Speaker 1: My name is Dan Jansas joined and we're billed with
Speaker 1: heroes Mark Sessler, Chris Westling, Greg Rose, Doll with the
Speaker 1: pocket square. What is up? Boys? Hey Dan? Hey Dan?
Speaker 1: Hey Dan Hey Dan? It is the game of both
Speaker 1: skill and valor, also known as w is tooster in
Speaker 1: a big spot and ate in three team on a
Speaker 1: six game when it chaake look up to the live
Speaker 1: show success, the meet up even more of a success.
Speaker 1: You guys have sat behind me or sat beside me
Speaker 1: for seven shows. You sat beside me for a growing
Speaker 1: battle with cancer. Will you stand beside me on the
Speaker 1: most important wine is blue? Because we're having a baby bar.
Speaker 1: Something is always lost in art or experience when you
Speaker 1: analyze it. Mark Twain once he became a riverboat pilot
Speaker 1: and learned the technical side of it. The Mississippi River
Speaker 1: was no longer beautiful for him. If I was to
Speaker 1: hire a sportswriter, the first question I was gonna ask
Speaker 1: him is how do you reconcile the essential meaninglessness of sports?
Speaker 1: I mean, how do you reconcile watching young men bang
Speaker 1: into each other and try to advance and inflate a
Speaker 1: pigskin against Mark territory? I mean that's what you're doing.
Speaker 1: How do you reconcile the importance of that? And I
Speaker 1: think it's like Shakespeare's poems or Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. This
Speaker 1: is going above and beyond. At its best, Sports is
Speaker 1: look at what humans can do. Welcome to another edition
Speaker 1: of the Around the NFL Podcast, an edition of the
Speaker 1: Around the NFL podcast unlike any other, and um sad
Speaker 1: edition of the show. My name is Dan Hansas. Come
Speaker 1: to you from a virtual room filled with some heroes,
Speaker 1: and there always will be it always will be only
Speaker 1: some heroes, Um sadly, Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal, What is up? Boys?
Speaker 1: M hm so yes, of course the news and everybody knows.
Speaker 1: And but Chris the Mailman Westling West whatever you called him, um,
Speaker 1: passed away this weekend, two weeks shy of his forty
Speaker 1: seven birthday. One of our closest friends and a great
Speaker 1: husband to Lakisha and an excellent father to link Um.
Speaker 1: However brief it was, uh And yes, the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: just wrapped up with the Bucks lane a whip in
Speaker 1: on the Chiefs, and I think West would have enjoyed
Speaker 1: breaking down this game in the performance by Tampa Bay.
Speaker 1: And we wish he was with us, UM, but instead
Speaker 1: that the show is about West, It's not about the game. Uh.
Speaker 1: And that's how it should be. Boys. Yeah. I mean
Speaker 1: when when West was talking, UM, you know about the
Speaker 1: meaningless of noss of sports and why you would why
Speaker 1: you would cover it in that UM basically it's like art,
Speaker 1: you know. I think that's how he saw it. UM,
Speaker 1: that you're appreciating someone doing it like at the highest level,
Speaker 1: UM possible. Look at what humans can do. And I
Speaker 1: think listening you know to West say that, UM, it
Speaker 1: just got me thinking of like, look at what he
Speaker 1: can do, you know, look at what look at what
Speaker 1: humans can do. When he when he wrote UM, when
Speaker 1: he was on this podcast where I think he felt
Speaker 1: like totally himself, totally comfortable from like from day one,
Speaker 1: and was just awesome at it. Uh and probably more
Speaker 1: than anything, like when he was just spinning yards with us,
Speaker 1: you know, UM at the bar or at work or wherever,
Speaker 1: like he collected characters. I think that you know, we'll
Speaker 1: talk about, I'm sure. But the outpouring I think, especially
Speaker 1: from the people that knew him, UM is so profound
Speaker 1: just because of because of that, because you connected with him,
Speaker 1: because He connected with so many people because because of
Speaker 1: because of what he could do. Yeah, we were asked
Speaker 1: on Sky Sports if we were surprised by the outpouring,
Speaker 1: and Dan answered the question, and I I like what
Speaker 1: Dan said that to some degree we were not um
Speaker 1: because this has been a really long journey. And I
Speaker 1: view West as someone who as we watch football grow, um,
Speaker 1: not only in the States, but especially you know beyond
Speaker 1: throughout Europe, that West is a big part of that.
Speaker 1: When they write that story, um, he is someone that
Speaker 1: would go out of his way. I cannot tell you
Speaker 1: how many people reached out to us and and d
Speaker 1: m s this week saying, oh, you know, I've actually
Speaker 1: been writing back and forth with West for five years
Speaker 1: and it's like a listener from the deep beyond. And
Speaker 1: he he loved engaging with football, and he wasn't a
Speaker 1: you know, you couldn't put West into a box. And
Speaker 1: I'll say quickly blocking them to blocking them to there,
Speaker 1: that's true. You had to play by a certain um
Speaker 1: set of rules with West. I'm not sure I've ever
Speaker 1: met anyone that that blocked more people, um, but I
Speaker 1: would imagine with good with good reason. He didn't suffer
Speaker 1: fools uh for long UM. But when West first showed
Speaker 1: up at NFL, UM we had a former UM manager
Speaker 1: of ours. He kind of at the Super Bowl told
Speaker 1: me Justin Hathaway, who who hired Dan, and I, you
Speaker 1: better watch out because this West character, UM has been
Speaker 1: writing all week while you've guys been at the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: And it's some of the best material I've ever read
Speaker 1: on NFL dot com. And I know he's you know,
Speaker 1: he was sort of saying, you've made a wonderful higher. UM.
Speaker 1: This person is someone special when it comes to writing football.
Speaker 1: And I was pretty knew at writing football back then myself,
Speaker 1: and I would spend a lot of time reading what
Speaker 1: West wrote, UM, if we covered something similar, how he
Speaker 1: covered it versus how I did, and like the lead,
Speaker 1: the readers learned so much about football from West. But
Speaker 1: I would credit West as UM, you have these people
Speaker 1: in your life that when I started to read his
Speaker 1: writing and his analysis, that it changed the way that
Speaker 1: I thought about covering football, UM and always will you
Speaker 1: know and that and it was so well done that
Speaker 1: that the clip we played at the very top of
Speaker 1: the show, