brilliantly planned by Mack and staff.
And of course, by this moment, I'm starting to glance at my watch and it's 8:15, then it's 8:30, 8:45. Now what? And it's nine o'clock and finally a buzz swept through the gathered crowd, followed by one big hush. And then I heard somebody say, "He's here." And the DJ began to play Wayne's all-time favorite, Whitney singing "I Will Always Love You."
And I got goosebumps. And finally, there he was, standing ovation. At first, Wayne looked a little embarrassed, but a moment later, he finally just threw up both arms and he basked in the adulation that he so richly deserves. And I got tears in my eyes. Would you believe Wayne then looked up, saw Ernestine, made a beeline across the room to her, hugged her, and said to her,
"You're still here. He's got to get to bed." Seriously, he said that to my wife in all seriousness. And after he hugged her, he turned to me and he said, "You got to go. You got to show." And I said, "No way were we leaving before we saw you." Then of course, I added, "Congrats." And he knew exactly what I was talking about. I wasn't congratulating him on turning 40.
I was congratulating him for his Packers beating Tom Brady. And Wayne said to me, finally, as much as I like Tom Brady, as much as I do not like Aaron Rodgers, there was one huge aspect of the Packers finally prevailing over Brady 14 to 12. It's the first time in four tries that Aaron Rodgers has beaten Tom Brady. The outcome made me very happy. You have to understand that
Wayne is at least as big a Packer fan as I am a Cowboy fan. He takes these losses or the wins deeply to heart. And if Tom Brady had converted that two-point conversion to tie, if Tom Brady had won the overtime coin toss, and if Tom Brady had done what he always seems to do, coming up clutch in overtime, Wayne's birthday party would have been ruined by Tom Brady. But Green Bay prevailed. The NFL gods were good.
And Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. was a very happy Packer camper, and I was so happy for him. So we took some pictures, then we hugged him goodbye, then we hugged everybody else goodbye. You have no idea how big a deal this was for my wife Ernestine, who still is extremely COVID cautious. Yet she had agreed for just one night, Wayne's night,
to do what she has not done one single time since the pandemic hit. She agreed to go inside a restaurant, inside, we occasionally eat outside, but she agreed to go inside a packed restaurant without a mask on. And then she voluntarily hugged everybody goodbye, just the way she had hugged everybody hello. I was so proud of her.
And obviously, here's hoping nobody at the party had COVID or got COVID. I haven't heard of anything yet. Hope I don't. So the valet parker kept my car right up at the front because we told him we wouldn't be that long. And so we were off in a flash down La Cienega to Olympic Boulevard, turned right. We were back home in, I don't know, 20-odd minutes just before 10 o'clock. My adrenaline was still pumping.
as my guilt set in, felt like I was playing hooky. So what was the first thing I did? I popped on what I had recorded. I'd recorded the San Francisco Denver game. Fast forward to the fourth quarter and I watched what actually did happen in the fourth quarter, which I could not absorb at the party. But Ernestine and I were so energized that there was no way we could actually go to sleep until 11:00.
Okay, so I slept three hours, and when the alarm went off at 2 a.m., I felt like I was shot out of a cannon. Felt like I'd slept for eight hours. You know, maybe I should have just pulled an all-nighter. It would have been worth it. But what a night it was, even abbreviated. What a man, what a friend is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., my brother, the youngest and wisest 40-year-old I've ever known.
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Have you ordered a Cooper Rush jersey yet? Ha ha. And Noah, let's take another question. Noah from Chicago asks, would you rather have Cooper Rush or Aaron Rodgers as your starting quarterback? Ha ha. I love these questions. The more sarcastic the merrier for me right now because as I posted on social right after Monday night's game, the Cowboy victory up against the Giants, I posted, everybody is sleeping tonight.
on Cooper Rush. As you probably know, I first guessed Cooper Rush after Dak stunk on opening night against Tampa Bay, and then he got hurt, and it seemed like everybody in the world but me said, "That's it, the Cowboys are done. Dance on their grave." I said, "This rush to judgment is hilariously wrong because Cooper Rush can play." That's all I know. Cooper Rush can play.
