The MowaKing Chronicles
The MOWAKing Chronicles is a podcast where faith, family, leadership, and culture converge. Hosted by Andrew “The MOWAKing,” a proud member of the MOWA band of Choctaw Indians, this show delves into the stories and values that shape who we are and how we navigate life’s challenges.
Through personal reflections and insightful guest interviews, Andrew explores topics like faith, parenting, public service, and community leadership—all while embracing his Native American heritage. Whether discussing the complexities of law enforcement, politics, or the beauty of cultural identity, The MOWAKing Chronicles invites listeners into meaningful conversations that inspire growth, resilience, and action.
Join us on this journey as we move onward together, tackling the twists and turns of life with integrity and purpose.
The MowaKing Chronicles
Episode 2 (Cody Byrd)
In this episode of The MOWAKing Chronicles, I’m joined by one of my closest friends, Cody, who I’ve known for a long time. We dive into our shared passion for college football, discussing the highs, lows, and everything in between. From debating the current state of the game to reminiscing about some of our favorite matchups, we cover it all.
But it doesn’t stop there—we also explore our thoughts on professional sports including the NFL, MLB, and Pro wrestling, reflecting on current events and give you a glimpse into the conversations that have kept our friendship strong for over 30 years.
Lastly, we’ll dive into family and the current political state, sharing our thoughts on what’s happening in the world today and how it affects the people closest to us. Whether it’s navigating the challenges of parenthood or discussing the changes in the political landscape, we bring our honest perspectives to the table.
Whether you’re a sports fan or just here for a good conversation, this episode has something for everyone. Tune in and join us as we laugh, reflect, and chat about the topics we’re passionate about.
Don’t forget to follow The MOWAKing Chronicles on social media!
what's going on everyone, welcome again to your boy, the mohawk king, and the mohawk king chronicles today's episode. We're going to have our first guest on here, we're going to have someone that I've known for a long time, close friend of mine, and we're going to get into some faith, politics, sports, really, whatever. So once again, welcome to the Moal King Chronicles on this exciting episode. So today we got Mr Cody Bird. Cody, welcome, appreciate you coming bro. Oh yeah, so yes for the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So for those that don't know, cody, like I said, is a good friend of mine. We've known each other. What did you say since about kindergarten or so, two damn long? So tell a little bit about where you grew up. Uh, I don't know what's. What's some of your favorite memory that you think you had when we was little and all like what's your favorite thing you remember?
Speaker 2:oh man oh, I just, I guess you know different times we, I just remember us all getting together and we just, man, it wouldn't be nothing for us throwing the wood and just be going on throughout the club fishing on the creek, go to the creek anytime we wanted to. Now you, you can't, uh, can't hardly go out the front door yeah, kids, today has got it a whole lot different.
Speaker 1:Today I don't know nothing about it. Yeah, growing up being at that time in Cal State and growing up generally in the 90s, we had a lot of good stuff. We had good shows, good toys. It was just a different time.
Speaker 2:A lot of people don't really understand, but 96, especially then it was a fun place to grow up, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and our people's kind of different. So a few things I want to kind of get into today and get to talking with you about. So before we kind of dive into that, you know you mentioned that you and I both went to high school and then after high school we graduated. We both got different jobs, a lot of different jobs. So it was something funny that we've done. We went all the way up to Indiana. That was an experience. First time I've been on a plane. First time I've been on a plane.
Speaker 1:That ain't been yesterday either.
Speaker 2:No, what was that? That's 12 years ago 12 years ago.
Speaker 1:Isn't that insane. Where's the time gone. But hey, it's something we've enjoyed being part of life. Now, something I want to ask you. We'll go ahead and get it started to it. You and I are big sports fans, so we're going to dive right into college football. Dive right into college football. What's your takes on college football right now? You're an Oklahoma fan. I see you sporting an Oklahoma shirt.
Speaker 2:A lot of people don't know that about me. I've lived in northern Mobile County, alabama, all my life and probably the only Oklahoma fan.
Speaker 1:The only one I know of In the county probably yeah.
Speaker 2:Maybe in the state, I don't know. But yeah, I've always taken a flag for that between Alabama and Auburn fans.
Speaker 1:Since really you've been what?
Speaker 2:middle school, high school, yeah, I started becoming an Oklahoma fan when they back in, probably 2000,. They was making a run for the championship.
Speaker 1:Who was the coach at the time? Bob Stoops. Bob Stoops, y'all won the championship in 2000? 2000.
Speaker 2:It was kind of a down time for Alabama and Auburn and I just couldn't. My daddy was all my. It was kind of split. My daddy was Alabama, my brother was Auburn, my cousins all were split between Auburn and Alabama. You were an Alabama fan. I just never picked a side and neither one of them was all that good. That was the dark times for the Tide. Some of y'all Alabama fans don't. Y'all forgot it, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I know, but it was a bad, bad time. It was a tough time.
Speaker 1:Aaron, that Mike Dubose era. Yeah, the Mike Dubose era. And then we got Mike Shula.
Speaker 2:And then you had Mike Price.
Speaker 1:It didn't last long. I had to kick him to the curb. He couldn't leave strippers alone. Yeah, and then all of a sudden got about 2006, 2007, we got Nick.
Speaker 1:Saban, which was kind of crazy, because when he was at the Dolphins he said I am not the coach at Alabama, it's just not going to happen. Then he came in that first season and really established that program at Alabama. It just kind of took off from there. You and I watched some championships come along then from Alabama. Oklahoma's had some good teams though since then. What about this year? What do you think about your team this?
Speaker 2:year. Oh man, I don't even know if you've got a long enough show. Where do I start? I mean, we've got injuries, but every team's got injuries. There's time to. You've got to adjust and get beyond it. There's been no progression. They just got worse and worse every year. I mean every week. You at least want to see them get better. If they've gotten worse, I'd let you know something's wrong.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you know it but they fired our offensive coordinator yesterday. Oh, really, yeah. So Brent Venables is.
Speaker 2:No, he's still the head coach. He's still the head coach, but just looking for. Offensive coordinator.
Speaker 1:Well, let's talk about Lincoln Riley. You feel betrayed by Lincoln Riley, by him just kind of tucking tail and going to California.
Speaker 2:You know how I felt about Lincoln Riley. I wasn't the biggest fan of him because and USC, I think, is fine in the now he just he's a good offensive mind, but I don't know about head coach. He puts me in the mind Lane Kiffin is almost similar.
Speaker 1:I mean you consider Caleb Williams. Does he talk about his time in Oklahoma more than he does his US time?
Speaker 2:He won a high zone with USC, so he probably I mean, it is what it is Water under the bridge. We've moved on now, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Kind of the same thing, like with us and Jalen. I mean, jalen left Nick Saban in the midst of the Tua tongue of a lower era but you know I really hated to see Jalen leave. I believed in Jalen but I understand why he done it. He got y'all Jalen wound up, getting y'all to the playoffs right.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, jalen was you know, and kind of Lincoln Riley and he kind of, I think, progressed Jalen and helped him become a better quarterback really.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:But now we got a defensive coach and he's turning our defense around. Back then we had a great offense with no defense. Now we got, I think, a championship-worthy defense. But we got, I think, a championship-worthy defense, but we got no offense now. So we just got to figure out how to get it together and I knew, coming into this season, it was going to be a long year because of just our schedule. It's just brutal when you have to deal with Tennessee.
Speaker 1:First time in the SEC. Yeah, I knew it was going to be tough.
Speaker 2:I mean next to Florida, we got the second, probably hardest schedule.
Speaker 1:But Well, alabama and Oklahoma is going to play November 23rd in Norman. Yeah, that's going to be interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had plans to go to that game, like I've been telling you, but I'm kind of pushing them plans back now. I don't want to. We just lost by 26 to South Carolina. I don't want to. I don't know if I'm comfortable going up there and getting blown out by y'all, but y'all going through a tough stretch.
Speaker 1:It's growing pains of having Kalen DeBoer as a new coach, players leaving. I don't know if you watched the Pat McAfee show, but Saban kind of said it this past week after the loss, saying that Alabama went through the transfer, had like 23-something players enter the transfer portal when you just lose that. But regardless, I just think it comes down to discipline. The discipline has changed. Which college football has changed? We talked about that many times. I mean the NIL. What is up with that? I think it's too unregulated out of control so much.
Speaker 2:And I mean you've talked about it the NCAA don't really have nobody to blame but themselves. They had opportunity way back to try to give these players something and they just sat on it. Sat on it, pushed it off, pushed it off. And now these players, they're out for blood. They want more and more.
Speaker 1:Well, it's too unregulated. It's too unregulated, it's too much.
Speaker 2:I'm all for the players getting a piece of the pie, but you're talking about Well, you're making them employees.
Speaker 1:How do you distinguish it now?
Speaker 2:from On the verge of being unionized now.
Speaker 1:Well, how do you unionize a student body?
Speaker 2:I don't know man.
Speaker 1:To me it's like they've taken the student out of the student athlete. Yeah, they know what that is, but what do you do for like other sports like college baseball, college basketball?
Speaker 2:you know softball, volleyball track it's going to be. I mean, they're going to some of them. Athletes are going to have, they're going to be dealing with NIL as well, especially basketball. Basketball is a big sport for all universities and NCAA in general. They're going to have a say-so also. But it's a matter of nice, Not on that. But it's not stopping with college. It's going to the high school level now.
Speaker 1:Which is insane. Is that not insane? We talk about 14, 15-year-old kids already.
Speaker 2:That's NIL deals. They'll be making more than the teachers and the coaches.
Speaker 1:They'll be making more than the coaches Some of them, I'm sure, when you got these public school systems. I think that's a little too much. I think they need to get a handle on some of that. You know the NCAA does some good stuff. I mean, the NIL is always going to be controversial because I know a buddy at work told you that he don't like it because it takes away from the bowl games and I see that on one aspect, like the NIL and players transferring and then the playoffs just kind of really diminish the bowl games.
Speaker 2:It's kind of good and bad. I don't like how far NIL is doing and I thought the transfer portal was good initially, but now it's getting out of hand. They need to reel it back in Because, I mean, coaches can cut and run out of a contract anytime they want. I was all for a paid player being able to make a transfer once and not be penalized, but now they can just transfer. Wherever they want to go Transfer almost now.
Speaker 1:Well then we had COVID, and so players could opt out for two years.
Speaker 2:So now you have players that's opted out to try to go back to Oklahoma. Dylan Gabriel transferred from UCF to Oklahoma and then transferred last year from Oklahoma to Oregon. He's doing good at Oregon, but I just think it's too much. Like I said it's good and bad. But the good part of college football now and you talk about it is the playoffs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, let's talk about it. What's your thoughts on the playoffs, which you and I have said all the way back to the BCS era that they should have been some kind of playoff system. And then, when they finally decided to do it in 13-14, when they voted on it in 13 and said the 2014 season, we're going to have a 14 playoff Right, and you and I even said way back then that that wasn't going to really work.
Speaker 2:It was better than the BCS. I give that. And the BCS was better than the BCS, I give that. And the BCS was better than the old system. But because, look, for a hundred years college football was the only sport that you didn't have no playoff. You debated constantly on who was champion, the only sport that had happened.
Speaker 1:You had it in basketball, though you had playoffs in basketball. Even baseball Every sport, every sport.
Speaker 2:It in basketball, though. You had playoffs in basketball, even baseball.
Speaker 1:Every sport, every sport had playoffs, except for college football, if you go back in time.
Speaker 2:Even Alabama a lot of Alabama's championships is split debated. Oklahoma got a handful of championships split debated. There should be no debate. There should be no split championship.
Speaker 1:But they had it in college football, just not at the D1 level.
Speaker 2:It was at the D2 level. Yeah, you had it in another.
Speaker 1:So you had it in the sub-sec level where they were already doing it it was just about money. It's money.
Speaker 2:The bowl system was all about money. But again, pcs was better. At least you had a national championship game. And then it finally morphed into a 14 college football, which was it wasn't enough. I knew it wasn't going to be enough then, but it was better.
Speaker 1:I think we should have said what did we say? Eight team, eight was mine, eight was kind of the goal, perfect number, yeah. And then now they just bumped it up to 12?.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I mean I'd stop at 12, but I hear they're going to bump it back up to 14. They're probably going to keep going. I think that's going to be too much, hopefully.
Speaker 1:Or even 16. I just think, well, what do you do with the bowl games? Then I think now, if you have that many teams, now we're going to start seeing these two loss and three loss teams going on.
Speaker 2:It's going to be a different way to look at it. I mean, you're not going to. You know you're going to have. It's opening up the car for Cinderella. You're going to have Cinderella, I think.
Speaker 1:Well, you're going to have a group of five. I think the kind of conferences that was underrepresented.
Speaker 2:No debate, man. Yeah, it's going to settle on the field. That's the main thing to me.
Speaker 1:But then this has been a crazy year as far as power conferences, because now you don't even have a Pac-12 anymore. I mean you had all the teams really making super conferences, and imagine the money that's dealt in these deals with these super conferences Billions. Tv deals.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it was $7 billion. They just signed with ESPN with the TV deal they just signed with. Espn yeah you got some and I don't think it's going to stop. I think it's going to have.
Speaker 1:So where does it stop? At Like, where would be the change that would be made? Just say you was the NCAA commissioner. What changes would you make?
Speaker 2:Just say you was the NCAA commissioner, what changes would you make? Just rein in the collectives on how they just pay these players these millions of dollars? I just don't. I don't have a problem with the players. I think they could get more stipend for, you know, whatever the food, any of their, um, just life what about the education, though?
Speaker 1:I mean, that was the whole point of kind of going to school, or it used to be. When you went to college, you supposed to get your education and all yeah I mean, no doubt that's important, but I mean that's not even.
Speaker 2:I mean that's not the kid I serve. These guys get these big, go to these big schools, get recruited. They got one thing in mind, that's to go to the next level the NFL.
Speaker 1:You think that's what Make millions. You think that's what made Nick Saban kind of finally hang it up.
Speaker 2:I think it was part of, I think and I think it was, yeah, him having to deal with the NIL, because he even mentioned it that players was coming up to him wanting to, you know, wanting to get paid, wanting when is he going to get paid? When is he going to get paid? This when? And I think yeah, I think it was part of it, and I think the transfer portal kind of the transfer portal is hit and miss with me. It's starting to level the playing field a little bit where it's making college football a little more parity, where just the big schools are not just dominating all the time but doesn't that kind of almost make a monopoly on it so to speak Because, say, you get a guy, he gets a scholarship, but then if he don't like something, or I think what was the case we was reading about he wasn't getting his money.
Speaker 1:Was it New Mexico State's? Quarterback, that wasn't getting his money or getting stuff he was promised and then he would beat him.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying it monopolizes it, but it I don't know, it just opens it up. I mean, it was a monopoly really before. I mean Alabama, ohio State, texas, Oklahoma, even. I mean it was just always them schools getting the best of the best of the best, just constantly. And you know it was just college football has always been a I don't know where the big schools, always.
Speaker 1:Where it always seemed like they got the advantage when it comes to it, I mean if they got the money then you pay the players.
Speaker 2:There's never been really a lot of parity in college football. You think we're going to get, especially in the last 20 years.
Speaker 1:You think we're going to get like a budget, so to speak, because you know how the NFL's got like a cap limit Salary, salary cap? Yeah, you think that would be something they would eventually maybe try to enforce. Could be like a profit sharing almost it could be, but then you're not making it a college sport anymore.
Speaker 2:Now you're making it a professional. Yeah, I mean I think we're past that now. I mean that's just something we're going to have to deal with. But I mean I think they can Saban's even talked about it they can rein it in and make it just well. It's not the Wild Wild West where you're just paying a million dollars for this player to. I mean, I'm all for them being able to, you know, get money for, let's say, they want to do a commercial and. I'm all for that.
Speaker 2:If a company comes up to a player, they should be able to, you know, be able to do that commercial and get paid for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's really what the name, image and likeness stands for it's what it's supposed to be. But then you've penalized people before it's morphed into.
