Kyle Brandt on Seth Rollins Beef at the Draft & Peter Schrager Reunion

All right.

Joining me now, always love when an SI Media podcast regular shows up, makes my job very easy.

And he's had a big weekend from NFL Network, Good Morning Football, and now ESPN.

Kyle Brandt, Kyle, how are we doing?

Jimmy, when I was just wasting time ready to sign on here, I was scrolling old Curb clips.

Do you have a favorite all-time Curb moment?

Um, it's, you know, I always hate that question, like when someone says favorite song, favorite, like how do you narrow it down to one, but I would, I would have to sit here and think about if it's when Larry refuses that, the new house tour from Suzie.

Oh God, that's so good.

I can tell you, in all my years on this earth, I've never wanted a house tour from anyone.

So for Larry to say, I get it, Spiders bathrooms, I, I get it.

I, I get it.

And then he goes, I'll take the tour.

She goes, No, I'm over it.

Um, Susie, I'll take the tour.

And there is a scene with Wanda Sykes where it starts with Wanda's jogging and Larry Caesar while he's driving and says, I'd know that tush anywhere.

And then she comes over to confront him about talking about her ass, and Wanda Sykes in that scene is as funny as anything I've ever seen.

She's like, that's how you greet a woman.

You say, Hey, assy, and what's that ass?

And the way she does it is great.

And then Crazy Eyes killer.

Um, it goes without saying, but, uh, the house, like if you're taking like my favorite thing about Curb is the When he reflects on the minutia of day to day life.

So I would probably pick the house tour cause it's so perfect.

I scroll through curb clips like someone goes on Instagram and looks at their ex-girlfriend.

Like I look just longingly like I missed our time together.

My favorite moment ever is, is, I'm sure you, you'll agree, uh, the thank you for your service moment phenomenal when, hey, how you doing?

is that.

Nice to meet you.

And then, why don't you say thank you for your service, asshole?

And, and then she says, get out.

Like that's what I have to every single person thanked him.

I have to thank.

it's like that's so Larry.

That's my favorite like I, I don't know.

You could ask me this question every half hour throughout the day, and I'd have a different answer.

Now I'm thinking about the scene when he's playing poker and he calls the guy the c word.

I mean, oh my God, how do you not go in?

Oh, you, and then they think Larry's abusing Cheryl after this.

Oh my God, it's so good.

Yeah, this in, you know, then you have like, we haven't even mentioned the Leon scenes.

What about was it porno Gil Porno Gil was a great one.

Just the, there's a scene with Suzie where Susie starts selling these hideous sweatshirts.

And Larry, she's showing them off to Larry and he's, she's, he's like, oh, you know, and she's like, oh, you don't like them.

He's like, well, they're not my cup of tea.

And she goes, you know what, fuck you and fuck your tea.

Like, that is a brilliant line.

Also there's a, there's two c word moments.

The, the, the one with our beloved, you know, in the obituary, and that's an all-time one.

I think that's the one that made me love Curve because that's, I don't know how you pick one.

It's impossible.

It's impossible.

I know I missed, um.

So you had a lot of stuff going on this past week.

Let's start with the draft.

Because the draft is one of these really amazing things to me in terms of like, I can't understand why anyone would go, and then there's always like 800,000 people there.

Set like the, like, because here's the thing, you're going there to see your team pick.

So why would you stay after your team picks?

Your team gets one pick.

Why are you there for all those hours?

That's what I can't wrap my brain around.

But I'm guessing it's young people who are, you know, not old and washed up like me, but give me like, I want like a little atmosphere scene in Pittsburgh from last weekend.

It's Rust Belt Coachella.

That's, that's what it is, and I've been to Coachella.

That alone fascinates instead of.

Yeah, I went there like 20 years ago, but was there a big artist?

Like this she was Kanye West, Kanye West, OK, yeah, Kanye West.

I went to see Tool , but like I went and I drove, I lived in LA at the time, so it's a 2 hour drive, but it's pretty similar, man.

It's this wide expansive space.

It's people just kind of walking around and drinking and talking, and then, you know, some of the bands you care about, some of them you don't care about, you wait for the band that you do care about, and then you talk about what they did.

It's very similar, it's just football, and instead of Vanessa Hudgens, it's Mel Kiper, like that's just how it is.

So it's like a football sort of Coachella hang, and people just love it, and it's fun.

There's a live band, there's entertainment that you guys at home are not seeing.

And it's just like you, it feels like the place to be.

That's all , I think I get for me, like, listen, I love the NFL more than anything, but it is weird to me that that takes place against NBA playoff games and like the Yankees are playing the Red Sox.

Like it's really like I don't know, I don't get as zoned in as I think.

It's the greatest flex , Jimmy.

It's not ratings, it's not jersey sales, it's, you can just show up, there's no ball, there's no score, there's nothing, and just read this name that most people in the crowd don't know.

I mean, let's talk about the day 2 and day 3 people showing up, not even.

The day one, they just wanna be around the NFL and they know they wanna, they're there, they were at the draft.

There's not a game that's gonna be played for five months.

That's the NFL's biggest flex that our draft is bigger than your championship game and then if you're like.

The nerd like me, I'm way looking for, I'm looking way more forward to the schedule release than the draft.

Like that's, I'm waiting for that in a couple, it's coming, baby.

Start complaining about all the streaming stuff, um.

So then you were on ESPN on Saturday with your old partner , Peter Schrager.

How was that?

Awesome.

There's Andy and Red on the beach, hugging it out, like for the first time, Peter's working on a boat and I'm walking down there and we hug.

It was awesome.

I, I'm really, really proud of it too, Jimmy, because I'll, I'll tell you the backstory.

So, not only do Peter and I get to get, get together on, on the air, on live on ESPN.

We're gonna interview Sean McVeigh when Sean McVeigh is involved in this, that the face of the biggest story in the draft.

That interview that we did with McVeigh , which I thought went very well, and Sean was excellent, known mostly because he knows Peter and me, like, There was zero pre-production that went into it.

We never once had any questions given to us by any network.

We didn't plan or write questions.

Peter and I didn't even do the thing where we're like, OK, so you're gonna ask him about the Ty Simpson, I'll ask him about staff.

We had no plan.

We just totally winged it.

It was one of these things where, while McVeigh is answering, I'm tapping Peter on the elbow being like, you next, your neck, he's like, no, you go.

And then, so I went.

And it was like, we've, we ran that pick and roll for 10 years together, and it was so fun to get back in there and do it again.

No, no pre-planning, no nothing, and it just felt great, and it, I'm very proud of how that went because I hadn't worked with Peter in 1 year.

That's the first time in 1 year we've been on TV together.

And we're talking to one of the biggest factors in the entire NFL draft was zero plan, zero prep, and it just went well, not based on some, cause we're some crazy talent, just because we got so many reps together and it was like, just, It was like a, you know what, it was like a bonus night with an old ex.

