Ride Home Rants
Ride Home Rants
From Athlete to Entrepreneur: Charles Bell on Family Business, Coaching, and Life's Unexpected Turns
Charles Bell joins us to share his incredible journey from a high school athlete in Newcomerstown, Ohio, to managing a family-owned business in Lisbon, Ohio. Charles reveals how his dreams of becoming a physical therapist shifted to engineering, all thanks to a chance encounter with college baseball and his future wife. I even share my own twist of fate—a career-ending injury that reshaped my path and led me to meet my significant other. Together, we reflect on the unexpected turns that have brought us gratitude for the lives we lead today.
Our conversation with Charles also uncovers the complexities of running a family-owned niche manufacturing business. As Charles and his brother-in-law Jason take the helm from the founder, they navigate the world of labeling and laser coating equipment production. Charles paints a vivid picture of the challenges and rewards involved in growing a close-knit, community-driven enterprise without the looming influence of corporate giants. The discussion highlights the importance of patience, perseverance, and the enduring success of family businesses that contribute meaningfully to their communities.
We round off the episode with spirited discussions on coaching, sports, and the ever-evolving landscape of college football. From first-year coaching memories to the excitement of the new college football playoff system, the episode is infused with humor, nostalgia, and valuable insights. The balancing act of coaching, family, and work is laid bare, with stories of late-night film studies and the camaraderie of the locker room. Whether you're here for the sports talk or intrigued by family business dynamics, there's a wealth of dedication, friendship, and life's unexpected paths waiting to entertain and inspire.
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Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ride Home Rants podcast. This is, as always, your host, Mike Bono. I have a great guest for us today. He actually comes to us all the way from Lisbon, Ohio. He is an acquaintance and friend of two former guests of the show in Jeremy McElroy, Drew McLaughlin, and, of course, everybody knows the wonderful manager of the podcast, Johnny Fittifau Coney. We're going to talk all things about him and his coaching path and everything like that, but Charles Bell joins the show. Charles, thanks for joining.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hey, thanks for having me. I am real excited for this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're excited to have you on. So for the listeners out there that don't know who you are, where did you grow up and go to high school? And that, did you play any sports growing up? Take?
Speaker 2:us through a little bit of that. Sure, absolutely. I grew up in New Comerstown, ohio, which is south of New Philadelphia, south of Canton, hometown of Woody Hayes and Cy Young, pretty famous little area, little small town. I grew up there, uh, graduated from high school, uh, played football and baseball, played a little bit of basketball but uh, you know, as I, as I got older in the junior high and then in the high school, um, didn't quite have the heights. That continued down that path. So, stuck with football, stuck with baseball, ended up going to Malone then Malone College before it was Malone University and went to play baseball. That didn't work out after my freshman year and then transferred in Youngstown State, finished up my engineering degree there and you know that's kind of where my athletic career stopped.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I definitely understand that. So, yeah, I played football in high school at Brook High School in West Virginia and a little town called Farnsby, west Virginia yeah, been there Famous for Lou Holtz. So you know it's weird to see these little towns that you know, that these you know big name people now in the coaching world and the sports world that you know you wouldn't expect to come from these towns. That's always something that's interested me. But, you know, played football, swam, had a scholarship to swim at Bethany College and had an unfortunate injury that kind of ended my sporting career, if you will too, as well. So I definitely understand how that can take a toll and things change and the path changes. I thought swimming was going to be it for me, I thought that was going to be the career path and it was going to be an athlete. And it's a freak accident or freak injury that you know ends it all, but you know it's it wouldn't change it for the world. I'm down this path now and I'm loving every minute of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know I don't know exactly how you feel and what you mean. I look at it. When I got to Malone, my big focus was to play baseball for four years and then be a physical therapist. And I got through fall ball and by the end of fall ball it was pretty apparent that I wasn't where I needed to be on that team. Naia back then was kind of the wild wild west as far as scholarships and so you know they could bring in quite a few guys and then on top of that, you know, maluna just started their football program. So you know they had incurred a lot of additional costs and so they were raising tuition the next year and I just didn't fit into my budget.
Speaker 2:And I started out with a biology class my freshman year and, honestly, at the end of the first lab I knew immediately that it wasn't for me, because doing the dissection of a cat and I'm like nah, I'm not a blood guy, I'm not good with that. So there was no way I was going to get through biology or physiology or any of that stuff. All the nursing students were all excited for it and it just wasn't me. So I was quick to jump out of that and ended up actually meeting my wife through baseball my freshman year, through a guy that I was a teammate with, and met my wife two weeks in school and we've been together ever since. So you know, you talk about things working out like that was the path. There was a reason.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:I was fine with it. So we've been together now I've been married almost 30 years. So you know there's definitely a reason.
Speaker 1:That's definitely awesome to hear that. Oddly enough, you know, I mean met my wife at work after college, working at, you know, at&t. You know it's weird where you meet people and you don't think anything's going to come of that, and then, lo and behold, here we are Been married for three years but been together for almost a decade now. So it's one of those things that you don't realize.
Speaker 1:Yeah same deal. But yeah, I'm always amazed when you see couples nowadays that are, you know, 30 plus years into marriage. It's awesome to see that you know that's still just especially, you know, meeting where you guys did back in back in college and being able to go that long.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we, you know we joke about how different it was back then. Then you know, it's like they had a, um, they had a book that you had in your dorm room and it had every student in that book with their, their phone number, their four digit number or whatever it was, and uh, the fizz, and you would just that's how you, you know, kind of randomly call people, you know, and uh, but that's that was kind of how it was. And you know, like I said, we've been together 30 years. We were babies and we got married. We were 20. I wasn't even legally able to drink at the point. I'm not sure what our parents were thinking. You know, like I look at, you know, my 20 year old kids and I definitely my son at 20, I was like, ah, he wouldn't have been, he wouldn't have been mature enough to get married and have his own house and and, uh, run a household per se, and like there's no way. So like it's different times, right, you know absolutely.
Speaker 1:I mean heck, I'm, I'm 35 and I still don't even think I'm, you know, ready for that stuff. You know what?
Speaker 2:I'm 49, I'm not grown up yet. I'm not trying, I'm not trying to grow up.
Speaker 1:I'm not either, like it's. It's funny, my, my wife looks at me all the time. Just some of the immaturity and the joking around that I still do now, but I am a stand-up comedian too as well, so that definitely doesn't help things. That plays into it. Yeah, that plays into it. She just in all, she's like it's just like. No maturity in men is there. I was like I mean, some of them do. And then she met my family, my 87-year-old grandfather, who's still cracking jokes and still acting. He just doesn't want to grow up. We're all just big kids and yeah, it's just. It's funny to me that you know the different world but how they all melt together and it works, and it's funny to me.