Speaker 1:It's like a machine. But then, like you said, it's gone too far If they try to start introducing it to high school. There's states that are starting. What did we read about? It was like Georgia, Tennessee.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, florida. I think they've been doing it for a year or two now. Alabama's supposed to start. It's supposed to start next year.
Speaker 1:Just, you know my wife's in the school system and so her being in it and the rest of the teachers, that's out there. What do you do when you got a kid? Just say, like Ryan Williams, Use him, for example, because he's 17. You know how good he is at sports, but then he goes to a school let's just say Baker-Saralyn, a public school and then do you cater to him because he's not performing at his school?
Speaker 2:Say if his grades is not there you know they're supposed to maintain a C-plus average.
Speaker 1:But really, how lenient is that C-plus average?
Speaker 2:It's been going on. Let's not kid ourselves. I mean it's been going on even at the high school level. These players have been getting some extra stuff on the side. But now I mean, just like in college, it's been going on in college Since the time football began. I believe there's been some extra stuff being given to certain players all the time, but now it just seems like you're wide open. Now it's in the open and it's the wild, wild west, it's the wild, wild west.
Speaker 2:I mean that's the bad part. Like I said, the playoffs. You got the good and the bad now.
Speaker 1:The playoffs, I think was the good part of it that eventually led to it.
Speaker 2:Now it might, I don't know if it gets too much. I think 12 is where I would leave it. But I mean, let's go through the season now the way it is, we know we're going to get you're going to get four teams from each conference champion. It's going to be your top four teams. You're going to get the bye.
Speaker 1:And then a group of five champion is going to get automatic and that's going to be interesting for this year being the first.
Speaker 2:Where do the other teams come from? Where do they?
Speaker 1:come from? And then how do you determine which group of five champion?
Speaker 2:Because if you got say an Army, it's going to be the highest ranked group of five champion. That's one way, but what do you do with the other ones? You're right.
Speaker 1:What do you have? If you have like an Army or a Navy, or you know something in the AAC or you know Boise State?
Speaker 2:And UNLV, they're playing in there. It's going to be interesting. I don't know UNLV, they're playing in there. It's going to be interesting, all I know. I mean I know that the highest ranked group of five will automatically get in. There's a possible chance for another group of five team to maybe sneak in there. I don't see it happening because there's so many teams. I mean, just look at all the teams that are undefeated, or one loss in the SEC. A lot In the Big Ten, in the Big 12, in the ACC. There's still a lot of teams.
Speaker 1:So, seeing that, and I think we talked about it the last time what right now, as we all week eight, week nine, what's your favorite team to win it all right now?
Speaker 2:Well, I, picked Texas before the season to win it all. They looked good and other than Georgia, just Georgia might be the best team right now. I mean, just look at what they did to Texas Saturday, and that was in Austin, that was in Texas, that was in Texas 100,000 people. And Georgia didn't play no perfect game, turned the ball over three times, but they still handled Texas.
Speaker 1:They kept fighting, they kept fighting. I think we talked about some of the big games you're going to have coming up this week that could have potential. You know consequences for this week. I know we had that Syracuse-Pitt game. It's going to be this Thursday. You know Boise State-UNLV I think could be a potential playoff game.
Speaker 2:That we're seeing this week, that's this week too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's this Thursday, friday. It's Friday this week, so it's a lot. Something else we've talked a lot about college football. What about baseball we're just about? So it's a lot. Something else we haven't talked a lot about college football. What about baseball?
Speaker 2:We just about to the World Series right now. Yeah, it's supposed to start.
Speaker 1:Friday.
Speaker 2:So the Yankees clinched. The Yankees clinched Saturday, I think, and then the Dodgers clinched yesterday. Who did you pick? I picked the Dodgers before it all started.
Speaker 1:Now the Yankees? You thinking the Yankees might take it?
Speaker 2:No, I got the Dodgers.
Speaker 1:You still saying the Dodgers.
Speaker 2:I think it's going to be a great series. This is the series that MLB. The powers that be want it. They want it. The Dodgers and the Yankees. This is like Alabama versus Ohio State almost. This is two major franchises. This is the two biggest franchises in baseball.
Speaker 1:East Coast and West Coast, yeah, not to mention the market. Yeah, that's going to be some money spent.
Speaker 2:I didn't know it, but it was the 12th time the Dodgers and Yankees has played in the World Series. Wow that's interesting. They haven't played since the 70s, but this is kind of a rivalry.
Speaker 1:This is going to be an interesting series. It'll be starting Friday. We've got a lot of good things going on in sports. We talk about Major League Baseball. You and I both are Atlanta Braves fans. We probably grew up Atlanta Braves fans Been to live games both at Turner Field and the new stadium.
Speaker 2:Baseball is on the comeback. They've been struggling over the years. A lot of young people have kind of halfway moved away from it. Basketball and football as popular as it's ever been and baseball is coming back, I think. I think the rule changes Right, it's starting to speed the game up.
Speaker 1:Well see, when we was coming, coming up, that was kind of the thing. You had multiple sports but like your boys and stuff not not real keen on baseball, like that, you know, not like it was with us, like going to a live baseball game. I mean you don't even hardly see baseball movies and stuff when coming up talking about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so baseball was. I mean, it was the past time, the country's past time for a long time, but it's coming back, I think, and stuff like this, with the Yankees and Dodgers. You got Shohei Otani on the Dodgers, the biggest player in the sport.
Speaker 1:Billion, was it? One billion dollars is what he wound up getting.
Speaker 2:And it's a world. Now Baseball is going into the global stage, especially with him now finally getting a chance at winning the World Series. And then you got star power on the Yankees as well, Aaron Judge. I mean, this is the series that baseball fans have died for.
Speaker 1:I'm no fan of the Yankees, you know that, no doubt.
Speaker 2:Or the Dodgers for that matter, but I'm a fan of the sport.
Speaker 1:I'm a fan of the sport. It's going to be fun. It's going to be interesting to watch now, so hopefully we'll get a chance to watch it a little bit together. We got a lot of things coming up this week Grant's party and all. We got a lot of things coming up this week Grant's party and all but hopefully we can get started with that. Oh yeah, what about NFL? What's your thoughts on the NFL Chiefs Chiefs?
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 1:Andy Reid all the way. Yeah, patrick.
Speaker 2:Mahomes man, you talked about it and I don't see you. They're the best team right now. I mean there's other teams. You got the Lions the Vikings.
Speaker 1:Nobody wants to say, but they are the cowboys of this generation, the Chiefs. They are the cowboys of this life and the Patriots.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the Patriots had several runs.
Speaker 1:It seems we had those franchises go through. Yeah, there's always one team.
Speaker 2:That stands out. You're right, and right now it's the Chiefs. Oh, no doubt they're on the verge of becoming the first team to go three in a row.
Speaker 1:I kind of had my thoughts on the Bills, you know, with Josh Allen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the Bills has been there.
Speaker 1:They've been on a comeback, so to speak.
Speaker 2:They've been there on the edge, but they just can't get over that hump and the Ravens.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'd like to see.
Speaker 1:Lamar win more. I thought last year was Lamar's year. I thought last year was that's who.
Speaker 2:I picked. I picked them to win it all and they let me down.
Speaker 1:And it's easier for us because, I mean, I know me, I don't have a particular favorite team.
Speaker 2:No, I mean neither.
Speaker 1:The sport in general. You know, if I was to kind of say pick a team, I grew up watching the Cowboys so much. Yeah, I'm just not a real Saints fan. It's just too close, it's our market, Because every time I see the Saints I'll think about LSU and big Alabama rivalry. I guess if I was to look more maybe Atlanta, maybe something like that to go to, that would be something we'd definitely go to.
Speaker 2:I've never really been a had a team in the NFL. I've always Followed a player Followed a player more Peyton Manning. Now it's Baker Mayfield.
Speaker 1:That's kind of easy. I mean Baker, big-time Oklahoma alumni and Heisman winner, so it's good to follow him. I guess it's kind of the same way, like me, with Jalen Devontae Smith.