It was like, I, I, I like this.

I've been here before.

It was fun.

Um, I was gonna ask, like, did it take a couple of seconds or a couple of minutes to like get back into the groove, or was it like, you know, there's all those expressions like riding a bike and etc.

Did you and Peter have, like, was it any, any awkwardness at all at the beginning just because you haven't done it for a year, or was it perfect from the get-go?

Immediate, immediate.

We did another segment where we were just reacting to stuff happening at the draft, and you will get this, Jimmy.

We , we were like 2 minutes away from the segment where we already had our things planned that we were gonna talk about.

And then we noticed that up on the draft stage behind us, that Michael Keaton went up and announced the draft pick, and Peter and I both had the same reaction.

We're like, what is he doing here on day 3?

He should have opened the draft with the 1st pick, and we started vamping during commercial about, like, why is this is beneath him, we love day 3, but what the hell, where was he on Thursday night?

And so we're like, never mind, scrap the plan.

Let's not talk about Ruben.

Bain, and we're talking to the ESPN truck, which is very nimble.

We're saying, can you guys just run the Keaton footage?

And then 30 seconds later, we're live on ESPN making Mr.

Mom references and gung-ho and all the stuff that we've always done, Jimmy, and it was just immediate, I mean, no warm-up, no nothing, like, we didn't practice it.

And again, it's not because we're just, oh, we're so crazy, great.

It's just, we worked together a lot and it was like, Teammates getting back together who know the system.

I would love to know.

I don't know how much you can pull back the curtain, but I would love to know how it came about.

Like, what, when did you find out you'd be doing a segment with Peter?

Like, is it, was it the NFL Networks?

Well, the NFL, there is no NFL Network.

It's ESPN.

So like, it's, and it was on ESPN.

So how did it, how did it all come about?

Were you pumped up when you, when you heard the news?

How it, give me a little backstory.

Thrilled.

So, I, I was scheduled to work the draft for Good Morning Football, Thursday and Friday, which we did.

I did live from Pittsburgh.

And then, candidly, I, I proactively reached out to anyone who would listen at ESPN and I said, I'll do anything you got.

If, if I can be the 12th man on a desk talking about the day 3 pick for 10 seconds, I'd be thrilled to do it.

I wanna make relationships, I wanna meet people, I want, I'm here to work on any day, under any circumstance, and we extended that to them.

And if they had come back and said, you know, we, we're, we've got these seats booked, they've been booked for months, I totally would have understood, understood it.

And I was incredibly flattered and grateful that they said, well, would you like to work some on day 3?

And I said, yeah, hell yes.

So then, they're like, why don't we put you with Peter?

Great, we'll do an interview, we'll do a content segment, and then, They came back and not, I never expected this, they said, would you like to do a segment at the desk?

And I was like, what desk?

They're like, the desk with Reese and Mel and Field and Louis, and I was like, yeah, I'd love to do that.

And so there I am, 7th round picks going off the board, and they sat me down and Jimmy was, it was.

I don't know.

It's like I, I, it was 18 year old me was like , what the hell are you doing there?

It's crazy.

I was gonna say you've been doing this a long time.

You've sat next to millions of big names in the business, but like you're sitting there on a, on draft day across from Mel Kiper.

It's gotta be a little freaky.

It's awesome.

It was like.

It was like, I jumped into a show that I've always watched, like, I was doing a scene in Breaking Bad, and I was sitting there with, with Walt and Hank and and Jesse, and they're, they're just being themselves.

You know, I, I, I had my one segment, I come in and I sit down next between Field and Reese, and I look over and And Mel says to me, and Mel and Field are like, so what kind of desk person are you?

Are you messy?

Are you neat?

And, and I was like, I, I think, I was a little nervous.

I was like, I think neat.

I'll, I'll be, I'm a guest here, so I'll be neat.

But Mel, you know, he's, he's like, he's got no, no, nothing digital, Jim, nothing at all.

You get this.

No iPad, I didn't see a phone, nothing.

It's like these spiral notebooks and pens and files and staples, and I was like, this is really, really cool.

Like, you do it the old fashioned way, whereas Field is much younger, he's electronic.

So I just tried to sit there and not make a mess and sit next to Rhys Davis, who I've watched for decades, and everyone, like, I, I know this is such a trite thing to say.

Like, everyone was so goddamn nice, and Mel Kiper is so intense on the air and he's a 6' 3 inch linebackers, and then when you meet him, he's not just nice, he's warm, and he's like, Kyle, I know you and I've seen you, and it's like, you don't even need to do any of that, and you do, so it was surreal, yes, but like, just very, very, very welcoming, and I think ESPN is looked upon sometimes as this big imposing edifice with all these lifers where you're not part of the club .

I don't know if that's true or not.

I'm brand new, but I, I know for a fact that it wasn't that true that.

Yeah, I, I, I have to say I had Mel Kiper on the pod before last year's draft, and it was one of my favorite interviews of the year.

Just like, like you said, you said it perfectly.

Like you see him on TV, so you expect a certain kind of personality, but he could not have been nicer.

He, he came to play.

He had stories like it was, he was great , uh, on the pod, uh, last year, so.

Um, it's always intimate too, like, you're like, this is something you don't see when you, when you're gonna appear in something like that at the same venue at the same time, it goes back, like, you take the same car there, you're all packed into an SUV, you meet in the hotel lobby.

If you didn't like someone or if someone wasn't friendly, it would be awkward.

Not just those minutes on TV.

I'm in the car with Mel Kiper, and he's, so Kyle, your kids play sports.

You know, what position?

You know , how do they like it?

What's their favorite sport?

Like just really, really thoughtful stuff.

I, I was, I was really, really flattered.

It was awesome.

Let me, let me circle back to Peter and then we can move on there.

I'm just, did you?

I mean, I'm going to assume we all like try to act like we don't care about the social media reaction.

I'm sure you checked the social media reaction because I tweeted out about you guys doing a segment together and I got social media reaction.

So, um, how was that?

Was it all positive, I would assume?

I doubt it.

I mean, I, I definitely don't pretend I don't see it.

I see it.

I was into it, and I have to tell you, I, and I'll speak to the Peter part of it, but Jimmy, it's like, Damn, the ESPN's got that juice though, man.

It's, it's different, and you hear about it, and I'm , I'm a 10-year NFL Network employee who's been able to make splashes here or there from a modest platform in comparison, that ESPN juice is crazy.

I remember I heard a term once, years ago.

I think Colin Coward and Dan Patrick were feuding, and there was public words spoken back and forth on the air, and I remember Dan Patrick referred to Colin as having ESPN muscles.

And I was like, wow, I've never heard that term before, and I kind of just filed that away as something that I was interested in, but didn't really understand.

And then they do.

There is, there are ESPN muscles, and you feel it, it's, it's not just the pedigree of the production and the stature behind it, it's the reaction is so much different in the airport, online, everywhere there are ESPN muscles that I can see.