Speaker 2:Yep, straight up now. I mean children, that's what they call. Call me a lot of time. You're a child. Yeah, probably, some days Probably.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. You live in Lisbon Ohio.
Speaker 2:You know how long have you lived there? You lived there and how did you wind up? In Lisbon? Yeah, so after my freshman year of college I knew that I needed to find a different path and at the time my father-in-law-to-be had started a new company and there was an opportunity for me to come and work for him and go to youngstown state and get my engineering degree and uh, it worked out really good. So I was able to actually moved in with my brother-in-law to be.
Speaker 2:At that time I was living with him, working for my father-in-law to be, and uh then started going to, uh, youngstown state and and me and Allison got engaged three or four months after that and got married 10 months after that, and so it was a pretty quick, you know, change of events for me. But so we basically moved here in 94. I moved back here in 94. My wife grew up in Lisbon and our family's fourth, fourth, four generations graduated from lisbon high school, um, from her side of the family, her grandfather, um, her mom, then her and then our children and uh, and now actually my daughter's actually teaching at lisbon now. So it's it's been kind of a continuation, so kind of came up here. This is their home base as a family, and so been in Lisbon since 1994, the year before they won the state championship here.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You know, became real addictive real quick. You know, you move into town, they have a you know a nice successful six and four season. They roll back the next year and they're one of the first 14 and 0 teams in the state of Ohio and won a state championship in 1995. So that was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Yeah, I always love hearing the success stories like that.
Speaker 2:And it was. It was quick. You know, it was one of the things where you're like, you see, they got town and then this happens, and then they had a nice little run and so you know, it's definitely an area. I was happy to stay in Lisbon at that point and you know we've had some good teams since then, but that was definitely one of the more special ones, that's for sure?
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely. So. I mean you mentioned it a little bit there you know you work for your family's business. You know can you tell us more about that? And you know what is, you know your role and you know what you do with the business.
Speaker 2:Sure, absolutely. So. It's a family-owned business and my father-in-law started it and he brought my brother-in-law, jason, and myself, into it and he's kind of brought us along and then now Jason and I actually run the company and my father-in-law's, you know, basically retired and and so we're a manufacturing company. We manufacture equipment for the labeling, inkjet laser coating industry. So you know, everything you purchase has a barcode. You go to the grocery store, you go to the hardware store, it has a barcode on it. You know, if you buy a chapstick or Burt's bees, there's a label on it and we actually, for those two items, we actually built the machines that apply the labels automatically. That's what we do. So we, you know it doesn't matter what you buy. If you buy a ketchup or mustard, or you know, you get a bottle of beer and there's a born on date, there's a laser that puts that born-on date on an Anheuser-Busch bottle and we installed those lasers. So it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:It's a niche industry and I started from the ground up. I was cutting material, raw stock back in the day all the way up through the machine shop and then ended up on the engineering side and I'm an electrical engineer and I. So I, you know, did all that and I've worked my way up through from engineering to, you know, even doing the assembly, um programming, testing installations. So I've pretty much done it all here and now, even doing the assembly, programming, testing installations. So I've pretty much done it all here and now I pretty much oversee everybody that does that stuff. So I have engineers underneath me, I have assembly guys underneath me, I have marketing, I have sales, shipping. All that stuff works underneath me. Now my brother-in-law runs the production side, the manufacturing. He handles the machine shop and the weld shop and our powder coating line. He handles all that. Then I work on the other side of the building with the assembly and everything from quoting to assembly to getting it out the door.
Speaker 2:So it's pretty cool, it's, it's fun. You know we have a lot of people that work here that, um, I mean I have guys that play football, football for me, that that work here. I have guys that uh, um, you've grown up with I, a nephew, my son-in-law works for me now, um, and there's actually a gentleman that works for us that's actually went to high school with my mother-in-law, so he works part-time for us because he he would be bored otherwise. So I'm truly a family environment. I mean there's very few people here that that I don't know. Yeah, I have a through the family somehow.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, it's great to see A somebody worked their way up to where you're at now in a company. I think that's a lost art with most people. They get to a certain point and then they just kind of move on to the next thing. You know, staying with one company, moving your way up and you know it's family owned. I love that and it's like you said, it's niche based. It's not something people think about. You know there's barcodes on everything. You know how that happens. You know nobody really really. I guess you would know, but I mean, nobody really knows you know how that happens or even really pays attention to it. So it is cool to see the kind of behind the scenes of you know that kind of here and how that works. Um, because I have, like I said, I got a buddy of mine. His dad has has owned uh, you may know it. Um, it's Borden office supplies and um, yeah, no Borden Yep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh, jerry Simpson. Yeah, I grew up four houses down from him and you know his son is now starting to learn the reins and and being being able to take over the business. He worked for him like every summer in high school and you know he kind of like you, you know, worked his way up and you know, soon his dad's partially retired right now. A couple more years he'll be fully retired and it'll be his. And you know it's nice to see that there are still some I don't even want to say really mom and pop, but you know mom and pop, family owned businesses that are still around and still thriving. That's, that's the big thing for me. I, you know.
Speaker 2:I will happily go spend my money on mom and pop. Oh for sure, for sure. You know, and I think that's I mean, we still kind of view ourselves that way. Right, we still kind of view ourselves as a mom and pop type of operation, cause we, you know, we don't have a corporate entity above us. Right, it is us, it's our rear ends on the line at the end of the day. But you know, when you have good people working for you that carry the load, I mean it makes a big difference and we're all fortunate that way. And you're right, a lot of people don't. It's not that they don't want to work their way through. I think they just get impatient too quickly.
Speaker 2:You know, I started at 20 years old and before I had a single person working underneath me, I was like 35. So I did a lot of different things for a long period of time, but that's what it took to build our business up like we. It didn't build up overnight, it wasn't like we. We showed up and in year one we're like all right, we're a 10 million dollar a year company. Like right doesn't happen. You know you don't build up.
