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Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're always thinking about Wes.

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Speaker 1: I'm Greg Rosenthal. I'm here in the Chris Westling podcast studio.

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Speaker 1: I'm taping it in the studio that bears my great

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Speaker 1: friend's name before I head up to San Francisco for

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Speaker 1: this Super Bowl sixty and I did want to just

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Speaker 1: kind of stop in the middle of what's a crazy season,

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Speaker 1: a crazy week and recognize that it has now been

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Speaker 1: five years since West died, and this week is always

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Speaker 1: tricky because it's the Super Bowl, but it's also the

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Speaker 1: time of year that West died, and if you've lost anyone,

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Speaker 1: grief is so interesting that the dates, the dates are

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Speaker 1: important like that those anniversaries, you kind of feel it

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Speaker 1: and you feel them in the air, and it almost

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Speaker 1: makes sense that it's all it's all combined. It's the

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Speaker 1: Super Bowl, it's Wes, and for me especially, you know,

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Speaker 1: Wes was such a special person in my life, but

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Speaker 1: initially as a special person in my football life. I

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Speaker 1: met him, I'm putting in air quotes online on a

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Speaker 1: message board, and his life force just just leaped off

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Speaker 1: that message board so strongly that I wanted to get

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Speaker 1: to know this guy and get to meet him and

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Speaker 1: eventually to hire him and become a great friend.

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Speaker 2: And then we were out here. And so.

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Speaker 1: This time of year you think about him because I

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Speaker 1: share a birthday with Wes two. It's in a couple

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Speaker 1: of weeks. It's the two of us, me, Wes and

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Speaker 1: the three of us if you want to include Roger Goodell,

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Speaker 1: the three pillars we used to joke about of NFL Network,

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Speaker 1: NFL media. We all share a birthday to the people

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Speaker 1: on the Pisces cusp. And yeah, it's to me a

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Speaker 1: cool thing that it's a time of year. And of

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Speaker 1: course it's mixed feelings and it's heavy too, and it's sad,

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Speaker 1: but I like the idea that it's a time to

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Speaker 1: think about the person because the last thing I want

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Speaker 1: to do is is ever forget them, not celebrate them,

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Speaker 1: not talk about them. I know, if you're listening to

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Speaker 1: this now, you're not gonna forget them.

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Speaker 2: And it didn't.

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Speaker 1: Feel right to go through this week without recognizing this

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Speaker 1: anniversary in five years. And it's one of the first

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Speaker 1: things Keisha taught me, you know, my great friend and

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Speaker 1: the love of his life, Keisha, so early on, she

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Speaker 1: really just had this this feeling that it felt it

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Speaker 1: feels good to talk about the ones that you love

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Speaker 1: and that you lost. And I'm far from a person

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Speaker 1: who has like learned wisdom over the years, but that

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Speaker 1: is something that really has stuck with me that I

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Speaker 1: think helps people, and it really stuck with me the

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Speaker 1: response we got in the aftermath of Chris dying, not

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Speaker 1: just in the days after, but in the months and

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Speaker 1: the years and even now. Right before we started, Eric,

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Speaker 1: our producer, was saying, look, anytime we talk about Wes,

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Speaker 1: it gets so much response and people want to be

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Speaker 1: able to share their memories because for so many of

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Speaker 1: you it felt like losing a really close friend and

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Speaker 1: it was you had our podcast, the Around the NFL

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Speaker 1: podcast originally Around the League in your Years, three four

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Speaker 1: times a week for so long, and I think, especially

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Speaker 1: with Wes, he gave all of himself to that podcast.

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Speaker 1: What you heard was what you got. And I think

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Speaker 1: for a lot of our listeners, who of course are

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Speaker 1: younger and just growing up, and some people joined us

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Speaker 1: in middle school and high school and college and it

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Speaker 1: runs the gamut certainly, but a lot of younger listeners

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Speaker 1: we heard and this really stuck with me that it

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Speaker 1: was the first time a lot of people like experience

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Speaker 1: a loss like that, and it almost makes me think now, like,

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Speaker 1: oh here, it is like Wes teaching us life lessons again.