Could infect you if you, if you got intoxicated them.

It's like, it's like the, the Frodo with the ring, like it's a burden you have to carry, but I just got a little taste of it.

Like I put the ring on for a second and it is different.

There are ESPN muscles and there's ESPN firepower.

I'm pretty sure someone has been telling you several times over the past like year or so, like things will go to another level for you when you get the ESPN juice.

My mom, I think someone has mentioned that to you a few times.

No, yeah, and the Peter thing was great.

Uh, not everybody likes us, of course.

Most people, many people are very positive, but there's always dickheads out there to get these to win back.

I, I mean, the funny thing is the reaction.

I got, I got tweets from people.

If SVP and Ruscillo can't be the next hosts of PTI, these two would be excellent.

Jimmy, it's time for you to start pushing this .

They need to take over PTI when Tony and Wilbon are done, um.

So you know, it, you can't really get a bigger compliment than those, you know, than that kind of tweet.

So that's a good thing.

It's a very nice tweet.

Peter and I would both be doofus Jay Fiedler's replacing Dan Marino.

We've seen that before.

I love Jay Fiedler, by the way, Ivy League football player.

I love you, Jay, but you know the like, and then we do when I see you guys together, all I think about is Jarrett and Trent.

I'm like.

You know, maybe we can, maybe there's a possibility it'll, we'll see them again.

Uh, I don't think so.

Peter was like, I'm done, and then I was like, I get it.

The Jared and Trent Wallstreter sketch, like, if there's ever, like, a short form documentary on anything like that, I, I look back at some of those early ones, I can't believe what we were saying.

If anybody doesn't know, we used to play two Wall Street, like, uh, out of their minds, investors talking about football, and the way it started was we just went out there and just let it rip about anything.

I mean, like, strong, like, drug references and like, Uh, the interns and just all that stuff is just bad.

And then eventually, our bosses were like, well, we're gonna need to see a script, and I was like, we don't have a script.

Well, you need to have one then.

And it started getting pared down and pared down, and eventually, Peter's like, I think.

I'm done.

And I was like, it's probably the right idea.

I could just tell, so when I tweeted on Saturday, the, the retweeted one of you guys about being back together for a segment.

So I'm gonna just, this is the response I get.

No fear.

The only thing I fear in life is Ashley Madison getting hacked, Trent.

Like people remember the lines, Kyle.

That's how good it was.

That's, it's my most fun I've ever had.

I, the fun thing about Jared and Trent was there was, there'd be people who would DM me, major public figures who were like, I wanna retweet it, but I can't, so I'm just DMing you because I wanna tell you I loved it, but I can't retweet it.

I was like, I get it.

What a bunch.

Of cowards.

I posted it every single time at my college.

Um, and then also I have to ask you, when I did retweet that, that you guys are getting back together, all I said was queue up the peaches and herb.

Did you guys get, did you get that reference because I had people telling me only old people would get that reference.

I like the old people references, but I don't know what Peaches and they were the singers of the song reunited and it feels so good.

It feels so good, jeez, that's really old people.

That's, that's not even our parents.

I think that's our grandparents.

I don't know that.

No, you know, everyone knows the song.

They just don't know who sings it, but I have all this.

No, I would have thought more like Liam and Noel Gallagher back on stage.

I go back, you know, you know, to the 80s, um.

Well, the last thing on the draft, I love how every year you do the game of like, who am I gonna see first?

When, so this year was a was a was an array of stars.

Tell me, give me like, so I, before I take off for the airport wherever I'm flying in Green Bay or whatever.

I say, it's, it's just basically a Comic-Con of NFL media figures in every in every coffee shop, in every hotel lobby, kind of like the combine is, but I only do the draft.

So I asked social media, who's the first person I will run into and I'll take a selfie with them.

The first time I did it, I check into my hotel and immediately see Kirk Herbstit, who I've always gotten along really well with, take a selfie of Herbie.

Oh, that's great.

So this year, I was gonna do it.

Who's the first person?

Everybody guesses.

It'll be Peter Schrager, it'll be Mina Kimes, whoever, like, whoever works in media.

And so I'm standing there at the elevators hub where the elevators up, and just all of a sudden they they came like a cavalry, and it was the first person I saw Desmond Howard, and then it was Mike Greenberg, and it was Joel Klatt.

It was like all of these people, many of whom I've never met.

So I have never met Mike Greenberg in my life.

Obviously, I've been watching and listening to him for decades , so I can't walk up to him and be like, hey, Mike, nice to meet you, Kyle Brandt, and actually we're kind of teammates.

Can we take a selfie?

Iie.

No, no, no.

And I'm sure he would have obliged, but I didn't take the selfie, so there was no selfie this year because I just can't do that much.

He seems like the type of guy that would have easily taken the selfie, but then you look like a douche.

Thank you.

I agree.

All right.

What was the deal with Seth Rollins?

Um, worked with Seth for over a year, consider him a friend in the industry, love him, loved him before I met him.

I knew that it was gonna be he and I at the draft, just alone at a desk, while Jamie and Manti Te'o were in LA, so it's just gonna be me and Seth.

It's me and it's a professional wrestler, we're at the draft.

We gotta bring something a little better than where is Sonny Styles gonna land on Thursday night.

We gotta put on some kind of show.

So, you know me, Jimmy, classically raised on like the old WWF loved Ravshing Rick Rude, loved Ted DiBiase, like, those were my guys.

I liked the heels.

I text Seth Colby.

I said, like, can we do our work?

I've always wanted to do that.

I've, I've, I just, it's a fantasy of mine.

He goes, yeah, like, do you have an idea , like, I'm, Seth's just up for anything.

That was one of the great things about him.

So I kind of started to piece it together, and the night before I saw we were gonna be talking about Rogers, and Seth famously hates Rogers.

And then there was this question that was being batted around about Seth just did WrestleMania and he's almost 40, Rodgers is gonna play this year and he's gonna be 42, which one is more difficult, WrestleMania at 40 or 39 or football at 42?

I'm like, this is it, this is the jumping off point, let's go.

So Seth and I are texting when I'm on the flight to Pittsburgh, and I'm like, you know, I'll push you, and then I think you should walk off, and he's like, great, great, great, great , great.

We, we tell very few people.

We told the producer of Good Morning Football, so he doesn't hit a panic button, and then I texted a few bosses.

I texted a boss at ESPN, a new boss.

I texted a boss or an NFL Network, and then Seth let a few people know.

That's all great Manti didn't know.

Amy and Man I had no idea by design, cause I wanted their reactions to be real on the air, and they were.

So we get to the segment, it's halfway through the show, we've done an hour of the show, everything's been fine.

We get to the segment, it's a long 15-minute segment, it's the A block.

And right at the beginning, I kinda start pointing out, like, Seth, like, you, you know, you're a little crispy today.