Speaker 2:You know we started there was legitimately four employees at one point and we talk about how, back in the day, there were weeks where we didn't have enough money to cover payroll because we just didn't get the money in from our customers. So maybe my wife and I, and my father-in-law and his wife, we would hold our paychecks for three or four or five days. We wouldn't cash them because we didn't have the money in the checking account to do it. So you make those sacrifices. You worked more hours than you got paid for, but it pays off in the long run and I think some people don't see that. It's easy to see it when you're successful. It's hard to see when you're not. And but you know, in the long run I knew I grew a lot from it. You know you learn more from your failures than your successes, absolutely, and I had a ton of failures for a long period of time that I learned a lot from.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I, I, I, I love that that quote. You learn more from your failures and you do your victories. Um, cause, then you know, basically you know my line of work, my career path being a comedian. You know it's. You know there's a lot of failures. There's a lot of not every joke works. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:And I I tell new comics all the time, because I've been doing stand-up comedy for 12 years. Um, and you know, I tell people, and especially new comics, it's, it's not if you're going to bomb on stage, it's when you're going to bomb on stage, it's going to happen. Like you're not gonna please every crowd that you're in front of, you're not everybody's cup of tea, it's gonna happen. And how you respond, cause that's what you know, a lot of these up and coming comics, see, is okay, well, I'm not funny. So this one show didn't go that well, so I'm done with it, and they just kind of give up on the career path and it's a grind. I've been doing it 12 years. I still haven't quote unquote made it. I'm still considered an up and comer. You know what I mean. Like that's been working at something for almost a decade and you know it's still. It's still not my full-time profession and you know it's.
Speaker 1:I think we live in such a you know, I don't want to say short attention span, but they want that instant gratification. Like if I don't get sure if it, if I don't go on stage one time and I'm not filming a netflix special the next day, like this is just a waste of my time. Like that I don't like it's. I blame. I blame social media. I love social media. I'm on it on every single one, mainly for you know this show and you career. But TikTok anywhere from 15 seconds to a minute, and if you can't keep somebody's attention span for that long, you've lost them. You know what I mean. They're not going to pay attention to anything longer than that. I think it's groomed people to want that instant gratification than wanting to work at something and actually, you know, try to build a career at it.
Speaker 2:Oh, I think absolutely. I mean you know patience to get what you want is. You know it's a little bit different now. Everything comes to you easier and quicker than it was. You know 20 years ago and 20 years before that I hate to be that guy sitting there, you know that. You know, get off my lawn guy, but you know it is. It's just different. You know it legitimately is different, and that's not a negative, it's just a fact. A fact is you know, you know you.
Speaker 2:You look at kids as a as a high school football coach. You know all these years. You know you look at kids as a high school football coach. You know all these years. You know I look back to, like when I coached my first year back in 2010,. How much different it was then than it is, say, now. And part of it's technology, part of it's. You know the way society is and it's not again, it's not a knock on it, it's just it is different and if you don't adapt with it, then you are going to view it as negative very quickly. Yeah, it is what the current environment is. And if you know, not the kids have changed, it's not the parents have changed, it's just society has changed and you adapt with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. You know I had a brief one-year stint in swim coaching. I coached a summer swim program down here and you know it was kids from anywhere from 8 years old all the way up to 18 years old, through high school, you know. So we had a very large team. We had a lot of like myself, an assistant coach and you know to handle we had 96 kids on on the team and you know it was, yeah, they stuck me with the high schoolers because I was the only one that was coaching there other than the head coach that had swam at college and actually, you know, told a story on here a million times but, you know, had a chance at the 2012 Olympic trials If it wasn't for the injury. That was the path. So they stuck me with the older kid and one of them she fought me every day on.
Speaker 1:Why am I doing this workout? I don't do this stroke. Why do I have to do this stroke in practice? Why do I have to? I stroke in practice like, why do I have to? I didn't make districts last year, so you know it was kind of like, oh well, why am I even swimming if I'm not even going to be making districts, and it took me, at 34 years of age, with still a bum shoulder from swimming, being like all right, you, you want, you want me to get in and do the workout with you, cause I'll gladly get in the water and do this workout with you and show you that.
Speaker 1:you know I was a backstroker. That was the only stroke other than freestyle that I did in events. But I still practice breaststroke. I still practice the butterfly every day and you think I went into college. It was my first year ever swimming and I had a chance at the Olympics. Do you think that was a thing I was like? No, I started when I was old enough to join a team, at eight years old, and been working at it and had this injury not been able to keep me out of the pool I'd still be working at it and I got in and I did the workout with them. I hated it the next day at 34 years old doing that workout, but it was it's.
Speaker 1:They want that instant gratification. They want that. Oh well, I need to be the best and that's not a bad like. It's not a bad attitude to have to need to be the best and that's not a bad attitude to have to want to be the best at something and master your craft. But it's the mastering part that they don't want to really work at. I think and you know you mentioned it there you've coached with former guests of the show, jeremy McElroy. So what was it like coaching with Jeremy? He's a former guest of the show Jeremy McElroy. What was it like coaching with Jeremy? He's a former guest of the show. Big supporter of the show, we're big fans of him. I always love to hear when guests know each other and how that dynamic happens.
Speaker 2:Coaching for Mac. That was pretty cool for me At the time I wasn't in coaching, I was trying to get into it and a gentleman that I knew that I'd coached some some little league with actually just kind of helped out. Joe Wilson had been coaching for coach Mack. And I'm like, hey, I'd like to really get into it. And he's like, all right, well, he wants to sit down and talk with you. So I'll never forget this for the rest of my life because at the time Big Cavs fan had season tickets and it was the night of the decision and Mac comes over to my house and that's the night me and Jeremy sat down and just kind of chopped it up and for him to decide whether he was gonna let me come in and actually coach junior high at the time with Jim Salimos. So we sat down, so I actually watched the decision with Jeremy and that's our first time that we'd ever spent together and actually met and stuff in my living room. And then so I started coaching junior high and a high school opening actually popped up and at the time it was more of just like, hey, we need a body. And I knew nothing, I was as green as it could be. I was 30 in my early thirties and and so I was very green from a coaching standpoint. But you know, jeremy showed a ton of patience with me and was just a very good mentor and, you know, kind of brought me along. You know, jeremy was at the time younger than me, so it was obviously he was younger than me. You know, he was a head coach. It was the first time he was a head coach. He was at Lisbon and it was his third year, third and final year there, but he had a ton of patience with me. Um, you know, we didn't have a, we didn't have very much success that year, but he, you know, allowed me to grow, gave me a lot of responsibilities. So I was actually coaching junior high at the time, full time, and then, after junior high practice was done, I would go right to the high school practice and so I would help them and then work with them, work with the defensive staff on Saturday and Sunday.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, as a support guy, you know, breaking down film. You know this is before we had huddle, this is before we had all these great tools that we have now. So, you know, we're we're watching film on a VHS or a CD and um, you know we're handwriting down, you know charting the stats ourselves to create our own tendencies. And, as painful as it was, the awesome part about it was it was so much work, intense from a standpoint of like you you were almost overwhelmed by it that it really ingrained it into you.