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Speaker 1: Because Wes loved a good time, and that's one of

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Speaker 1: the reasons why he made so many great connections here

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Speaker 1: at NFL Media. Everyone's relationship with him was really different.

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Speaker 1: But how I connected most with Wes beyond the football

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Speaker 1: and just working side by side and loving to like

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Speaker 1: figure out his mind talking football was he loved to

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Speaker 1: ponder the meaning of it all, like he'd loved to

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Speaker 1: debate the stupid stuff, but he also loved to talk

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Speaker 1: about why are we all here? And spirituality and what

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Speaker 1: it means to be a good person and yeah, death,

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Speaker 1: And I almost think I can almost hear Wes's voice

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Speaker 1: because we heard from a lot of listeners and I

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Speaker 1: understood all the responses, and for a lot of people,

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Speaker 1: it was really so difficult to lose Chris, and I

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Speaker 1: understood that. The hardest thing that we ever did was

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Speaker 1: was do a podcast that week and right in the

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Speaker 1: aftermath and just continue to do it. And a lot

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Speaker 1: of people told us like, I love you guys, but

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Speaker 1: I can't deal with it anymore. Basically like that they

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Speaker 1: stopped listening at that moment.

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Speaker 2: And I do totally.

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Speaker 1: Get that response, but part of me also hears Chris

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Speaker 1: in my head being like, come on, like face it,

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Speaker 1: face it, head up, like this is life, this is

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Speaker 1: what happens, and it is terrible, and I don't want

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Speaker 1: to get stuck in the bad stuff. But this week,

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Speaker 1: I do, you know, think about the fact. Look, I

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Speaker 1: drive past the hospital where Chris died every other day.

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Speaker 1: It's just sort of part of my life. It is

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Speaker 1: not hard, you know, it's hard not to think about that,

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Speaker 1: to always be next to like the bar where me

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Speaker 1: and in Dan of Mark and met up with his

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Speaker 1: brother Phil, you know, right afterwards. And you know, I

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Speaker 1: always think about it because it's right, it's right next

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Speaker 1: to the Trader Joe's. And I do think about that

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Speaker 1: week because it was the worst week of my life.

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Speaker 1: We're doing shows for god knows what reason, trying to

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Speaker 1: kind of think that maybe what we, you know, think

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Speaker 1: we're watching happen is not happening as it was. But

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Speaker 1: I bring all that up just to say, like, I

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Speaker 1: think it's a trap to get stuck in those moments. Again,

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Speaker 1: I can hear like his his voice in my head,

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Speaker 1: which is like.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that sucks.

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Speaker 1: But it was a miracle that the four of us

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Speaker 1: all got to come together.

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Speaker 2: It was a miracle that Wes existed.

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Speaker 1: It was a miracle that Wes got to meet Keisha

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Speaker 1: in the first place and have Lincoln, and that he

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Speaker 1: had this life force that was so strong that it

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Speaker 1: brought him all the way to Tybee Island at a

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Speaker 1: part in his life where he didn't know exactly where

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Speaker 1: he was going, and that we ended up connecting, and

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Speaker 1: that he eventually, you know, found a lot of meaning,

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Speaker 1: not just with football, but more importantly with the friends

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Speaker 1: and the relationships that he made through football. But but football,

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Speaker 1: football was the start to it. Like I saw this

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Speaker 1: guy writing down every dynasty league ranking that he had,

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Speaker 1: and he was such a you know to use a

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Speaker 1: westward like irascible down like he was just so opinionated

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Speaker 1: but stubborn but open but warm, but man, it was

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Speaker 1: tough to get him to move off of a position,

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Speaker 1: but you always respected that position. And part of this

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Speaker 1: week for me, I had a little fun like going

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Speaker 1: back and listening to some of the shows from that week,

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Speaker 1: and I can almost I'm amazed how concise we were

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Speaker 1: It's four of us and we're doing a forty eight

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Speaker 1: minute Super Bowl recap and it's just moving around.

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Speaker 2: Eric.

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Speaker 1: I'm looking at him and like I could learn a

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Speaker 1: little bit something.