What's like, what's going on?

You all right?

You're right, yeah, I'm good, I'm good.

We get to the questions and I start kind of pecking, and I'm, you know, I'm not gonna sit here on the NFL's Network and allow the NFL to be defiled by pro wrest.

I start getting into it, and then Seth goes, and then here's where it got weird.

I was prepared for a fight, a back and forth screaming match, one-upmanship, you insult me, I insult you.

I had a full magazine of ammunition to fire at him.

Seth played it differently than I anticipated, cause we didn't talk through it that much, and we didn't rehearse, obviously, so I started hitting Seth with, like, my heavy artillery, and he played it as like, he was disappointed and kind of hurt.

So I just kept using all my stuff that I had ready, bang, bang, night one, you're a night one WrestleMania guy .

Let's get Becky on here cause she actually can win, like all of that stuff, and then Seth just walked off, instead of being like, You were on Days of Our Lives or whatever the hell he wanted to fire at me.

So he leaves, he throws a towel in my face, which is a complete ad-lib, which was an awesome ad-lib, and Seth's great, and it was perfect cause he didn't hit me with a chair, but he did do something physical to me.

Then he leaves, we go to commercial, and it's just like disarray.

There's people on set who don't know.

There's these poor people who I really respect who are in charge of Seth's transportation leaving the set, who they didn't know where he went cause he just took off.

And then I have to start the next segment.

Jamie and Manti are shook.

Like, Jamie and Manti are like the two kindest people you'll ever meet, and they were, like, really upset about what just happened.

Right.

We finally, over the next 24 hours though, Jimmy, it's very strange because I don't regret it at all, but I didn't think I was gonna be that much of a heel.

Like I was a pure villain.

You took all the heat, all of it, from, I, I thought it was gonna go.

Seth and Kyle have a fight and Seth leaves.

It was Kyle bullies Seth off the set and uh goes way below the belt and insults him until he leaves, and Kyle is such a were these wrestling fans or everyone?

Everyone, um, the wrestling fans, dude, the wrestling fans were nuts, like I, I had.

Like, many threats of physical violence in my mentions, all that stuff, like, which now I can laugh about, but like, I had industry people being like, dude, what was that?

Like, what did he do to you?

Like, there, I think there was a palpable disappointment in how much, how rude I was to Seth.

But the problem was we, we committed to 24 hours.

We're gonna wait until the next show to pull the curtain back.

The other funny thing is Seth and I had to go to some of the same engagements throughout that day, including the draft that night, and we, like, couldn't see each other, couldn't be around each other, and I was even thinking like, Do I go and throw a drink in Seth's face?

Like , do we escalate it even more?

And I'm like, let's just leave it where it is.

And then the next day, we did the dramatic hug and everything like that, and uh that was it.

But it was a, it was like one of the weirdest 24 hours of my career because everyone was so mad at me.

That's amazing.

I didn't, I mean, I feel kind of bad that I mean, in retrospect, maybe it wasn't the best thing to do while you're at the draft because you've got to focus on like the draft and being on TV and now you have all these people sending you threats, like on a regular Wednesday in the middle of the summer, maybe it would have.

It's been better for your mental health to not do it during the draft.

Yeah, but my mental health would be fine.

I just, I, I got, I also got DMs, Jimmy, from, from people that you and I know, like peers of mine, after it was revealed that it was a setup because, and they're to sum up their DMs, they're like.

God, I'm so glad that was fake cause I was so disappointed in you, and I was like, I'm flattered that you were disappointed and you thought that I was better, but in the end, the most gratifying reactions were the true wrestling fans who were like, great job, that's how you do it.

You actually got me and I've been watching wrestling for 40 years, and I thought it was real.

You guys were both really good actors, all that, and Seth and I had a blast.

Well, from just what you gauged.

What percentage of people thought it was all legit and what percentage thought, because, again, I'm so knee-deep in this.

I just know that the WWE has this partnership now with ESPN and every day ESPN is doing wrestling stuff.

So when I saw it, what, when, the first thing in my head was someone at ESPN, I, I even said , cause my best friend who's obsessed with you texted me and was like, what happened with Kyle and Seth Rollins?

And I said, I, I said at this point, I wouldn't even be surprised if it led to a match because this is what the WWE and ESPN have been doing, to which my best friend responded that I should be your manager, but that's a whole other story.

But, um.

Again , you, I think you have to be in the sports media world to know that ESPN has gone so heavy with the WWE stuff.

So that was my first thought when I saw it.

That's an important point, and I should make that point.

00 direction or encouragement from ESPN, from TKO , from NFL, none whatsoever.

It was completely my idea and I collaborated with Seth and he was totally game for it.

So, it wasn't one of these things that were like, yeah, ESPN, let's do some wrest.

It was 0, it had nothing to do with that, um.

And I, a lot of people suspected that at the time, but shoot, Jimmy, I, I would think from the reactions I saw, 80% believed it was real.

That's good.

That's a good percentage right there.

Yeah, I'm kind of proud of percentage, yeah, um.

Yeah, I was like, oh my God, Kyle might be in a match with Seth Rollins.

I thought, I, I thought, I thought you get on.

By the way, Seth's texts and DMs that he shared with me, like, he has a different caliber.

He's like, he's like, yeah, man, you know, Jelly Roll reached out to me and was like, hey, you all right, man?

Like that was messed up what that guy did.

He said one of his bosses, one of his biggest bosses, reached out and said, like, hey, let me know if you need anything on this, like, even they thought that it was real, so I don't know.

We, the acting, I guess, was good enough, but I was, man, I was, I was, I was full Rick Rude, like, hip swivel, oh, that was a mean, man.

That's what, that's what threw me, that's what made me think, like when you, what was the line you had like.

We'll have Becky here.

She wins all the matches.

I'm like, Kyle would never like, it's a good line.

And man, I was never the only, I was never gonna say something rude about Becky, and that's actually kind of a compliment to Becky.

It's just rude to say.

Um, Yeah, well, Rollins is a good guy, so that I'm glad that'll work.

He's awesome and like he doesn't need to do that stuff.

He likes talking football, but he was game for it.

I, I love that, like Kobe.

I love him, um.

Let's talk about something.

Maybe we'll argue here and fight a little bit because I wrote a column I can't wait on Monday after NBC announced it was gonna take football night in America on the road every week this upcoming season, and I don't understand the appeal of going on the road for a studio show.

Uh, OK, you want to do it for the NFC and AFC title games, the Super Bowl.

I get all that, but like week 6, Jaguars , Bengals, I don't know why these poor people need to be in Cincinnati.

What is your take on my take?

Uh, Here's my take on your take.

Jimmy, I read the column, I read that, it's a thinly veiled Trojan horse with which for you to get in your opinion about fat, hairy guys drinking beer on the, on the television.

And you had that line about it, and I know that how you feel about that and you never need to see it again.