Speaker 2:Like I learned so much that first year about, you know, breaking down film and creating the scout plays that you want to run against your defense that week, you know, and and trying to look for tendencies and trying to um utilize those tendencies to create your game plan or to create, um, you know, some, some options for yourself in the middle of the game. So you know mac was awesome and uh, after that that third year they um you, he left and ended up at Beaver Local and then Geneva as well, but I've stayed in touch with him. It's been pretty cool. We have a lot of common friends and been into Jeremy a lot and definitely still one of the first guys that really gave me a shot and I learned so much from him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, he was just a wealth of knowledge when we talked to him on here. Um, and you know it's, it's amazing, you know, and I I love the success stories like that and you know the old school nature of that, I definitely. I I think coaches are spoiled nowadays, uh, with the huddle and everything that they have and not having to to hand write everything down. I still remember my coaches handing me literally a stack of paper on your stats and how the game went on friday night and, yeah, even you know my swim coach handed me a stack of paper. Here's your times. You know like they were handwriting, like my times down and old school stopwatch type deals it no, in in the pool, it's it. It's a lost art, I think it, but it's, it's great that this, um, uh, the huddle and everything like that that you know it's helping coaches, you know, be better and be better prepared.
Speaker 1:As somebody in high school, I was basically a habitual scout team on offense, so it's refreshing to hear that there was a lot of work that went into that game plan. I guess I don't want to say that coaches aren't working, but back then graduating high school in the early 2000s, it's, yeah, it's nice to see that. You know, there was a lot of work with the, the volunteers that came in it's kind of like sound like it like yourself there. They came in to help the team out that were breaking down film and you know if they were chewing you out, they were chewing you out for a reason, you know. I mean it wasn't just that you were doing something, it was hey, I spent hours watching your film. I need you to do this, right? You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and you know it's funny and I look at it from a lot of different standpoints. Because, like I am a, I'm a product of technology today. Like I have so much technology at my fingertips fingertips as a work from work standpoint, right like I can do stuff today as an engineer that they couldn't have thought of 35 years ago. And the same thing with coaching. Like we had, we had to create the data, basically, but process the data where nowadays, you know, these coaches are super intelligent I mean I, you know some of these young guys that I work with on staff now. They are unbelievably intelligent and they take the information and they process it so rapidly. It all comes to them like drinking from a fire hose.
Speaker 2:They get so much information, you get so much data it actually could be overwhelming. You could actually have too much information in front of you to create a game plan. You have to kind of, you have to like, narrow your focus a little bit when you're looking at all the data that you can get from huddle, because you could do too much. You just turn, look at it like, oh, the tendencies when the running back is to the right and he's he's half a yard back from the quarterback like or he's. You know he's wider, he's, he's. He's lined up over the tackle instead of over the guard.
Speaker 2:You know there's so many things you could look at and so much information you put in. So what you put into it, you can get out of it, but you can also kind of get lost in the weeds. Right, you could be putting so much information in that you can spend all your time looking at data and not looking at personnel and not being creative as as a coach. Um, so you know that's that's actually a challenge for today's, you know, new age of coaches to to use the data in a way that it's not overwhelming. They're not overusing it, but they're using it enough that they're generating the type of game plans they really want yeah, and it's, yeah, it's definitely an information overload, uh, for sure.
Speaker 1:Uh, because you know it's like you said. You, I mean you even hear it and I understand it. You know it's at the pro level and you hear the announcers even talking now. Oh well, travis kelvin kelsey's lined up outside. It's going to be a slant across the middle to him and it is like you know, and they know exactly what's coming and it's just from where he's lining up. And you know, I even got to see a little bit of it. You know, when I was coaching um, helped out at the YMCA. They were trying to build a program there. I was actually the head coach. Briefly, budgeting didn't work out so they did have to shut the program down. But at the time we inherited a lot of equipment. You wouldn't think there's a lot of technology that goes into swimming. It's like, oh, hand them a whistle and a stopwatch and that's really all you need A couple of bathing suits and some goggles. But there's now earpieces that are waterproof, that these swimmers can wear underneath their caps. That will allow the coach to talk to them while they're swimming.
Speaker 2:That's wild, that's absolutely wild, like it's.
Speaker 1:It's involved that much that you know I want to work with so-and-so today. So they're, they're really struggling with their, their breaststroke kick or whatever it is. You know you could talk to them through a headset while they're in the pool, like I had. I had one swimmer like, for whatever reason. You know it sounds like the most basic of things, but that flip turn that you have to do when you're getting into your turn, there's a science behind it. You have to know your strokes to the wall from a certain point in the pool and they just could not get it down. That okay, it takes me three strokes and then I need to start my turn and you know you're able to see that now as a coach and now they could wear that earpiece and I can go one, two, three turn and it helped them figure out. Oh, okay, this is what I need to do and it makes that athlete better. You know being able to do that. But yeah, it's crazy where technology is going. I'm almost scared to see where it's going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, you know, you figure, you know we've seen the transition of. You know you look at the college football game, right, look at the game. And even even college baseball. You know they're able to communicate with the quarterback or the defensive single caller, right. And same thing in baseball. Now they can communicate electronically with all the position players, with a pitcher, with a catcher, so you're not sending in signals, Like you know, at point, very, very soon you're going to see that become very prevalent in the high school game. You're going to start seeing high schools with kids with the green dot on their helmet because they're getting the communication. There might be schools, there might be states that it's legal now and there might be high schools that can afford that technology and you're going to start seeing that. I think I don't disagree with that at all which is wild, which is wild to think.
Speaker 1:I mean yeah absolutely.
Speaker 1:You know, I know there's probably people out there that have seen it and I mean I hope there's truth to this because there's commercials on about the it's the all deaf. I think it's a high school where now the all the players have a little eyepiece that hangs down from their helmet and it literally tells them to play because they can't. Yeah, you can't make a play call. If you're dealing with, you know, deaf players in an all deaf school, like they can't, this is going to sound bad. I mean, this is in the nicest way possible. They can't communicate, you know, out on the field, correct, and they have to. They have to have a way to do it. And now there is, with the special helmet that these kids are wearing, and you know it, it, you know it's, it's, it's crazy.
Speaker 2:You mentioned something there when we were in the but no go ahead, no go ahead I was going to say you see, I've seen it in the college baseball game, my son, my son plays college baseball at Bowling Green and I've seen the communication kind of come in Like you know, this is your six for him. He was a COVID guy and then red shirt. So this is. This is last year, but you know his first two years there was zero electronic communication and then we started seeing that come in like year three, year four, more Last year it was a ton of you know just about every school and then, like this year, like even Bowling Green will have it. So it's wild.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's wild and you know, basically, you know where I was going with this. You know saying that. You know this technology can cause you to information overload and be doing too much and speaking of doing too much and having too much energy. You also know the Johnny Pitti Falcone wonderful manager of the show and you coached with him in his first ever year of coaching. So with someone who has that amount of energy, what was that like?