I can't sell his arm. I can't sell his mobility over Dak or certainly over Aaron Rodgers. He has the greatest arm talent ever. All I know is what I've seen, not once or twice, but three times from Cooper Rush. Not once or twice, but three full games of Cooper Rush. I have seen him play three better games
than Dak has played since opening night a whole year ago when he went down to Tampa after zero preseason coming off the career-threatening ankle surgery. And he went toe-to-toe, throw-for-throw with Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. at Tampa. The GOAT finally GOATed him 31-29, but I thought that was the greatest game Dak ever played. 403 yards passing, albeit in defeat.
And that was that. Since then, I haven't seen anything remotely like that from Rain Dakota Prescott. Not remotely like that. And down the stretch last year, as you well know, he often stunk. Three times I've seen Cooper Rush play wire-to-wire games with clutch finishes that eclipse anything Dak has done since that opening Thursday night game that kicked off last season, not this season.
He stunk against Brady to start this season off on the opening Sunday night. Three games from Cooper Rush, one on a Sunday night solo stage at Minnesota, one at home against the team that almost won the Super Bowl, and then of course won this past Monday night on the Monday night solo stage against the new look Red Hot Giants that many people thought would expose Cooper Rush thanks to their new coordinator Wink Martindale
who would blitz him into oblivion. Did not happen. Cooper Rush did not have Dalton Schultz. He did not have Michael Gallup. Obviously, he didn't have the Omari Cooper. He threw the clutch touchdown pass to at Minnesota last year with 55 seconds left to pull out that game 20 to 16. All he did it up against the Giants in New Jersey was watch Saquon rock the house, escape for 36 yards,
As the Giants roared back to take a 13-6 lead, and I seriously thought all was lost. It felt like a typical Cowboy disaster. There was a horrendous uncalled pass interference in the end zone that cost them four points because they had to take a field goal. And then CeeDee Lamb had dropped what looked like it was maybe a touchdown pass, at least down inside the five.
Cost them seven more points. Looked like a disaster. And Cooper Rush said, I got this. Two straight drives. He goes 12 of 13 on those combined drives for 129 yards in just two drives. And all of a sudden, Dallas was back on top 20 to 13. That was that. Flash in the pan? No, no. Real deal. Cooper Rush. I can't quite explain it.
And yet, I'm sure you're saying to me right now, what a fool you are. I know, I know, I know. I got it that history is warning me, screaming at me. Cooper Rush, undrafted out of Central Michigan, will get exposed. That the Red Rocket, as I call him, thanks to his red hair, will soon turn into a pumpkin. Who knows? Maybe it'll be Monday night. Maybe my team will fall on its face masks against rival Washington.
They're only a three and a half point favorite as I speak this. But I don't see it. I just know what I have seen from Cooper Rush, and I don't think he will be the reason they lose if they in fact lose. I'm convinced that Cooper Rush can play. I'm convinced that in three games he's shown to be more clutch than I've ever seen Aaron Rodgers be clutch. Have you watched Aaron Rodgers postseason? I know Cooper Rush hasn't played a postseason game yet, but
I just got a feeling that he would come up more clutch than Aaron has. Remember against Brady, NFC Championship game, number one seed, home field throughout. First ever NFC Championship game for Aaron at Lambeau, gag city. Remember last year, San Francisco at Lambeau, number one seed, gag city down the stretch. I don't think Cooper Rush would do that. Can't quite explain it.
Except to tell you, he just knows how to play the position. He just operates my offense more smoothly, more efficiently, more effectively than I've seen Dak operate it over the last year. That's all I know for a fact. So I asked my friend George Whitfield to please explain
how exactly he sees that Cooper Rush is doing this, how he's pulling this off out of central Michigan. George Whitfield is a quarterback guru and teacher, worked with many of the top quarterbacks, many of those coming out of college, coming out of high school. George immediately said to me,
Think about how many NFL quarterbacks the MAAC has produced. The MAAC is where, obviously, Central Michigan is located in that conference. And I'm thinking, yeah, Roethlisberger and Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich. And if you go back to Bruce Gretkowski and Charlie Batch, and I could go on and on, but it has its fair share. So George says...