Speaker 2:I root for Jalen also.
Speaker 1:And the Eagles will be a good team. The.
Speaker 2:Eagles is still a dangerous team. Lions.
Speaker 1:Lions. I really like the Lions, oh yeah, like Jameson Williams and the Lions, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the Lions, they got it all. They got the full package. That was a good game with them. And the Vikings yesterday. Vikings is good. Another team to watch out for is they're young. I mean they got a rookie quarterback, but he's Jaden Daniels, from you know, played with LSU last year Heisman winner. But they're a team to watch out for, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, we've kind of went over most of the sports we kind of generally watch. I mean, we'll even watch the Stanley Cup.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll watch it every now and then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one day we ought to definitely try to go to an NHL game. For all you guys out there that are fans of the NHL send me a link comment. Tell me what's a good starting NHL game to go to, so maybe me and Cody can go check it out and have that experience. We've been to live baseball games.
Speaker 2:We've actually been to basketball We've been.
Speaker 1:You know we've won. A few fortunate people Got to see Kobe play. Yeah, you know, they played New Orleans what, golly?
Speaker 2:that's a long time ago, 12 years ago.
Speaker 1:So back then the New Orleans was they was the Hornets right Before they become the Pelicans. Yeah, they was the Hornets before the, so the Hornets had when they moved from Charlotte. They went to New Orleans for a little while and then. New Orleans would become the Pelicans. Yeah, and then where?
Speaker 2:did the Hornets now go to.
Speaker 1:They're in Charlotte, charlotte back to Charlotte. But the point of that was good games to definitely check out Live sport. Watching live sports is definitely like I said, being a college game mlb is is a lot different than watching on tv. So nhl is definitely something we will try to look into.
Speaker 1:Another thing that probably the biggest topic we talk about is gonna be wrestling you know, I think you and I can both agree that we, uh we grew up with some of the biggest wrestling fans and some of the greatest air in WWF, wwe, wcw. So, uh wrestling was a whole lot different, I think, then compared to now. So we kind of had that end of that Hulk Hogan era and uh got into that, and then Hulk Hogan went from there to WCW and then we got the attitudeitude Era and kind of just gradually progressed into the Ruthless.
Speaker 1:Aggression Era, and then the Reality Era, and now we got the New Gen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, but I'm not big on wrestling as I used to be. Used to be yeah, but it's still that's popular.
Speaker 1:I kind of follow a little bit more, it still is popular.
Speaker 1:I follow a little bit. Still. It's popular, I mean there's no doubt about it. I know I kind of fell off. I kind of watched a little bit of it, kind of to keep up with it, but following as I do now, now I kind of follow it more because they got just likable superstars. Talk with a guy at work and he and I talk a lot more probably about it because, like you got talent like cody roads and and all, but it's hard to beat the man. We actually here sipping on some real American beer oh yeah, talking about the Hulkster himself.
Speaker 1:It's pretty good. I ain't never drunk it. Yeah, it's pretty good, so cheers to that.
Speaker 2:Thank you, cody. Cheers to the Hulkster, to the.
Speaker 1:Hulkster. So we appreciate that.
Speaker 2:What you going to do, what you going to do. Appreciate that. What you going to do, what you going to do Drink my beer.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, we got new wrestling too. I mean we've had kind of errors. We got AEW kind of starting it's still hanging in there. It's still hanging in there, so I don't know if you know. Did you know they had?
Speaker 1:purchased Ring of Honor, no, yeah. So they had bought Ring of Honor and kind of moving into what we're going to talk about is about, like Vince McMahon and going from the territories to now where wrestling is at now. People know that different wrestlers are competing on different platforms and that's kind of what AEW started. I give them credit for that. So they had their wrestlers like going on to New Japan Pro Wrestling and TNA.
Speaker 2:They're not at all.
Speaker 1:Not really came over to WWE yet, but I think, with Triple H at the helm, I think we're going to see that. And I say that because I'm not sure if you saw NXT stars from WWE have been going to TNA and wrestling and then last year at the Rumble they had the TNA Knockouts champion. She actually was on the Women's World Rumble, so that was interesting.
Speaker 2:She brought the belt and all I might be wrong, but it seems like AEW or WWE, they're not really competing against each other.
Speaker 1:No, not like the way WCW.
Speaker 2:They're not competing again. That's kind of holding, keeping AEW afloat, I think, because WWE don't seem like it really has no issue with them.
Speaker 1:I mean, can you really blame them? I mean, they can't compete with Money Wise.
Speaker 2:So the whole purchase why?
Speaker 1:bother. You know they just expanded so much and now they're joined with UFC and. Endeavor. So you know that's a multi, multi-billion dollar company. Now having both of them, yeah, People forget.
Speaker 2:Wwf was Vince McMahon. They were broke Broke. They were on the verge of shutting down in the 90s.
Speaker 1:Well, we watched the Vince McMahon documentary.
Speaker 2:He had to compete, he had to go for the juggler.
Speaker 1:He had to, but that was his time. Then Say what you want about Vince McMahon. Besides the allegations, just his business mindset.
Speaker 2:I don't think wrestling will be where it's at today if it wasn't for Vince McMahon, no doubt you wouldn't, it'd probably still be territory, it'd probably still be regional, almost like a carnival. It's global. It's global now.
Speaker 1:It is and it expands into other things. It's a billion dollar industry when you consider merchandise and t-shirts and video games and movies, and what appearance he bought the company from his daddy a million dollars, and now it's worth billions, billions nine billion.
Speaker 2:Nine billion, nine billion.
Speaker 1:That's crazy and expands the world over. They have multi-million dollar shows and productions.
Speaker 2:But you watched me and you both watched it. Complete documentary on Vince McMahon. It was good. It's kind of sad, though that he's done it to himself probably.
Speaker 1:Well, we talk about it's the Vinceince mcmahon character versus the man himself and you can say what you want. They were kind of a blended blended. You could see a lot of of what vince had his self. He said as the character. What has actually? Come out, come out all right and but, but at the same time you had to have v in that air.
Speaker 2:He's the best bad guy Might be the best character in wrestling history.
Speaker 1:But I give credit to Eric Bischoff. I know we watched a lot. I was glad he was part of that documentary. Yeah, because if you didn't have somebody like Ted Turner and WCW, really Eric Bischoff, because Ted Turner really didn't care, he just wanted to be wrestling but he didn't care.
Speaker 2:Just wanted to be wrestling, but he didn't care.
Speaker 1:He was signing the checks, you had eric bischoff actually managing the ideas and I mean you had that crazy retard and vince russo, both sides trying to, which I think was the ultimate downfall of wc oh, yeah, but for eric bischoff. I mean, what was it? 83, 86, yeah that they was number one in the ratings, but I don't care what nobody says. You cannot be at the top like that if you don't have Hulk Hogan.
Speaker 2:No well, what pushed WCW over like that was the start of the NWO Right, and I mean you had Kevin Nash, scott Hall, the Outsiders first come in. You hadn't really seen that in wrestling, so that was something new. But you had to finish it off with the man and he became. He was once the greatest babyface and good guy in wrestling history and then when he switched over to Hollywood he became the greatest bad guy. Ain't too many people can say that and yeah, I think that started really the Attitude Era.
Speaker 2:I mean people don't think about it, but to me it did. Yeah, and you had to have that.
Speaker 1:That was 96. 96, 1996. There was a change needed because vince looked at it like his. His audience was kids, but wcw wanted to have 18 to 36 year old group you know teenagers and young adults, that's why they was kicking his butt all it was changing.
Speaker 2:Like you said, this landscape was changing and wrestling, and abishaw saw it and then v Vince finally realized yeah, it's time to.
Speaker 1:But I don't think at some point, because you can say what you want. When Vince realized it, and then he started putting faith in his stars, and then you had a wrestler named Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Speaker 2:Come through and just completely Cold was the perfect.
Speaker 1:Stone it was.
Speaker 2:And then the Rock.
Speaker 1:The Rock, you had the greatest list of errors when vince finally just took off or you had undertaker mankind rock triple stone cold, triple h, you, you, you had factions like the nwo, no doubt it.