Speaker 2:My man, johnny, that was something else we know. So, yeah, so, first year, me and Johnny and you know, we've struck up a tremendous friendship and even up through his family, like his dad and his uncle at one point ended up doing all the painting at our office because that's their family business. But, johnny, his first year, he comes in a little bit late, gets started, and so, like I said before, I'm in my early 30s, a couple of young kids, early thirties, a couple of young kids and uh, week one, uh, john's like hey, he's like man, he's like, oh man, I drive all the way back home and then come back tomorrow morning. I'm like, dude, if you want to just sleep on my couch, and uh, so. So my man slept on my couch for 10 weeks, um, every Friday night so that he didn't have to drive, you know, an extra whatever three hours, yeah, and be back in the in the coaching office at 6 AM. So you know, that was pretty quick.
Speaker 2:Me and Johnny became friends and, yeah, my man had energy, he would, he'd beat me up every morning, every Saturday morning. He was up well before I was and he was ready to go and he was the night owl, you know, but he, he a tremendous coach. It was fun to coach with him and to watch him grow. And even, you know, I coached with him that first year and uh, yeah, he was on the offensive side, I was on the defensive side, we, you know everybody had to kind of do a little bit of both, but he was predominantly on the offensive side, so I didn't spend a lot of time with him, you know, like on Saturdays and game planning, and typically we're on the opposite side of the field, even during, you know, team drills and stuff like that. And then, um, you kind of work with johnny a little bit, when he was at lowville too, and okay, because we would scrimmage, we would scrimmage them, you know we would, um, you know, change film with them if we had some, you know, common opponents and stuff like that, or we could help each other out, you know. So those are always.
Speaker 2:He's just always one of the good guys, right, and uh, I always count on him to give me honest, honest information, honest feedback. You know, if I called him and said, hey, we're playing so, and so you know, what do you think? You know, how do you think we match up? And you know he'd be honest and be like dude, you're gonna get cracked. You know he would do. You think you know how do you think we match up? And you know he'd be honest and be like dude, you're gonna get cracked. You know he would be honest with me.
Speaker 2:Or you know, like, hey, you got a shot, this is what you gotta do. You gotta, you guys do this. Well, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta stop the run, or you know they're going to try to get you on the outside. You guys, weak on the outside, you know so, um, he was always a good, a good resource, but now it's uh, yeah, I mean it was, it was cool, like because he, he was just out of college, like, he's legitimately just out of college, just done with his athletic career. You know he's just hanging up the cleats for the first time, um, which, like, like you know, that's tough on people, it's tough. I mean the first time, which, like, like you know, that's tough on people, it's tough. I mean the first time that you're you're an ex athlete. I mean, I think that that hits a lot of people a lot differently.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely that. That that still hits me to this day. You know it's been. Yeah, I'm 35.
Speaker 1:I stopped swimming when I was 20 because I had to. I mean, it wasn't a want to. You know, I think that it's a little bit worse for those, those athletes, where it's not a I know it's time to hang up the cleats, it's no, I have to. It's. You know, my, my body is not allowing this to happen anymore. My body's not allowing this to happen anymore. And you know it's sad to say, with my sport and swimming, in that, you know it's a very limited window. You don't see a lot of swimmers pushing 30 years old and competing in the Olympics. I mean, there's the select few freak athletes that are still doing it, uh, today, that are in their thirties, but it's, it's a young man's game and it's when, when you're in that window and it gets taken away, you know that that definitely is the hardest, Like my wife even said it. You know, this year Olympics year, and you know summer Olympics, I'm sitting there and I'm watching the swimming and I'm cheering for it, like I'm at the pool, like on my couch.
Speaker 2:And she was like it gets right back to you, right Like it just takes you back right to that moment.
Speaker 1:And she was just like you miss it, don't show, I miss it every day, being in the pool and being able to do that Essentially, and you know it's just, but yeah, it's, it's, yeah, it's tough and I know pity Cause he was. He was talking to me when he was thinking about leaving coaching and everything like that. He was just like man, I think it's time to retire as a coach. I was like man, it's your call. I'm not going to tell you what to do, but I can definitely tell this is not an easy decision for you.
Speaker 1:And yeah, I think even that, as coaches, you know handing the whistle over, if you will. Instead that, as coaches, you know you know handing the whistle over, if you will, instead of hanging the cleats up. You know what I mean, like doing that part of it, you know. You know you could tell it was tough for him and you know. And he still has that same energy. I mean he, he, he helps me run this show and I talked to him, I think, more than I talked to my wife sometimes, because he's always got ideas and he's always going and he is, I think he wakes up at like 150 miles an hour, going 100%.
Speaker 2:I think without coffee.
Speaker 1:He's ready to go because there's times.
Speaker 2:I think you hit on something there too. I mean, you talk about how hard it is to hang it up as an athlete. Right, it's, it's the same as a coach. You know, four years ago I decided to step back as a, as a full-time high school, as a coordinator. I was I was at the time I was coordinating, I was a defensive coordinator.
Speaker 2:I'd been doing that for um for a number of years and I, just between my job and my son's uh, spring and summer baseball schedule, I'm like I'm kind of cheating the game, I can't do it, right, yeah. And so I stepped back and at first I was gonna like, just not coach, like cold turkey, not coach. Well, you know then it. You know they come like, ah, can you just help with the junior high, and they're like you don't have to go every day, Just go, you know, a couple of days a week. I'm like, all right, I'll do that, I'll just go one day a week. Well, the next thing I know I'm like you know every day of the week, the junior high, and then you know, helping out and watching film during the week. So like, like I still couldn't do it, like I'm still in a similar role now like I'm still just kind of a defensive uh consultant with the uh, with that staff, because that's that, those are my guys still. You know, like the guys the defensive coordinator played for me, coached with me, coached underneath me, and then now I'm coaching for him a little bit and so like I couldn't step back, like I want to take a break, but at the same time you know what I actually I feel like in a couple of years like I want to get back into it time again, like I I miss it, I miss the locker room, I miss the coach's office.
Speaker 2:I'm, you know everything from the shenanigans to the stress, to the drama, to the you know just the camaraderie you know there's. There's probably way too many stories I have from the coaching office that I can never tell in public because they incriminate way too many people, right, and so you know it's just like those are the guys that that locker mentality is going through the stuff. Like you know, you talk with Mac. I mean some of the nights I spent with Mac, I mean I laugh at one of them that first year. Like we're like week two or three and we had a tough game, we lost and they had one of our games while he was there.