And I think that's the real reason you wrote it is you're like, enough with the fat hairy guys shirtless drinking beer.

I get it.

It's funny that I can't tell you how much I laugh when someone takes their shirt off.

Like I'm rolling on the floor.

I never see it.

It's just so original and creative.

All right.

That, put that aside.

Uh, the, the answer is just juice, it's energy.

You, you, there, especially with someone who is really new to TV in this sense, at least, Mike Tomlin, you put him there for volume, juice, all that stuff.

I've done studio shows, I've done on the field shows.

There's electricity, never mind for the viewer for a second.

It juices up the talent.

The people at the desk sit up straighter, they talk a little louder, they talk a little bit more energetically, and on a Sunday night show , if people have been sitting on their couch for 9 hours, I think you want a little bit of electricity, plus, Half the reason you get Mike Tomlin is that he knows all the coaches and players in the league.

So, if you have him at whatever it is, Bengals, Ravens, he's coached against all those players.

You're gonna see him interacting with the coaches, with the players , everything, and it's like, that is a lot of the currency in getting Mike Tomlin, isn't just his thoughts on the.

Cowboys or whatever it is, put him in with the other peers and let them intermix.

Like that's how you get the best out of him.

I actually think it's a very smart , and I am interested.

I like when we disagree.

I, I also think you still, you're standing pat .

You don't want it.

Like you want them back in some studio just sitting at a desk with those I would say one.

I watch very, very little football night in America only because usually you're watching the end of the 4:25 games when that show starts at 7.

Then you have like a half-hour window before the before the Sunday night game starts.

So that is, get something to eat, get ready for the workday, the next, I'll get ready for Monday.

Take care of what you gotta, you know, I, I'm not locked into that show from 7:30 to 8.

Then you step away from media for that 45 minutes for about a half hour.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Whenever the last 4:25 game ends, you get like a 30-minute window to, after sitting on my ass since, you know, 1 o'clock.

So then, You know, like I said, go get something to eat, maybe, whatever, take care of whatever around the house.

Then halftime comes, OK, I'll watch that.

And then the postgame's at midnight.

I'm going to bed.

Like I'm not watching the postgame on football night in America.

So, so I, I'm just speaking as myself.

Maybe there are, are people locked in.

I just, I feel like when those, when those shows go outside.

Especially in the later months.

The cast looks ridiculous.

They've got the hats, the gloves, the smoke's coming out of their mouth, and like, I, uh, they're not, it's not adding anything to.

The, the broadcast is fine, uh, where you, I, I do agree when you say energy.

I guess there is energy because you have the fans there screaming and the people doing it outside on the cast.

Do seem a little more energetic.

So I, I'm not gonna argue, you're right there.

I mean, the energy level on site compared to studio, yes, um, big difference, but I don't, and I like, I like the, the, the dragon breath and the hats and the freezingss.

It's, it's another thing, yeah, I mean, I, I like it better than just another studio show where someone's sitting there in a suit and they have their note cards and there's Talking for their 20 seconds, which is great.

I do it myself, but, you know, it's something more fun to look at, elements, all that crap.

I, I, I, I think there's a, it's actually a very wise move by NBC because I think there'll be more of a jolt on Sunday night that, oh my God, look, they're in Seattle, they're in Chicago, right?

And again, I think it'll get the best out of Mike Tomlin.

Well, you'll get a nice Christmas basket from NBC this year and I won't, but that's fine.

Jimmy, are, are you suggesting that I'm just kissing NBC's butt?

I don't work for NBC.

I have nothing, and I'll tell you what, you, you are an outlier.

If you can actually unplug for 30 to 40 minutes on Sunday, people aren't doing that.

You switch over to NBC because that's, you don't wanna get off the couch and face no, because there's no, I'm watching the games from 1 to like 7:30, and then I know I'm gonna watch a game from 8:30 to midnight.

So I need, what about 7:30 to 8:30?

I gotta stay.

That's where I throw in a load of laundry, eat some dinner.

Figure out what I'm gonna write about the next day.

You know, I gotta write the next morning.

Like that's, you know, that, yeah.

I, I actually stay off Twitter.

For the one o'clock games on Sundays because I'm too busy with the remote.

I mean you have two hands though.

I, I, I can't stay off the social when I'm watching.

I'm a fiend for.

I usually don't get back on Twitter until like 4:45 on Sundays .

Like once 1 o'clock comes, I don't, I'm good with that because I'm.

So that's that thing where you've had 3 hours off.

Are you like so excited to go check all the stuff you've missed and your brain is like they're opening?

No.

This goes back to what we talked about the last time we were, we were on where you had the phenomenal line that your house is not a goddamn Dave and Buster's.

So like on an NFL Sunday where you're watching the 1 TV, I have 3 TVs going.

So I'm always changing the volume on each game and changing, get rid of this game.

It's a blowout.

Put this game in there.

So that's why I don't, you touch the phone.

Rate my setup.

I have 6 TVs and a fridge and skee ball and, and are you people, are, are you in relationships?

Are, are you, how about rate my marriage?

Yeah, but you're, OK, but you because I don't have, but you're still watching football all day on Sunday.

Yeah, but in a normal way when your wife can sit next to me and she can do what she wants, and like I, I haven't monopolized the wall space and the freedom.

I don't, and also maybe it's just I don't have spare rooms to set up for my man cave.

I don't have.

Maybe your wife would appreciate it if she had a second TV while you're watching football on the first TV.

That would be the husbandly thing to do.

No, no, no, no, because then how are we gonna compete with the volume like we, then we got different things going on that doesn't work Sunday.

No, it's like you get the volume on Sundays, you could have it the other 6, so she watches House Hunters on mute.

That's not gonna work.

I just, I, it was so my house is not like Dave and Buster's was such a good line.

Um, it's true.

You mentioned, you said, you said you don't work for NBC.

You work for ESPN.

So give me some like what is going on.

ESPN now owns the NFL Network.

What is going on with Kyle Brand?

Are we gonna be on ESPN?

We're gonna be on NFL Network?

What do you know?

What do you don't know?

What are we doing?

Not that much.

I, and I'm not even being evasive, it's, I'm not that much.

Um, I come to Good Morning Football every day that I'm supposed to.

I just got to do those really cool things with ESPN.

I've got to go on with Scott Van Pelt going back to last football season just purely because of his generosity and extending the invitations to me, and I, I, it's, I don't know, Jimmy, it's like, um, It feels a little bit like I've been adopted, in a sense, like, I have my brothers and sisters, and we have our mom, and then their, this, their brothers and sisters and the dad, like, I don't like a Brady Bunch type deal, except we're being brought into their house and their house is like an eighteen-bedroom house, like, it's this massive thing and they've got the Dave and Buster's in their basement.

So, I'm in that house now and I'm just like, taking my shoes off and trying to be polite and use a coaster when I set the glass down.