You don't see that many big-time NFL quarterbacks produced by Power 5 schools like Ohio State because Ohio State is so loaded with five-star players around the quarterback, five-star recruits, blue-chip players, that the hardest position in sports to play, quarterback, gets a lot easier at Ohio State because of all the firepower at the skill positions and obviously in the offensive line.
So George's point is that MAAC quarterbacks have to learn how to play the position against all odds because they don't have five-star receivers who can instantly separate. You have to figure it out on the fly. You need to be able to speed read it and see it before the defense can react to you. Cooper Rush is just finding open receivers and delivering catchable footballs right on the money
before the defense can react or before pass rushers can get to him. The Giants threw kitchen sink at him. There were extra rushers almost every play. There were free rushers in his face all night long. And it shocked me Cooper Rush never got sacked because he was anticipating and getting rid of the ball with accuracy
before he could get hit. He would get hit on follow-throughs, but not hit during his delivery. It's been a long time since I've seen anything quite like it. And I got to tell you, rising above all this, I've been shocked that the media has ridiculed Jerry Jones
for daring to say that he would welcome a quarterback controversy. Said last week he would walk all the way to New York for a quarterback controversy. That is the single most obvious and right thing Jerry Jones has ever uttered in his football life, ever. Sure he would welcome it because that would mean Cooper Rush would keep winning games.
I'm not predicting this, but hypothetically, what if he does take care of business against Washington? What if he's pressed into service to come out here to LA to play the Rams the next week? Or dare I say, to go to Philadelphia on a Monday night the following week? What if, not predicting this, what if he continues to win? Well, obviously,
a quarterback controversy would ensue. I think we already have a quarterback controversy because Dak is now in the hot seat if they hand him his job back, whenever that might be. I don't know. He said he might even play against Washington. I doubt that. But let's say it's against the Rams. Well, you better perform, big guy, because we got to see how the other half lives. We got to see Cooper Rush perform well.
at a level you haven't for the longest time, the longest, hardest time. It's hard on my eyes watching Dak over the last year since the 403-yard performance at Brady. So Jerry Jones is just speaking the truth. Yes, we would welcome a quarterback controversy because that would mean we've won a couple of more games even now.
And by the way, speaking of winning, my friend George Whitfield was very intrigued by the way Cooper Rush handled himself on the field right after the game as ESPN interviewed him. When he was asked about, what about a potential quarterback controversy? He didn't go with the usual backup quarterback saying, you know, I'm just trying to do the best I can and hold this down until Dak gets healthy again. He didn't say that.
Because that's not what he's trying to do. Cooper Rush said, I'm just going to try to keep winning games. That's it. Bingo. Beautiful. Thank you, Cooper Rush. I reminded you last week in 1991, Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson went with the hot hand down the stretch of that season. Troy Aikman sprained a knee ligament. Here came Steve Berline, the backup quarterback.
Steve won the last four regular season games. Now they go into their first ever of that regime's playoffs and they got a game at Chicago and then it was followed by a game at Detroit and they rode the hot hand. Troy was 100% ready to play. They rode the hot hand. Jerry signed off on Jimmy's decision. Jerry knows what that felt like. And then need I remind you, 2016, there was this guy. Do you remember this guy out of Eastern Illinois?
This guy was actually undrafted also, just like Cooper Rush, out of Eastern Illinois, undrafted. This guy named, I think his name was Romo, if memory serves. I think he made four Pro Bowls, this guy Tony Romo. Undrafted, that happened. So why can't Cooper Rush happen? And now I remind you about 2016 when Jerry, who loved Tony Romo like a son,
began to behold this fourth-round rookie out of Mississippi State, a kid named Dak Prescott. They won five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten in a row. And all of a sudden, handwriting's on the locker room wall. They got to keep on keeping on. Eleven in a row. Tony conceded publicly. It's his job. It's his team now. Jerry went right along with it, writing the hot hand. No more Romo. So Cowboy history says...