Speaker 2:And we're in the coach's office until I don't, maybe midnight, one o'clock, somewhere in that range, right watching film, just like what are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? And next thing we know we see like a flashlight shining in from the window and then a flashlight coming into the locker room, into the coach's office. It was the police. They saw the you know light on in the locker room. They thought maybe someone broke in or something. So we got the police checking on us. We're like man, that's not a good sign for you, jeremy, I don't know what to tell you, but right now, having the police walk in at 12, 31 o'clock in the morning, that's a good omen for the season.
Speaker 1:at this point, buddy, if we're struggling this much that the cops are getting called, we might need a new game plan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got to do some quick thinking here.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's funny. That's something that you would only see either in the movies or in a TV show. You don't think of that as something that actually happens. I'm sure it happens a lot more than what people think.
Speaker 2:That's hysterical, that's just that's hysterical, that's so funny I could just see the guy coming. You know the cop coming around the in the small town right. So, but he's got his hand like kind of he's kind of had his hand kind of hovering over his gun, so like you're not like like, like dude, I'm good, I'm good Like nothing. No mosh to mosh. Yeah, Like dude, I'm good, I'm good Like nothing, I'm off, I'm off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, for sure. You mentioned it a little bit there, Something I love talking about with people that have busy roles. So you know you're a proud dad and husband. You know how do you balance being both of those roles and you know working and then even, like you said said, you know dabbling in coaching and everything like that, because I know what it's like for me. You know as a uh, as a comedian and still having a day job, and you know working. You know the shows and the open mics and you know son's got a football game. He, you know he's got this to do and you know the wife's got this to do and you know the wife's got this to do. We got that to do, and then it's holiday season and you know, and then you know it's just, you got to find a nice balance. How do you find that balance for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it was. It was tough, you know, thankfully for me at the time, when I was really in the grind as a coach and the kids were coming up through, I didn't have as much responsibility at work. I still was working a full-time job, working 50 to 60 hours a week plus coaching. But you know my wife an absolute angel, a rock you know she held the house in order while I was coaching and you know she really did. She did everything. I mean that was back when she used to mow the yard. She did everything. I legitimately just worked and coached and she was huge with that.
Speaker 2:But to find the balance, you know, the biggest thing was for me was learning how to be present. So if I was coaching, if I was on the practice field, I was in the coach's office, I was in my office breaking down film, like that's what I was doing, I wasn't focusing on anything else. So I was coaching, that's what I focus on. But when I was at home, I was present with them. So that was the biggest thing. That took a couple of years for me to kind of find that balance and it's it's definitely challenging because you can get kind of drawn in. But what I learned was when I was with my family, I was with my family, like you know, it didn't matter. You know, bad day at the practice field, good day at the, you know, on a Friday night, good Friday night, bad Friday night, didn't matter.
Speaker 2:You know, my kids were young. My son grew up in the locker room. You know, he was one of those fortunate ones that you know, at six, seven years old man, he's in a high school locker room hanging out with kids that you know he idolized, right, and so he got a chance to be with me quite a bit. So that helped a lot. Having him with me, so like he was side-by-side, he was at all the games, he was at the practices and um, and then ended up playing for me um in high school. So you know, spending that time with him was really fun. But again, when I got home and I just had to be with them, and you know, in the off season, man I was, I was, I was super, dad, right, like I made up for it. You know, in the off season, I mean, I was, I was, I was super dad right.
Speaker 2:Like I made up for it. You know I was. You know, the weekend after the season was over, you know the last Friday night the next day is kind of a dark day, like as a coach and your season's over. You're lost, like after going. You know 10 weeks plus two days plus a summer, like you're. You're lost Like after going. You know 10 weeks plus two days plus a summer, like you're. You're lost when you come into that first Saturday and you have nothing to do. Maybe some guys are different, but man, I was, I would. I would always be like like just sitting there, just like staring in a space that's lost. But then the next weekend, um, I always made it every year I did this. I always made it like my wife's weekend. So, whatever she wanted to do, like legitimately, if she wanted to go to uh, you know, go shopping, like all right, I'll go to the mall, like I don't want to, but you know.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 2:I'll go carry bags all day, yeah, but like, whatever she wanted to do, it didn't matter. She wanted to sit at home all day, she wanted me to cook or she wanted me to clean, like whatever she wanted me to do, man, man I was, I was going to do it. So, you know, I made it kind of like her weekend, just kind of like hey, listen, I, I know I haven't been around for a while, so you know, if you got me, it's all, it's all you. And then you know the off season. You know my kids were very active. My daughter played basketball, you know, very active. My daughter played basketball, high school basketball, junior high, aau, all that stuff. And my son played a ton of baseball, played football, played basketball, and so the off-season for us was so focused on the kids and their sports that really I didn't have a choice but to be engaged, and so it was like I wouldn't change it. It was awesome.
Speaker 2:I, I, I miss, uh, I miss that grind. I miss the kids being in, you know, junior high together and us trying to figure out how we're going to get from, you know, this basketball game to this basketball game, to pitching lessons, to hitting lessons to, you know, to this basketball game, to pitching lessons, to hitting lessons, to you know this practice and somehow for me to still work and and get to lifting and do you know that kind of stuff. Um, so it was. It was some crazy days, but I miss it. I miss it. It was so much fun. It really, looking back on, it was so much fun yeah, you, you mentioned it there.
Speaker 1:You know, when you're home, as somebody who's busy, has a career and a job that keeps them busy, like your home, you know, and it's I have, you know, my little. I don't have an exact office per se at my house, though, but I have my little desk set up so like when I'm there, like I'm working on, you know, comedy, editing videos, editing podcasts, you know writing jokes and doing that stuff, but like when I'm away from it, like I'm away from it, that's that's time. And even like my wife and I like, even though, you know, I know we talked about a little bit before the show. You know, she kind of got a little bump on the head today at work, and it was, she was. We were both home by three, four o'clock in the afternoon, and I couldn't tell you, the last time I was home during the week at three, four o'clock in the afternoon, and she couldn't either, and it's just like. So what do we do? It's still late.
Speaker 1:I, I was home during the week at three, four o'clock in the afternoon, and she couldn't either, and it's just like. So what do we do? It's still light out. I was like well, you need to rest. What? Because you just you had a bad day at work and you need to rest. But yeah, it's weird, but you know, even we were just sitting there and we were both just watching TV. Weird, but you know, even we were just sitting there and we were both just watching tv and that was kind of like our time.