And looking to book in any rooms of the house that I'm allowed to go in, and I know that sounds super polite, but that's how I handle myself in life and that's how I handle myself professionally right now.

I mean, it's, it's even a weird time for you and I to be having this conversation cause I kind of don't really know what to say, and I know there's people listening, and I just, I just wanna be appreciative and, like, excited and both of those things are true.

Well, it's, I mean, listen, we're taping this late April.

The season doesn't start till September, so I, I, it would make sense that maybe there isn't a plan mapped out yet.

Um, but I would imagine at some point they're gonna come to you and say, what do you want to do or what would you like to do, or we want you to do this.

So that that's exciting.

It's super exciting.

And then, you know, there's the whole talent pool thing.

There's many people at ESPN who are ubiquitous on coverage everywhere that I've never met before, that I don't know, that I've never even, I just mentioned Mike Greenberg earlier, I've, I've never met him, I shook his hand.

And then there's people I consider, like, I, I'm, I'm good with, like, I'm close with, that I consider friends, and so, it's just, it's, it's a little bit also, like, the other analogy would be, like, the junior high dance for me, like, there's the boys are here and the girls are here, and I feel like walking across and saying, like, hey, I don't know.

Do you wanna dance?

I've watched you for years.

I think we like the same stuff.

It's, it's awkward, and I also feel like I'm very aware of, I'm sure there's people at ESPN who maybe don't love that NFL Network people are coming, quote unquote, to where they work, and maybe they don't like me.

I'm not for everybody.

So, I don't know.

I'm just trying to, like, as much as I can, meet anybody I have the opportunity to and, like, contribute any way that they want.

If it was up to you and your choice, would you want to Continue to do just football, or because you're at ESPN now, would you want to branch out and do a show where maybe you talk about the NBA or baseball?

I don't know, whatever else, you know, or you're just, you look at yourself as strictly a football guy.

I miss all those other sports a lot, and I miss talking about them, like, you know, for, for a decade, I covered those sports with Jim Rome when I was his producer and exec producer, and , like, every single day it would be about getting up and talking about A-Rod or Barry Bonds or Kobe or whatever it was, and I love that stuff.

I love MMA.

I love all of it.

We used to do a lot of hockey with Jim Rome all the time.

And so, yeah, I missed a lot of that stuff.

I love, I have opinions about it, I have thoughts on it, and You know, we, you, you, you know, Good Morning Football, we talk about other stuff all the time.

Half the segments this time of year.

I talked about the Knicks for like 5 minutes this morning.

Um, so, yeah, I missed that stuff a lot, and it's also like, it's like when you get away from a language and then you're immersed in it again, when you visit a country that speaks that language, it just comes flying out of you, so, Yeah, I think it's short-sighted to just say, oh, I only wanna do NFL.

Like, I, it's not like I played in the NFL, you know, I, I played college football, but it's not like I, I was a safety for Washington or something like that.

I love all that.

So what I, I've, I, I don't think we've ever discussed this, which is bizarre, but I was curious and thinking of questions for this.

What is What is your non-football sports consumption like?

Like, are you watching every Knicks playoff game?

How much baseball do you watch?

How much hockey playoffs do you watch?

What is the, because obviously, you have wacky hours, right?

You're not gonna be up at like midnight watching the Lakers, but what is the non-NFL sports consumption like for Kyle Brandt?

It's really streaky, and I, I, I just gravitate to the postseason, like, right now, I really like the NBA playoffs.

I took my son to Knicks Raptors, which is the 2nd to last game of the Knicks season, and, like, I just, I'm just into it.

I'm, I'm watching this series, I'm watching a lot of the other series, so you can't watch nonstop.

I'm not watching 162 baseball games, nobody is, but I like the playoffs when they come around.

I like to watch, like, the boxing and MMA stuff, but I don't know, it's at the risk of being this guy, like, I spent all day watching 12 year olds play baseball and nine-year-olds play softball cause they're my son and my daughter, so I do so much youth sports constantly, and that's all you do when you're a parent of kids is you get up on, on Saturday morning, look at the calendar and be like, holy Christ, how are we gonna get to all these games?

So I do a lot of that, and then when I can, I watch playoff games.

Have you ever come close to having an incident at one of your kids' games?

With the ump, another parent.

It's a really good question, because I'm coaching 12 year old baseball too.

It's a fascinating thing, Jimmy.

I, and the real myth about the incidents that you see is that it's, you know, people who are just have no class, and they're, they're just pieces of crap human beings.

It's not true.

I have seen people who are really well-liked, respected people in the community, who maybe are very successful, have beautiful families, and just great reputations, completely come unhinged at these games.

There is a Jekyll and Hyde power that overtakes you, that I have not succumbed to.

But I felt it pulling at me, and it stems from this place of protecting your child, and if you think that something's happening with your child, where he's being put, he or she is put at a disadvantage, or maybe being taken advantage of by an umpire, or by a coach, or by a player on the other team.

I don't care how educated you are, or how successful you are, how thoughtful of a person you are, you turn into somebody on WorldStar.

It's, it's, it's unbelievable.

The impulses come out and I've been able to swallow them.

You know, you, your son is up at a huge at-bat, OK?

It's 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs, it's the last inning of the game.

And there's just a terrible call.

It's way outside and they call strike.

You, how do you not have a human reaction to that as your son goes back to the dugout, really disappointed and furious, and you've worked with him in the yard, and you've gotten him on the travel team, you put a lot of time into this, and it's the biggest moment, this person behind the plate.

Who maybe wants to leave, called a strike that clearly isn't a strike.

Do you just say nothing.

Yeah, you're supposed to say nothing.

It's hard though.

That's funny you bring that up because I, I spoke to Orlovsky on Friday because he had gotten the Ty Simpson thing right on Thursday night.

Was this the last time he used the f-bomb and he's he said um.

Went on, on the Mackey show, he said, fudge, yeah.

So when I spoke to him, I said, when was the last time you said fuck?

And he said, 3 weeks ago at my kid's game.

So it's the kid's game that can draw it out of you.

Um, the number one stress I've ever had as a parent, just, never mind the heavy stuff like health, but just in terms of their activities.

I've had children do theater, I've had children get up in front of the school and recite speeches or whatever.

When your child is pitching.

It is a white knuckle, 10 out of 10.

0 my God, oh my God, please throw a strike, and you watch him, Jimmy, and it's just like, ball one, ball 2, ball 3, hit the batter.

Now he walked the bases loaded, now he's coming unhinged, and you're like, oh my God, oh my God.

I, I'm not good at it.

I'm the pacer out in left field.

I'm pacing, I'm, I.

Not sitting there being like, well, at least he's learning valuable lessons.

I can't grasp it like that.

Hitting is stressful, but when they're pitching, every single person is looking at them, every player, every umpire, every family member, every person, it's, well, that's I'm thinking about right now as a parent is being helpless, and you're helpless in that because you can't go to the mound and give him a pep talk.