Speaker 1:It grew too big, but at the same time, in wwe or wwf, at the time you, in WWE or WWF, at the time, you know, you had the ministry and then the corporate ministry, the corporation and DX. And then when, finally, in 2001, when Vince bought WCW after they had started failing, then you just had a perfect storm, because then you brought stars in like Booker T and Chris Jericho and. Eddie Guerrero, and then it just showed up led into that Ruthless Aggression era.
Speaker 1:So tell me your problem. But let's do it like this Let me have your Mount Rushmore, your top four of your Mount Rushmore, and then your top ten. So kick off, wrestlers, wrestlers.
Speaker 2:Oh man, more. And then your top 10. So kick up wrestling wrestlers. Oh man, oh, when you say mountain wrestler, so it'd be top four, right? Um, I'm gonna go with stone cold. I know it's gonna be a little bit different and I'm a hawks the fan, but it's between him and the Rock. For number two, I mean Stone Cold. The thing the issue is for Stone Cold is he didn't. It didn't last long what he had, maybe an eight-year run of, sure enough, being on the top. But, man, when he was on the top, nobody popped like him. He was the best. Yeah, man, when he was on the top.
Speaker 1:Nobody popped like him.
Speaker 2:He was the best, yeah, man, but like Hulk Hogan, he lasted decades, decades. The Rocks, you can even kind of say that somewhat, I mean they're not as long as Hulk Hogan.
Speaker 1:Well, his return now has been all the change. It's just resparked and now he's on the board. He's bought his name.
Speaker 2:Those are easily your top three, you can kind of shift them around anyway, and you wouldn't be wrong. I don't think either way, but easily. Those are top three. The debates, I think, start to come after Number four. Man, I think you've got to put Ric Flair.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You've got to put Nature Boy somewhere. I mean, he was really before his, he was just before everybody. Trenton yeah, he was just the cockiness, the flashiness that he came out. I mean the way he spoke on the mic was 16-time world champion man Styling, profiling Will and Dylan Jet flying Kid stealing, Kid stealing I mean you can't hardly. And dealing Jet flying Kid stealing, Kid stealing I mean you can't hardly beat him on the mic. So, yeah, that's my top four. That would be your top four.
Speaker 1:All right, let's round out your five through ten. They ain't got to be in a particular order, I think Shawn Michaels, shawn.
Speaker 2:Michaels, he has some mic skills, he be in there. Yeah, I think he's number five.
Speaker 1:Oh, you want to list him like that and his ring ability man.
Speaker 2:He was the showstopper. He could put on a show. If you wanted to see a good Matt, you'd watch Shawn Michaels' Matt.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:All right, you got to put the taker in there. I think number six, I mean just his. You had never seen a big man do do the things he did flipping over the top rope outside walking the rope, the longest undefeated streak in wrestling, yeah, and then his character was just so unique it was, and so cool Dong.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he had some good music.
Speaker 2:When you heard that, you knew it was JR. What did he used to say it's time for business or something like that man, he was a Taker fan and he had some good matches with Mankind.
Speaker 1:Throw him off the top of the sale. He killed him.
Speaker 2:He killed him, that's probably one of the best matches. That's probably one of the more historical matches, that hell and sale between Mankind. But who else?
Speaker 1:I'm at seven, that's six John Michaels at seven. That's six John Michaels. Take him, take him six.
Speaker 2:Number seven. As much as it pains me, I hate him with a passion. I just don't like the guy. But I mean he was popular, John Cena. John Cena, yeah, he was no doubt popular. I don't really didn't quite understand it, I guess, but you can't deny him that Number eight. People might disagree with me and you know I'm a fan of him. Triple H, Mm-hmm. Triple H was.
Speaker 1:He was that perfect storm team man. He was just a good bad guy.
Speaker 2:Maybe next to Hulk Hogan as the Hollywood, and Ric Flair he might have been the best bad guy of all time and Vince McMahon, but yeah, huck Triple H. And then, not to mention his ring ability too, he could put on some good matches 90-10. Oh, it gets a little tough there.
Speaker 1:Well, I guess say 10, because you said John Cena, triple H, yeah, two more.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go. I think Macho man is kind of underrated somewhat. I think he might be number nine. Number nine and his mic skills was underrated, just his personality was underrated and his ring. He could put on some good matches. You go back and watch his matches and then I know there's going to be some people disagreeing with me here. Number 10 is mine and your boy, bret Hart. Oh yeah, no doubt I think you have to put Bret Hart in there.
Speaker 2:The excellent execution and you talk about good matches. You want to see some good matches, in-ring ability. Now, his charisma could have been maybe a little bit better, but he, his charisma could have been maybe a little bit better, but he got better at the end of his career, I think, than at the beginning. He became a good bad guy at one point and he was kind of part of that start of the attitude there, in my opinion.
Speaker 1:That's a good top ten. Mount Rushmore is probably going to be the same. Just the same. You've got to have Ric Flair in there, 16-time world champion.
Speaker 2:So I agree definitely on. The Mount Rushmore is probably going to be the same, just the same. You've got to have Ric.
Speaker 1:Flair in there, 16-time world champion. So I agree definitely on the Mount Rushmore. Now my five through ten is probably a little different. I agree with every one of them, just not necessarily an order I'd probably say maybe Shawn or Undertaker Shawn, then Bret, then Triple H, and only I say he calls Brett because at the time where Brett come in in the late 80s, early 90s, all the way until his time in 97 to the Montreal Screwjob, I mean he's got the biggest controversy surrounding his name.
Speaker 2:That was the star of the Mr McMahon character.
Speaker 1:That was the character and just what he said. So now, and it was awesome meeting him, we got a chance to to meet him- in person and that was, that was uh that was something different, not a goldberg fan. He was not a goldberg fan, you know. I think goldberg is in that top 25.
Speaker 2:I don't think he makes the top 10.
Speaker 1:Well, just his personality he's so big savage. I'm not sure if I put savage up there, because some of this new talent like Roman Reigns.
Speaker 2:I think Roman Reigns has kind of earned his spot up in the top ten. I might swap him out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think Roman Reigns.
Speaker 2:He's become a good bad guy.
Speaker 1:He has. He just kind of got that triple-A feel to him.
Speaker 2:I forgot about Roman Reigns.
Speaker 1:And, just you know, had that dominant run as champion, you know, the longest time since Hulk Hogan. Yeah and so, but definitely. I mean a lot of people don't want to put the Hulkster up there, but you and I we grew up in that era.
Speaker 2:You have to put Hulk Hogan. You have to put Hulk Hogan up there, rushmore. You know, we definitely come by us Might get away with the Rock and Stone, and Stonko was number one maybe, but he's got to be top three. He has to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but yeah definitely For what Hogan done.
Speaker 2:Hogan dominated the 80s and led WWF into a global phenomenon when people used to talk about wrestling he was known worldwide and that was the thing I was glad they touched on At some point he might have been the most known person, known entertainer, yeah, Known celebrity, known entertainer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, known person, celebrity, celebrity. Almost at the same time. You thought of wrestling. You might know of one or two other more, but everybody, if you ask about it, who's a wrestler man? The only one I know of is Hulk Hogan. Well, right.
Speaker 2:He put WWF on the map and then he changed the thing for WCW. He wound up making them number one, so that's two companies he had a hand in. Yeah, Building.
Speaker 1:So we got you at Mount Rushmore in your top ten. Anything else? What you think about wrestling today, Anything you want to say anymore on that?
Speaker 2:No, like I said, I'm not the biggest fan of. I tell you another reason why I'm not the biggest fan of wrestling. Now we mentioned it, they're missing an announcer. I mean, I ain't got nothing against Michael Cole, but he's no JR man. They don't have that somebody to do the commentary. Jr and.
Speaker 1:King was untouchable. The guy they got now, Corey Graves, I think stands out a lot as far as announcing that he's kind of picking up, but now that triple h is taking over we're seeing a lot different kind of going back a little bit, but I tell you I you ought to give it a chance now because the wrestling now is getting a lot better.