Speaker 1:You know, son was off doing whatever 15 year olds do nowadays, and you know it was yeah and and it was like okay, well, we have that, we have the house to ourselves. It's kind of our time and we just kind of want to sit in silence and c be in that. That that's what we, that's what we do now, and it's just being there and being, like you said, being present in the moment and and and just there, and it's it's. It's a fine line sometimes that you have to, you have to tow a little bit, and you know schedules get tied up, especially this time of the year with her job. It's the busiest time of the year as it is for everybody the holiday season, it's, and it's nice to be like.
Speaker 1:When I'm home, my phone goes down. It might as well be turned off because I don't even pay attention to it. It's down. If I'm not at my desk and doing any work, I don't care who's texting me. It can wait till it's work time, not family time, and make sure to be with the son. Ask him how was school and 15 same thing different day?
Speaker 2:yeah, you know so yeah man cool exactly well you know, say I think nick saban said it, the best one of the things that always stuck with me, um, that he had said it and I I think I heard it maybe, maybe eight, 10 years ago be where your feet are. And so that kind of goes into the same mantra of being present wherever you're at man, just be where your feet are.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Don't let your mind.
Speaker 2:Don't let your mind leave your feet.
Speaker 1:I've never. I've never heard that quote, but I love it. I did just hear it for the first time. It makes so much sense. You know, I did just hear it for the first time. It makes so much sense. You know ton speak straight off. Yeah, speaking of, you know Saban. You know your big football fan. You know, are you excited about the college bowl season starting here soon and the new 12 team playoff? And you know the quick dive into the X we are running down near the end of the show here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, so, absolutely love this time of year. I was obviously I was a lot more excited than a high state fan. I'm a lot more excited about the 12 team playoff about three weeks ago, um, but after the uh, the debacle against michigan, you know, I feel a little bit different. But everybody, you know what there's outside of oregon every team stubbed their toe somewhere, right. You know, high state lost to oregon by one, but then they really stubbed their toes somewhere, right. You know, ohio State lost to Oregon by one, but then they really stubbed their toe against Michigan and everybody else kind of did the same thing. Everybody else has a has kind of an ugly loss and so, yeah, I mean I think it's really cool.
Speaker 2:I think the fact that we, we got all these great games coming on the weekend of the 20th and the 21st, I mean like I legitimately could coming on the weekend of the 20th and the 21st, I mean like I legitimately could, could sit down and watch football for you know, about 10 hours, 12 hours, and it's going to be great games, three great games back to back to back, and so really excited about that. I wish they would have, I wish they would have done the seating a little bit differently. I think there's still some things you can tweak, you know, because you know some of the, you can look at some of the paths and you're like, oh, that's a little bit easier path, or this or that, um, you know, the boise state really deserve a bye, I don't know. Um, it's hard but, yeah, unbelievable. I think we got a ton of great football and then on top of that, then you, you, you, you, you back that up with New Year's day and those bowl games are going to mean so much more, and, and so I think it's going to be awesome. I think it's exciting for the game, I think it's exciting for the kids, the fans. You know, man, it just it. It definitely brought a lot more excitement to the bowl season by adding the 12-team playoff.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and we'll see if they tweak it a little bit, maybe they start reseeding stuff after each week. That would be kind of cool. Like, talk about not knowing who your opponent is. That would be kind of cool. Like, you know, you play those games and then you're like, all right, we're going to repeat it, because the one seed still get the lower seed, even though it would have been maybe these guys? Well, now he deserves the. Maybe the maybe the 12th seed one? Well, maybe the one seed deserves to play him. So I'd like to see some, maybe some tweaks on that part, but you know it's going to be cool.
Speaker 1:I mean, you know, oregon's been a juggernaut all year.
Speaker 2:They've been watching there's a arizona state is playing at a high level right now. You know they're running back um, I can't. Oh, he's a beast, he's an absolute beast. Yes, he uh, I mean he's just running through people um kind of remember, remind you of like a like a mike allstott type of dude, right, oh you're speaking my language, mike, all Allstott, that was my dude.
Speaker 1:I'm a Buccaneers fan, so I love watching Mike Allstott.
Speaker 2:Yeah, give me a fullback, we're good to go right. Yeah, so there could be some really cool games coming up. You know, I think, as a Buckeye fan, it's an interesting matchup with Tennessee. You know everybody's been, you know, saying oh, the SEC doesn't want to come North and play. Well, you know what actually Tennessee, they might be built to play in this weather. I mean they're they're a run first offense. They got a fairly aggressive defense. I mean I say it's going to have their hands full. And you know, I think a lot of Ohio State fans have a lack of confidence after the high level of confidence we had going into the Michigan game. So no, and Penn State? I mean you know they battled back against Oregon and, you know, looked better than I expected. There's a lot of good teams and Notre Dame just seems to find ways to win.
Speaker 1:They really do? I don't know they really do. I mean Oregon's obviously the favorite. I mean how?
Speaker 2:do you not put Oregon as a favorite? But there's half a dozen teams I mean Georgia, and now they don't have a quarterback. But the other guys Dude their're back.
Speaker 1:I can't think of his name, but their backup that came in and the sec championship game. I kind of thought he was looking a little bit better than um, I think it was.
Speaker 2:But yeah, yeah, he looked better than back, I mean, and anybody got his head knocked off too and held on to the ball and still came back and finished the game, you know. So he, hey, who knows? And Texas, I mean Texas is like one of those teams, is they're just they're sneaky good man but there's Jekyll and Hyde.
Speaker 2:Like they come out one week and they just look like world beaters, and then the next week they they look like they didn't practice, like I'm not saying they look that bad, but like just yeah they didn't plan enough.
Speaker 1:They're looking over this team to the neck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I get that Something's off and yeah, and I can't put my finger on, but just they're not executing at the level they did you know, per. They're not executing at the level they did you know per se the week before and, uh, you know, it was a great quarterback and with Arch Manning behind him, I mean you know, and Sarkeesian is a heck of a coach. So I mean it's just I'm excited man, I'm like let's go, let's, let's. It sucks and we had to wait two. We had to wait two weeks to play. I'm ready for I mean, I'm going to be, I mean, even though this weekend's pretty cool, you know, you get the Army, navy game.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I'm excited about that one Always excited to watch that one. Yes, absolutely. Fear the bones, baby. Fear the bones.
Speaker 1:Absolutely yeah. And you know I'm super excited. I've been saying since the college football playoffs started that it needed to be more than four teams. I didn't, I didn't think quite to the level of 12. They kind of went above and beyond. What I've been shouting at the rooftops for years now is you know they needed to make it an 18 playoff and kind of like a similar concept.