You gotta let him figure it out for himself, so.

And you can't scream it from the stands.

Hey, come on, you gotta get that knee up higher on the kick.

You got, and some parents do that, and I've probably done it in the past, but you can't, can't, can't do that stuff.

I just, I just had a flashback to the season one episode of The Sopranos when Tony and Sylvio, well, Sylvio goes and beats up the ref.

Um, so good, so good, um.

I wanna ask you a couple of food things real quick and then I'll get you out of here, um, but one thing about the ESPN thing, so about doing other sports.

I also think what's important is, no matter what you do, and you mentioned this on Good Morning Football, like, whoever, whatever you do, they need to always let you do some pop culture stuff.

It's such a strength of yours.

You do it better than anyone.

So, hopefully no one at ESPN if there's a role changer or if there isn't, no, I don't change any.

I hate when they try to change people.

Don't change anyone.

Just want to say that.

That's all.

And the 5 o'clock spot is open, so.

Kyle Brand.

All right, um, all right.

You, I've mentioned this to you before.

I love when you go on with Scott Van Pelt on his, on his edition of SportsCenter.

Scott had the right take this week.

coleslaw is vile.

I just wanted to say that.

So shout out to SVP.

And then you said you were Chick fil A and you opted for the grilled chicken nuggets.

The Chick fil A grilled, grilled chicken nuggets are vile.

I don't know how you could, I mean, I guess you must have dunked them in a ton of sauce.

What an obnoxious, terrible tweet.

That was a great tweet.

That was, here's what, here's one thing about Twitter.

Any food tweet is good.

Like your sports take, people are gonna rip you a new asshole no matter what you say.

You could say the Yankees are good, the Yankees are bad, or this team did good, you're gonna get ripped.

Throw out a food.

And you get the most creative, funniest.

I like my most viral tweet in like the last 3 months was something I did like about Entiman's cake.

Like it's, it's insane.

No, no, it got hammered.

It was, no, it was actually like phenomenal responses from people.

What was your take on incidence cake?

I, I, I said.

I'm asking this legitimately.

It was not meant to be snarky or judgmental.

Do you think anyone under like, I don't know, maybe 45, 50 years old buys Enterman's cakes anymore?

Because I know for me, like when I was a kid, 789 years old, it was in my house.

But now everyone's so health conscious and Everyone's into the fan, you know, goes to Starbucks, they have all these fancy bakeries that, you know, and The response I got was basically everyone who was over 50 said I still get mins, and everyone under 50 was like, do you know how much sugar and fat is in that?

So, It looks, it, it has the appearance of like a kind of the breadth of a pizza, but it's, it's, it's iced.

There's heavy icing, and then there's some sort of just like fruit jubilee sugar crap in the middle, and it's so delicious, and then if you heat it up for 30 seconds, that's what people were like, I, I heat it up and put this on.

The point is, the passion that people had for just talking about Entiman's cake blew me away.

Well, um, I didn't have that passion for the Chick fil A grilled nuggets, but it was like the all-time victory.

I got off a flight, I had that disgusting, I was just on a flight thing and I'm traveling, I'm in uncomfortable clothes, and you come down the, the, the hallway with the concourse, and it's like, there's Wendy's and there's I don't know, McDonald's, and then there's Chick fil A, where I know they have grilled nuggets, and I was just, I felt like it was just a huge victory.

I, I remember Louis CK before he went through all his shit, Louis CK used to say, the, like, the barometer of someone has a problem is when They get Cinnabon at the airport when they arrive on a flight before they go out to the car that's taking them somewhere, they get a Cinnabon.

The worst choices are made at an airport, so I feel like I deserve a victory dance for that because I've been trying very hard to get in the best possible shape possible.

And honestly, Jimmy, I think it has a lot to do with ESPN.

I'm just trying to present my best self, as they say, and grilled nuggets were a winner.

I gotta send you.

There's a guy on TikTok.

I don't follow him, but he comes up in my feed periodically, and it's it's a guy who He, he will, he will make humorous TikToks out of the experience you just had.

Like he'll be like, went to McDonald's, got the Big Mac meal, but got a Diet Coke, and then it shows him like squeezing into tight spaces, and he's like, look what I could do now.

Like, I'm not explaining it well.

Yeah, I'm not explaining it well, but I'll say, you'll see it and you'll laugh.

Um, yeah, it's pretty good, um.

I've been asking everyone who comes on, and this started with Peter, because Peter told me he drinks 2 Trenta ice coffees every day.

Yeah, Peter, um, I was just with him on the desk in Pittsburgh, and it's, it's true.

There's the giant, giant ones, and he'll have one that he's drinking, and there's already the one over here with the condensation coming down the glass, and he's been like that since I started working on the 2016.

It's always iced, even if it's freezing outside, he doesn't drink the hot coffee.

Everyone's very particular about it.

If, if you're asking, I, I know your coffee, your, I wanna know your daily coffee consumption.

Well, people ask me that sometimes because they think I have this maniacal energy that comes from some sort of substance.

No, the energy just comes from insecurity that I'm not good enough, and so I have to use that.

I, I have a coffee right here.

This is from this place in New York.

Honestly, Jimmy, it's like it's a medium sized coffee, hot always with almond milk because the dairy stuff messes me up sometimes, and it's not that, will that be the only one for the day.

Yeah, that's it.

I'm done.

I don't need any more after that.

I just , it's just in the morning and I'm on my morning show hours.

It's not that big of a deal, um, so I don't drink much coffee and I'm, I'm like drinking very, very little alcohol right now too, so it's all going well right now until it all comes crashing down.

I'm gonna end it with this.

I, even though, you know, I know you, we chat a little bit, I still googled you before this interview just to see if there's anything I've missed from my notes.

Have you, have you googled yourself lately?

Are you aware, I mean, I don't know if it's different for different people, but when I googled you this morning, this is the, this is what comes up.

Now, I know this is a terrible experience if you're listening, but if you're watching on YouTube, I just wanna know.

Where, what.

And everything about this photo.

Well, I was in a Sugar Ray cover band at the time.

No, I look like I was though.

Um, that, that, that would, that would have been the only time in my life that I ever had the highlighted hair or frosted tips, and I was made to do that by NBC because I had just been cast as Philip Kyriakis on Days of Our Lives, and it was a recast, as it usually is on a soap, and my predecessor had blonde hair.

So, to kind of grease the transition to me taking over the character, they're like, let's put some blonde in your hair, and considering it was 2003, I didn't bat an eye, it's fine, let's do it.

I don't know why that's the picture they're using.

That is, I'm about to play in it like a quote unquote, celebrity basketball game, and I know Mike the Miz was playing in the game with me at the time cause we used to be teammates.

And I don't know why they're focusing on that picture at all.