Speaker 1:It's a lot more entertaining, for sure, and then the characters they got like really the bloodline right now is the new nwo, is literally nwo. And then now you got a split in the bloodline because Roman Reigns come back. Now he's fighting his cousin Solo.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And you got Jacob Fatu who I think is supposed to be Cody Rose, is still the champion.
Speaker 1:Cody Rose is still the champion, but you got Jacob Fatu right now. I think he's going to be the next biggest bad guy, like he's going to be off the chain as far as his in-ring ability.
Speaker 2:What about Gunther? Gunther is a world champion, see, and that's another thing. You got two world champions now. That kind of dilutes it a little bit, but the product is so big right now they almost have to, don't they, you have to, because when you got monday night raw which I don't know.
Speaker 2:If you know it, monday night raw is getting ready to go to netflix. You know they got a big start billion dollar deal, 2025, I think and so they move so you won't be able to see it on like regular tv. They moved it off. You have to stream it, you have to stream it completely.
Speaker 1:So I don't know if they're going to completely move. Smackdown still on fire. Smackdown actually just moved to the usa network here just a month or two ago, so they they've completely moved from the only thing they got on, regular, what we would call local channels, now be nxt. Nxt moved to the cw channel 55. So that that's really what they got going on now. So it's definitely changed and, like I said, it'd be interesting. Yeah, we're gonna try to make that wrestlemania run here soon to watch a wrestlemania live. That's on my bucket list, that's on our bucket list. So for you guys out there that are wrestling fans in general, tell us about some of the times you've been to different arenas. Or if you've been to those major pay-per-views or wrestlemania, let me know about that. Um, man, I really appreciate you coming out. So a little bit about your family. I wanted to kind of ask you you know you got kids and stuff, you and I both being dads and coming up as dads.
Speaker 1:That's been kind of a unique challenge in your situation you okay to talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:So you got five altogether? No, we got six, six altogether. Excuse me, you're a blended family, so to speak.
Speaker 2:I know you lose count every now and then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you lose count, it's tough to go on vacation.
Speaker 2:We're like the.
Speaker 1:Brady Bunch, and then, well, you would have had seven. You know you did.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I had the unfortunate to lose a child you know very, very early. Yeah, I know that was a tough time.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Going through that and for people out there that's, you know, had that loss of losing a child or you know any kind of situation like that, we we definitely send our sympathies no doubt. So uh, cody, you can test we. What was the guy at work? He said he lost his five month old.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he just see recently. No, it's five months recently. Yeah, it was, I feel for him, and that's something else.
Speaker 1:See it's, that's a just of all the modern sciences we've got today and medicine, and they still just don't know anything about that. But now Gatlin actually died, how many weeks? He was 15. 15 weeks, so really not real sure what caused it.
Speaker 2:No, they don't know. Just that time, just one of them things.
Speaker 1:So I know that was a tough time going, but but a good thing is. I bring that up to to say that that wasn't necessarily the end for you because, good lord willing, y'all tried again and bam had another one we gotta got landry now he had some complications Now, that was a tough time. Tell us a little bit about that. He was born with his.
Speaker 2:His intestines didn't fully connect and he was born without his intestines connecting, so he had to have surgery the next day after he was born. He was born premature, also like 35 weeks, I think. I think it was like what it was last year December 10th. We had to stay in the NICU for 70 days.
Speaker 1:It was a tough stretch. Long haul that was rough. Usa Women's and Children that's an awesome hospital. They're good.
Speaker 2:They are. I mean, we had some hiccups along the way, but I guess everybody goes through it.
Speaker 1:So now, where did y'all stay? I mean because to give everyone out there kind of a perspective, so the hospital for us is about 30 to 45 minutes, uh, south of where we're at, where we're at in mobile county. It's kind of a rural area, so we're kind of in the country and so us having to go to a hospital, like I said, it's about 30 to 45 minutes one way. So 70 days. I mean, where'd y'all stay at when during that time?
Speaker 2:they. Uh, we got hooked up with ronald mcdonough house, which is right like right on the grounds of the hospital.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's on the ground, man that's awesome and you know.
Speaker 2:Then you talk about a, a place that people should. I mean, I know some people are skeptic on charities and what, how they help people and what they do with the funds, that. But ronald mcdonough house is legit. They help people and what they do with the funds but Ronald McDonald House is legit. They help people and just the volunteers coming in volunteering their time and the families that are.
Speaker 1:So it's kind of like a place for y'all to stay like, while y'all having to go back and forth.
Speaker 2:They feed you. They give you everything you need, yeah, and at no cost.
Speaker 1:I don't know if he had mentioned that this is, that's a completely uh non-profit organization. So, like he was saying, if anybody had a cause out there they want to support.
Speaker 2:You know we talk a lot people hear about saint jude but all my beer drinkers out there, save you, save your tab.
Speaker 1:So so ronald mc Ronald McDonald House has a program to where, if you take the tabs off of Coke cans and the cans themselves, that they bring them down there and they'll take them. And if you have to get so many I think it's so many pounds right that a family get to stay for another free night, which anytime a kid is diagnosed with any kind of condition like that. That you know those families because you think about us where we're at on the gulf coast. You got alabama, georgia, florida, mississippi, louisiana, all kind of families having to come to women's and children's and staying there.
Speaker 2:There was actually all I've told you before.
Speaker 2:there was a family that had a baby in Mississippi and we were back story to Landry's case we were lucky enough to find my wife had failed a couple months before he was born, and we rushed to the hospital emergency room, and that's where they found out that his intestines was not growing together, and so we at least had time to prepare. But this family that I'm talking about now, the baby was born in Mississippi and they didn't have, and that's when they found out that he had an issue, because he wasn't using the bathroom and nothing was working. His intestines was not working, and so that's when they found out that his intestines didn't grow together, and so they rushed, they brought him to USA. Women's and Children so at the same time.
Speaker 2:It's a rare disease. To begin with, I think one out of five children do it or something get it. But you had literally two babies born the same time with the same disease issue. That was kind of funny, and they also stayed at ronald mcdonald house with us. So it was kind of neat. You know just the way god works things out for you, and we was able to feed off each other as as far as okay, well, what's your baby doing now? What? You know what our baby is doing, and it just it helped us out, just been able to talk, you know, talk to somebody else going through what we was going through.
Speaker 1:And then I just couldn't imagine, like the, the pressure you and Pev just went through dealing with it Going, having to go Cause you got, cause you got five other kids you tended to from 15 all the way down to two, that family I was talking about.
Speaker 2:they had eight other kids.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I can only imagine, but it was definitely.
Speaker 1:So then you got a chance to so the Ronald McDonald House. Let your kids stay there a little bit here and there, but you also had a good support system with your parents, her parents.
Speaker 2:I mean going back to what we was talking about. With 96 staying on in our community, we got. I mean, community is definitely a big, great community here. I wouldn't want to live nowhere else. I wouldn't want my children growing up nowhere else. We hadn't didn't have to worry about, right, who was going to keep them, who was going to watch them and then that's what we kind of talk about.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm landry's doing really good though right now. Right, yes, he's clean.
Speaker 2:Bill of health yeah, and he's been cleared. The doctors have cleared him for months. Now he he'll be celebrating a birthday here for a long.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, month and a half, month and a half and one year old, and he's doing good.
Speaker 2:He yeah, he's growing like a pig yes, he ain't missed the beat.
Speaker 1:He ain't missed the beat, so just thankful for that. But we talk about our community.
Speaker 2:Man, people make fun of us sometimes too, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:The MoWall community itself. I've said it in my previous episode that our community is just different when it comes to our community, so to speak, they're going to step up. We've got a lot of family. We're a big, big family, a lot of cousins and a lot of people, but everybody knows most everybody in our community and they're gonna help wherever they can.
Speaker 1:So we talked about, like you said, your support system, where a lot of people don't have that, you know they don't have sure enough struggle, struggle dealing with that. So it's it's. You know we're blessed to to be in our community now. We, like most communities, you know we got shitheads out there there's problems everywhere.