Speaker 1:You have the Power Five conferences. You know all the conference champions make the playoff. That's you know why you play championship games, you know. And then you have these schools, like an army and or people in the MAC and the WAC. You go undefeated. We're going to give you a shot at it. You know you're going to go in and you're going to play a Georgia, You're going to play a Tennessee, You're going to play an Ohio State. It gives these schools more TV time. It gives them more recruiting opportunities because now people are seeing them. Ultimately, it all comes down to money. They're getting money to play these games and it's I. I. I didn't think they'd go to 12. I thought they'd start at eight, which I thought was a good number, but we'll see how well works out. I I'm kind of digging it Watching the selection show. Saturday, Like all, right, let's see. Or Sunday yeah, Sunday, Watching the selection show, Like all right, let's see.
Speaker 2:Or Sunday, yeah, Sunday watching the selection show.
Speaker 1:All right, let's, let's, let's see who gets in. And I was screaming for SMU to make it over Alabama. I just, I don't think that their losses. They looked way too bad. And you know SMU, the sub 500 teams, Right, that's like you know I, I'm a West Virginia fan. It's born and raised in West Virginia. I'm a Mountaineer fan through and through. I'm so happy Neil Brown is gone. He's so happy he's gone. It's unreal.
Speaker 2:Bringing Rich Rod back baby.
Speaker 1:I'm so upset about that, but I just, I just, yeah, there's a lot of mixed feelings with Rich Rod coming back, but yeah, you know, you have these three lost teams. It used to be oh, we lost the game, the playoff's out of the mindset. Now we can't make the playoff at a 14 playoff. Now you've got two and I think there's a three-loss team in there now, If I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2:If there is a three-loss, I'm losing track of that, but I know there's two-loss teams.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think there's one I don't know who it is, I'm almost positive it's a three-loss team, because I was kind of upset, like I'm almost positive it's a three loss team, cause I was kind of upset Like, okay, you got a three loss team in here, but, um, nevertheless, you know it's still, it's an interesting concept. I'm excited for it, um, and I can't wait to see how it all shakes out. I think, like you said, there's there's some tweaks that they're going to make. But, yeah, I can't wait to see how it all unfolds. But, like I said, charles, we are running down near the end of the episode here. I do have to get this segment in. We've been bringing it back more and more. I love this segment and it is the Fast 55.
Speaker 1:Five random questions from the wonderful manager of the podcast, johnny Fitty Falcone. These are kind of rapid fire for the newer listeners out there, but you can elaborate if you need to. He sent these to me today, charles, so we're going to read these together and kind of jump off this cliff and build our wings on the way down. And I know you know, Johnny. So if you're ready for these questions, we'll get rolling.
Speaker 2:Let's give it a shot. I'm ready.
Speaker 1:All right. Question number one what are your thoughts?
Speaker 2:about Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.
Speaker 1:Love it, love him yeah, I don't know how you go anywhere other than that he's legendary.
Speaker 2:So did I.
Speaker 1:I still listen to 90s on 9 in my car on Sirius XM. Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch comes on and I'm singing right along with it. It's the bottom of the Question. Number two Best place to get breakfast food is.
Speaker 2:I'm going to say Kermit's in Bowling Green, ohio. Oh okay.
Speaker 1:Never been there, but all right, take your word for it. Legit Question number three how many cups of coffee is too many in a day?
Speaker 2:There is no too many. I'm definitely like an eight to ten cup guy.
Speaker 1:I'm not that much. I'm a solid two to four a day. Right now it's getting more. I'm leaning more towards the four than I am the two anymore, but so it's increasing you man, I do way too much caffeine so do I it.
Speaker 1:You know I I always make the joke. You know, this old boy here runs on caffeine and nicotine. That's the only thing that keeps me going at this point in time, right now, straight up here. I got him right with you, man, right with you all. Right, question number four the only thing that keeps me going at this point in time, right now. So it's the only thing straight up here.
Speaker 2:I got him right with you, man, right with you all right.
Speaker 1:Question number four would you rather be an alligator or a giraffe? Definitely an alligator, predatory baby yeah, I someone who grew up, you know I'm six five. I always get called the giraffe.
Speaker 2:I gotta go alligator for me myself on this one, you know I'm like five, I'm, I'm five, nine, but I'm still sticking with it, man no, I'm with it, I'm all for the alligator, and trust me.
Speaker 1:The last question here happy gilmore or the goonies, which sequel are you more excited about?
Speaker 2:Happy Gilmore by far. How many times have you not referenced something from Happy Gilmore?
Speaker 1:Every day of my life, I'm forever referencing Happy Gilmore.
Speaker 2:I grew up a Goonies guy, right, I grew up being a little bit older than you Goonies. That was big. But man, Happy Gilmore is probably one of my top 10. Easily a top 10 movie. Easily a top 10 movie Easily.
Speaker 1:Easily. Oh, that was the.
Speaker 2:Fast 85.
Speaker 1:That was the Fast 85. A little tougher questions and he's been going with some of the guests now so he's getting back into his old form. We kind of got away from this segment a little bit and started doing more roundtables and stuff like that, so it was good to bring.
Speaker 2:I'm so happy this segment is back love this segment and just the way this mind works it's, it's phenomenal.
Speaker 1:I appreciate. I appreciate. It got me on my toes real quick, absolutely. Uh. Well, charles, like I said, we're running down to the end of the episode. I give every guest this opportunity at the end of the show. If there's anything you want to get out there, anything you want to promote anything, or if it's just a good message that you have, I'm going to give you about a minute and the floor is yours.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hey, I appreciate it. I appreciate the opportunity to come on and talk. I enjoyed it. First time I've really had a chance to do something like this. You know I really don't have anything I need to promote. I do want to just say that you know, if you need to get unload some money at the end of the year, bowling Green is trying to turf their baseball field. You can donate money there. There's my shameless plug Donate money, turf the spell. Stellar Field, bowling Green University. We'd love that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I'm all for helping out in any way that we can. So if there's a link or anything like that where people can donate, that send that to me. We'll put that in the description of this, of this episode, so that people can go and donate right from the show here.
Speaker 2:So yep, any millionaires and billionaires, just send that money right now. We're good, we're ready to go. I hope I have at least one millionaire billionaire listening to the show man.
Speaker 1:you millionaires and billionaires just send that money right now. We're good, we're ready to go. I hope I have at least one millionaire or billionaire listening to the show man. I really do and if you're listening and you're a millionaire or billionaire, we are always looking for new sponsors for the show.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely Partnership. It's a great partnership. Let's do it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Well. That is actually going to do it for this week's episode of the Ride Home Rants podcast. I want to thank my guest, charles Bell, for coming on. This was a lot of fun getting to talk to you, glad we got to do this and get to sit down and do this. But, as always, if you enjoyed the show, be a friend, tell a friend. No-transcript.