And also, Jimmy, I should say, like I occasionally I will Google myself just because I think it's smart as a media member to be aware about what you're saying, what is resonating, or what is causing a reaction.

I used to be like that's the number one douchey thing.

Do you Google yourself.

I think it's actually kind of self-research if you work in media.

Like I, I'm not ashamed of it at all.

If you're not Googling yourself, you're either a liar or maybe not thorough.

All right, so what, what year was that photo?

Around 200303.

All right.

Yeah, I don't know why a 23-year-old picture is the first one I've taken thousands of pictures since then.

Maybe it's we're talking about it, you know, I'm glad I actually brought that up and we had this discussion because I said I was gonna end it, but you just reminded me because you said Sugar Ray cover band.

That thing you did with your friends recently where you sang and did a concert was unbelievable.

Thank you.

So these are friends what from high school?

College?

Listen, it's, long story short, it's, it's my best friends going back to high school.

They're still my best friends.

They were all my groomsmen at my wedding, and the, the long story short, when we were seniors in high school, we put together a crappy cover band where we played in one of our friends' basements and we played the school talent show , and that was it.

And I've always looked back on it is, is that it was one of the coolest things I've ever done, that 4 minutes playing a Stone Temple Pilot song for our talent show.

You, you start to, Jimmy, I used to debate with my friends, what's the coolest life?

Is it the star quarterback?

Is it the movie star, or is it the rock star?

So, like, at the time, we would be like, cause these were the biggest people at the time, would you rather be Tom Brady, Leo DiCaprio, or Justin Timberlake, who was massive at the time and beloved, and I would always come back to, it's always the musician.

Like, the movie star life is impossible, it's very difficult, very taxing, long hours away from your family.

It's horrible.

The football life, you get injured, like, it's very difficult.

It's always the rockstar life.

And so for the last 20 years, 30 years, really, whatever it is, I'd always held on to that 4 minutes on stage, it's like, that's the coolest I've ever felt.

So, my friends now in our 40s with wife and kids, we're like, let's play a reunion show and invite all our friends and families, and we rented out the Metro in Chicago, we practiced for 2 fucking years.

And we played an hour-long set of 90s rock songs for our family and loved ones, and it was like the most fun I've ever had because what blew me away was it looked like, it looked like a regular concert.

Like it looked like, like how many people like the place looked packed.

600 people.

It was just invite, invite everybody you know, everybody you work with, everyone they know on open door policy.

It was a free concert.

We paid for everything.

It was kind of like Jimmy, like we rented out the metro, like you would rent, rent out a venue for a wedding.

Like we paid for it 2 years in advance, so you get professional lighting, professional.

Sounds, everything open bar and it was just everybody come and bring friends.

It's, it's an open door.

You don't have to pay anything.

So 600 people came to listen to us play, you know, Pearl Jam and, um, and every Bush, all the things I would imagine, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm just making an assumption that if it's all these people from high school, you guys don't all live in the same area.

How did you practice?

Yeah, it's a great question.

They all live in Chicago, I live in New York, so, like, 3 or 4 times, we rented out a house in Southern Wisconsin and, like, just jammed for an entire weekend, and I just, there's so many people listening who maybe they played guitar for a year or they messed around with the drums, and, like, they had those rock and roll dreams.

I'm the same thing, I didn't even play an instrument, I was the lead singer as best as I could be, and it's It's so much cooler than just shooting hoops or doing, being in a play.

It's, it's the best, and it's when you, when I, we were doing a Creep by Radiohead and I like stopped singing and the crowd were singing, I'm a weirdo.

It gives me goosebumps right now.

I, I, these rock stars, these Metallica types and all these who have done it for 40 years, that's, it's the ultimate.

No, I, I listen, if there was one talent I could have in the whole world, it would be to be able to sing, so I, you know.

I know, I know, and I, I, I was barely getting by.

And the other part of me was like, guys, if we go up there and I just bomb and sound horrible and there's 50 camera phones in there, someone's gonna put it online and I'm gonna look like an asshole and I'm gonna be flat and missing notes, and I'm like, I just gotta roll the dice and just whatever happens happens.

The videos were fucking amazing.

It was like I, I got, I felt like I was watching a, you know, a legitimate concert with a Grammy-winning artist.

It was unbelievable.

No, it was just like 5 jerk-offs from Chicago and their wives in the front row screaming drunk.

I was, I was, I was very envious and impressed at the same time because I can't really sing.

But you know, yeah, I got through it.

Some of the, some of the comments were funny about like this is an all-time side quest, like have side quest ambitions, like, and it really was a side quest.

It's cool.

Well, we've, I think we've covered it all.

This is, this is a lot of ground, so I appreciate you.

Started with Curb .

Started with, uh, thank you for your service, um.

There's another moment.

My favorite Jeff moment is when he is telling Larry that he was, Jeff was, how do I say this, Jeff was pleasuring himself and, uh, he started thinking of Cheryl.

My bench he's like, just popped in there.

She popped in there.

Larry's like, what?

Ben's when they were married.

And then in that episode, Susie finds out Jeff did that in Larry's house and she bans Larry from the house.

I'm banned.

I'm, yes, you're banned.

That's another, that's another awesome scene is when.

Larry gets them kicked out of a country club and Larry starts arguing with Cheryl about who's the better tennis player.

Like it just, it's just so good.

Oh wait, and.

I can't.

I gotta stop.

I'll just keep going and going and going.

By the way, another famous moment, my favorite moment is in the last season.

It was a very dark moment, but when Larry's talking to Richard Lewis, and he's just like, When are you gonna die?

And they just start laughing, and then Richard Lewis died shortly thereafter, but it, there were genuine laughter in that moment.

There's a scene early on too, I don't know if it's season 1 or 2, I think it's 1, when Larry argues with Jason Alexander because they're supposed to have a meeting.

But Larry, his car breaks down and he's like 5 hours late, so they don't have the meeting.

And then Larry's like, OK, well, we could do it tomorrow.

You come to my office.

And Jason Alexander's like, Well, we didn't have the meeting yet.

It's, and he's like, the travel is the issue.

No, it's like that's always the stuff, um, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll go on forever.

So let me get you out of here.

All right, Kyle Brandt, NFL Network, Good Morning Football, ESPN.

What, you have anything like, is there a Like, what is the next thing now the draft is over?

I would imagine you get some time off coming up because we're getting in that.

Hey, hey, don't, don't forget about that sweet, sweet dopamine that comes from scheduled release, Jimmy.

I'll be, I'll go for that, baby.

Let's go.

What week do the Packers play the Bears?

We know they're gonna play them.

What week is it?

What we'll be all over.

That's important.

And what time hopefully both, wherever I'm invited to, Jimmy, wherever I'm invited to, you know me, this is my favorite side quest, the SI podcast.

I appreciate it, Kyle.

Be well.

You're the best.

Thanks.

You too, buddy.