Don't sleep on Cooper. School is back and Dick's Sporting Goods has what you need to win your year. We've got everything from cleats to Sambas, Dunks and more. Plus the hottest looks from Nike, Jordan and Adidas. Find your first day fits in store or online at Dick's.com. Back to your questions. Back to Daniel from Missouri. How long did it take to film a workout for that men's health article?
Good question. Maybe nobody cares but me and Daniel. But I will answer how long? It took too long. It took way too painfully long, Daniel. And I will tell you why. If you don't know, I do have a workout spread in this month's Men's Health entitled Hot Take Champ.
And I have discussed on this show before how I have attempted for many, many years to stay in extreme shape, both cardio shape, weight training shape. Because if I'm debating a former or a current professional athlete, especially Hall of Famer Shannon Sharp, now an undisputed, I want said athlete to know, to believe that my energy and my stamina are extreme.
because I want them to know that I'm almost certainly in at least as good a shape if they are, if not better. That includes Shannon Sharp, who's in spectacular weightlifting shape. Obviously, he's much bigger than I am, my 165-ish pounds, but I'm pretty sure that Shannon can't match my ability to run distance. Pretty sure he can't match my body fat, which stays around 5% or 6%. I'm pretty sure that pound for pound,
in ripness, I'm right there with Shannon. I've said this many times. I believe that live TV debates are actually one the night before with the preparation that you do, but they're also one in the gym. You can call me crazy for saying that. You can call me delusional for all that I just said. That's just the way I am. That's the way I tick. So over the years, I've done a good number of fitness photo shoots for national magazines, some newspapers,
but none quite like this one for men's health. So we shot it in the gym here on the Fox lot right after Undisputed on a Friday. And for these shoots, I try and I fail to make myself peak ripped. It just never works. I try to cycle creatine. It's something that my body responds well to because
creatine allows you potentially a quicker recovery from your workouts it allows you to maybe lift a little more weight a little harder a little heavier a little harder i also try to eat impossibly clean even cleaner than usual the two weeks leading up to the photo shoot but my problem is i am so addicted to my cardio i do one hour seven days a week without fail
I've told you before, I can go all the way back to 1998 in May, the last day I missed a cardio workout. I do it, you've never seen me on TV a day on which I haven't already done my one hour of cardio. That's either running on the treadmill or on an upright exercise bike. But as you might or might not know, cardio burns muscle. So my cardio addiction...
which is my morning rocket fuel. My cardio addiction always wins out over my photo shoot vanity. Every time it wins out. I tried so hard to get buffed out when I did the Kevin Hart show, digital show called Cold as Balls, in which Kevin spars with his guests while you're sitting side by side in cold tubs filled with lots of ice while you're shirtless. I tried hard. And then when I saw the video of
me versus Kevin on his show, I was horrified. I looked so wimpy skinny, so wimpy skinny, horrified. And I wasn't real pleased with how I looked before and going into this Men's Health shoot. So in the gym with me that day, there were two cameramen. One was shooting still shots, the other video. There was a Men's Health on-site producer and coordinator. There was the Men's Health writer,
who would interview me after the photo shoot. And then watching over me, trying to save me from myself was our Fox PR whiz, Ann Pennington. Thank you for all you tried, Ann. Tried and failed. But they wanted me to do a combination of the two workouts that I alternate every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. That's chest and back one day. The next day, shoulders and arms. So they chose the most photogenic workout
combination of the best movements of the two combined workouts. So let's say we started with standing chest presses at the Universal Machine and I would do set after set after set after set after I set as they clicked away. Could you try this? Could you try that? Set after set after rep after rep after rep until I finally, faithfully reached complete failure. At which point the videographer says, hey,
could you do a few more for me because I got to shoot the video from a little different angle. We got to relight it. We got to do this. And I'm thinking, I don't think I'm capable, but I'll try. So Ann Pennington valiantly attempted to save me. But of course, I'm a trooper, if not a warrior, if not way too proud. Ann saying, you okay? And I'm saying, yeah, I'm okay. I got this. I was not okay.