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Speaker 2: It was great.

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Speaker 1: It's a great show around the NFL, and it was

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Speaker 1: fun to go back and listen because we have Seahawks Patriots,

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Speaker 1: and so I thought, Okay, well that's nice, a nice

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Speaker 1: tie in here.

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Speaker 2: Obviously, that was a long time ago. That was eleven

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Speaker 2: years ago.

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Speaker 1: That was only the second super Bowl that the four

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Speaker 1: of us covered together. We had won before Wes was

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Speaker 1: fully on board and hired, and so that was the

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Speaker 1: second Super Bowl we were all together, and I thought

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Speaker 1: it'd be cool to go back and just listen.

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Speaker 2: Here.

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Speaker 1: Here were some takes that Wes had. This was actually

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Speaker 1: from the recap show. I listened to all of them

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Speaker 1: from that week, but he was embedded with the Seahawks

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Speaker 1: during the week, and then this was some of the

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Speaker 1: takes he had after Super forty nine between the Patriots

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Speaker 1: and the Seahawks.

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Speaker 3: I think when you factor in the ridiculous curse catch,

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Speaker 3: how well the Patriots defensive backs played on that entire

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Speaker 3: drive and then the final play of the game to me,

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Speaker 3: the greatest super Bowl I've ever seen.

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Speaker 1: Everyone always wants to say the greatest super Bowl of

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Speaker 1: all time right away, and I think it probably was.

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Speaker 2: I don't know, had some more points.

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Speaker 3: Okay, you're talking about, in addition to the back and

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Speaker 3: forth of two great quarterbacks, one of the best defense

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Speaker 3: we've seen in at least fifteen years, and possibly the

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Speaker 3: best pass defense we've ever seen, you've got Belichick and

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Speaker 3: Brady going for their six for their fourth title in

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Speaker 3: their sixth Super Bowl, and you're doing it the caliber

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Speaker 3: of opponent. You're doing it against the reigning Super Bowl champs.

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Speaker 2: Against the best defense in the league for three years running.

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Speaker 2: I don't want first team like that since the late.

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Speaker 3: Sixteen I don't want to hear that the Patriots Panthers

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Speaker 3: game was better.

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Speaker 2: It wasn't.

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Speaker 3: Now we're here last year and we're talking about Peyton

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Speaker 3: Manning's legacy and going into that game, most people considered

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Speaker 3: him greater all time than Tom Brady. A year later,

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Speaker 3: we're not even bringing up Peyton Manning in the discussion.

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Speaker 3: Brady has distanced himself a little bit from Peyton Manning.

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Speaker 1: It is really interesting just to think about that game specifically,

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Speaker 1: in how things change. And one of the great points

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Speaker 1: Wes made, like there were a lot there, which it

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Speaker 1: wasn't even included, was how he said, while we're in

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Speaker 1: the press box watching it, that this next drive with

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Speaker 1: the Seahawks moving the ball down the field and eventually

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Speaker 1: getting right up to the goal line is gonna impact

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Speaker 1: like how we talk to Tom about Tom Brady. And

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Speaker 1: it shouldn't impact how we talk about Tom Brady because

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Speaker 1: there's nothing really to do with Tom Brady. Tom Brady

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Speaker 1: just orchestrated two touchdowns in the fourth quarter against the

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Speaker 1: best defense in football, and I'm not planning to do

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Speaker 1: like football talk on this show. But to me, that

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Speaker 1: was the relationship I had with Wes and certainly that

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Speaker 1: you guys had with Wes, that it could go from

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Speaker 1: the deepest stuff to the football stuff in the matter

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Speaker 1: sec And that's what I really enjoyed kind of looking

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Speaker 1: back at at all these episodes, like it was all combined.

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Speaker 1: And I'm thinking of Nick Westling today too, because I

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Speaker 1: talked to him and I was supposed to include this

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Speaker 1: on the previews the Pick Show that it's already been

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Speaker 1: out with Cynthia Freelan and it and it I'm reminded

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Speaker 1: of it because Wes and I and Market believe it

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Speaker 1: had you know, did have the page its winning this game,

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Speaker 1: you know, against the Seahawks back in the day in

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Speaker 1: this Super Bowl.