Speaker 1:But I'd kind of say we're a little biased and say our community is probably one of the best to be around, growing up in Mount Vernon, southernell area and dealing with our people and being part of the Moal tribe and all, and being part of the of the moa tribe and also, yep, you know, you and peb, both being native americans and growing up moa and uh, we've had some things grow, see, seeing the growth of our tribe. You know I talked about too, about us and the federal recognition. So hopefully one day we might, might can sit down and talk about that. But you know Well, tell me a little bit more about what you do on your off time when you're not around you kind of travel. I know we've got holidays and stuff coming up.
Speaker 2:Some of the vacations that you've been on. We try to go visit places. I mean we go on vacations a couple times a year.
Speaker 1:Have some fun times, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've done, but when you're?
Speaker 1:taking a whole bunch of kids. It's like uh wrangling cattle or or zoo animals, almost so to speak.
Speaker 2:We took them all. When was that? Two years ago, all of us went to well I'm talking about on the cruise.
Speaker 1:Oh, my god, the cruise. Uh, so imagine for y'all out there.
Speaker 2:So so, at the time, grant was a quarter of the over one.
Speaker 1:They had a. They had their youngest. Well, not the youngest, but the youngest at the time was shelton. He was number five he was number five and having him all the way up to that 15 year old and and us trying to herd children all over a cruise ship.
Speaker 2:Probably about a quarter of the uh population on the ship.
Speaker 1:No doubt, and it was easily detailed. So it was definitely some interesting dinners and breakfasts, because when you have one kid that did not want to get up or did not want to eat that particular breakfast, that was kind of the hit and miss on all our vacations man, we've had some crazy times with each other.
Speaker 1:We've seen going to the beach as something melts and yep the water parts, but at the same time we, we, uh, we worry about things because everything god is everything just going up here lately with just the cost of everything, oh yeah. So let's how you, how you feel about that, like the where, the cost and way this country is is when. I guess when we say cost of stuff, I say the price of going on vacations, and it kind of gets into a topic I know we definitely have some debates on and talk a little bit about this election cycle.
Speaker 2:So is it not crazy? I mean sports, we talked about sports, and sports can polarize people, you know, and put them on the other side of each argument. But yeah, there ain't nothing like politics that polarizes the country and it all. I mean, I'm a. Well, that's the purpose of this podcast.
Speaker 2:I guess, we're all you know. You would consider me a Republican, but I really just call myself an American and I think you might consider yourself a Republican as well. I mean, I got family members that are Democrats and there ain't nothing against them, but right now we disagree on policies.
Speaker 1:I'm not a fan of the two-party system, but you have to go with the lesser of the two evils, and right now that's the reason why the policies that kind of closely align with what, what we need as a family, you know, because we kind of been following a little bit of the politics, a couple election cycles, you, you know all the way, I guess, back to the 2008 election.
Speaker 2:That's kind of. Yeah, when I started, my granddaddy was really big into it. Yeah, and he was a Democrat.
Speaker 1:And I agree.
Speaker 2:I voted Democrat before because back in 08, I kind of lined up with the policies that Barack Obama had at the time, and that was the old guard, I guess, of our community and just of the working classes that the Democrats was for you, For you. But, it just seemed like times have changed. I would say it has changed really from about 2012 to now, and it really probably changed for me with Trump.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Trump was kind of the Trump was a trendsetter.
Speaker 2:He really when I saw him because he busted down all the doors man, and I saw him as somebody that could change the political system.
Speaker 1:Well, I would say he's not really a politician. Yeah, that's right, he's not going to just give you yes answers.
Speaker 2:He just, he's so different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's different as far as that, and I think really even since the 2016 that just aligned up, and then, when he was elected, it's just his policies that we've talked about. We've flourished under, because here's the thing that you and I have said, that I guess we can both agree on, is some of the policies he had in place, such as, you know, the border wall, and common sense stuff.
Speaker 1:You know we was at a point where we was energy independence. You know a lot of people not talk about that, about the cost of gasoline and goods, and that's why I said about what the cost of everything is and goods, and, and that's why I said about what the cost of everything is. You look at the cost of what stuff is now compared to four, five years ago, you know, seven years ago, when he first took office, and it it's changed gas was half of what it is now and and it's.
Speaker 1:It's crazy like you got interest rates, you got home prices, you got food prices. We've got to kind of get a handle on it. So I guess, what's what's some of the policies that you've liked? I guess, other than just the energy independence, what's some things that you saw Trump really do during his administration? Kind of let you lean more towards him.
Speaker 2:The main thing, I liked about Trump was America first. I agree he is. You know he's all I mean. People get on him about that. He's anti-trade. He is, you know, he's all I mean people get on him about that. He's anti trade. And no, he's, he just wants to get the best deal for America. America first. And people. I've heard people say that Trump is isolationism, that anybody believes that lines themselves up with. Trump is all about isolation and being, you know, having the United States just stay out of anything global. No, we just want America to be treated first, america's citizens to come first, and then we can worry about the rest of the world. I mean, no doubt I'm all for helping other people and believe that the United States should stand up and be a leader, because we are the global superpower.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we, we, the number one, probably only china's kind of making a run at it, but right now I would say we are the only main superpower. But yeah, so we should have a standing in the world.
Speaker 1:But we need to take care of.
Speaker 2:We need to yeah it's hard to it's hard to uh worry about another house when your house is kind of falling apart well, it's the thing with some of the wars that's.
Speaker 1:That's happened, you know, with with the war in ukraine. God knows, this is terrible for the ukrainian people, but how do we justify, when our economy is in such a state, to continue justifying paying 500 billion billions of dollars to, to to fund a war where we should be negotiating peace? You know, I mean, and that's the thing we've heard might not be the peace that everybody wants.
Speaker 1:That's right it's peace, but we're not. We're not having to to spend all that money knowing that we got food and gas prices so high when we got amenities here such as Medicare, medicaid, stuff like that. That's running out and you know now.
Speaker 1:I guess we're seeing the bad things about it, so to speak, because we've only had two hurricanes now and a lot of stuff has done happen where that fema's went on record said they don't have enough funds to cover for hurricanes. You know, you have the secretary of homeland security say, well, we're not going to survive another storm. You know, we we barely went through uh hurricane, uh helen, and then then the next hurricane come through and hit Florida and then you know, gone and it was just rough having to, for these people having to go through that.
Speaker 1:And then there's just somebody to stand on a policy and say that that was kind of one of the biggest takeaways I had with Kamala Harris is she wanted to stand up.
Speaker 2:Kamala Kamala.
Speaker 1:Yeah to kamala that she wants to give 157 million dollars to, or 150 something million dollars to the people in lebanon, but at the same time, you, you don't, you don't have money to give to people in north carolina.
Speaker 2:You want to, you want to be okay, just giving 750 dollars when people it's millions and billions of dollars worth of damage yeah, they claim, they claim they're going to be given more, but I've been hearing from people that, oh, they're just saying that they just keep getting pushed, pushed back, pushed back. I mean why? I mean it should be automatic.
Speaker 1:Let's give them whatever they need whatever they need, we're giving billions to a country that you know well, and then it should not be political at the same time, and I'm I'm kind of I don't agree with joe biden on a lot of the things, but I'm glad he kind of finally stood up and said you know, we're not worrying about that. You know I'm gonna focus on talking with governor desantis and the governor north carolina, so yeah we hadn't agreed on a lot of the policies he's done.
Speaker 1:There's a couple that we've kind of pushed for, that we've seen, that we liked, and one of the things I thought was going to be a better bill was the Infrastructure Act, because of what some of the details was in the bill, you know, as far as upgrading the airport and railroads and the road systems and telecommunication and broadband. But I really, other than us getting the railroad back here and the airport down at Brooklyn, that's kind of what's helped it, but I don't think we've gained anything more. On broadband, I mean, what more can you want when you got starlink and elon musk is giving it, giving it away and trying to help people. So there's definitely been some some policies that this stuff has just got to change around here. We've got to get a handle on on the drugs and fitting on the border.
Speaker 2:There's no reason, no reason why we are allowing these people just to keep coming flooding in but you're not I'm not. I'm all for immigration oh, yeah, no doubt they deserve a chance at american dream.