I just kept banging out rep after rep, cranking out set after set, more and more weight because my vanity was killing me. I didn't want to reduce my weight so that you'd look at the video and say, "What a wimp he is." I protected my ego, but not my shoulder, which for three months after this photo shoot required nightly icing, all kinds of over-the-counter Voltaren gel,
anti-inflammatory. I'm pretty sure something's seriously wrong in my shoulder, but I keep muddling through. By the way, the photo shoot was about six months ago because that's the lead time required for these things for most of these magazines. So then we obviously moved to bicep curls and then we do tricep pull downs and then we do full body pull ups and on and on and on.
I did take a quick look at some of the pictures digitally just a moment after they were shot and some I actually liked. But of course, I have and had no control over which shots actually got chosen for the magazine, the print version, the digital version, or even the video version. And naturally, I was in the end very disappointed that more rip shots weren't included in the magazine spread.
Occasionally my wife Ernestine says, "Let me take a picture of you doing this or that." And I posted a few on social media because every once in a while she just catches that rare, lucky, perfectly lit shot that makes me say, "Wow, I had no idea I could look like that." There's no trick photography involved. It's all me, all completely real and natural. But of course, none of those kind of shots made it into men's health.
They also did take a video of me running on the treadmill, a chunk of which was used in the video that they posted along with. It accompanied the print spread. By the way, the video was sensationally done. I was impressed. But the glimpse you see of me running on the video on the treadmill...
Looked like I was just in the warm-up stage. It was maybe a 10-minute run that I did for them, but I got faster and faster and faster in minutes 8, 9, and 10. I was flying up to 8 miles an hour. If you know treadmill running, it's pretty fast. At least it's fast for me. I think they showed me going 4 miles an hour, and I was humiliated. Again, ego crushed. Shoot went on for a good two hours. I was...
all time exhausted. It was easily the longest, toughest, hardest workout of my workout life. Hey, at least I didn't have to go home and lift weights like I always do after I'm disputed on Friday. But then I got to or had to sit down with the men's health writer for an hour and a half as he grilled me about my workout obsession. It was a long day. Was it worth it? Sure it was.
I was honored that they chose me, but do I wish they'd chosen more of my ripped photos? Well, sure I do. I was just hoping that Shannon Sharp would be a little more intimidated by the pictures they used. I will close with this, a quick note on the single most excruciating, horrifying, devastating loss I have ever suffered as a fan. This was last Saturday night. I've told you before,
To quote the Oklahoma Sooner fight song, "I was sooner born and sooner bred, and when I die, I'll be sooner dead." I grew up in Oklahoma City. I was born into Oklahoma Sooner football fandom and culture. That team has meant so much to my state, especially after back in the day, the Grapes of Wrath portrayed my state is so backwards, backward. Our calling card, our claim to fame nationally became Sooner Football.
I have lived and I have died with Sooner football. I lived and I died with my previous coach, Lincoln Riley, whom I now call Stinkin' Lincoln because I'm still convinced that down the stretch last year, starting when we were 9-0 going to Baylor, Stinkin' Lincoln obviously was already negotiating with USC to come out here to Hollywood to coach the Trojans. And he weirdly, mysteriously, inexplicably yanked Caleb Williams,
to start the fourth quarter of that winnable game at Baylor. I still haven't gotten over that. Then they barely beat Iowa State. Then they pretty much stunk it up at Oklahoma State in the Bedlam game and lost that and lost the season. And I'm convinced that Lincoln had more important things to do, negotiate with USC. Stinking Lincoln left us high and dry. Obviously, he ended up taking Caleb and seemed like half the team with him.
right through the transfer portal, right out here to Hollywood. Way to go, Stinkin' Lincoln. But did he leave us for dead? I thought not. Not after I watched Oklahoma's first three games this year. I saw things I hadn't seen since the early days of Bob Stoops coaching my Sooners. I saw Brent Venables actually coach something called defense. We actually had a defense. Defense was an afterthought for Stinkin' Lincoln.