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Speaker 2: By the way, big bro Nick says.

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Speaker 1: Seahawks by thirty, I mean, just totally disrespectful, and he's like, well,

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Speaker 1: maybe not exactly thirty, but that that's what I said

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Speaker 1: about the Eagles last year, and he got that one right.

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Speaker 1: So I'm just putting that putting that out there. Another

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Speaker 1: clip we have here was a pretty famous one if

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Speaker 1: you're a huge diehard of Around the NFL, and also

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Speaker 1: if you go even now to the Around the NFL

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Speaker 1: Twitter page, it includes a part of a of this clip,

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Speaker 1: a really great edit. We're had a lot of the

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Speaker 1: great moments of Chris's time doing the podcast, and it's

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Speaker 1: still pinned to the Around the NFL Twitter page, which

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Speaker 1: I love, and it has part of this clip, and

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Speaker 1: I decided to go back and listen to it, and

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Speaker 1: what I found was it it was.

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Speaker 2: You know, even longer.

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Speaker 1: And had a little more depth and breadth to it

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Speaker 1: than you even heard in that video. And I thought

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Speaker 1: it would be cool to kind of play this on

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Speaker 1: the show. And the crazy thing is to set this

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Speaker 1: up is it just comes out of nowhere in a

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Speaker 1: random week fourteen Tuesday show about twenty minutes into the

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Speaker 1: end of the news where we're just basically talking about

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Speaker 1: how Reggie Wayne, who was in the final season of

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Speaker 1: his career, was playing through a triceps tear and didn't

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Speaker 1: look good and that was all that set this up.

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Speaker 2: I'll let West take it from me.

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Speaker 3: Well, I think I've been a little flipping about this

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Speaker 3: that I haven't given it the nuance it deserves. Reggie

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Speaker 3: Wayne is playing through a torn triceps and is playing

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Speaker 3: as bad.

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Speaker 2: As any wide receiver in the NFL.

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Speaker 3: He's also a respected team leader, and I'm sure within

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Speaker 3: those walls they want him to battle. They want him

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Speaker 3: to battle through this and show what he can do.

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Speaker 3: So I feel like maybe we should give it a

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Speaker 3: little bit more thought. I mean, you and I have

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Speaker 3: talked about what what adult? Why would adults be interested

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Speaker 3: in sports? And I think this kind of speaks to

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Speaker 3: that that you mentioned a few minutes ago. I'm thinking

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Speaker 3: like an analyst when I watch game rewine and if

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Speaker 3: I think Mark's probably read this book Zen in the

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Speaker 3: Art of motorcycle maintenance. He makes the point the analyst

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Speaker 3: something is always lost in art or experience when you

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Speaker 3: analyze it. Like Mark Twain, once he became a riverboat

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Speaker 3: pilot and learned the technical side of it, the Mississippi

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Speaker 3: River was no longer beautiful for him. And I think

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Speaker 3: that's part of being an analyst. In football, we kind

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Speaker 3: of lose track of what's important about sports. You know,

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Speaker 3: when you get old. You know, athletes naturally rage, rage

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Speaker 3: against the dye in the light. And I think Reggie

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Speaker 3: Wayne's doing that and we have to let him do that.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I just, I guess I just wanted to

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Speaker 3: get that off my you.

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Speaker 2: You feel badly for being negative to a guy it's

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Speaker 2: been a great player for a long time.

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Speaker 3: Well. I think if I was to hire a sports writer,

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Speaker 3: the first question I was going to ask him is

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Speaker 3: how do you reconcile the essential meaninglessness of sports?

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Speaker 2: Interview?

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Speaker 3: Because there is an answer. I mean, how do you

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Speaker 3: reconcile watching young men bang into each other and try

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Speaker 3: to advance and inflate a pig skin against mark territory?

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Speaker 3: I mean, that's what you're doing. How do you reconcile

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Speaker 3: the importance of that, and I think it's that at

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Speaker 3: its best, sports is look at what humans can do.