Speaker 1:But and I think you got to do it the right way you got to do it the right way and I think it might be and we might need to up, you know, make it easier for them.
Speaker 2:That's the thing why?
Speaker 1:why don't we make it easier? Because I think it's the policy they said about remain in mexico, you know, until they could get. But we should be working, you know, as a country to say, okay, if you want to come into the country, come into mexico, you know, until we can process you through legally into the border. Get your green card or whatever, give you a temporary visa to work and that way you don't have to cross illegally.
Speaker 2:Well, here's kind of an analogy. I guess you almost treat the country like you would treat your own house, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:I mean you would be all for people coming into your house, right and just visiting with you and helping you out or something with something, but you're not just going to leave your front door wide open for anybody to come into your house, right right, because at that point there might be good people that are coming in, but then every now and then you're going to have some stragglers and some bad people that come into your house and might ruin everything you built. And that's kind of what's happening to our country right now. They, they just yeah, there might be some good people that's coming in illegally, but there's also bad people that's coming in illegally Killers.
Speaker 1:But politics shouldn't be this ruthless right now, with both sides of the political aisle blaming and calling names and causing all of this hurtful rhetoric.
Speaker 2:And it's a thing. It didn't used to be like this, when we rhetoric, and it's a thing.
Speaker 1:It didn't used to be like this when we had Not this bad. Not this bad. Poor Donald Trump had an assassination attempt and instead of things finally calm down, he's had a second attempt.
Speaker 2:And I don't think it's right. I'm a fan of Trump. He doesn't do the best job of lowering the temperature.
Speaker 1:I mean, he's a fighter. He's a fighter. He's kind of that New York attitude. He's got it built into him. He's all for broke, he's all in.
Speaker 2:He's going to give it all. He's going to come at you. You come at him. He's going to come at you. Twofold.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Sometimes we just need somebody to lower temp. He the best way to describe trump now I I'm a big fan of him. He's his message is the best. He's got a great message his policies. He just might not be the best messenger of his message uh, but I mean, you can't, policy wise, you can't touch it and I think somebody like jD Vance might kind of help that. But I think he's getting better. I mean he's gotten better over the years at it and kind of trying to lower the temperature a little bit.
Speaker 1:But it's just about his policies. We've got to get this inflation.
Speaker 2:We've got to get the border secure. We've got to become energy.
Speaker 1:you know independence we got, I mean, keystone Pipeline major pipeline. I get they were having a lot of issues when it comes to it, but I think Trump is the type to work with policymakers on it because and that's why I don't like the hypocrisy some of the Democratic Party is you okay with Europe buying oil and gas and stuff from Russia, but you don't want us to do it. You don't want us to build a pipeline to connect where we could supply that oil and gas and energy.
Speaker 1:I'm all for clean air Clean water, yeah. I think we should have it in addition to the stuff.
Speaker 2:Why aren't we handicapping? I mean, why are we, you know, locking ourself up with just a couple forms?
Speaker 1:of energy.
Speaker 2:Why not just open ourself up to all forms of energy? Right Wind solar, water, nuclear, and have fossil fuels as well, and fossil fuels, coal, all of it.
Speaker 1:Man, we should have every energy out there you could say that, that that we could do all the zero admissions policies that they the, the extremists in that green new deal wants to do, but it's not going to stop countries like india and china, where they're building coal coal burning and you're talking about billions of people over there and but they pollute the atmosphere, just like it.
Speaker 1:It's not going to change. We're not the world epa, so so it shouldn't hurt us. It's the same thing, kind of what I agree with trump on. On the, the electric vehicle, the ev mandates, I think those mandates, if you want it, buy it, go for it, go for it, but you shouldn't be limited to that. These automakers, you know the big three, stilett, ford, gm and all of these car companies is really pushing these evs, I think too much. And where we live at, think about it, we don't have a charging station right here, mount vernon, such near lower alabama. You think about the people in wyoming, montana, yeah, these vast regional places where they're so spread out and we talk from the grid about the infrastructure.
Speaker 2:The grid can't support it. Well, all that money that they put into the infrastructure bill. There's nine only a handful of charging stations.
Speaker 1:They haven't built any around here now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we just can't. We're not at that point where we can be stable enough to support that type of power.
Speaker 1:Well, we've seen it and it doesn't get talked about more, but the snowstorm, the bad blizzard that happened in Texas, where they were relying on the wind and the solar, and that got completely wiped out and people were freezing to death Like in the 2020s people are freezing to death because they rely so much they wind up having to get a backup coal burning uh plant up and running just to provide power so they could get heat to people.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm saying. Why are we just kind of handicapping ourselves?
Speaker 1:well, we shouldn't be you know it should be open all form energy. So so maybe a lot of people don't know. It's not just about getting out there and voting and believing in policies, but it's uh you'll hear it talked about a lot about on the news the path to 270. So we got seven swing states right now that that trump is really, really heavy in, and what's your prediction on it?
Speaker 2:oh man, you've heard me say it. I think I had my worries early because she was in the media, was pushing her like no other, like she was the next Barack Obama. You know, she went from being the worst vice president in history to also, all of a sudden, being the greatest candidate ever, and so they that had me worried. But I just from what I've seen on the ground, from regular people, regular voters, I don't see how she overcomes the heat. You know, the the drop in minority voters that she's getting Trump. They're projecting him to get 40% of the Latino vote, projecting him to get over 20% of the black vote. I don't see how she overcomes that. And the polling numbers have, you know, have it kind of neck and neck.
Speaker 2:And in recent elections, like in 2016, they had Hillary up a good bit and he outperformed that and wound up winning, all right. They had Joe Biden up pretty good bit and he outperformed that and wound up winning. All right. They had joe biden up pretty good bit and he joe biden barely won. Trump outperformed that and he barely won. And well, you know, okay, maybe he won, whatever. But uh, and now this year they're kind of neck and neck and usually trump outperforms it. So by them being neck and neck, I think he's, I think he's gonna win pretty comfortably. Yeah, I got him, I think he's going to win pretty comfortably.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got him. I think he wins Pennsylvania, just from what I'm seeing.
Speaker 1:I think Pennsylvania, georgia, north Carolina, georgia North Carolina and Arizona Arizona Nevada's going to be a tough state.
Speaker 2:I think he can win, and if he potentially wins Michigan he could really walk away with it yeah. But he really don't need it. He don't need Michigan and he could really walk away with it. He really don't need it. He don't need Michigan, he don't need Nevada, he don't need Wisconsin.
Speaker 1:But there's potential for him to win all seven swing states, I think he would do better, probably Wisconsin. I think having JD Vance is a lot better VP than somebody like Tim Waltz. Tampon Tim, yeah, and that's where my issue and I think tampon team, yeah, you know, and that's that's where my issue and I think your issue is by us having kids with the things that Democratic Party is getting the wokeness in it, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it just insane to me that that they think it's OK for the gender reaffirming study. So it's a lot of stuff, but you know it's going to be interesting reaffirming studies.
Speaker 2:So it's a lot of stuff, but you know it's gonna be interesting.
Speaker 1:We got a couple weeks over uh to to here, so anything, anything else really, before we get ready to wrap up, we've we've talked a lot today we talked about a lot of ground just to get started.
Speaker 2:I guess we'll try to do this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd like to have a couple weeks so please get out there and let us know what you think about today's episode and everything. Man, I appreciate you coming out, oh, yeah, how much are you paying me?
Speaker 2:I should have asked that before.
Speaker 1:We started out here. We don't have no funds yet so if anybody wants to support for a guest speaker fee.
Speaker 1:We'll get it, but, man, I really appreciate you getting out here on the mobile king chronicles and and uh, getting here. So, man, definitely, I really really appreciate. So, guys, you already know what to do as far as the next steps we got to do. So get out there like share, subscribe, wherever you guys get your podcast, so make sure you share the word. Get out there, get some comments if you'd like to reach out, and some other issues that you'd like us to discuss in future content. So, hopefully so. Once again, thank you so much and, as always, stay strong, stay true and let's keep moving forward. You.