And right on cue, each of his years, even though he had Baker and Kyler, Jalen and Kalem, even though he had those star quarterbacks, Heismans everywhere. I thought Kalem should have won the Heisman last year if he just left him in the Baylor game. Start the fourth quarter, he would have pulled it out. But every year through that stretch with all those great quarterbacks, we would always blow one game. It would be like 55 to 52.
Because we played no defense. Didn't care about defense. Brent Venables lives for defense. I loved his press conferences after the first three victories that opened the season. He's so open, so passionate, so real, so unlike stinking Lincoln, who was always so paranoid with the media, so guarded, so distant. So I thought, this is our year to show him up.
I wanted my team to win every regular season game because I could see my team had the ability with Dylan Gabriel, our transfer quarterback, to win every stinking game this year with defense as well as offense. And I wanted to meet stinking Lincoln's team in the national semifinal. I don't know, maybe in the national championship game and show him up and prove him wrong and make him look silly. I saw it coming. It looks so great.
the week before at Nebraska, we got this. We play defense. And here came K-State, which has owned us recently. But I thought, no, this will be different. Everything feels different. This is Brent Venables, who learned his football while playing at Kansas State and coaching at Kansas State. We got this. We got it. I have never in my life been so blindsided
so dumbfounded by the outcome of a football game than I was by that one. Adrian Martinez made us look silly. Adrian Martinez rushed the ball 21 times. He's a quarterback, by the way. Rushed the ball 21 times for 148 yards. It's the same Adrian Martinez who played for Nebraska last year, who came to Norman with the Cornhuskers, and he ran the ball 17 times for 34 yards. What?
17 for 34 versus the other night, 21 for 148. And when we had a ghost of a chance late in the game, two and a half minutes left, K-State's pushed back to third and 16 at their 41-yard line. Third and 16. I'm thinking, okay, now we got this. Adrian Martinez escapes while they're spying him. Finally, they were spying him. And he beats the spy up the left sideline for 55 yards.
down to the four yard line. And then he took it home, took them home back to Kansas State with yet another shocking upset over my Oklahoma Sooners. We were 13 point favorites going into this game. And then I had to sit the rest of the night on my couch next to my wife, watching stinking Lincoln and Caleb Williams come back to win at Oregon State with a late touchdown pass. At least if they had lost, I'd feel a little better.
This was devastating. I did not see this coming. This was impossibly bad. Kansas State rushed for 275 yards against a coach, a former defensive coordinator at Oklahoma and Clemson, who I thought really could coach up a defense. 275 yards rushing? Deuce Vaughn, little Deuce, escaped 25 times for 116 more yards.
It was impossibly bad and Kansas State had just lost the previous week at home to Tulane 17 to 10. Adrian Martinez had rushed 13 times for 59 yards against Tulane and he went 21 for 148 against my Sooners. Never ever in my life have I been more rocked and more shocked by an outcome. Never ever. I will never recover from that.
Our season almost certainly is lost. I know we've escaped before with one loss, but somehow this one was so bad at home. The final was 41 to 30. We gave up 41 points at home to Kansas State, who had lost 17 to 10, scored 10 against Tulane. It's such a bad loss. They'll never overcome it, and I'll never get over it. Never, ever, until I'm sooner dead.
That's it for episode 35. Thank you for listening and or watching. Thanks to Jonathan Berger and his All Pro team for making this show go. Thanks to Tyler Korn, my man Tyler, for producing this show. Please remember, undisputed, every weekday, 9.30 to noon Eastern Time, the Skip Bayless Show, every week.