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Speaker 3: This is the best that we can do. It's like

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Speaker 3: Shakespeare's poems or Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. This is going above

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Speaker 3: and beyond. We're sending somebody out there, like you know,

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Speaker 3: we can't get to Mars, so we send the rover.

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Speaker 3: This is we're going above and beyond. And I think

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Speaker 3: we've seen examples like the best willis Reed Hobblin on Latunnel,

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Speaker 3: Kirk Gibson limping up to the plate against an unhittable

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Speaker 3: closer Michael Jordan in the flu game. When an athlete

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Speaker 3: is injured, and especially towards the end of his career

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Speaker 3: like Reggie Wayne Is. Look, older players can still get

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Speaker 3: it done. It's just that those those plateaus are fewer

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Speaker 3: and far between. And I think there's something to be

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Speaker 3: said for an older player trying to do that. There

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Speaker 3: could still be something left, There could still be some

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Speaker 3: light in reggi.

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Speaker 2: Waying look at what humans can do.

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Speaker 1: The crazy thing to me there is is that just

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Speaker 1: in the middle of a Tuesday show off the Dome,

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Speaker 1: a lot of it, I mean out of nowhere, and

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Speaker 1: you know, It makes me emotional hearing him get to that,

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Speaker 1: look what humans can do, because I think, like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: Chris Wesseling podcasting, look at what humans can do?

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Speaker 2: And it's such.

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Speaker 1: A unique relationship I think between really regular listeners of

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Speaker 1: a podcast, in a podcast like around the NFL, that

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Speaker 1: that you get to know the hosts. And the crazy

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Speaker 1: thing was like Wes was born to do that. Now

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Speaker 1: he was even better in life. A rack on tour

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Speaker 1: would be another way that I would use it. And

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Speaker 1: so many of my best memories with Chris and Keisha

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Speaker 1: are just sitting around the fire outside their house and

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Speaker 1: just talking late into the night about whatever. And sometimes

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Speaker 1: it'll be like ridiculous talking and sometimes it'll be that,

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Speaker 1: but it was brilliant and it was open hearted. And

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Speaker 1: when he says like, look at what humans can do,

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Speaker 1: like look at what how humans can be, I think

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Speaker 1: good and bad.

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Speaker 2: Like Wes.

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Speaker 1: Always showed sort of a full breadth of like, look

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Speaker 1: at what humans could be.

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Speaker 2: They can contain a lot.

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Speaker 1: And it's so crazy to me that that's just dropped

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Speaker 1: in the middle of a random episode and I swear

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Speaker 1: twenty seconds later we just immediately go into Jimmy Jay

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Speaker 1: Cutler getting benched for Jimmy Clawsan, and it was just like, oh.

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Speaker 2: Greg's got to go handle the news.

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Speaker 1: Let's get into Jay Cutler getting bench by Jimmy Clausid.

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Speaker 2: And meanwhile, I'm thinking, look.

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Speaker 1: Listen to this back all these years later, No bros

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Speaker 1: like stop. He barely got any popper response from that

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Speaker 1: a little bit. I give TD a lot of credit

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Speaker 1: because we did move on a little bit thirty seconds later,

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Speaker 1: and then we did kind of mentioned like, oh and

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Speaker 1: he was just like Wes was on fire there. That

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Speaker 1: was awesome. And I guess it's a reminder just Buck,

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Speaker 1: when you have those sort of moments, when you have

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Speaker 1: those sort of people in your life, just stop and

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Speaker 1: recognize it in those moments and appreciate it. And look,

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Speaker 1: I'm thinking about Chris today, and we think about Chris

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Speaker 1: all the time here in the Chris Westling podcast studio,

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Speaker 1: and you know, I'm just thinking about everyone that's out

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Speaker 1: there too, and so I love all y'all that that

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Speaker 1: are still listening, and I know so many of you

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Speaker 1: have such love for Chris and everyone who is listening

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Speaker 1: out there today. Yeah, think about him a little bit

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Speaker 1: that that means a lot to me. And Keisha and

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Speaker 1: everyone that that's so close to Wes over the years.

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Speaker 2: Hell, look what humans can do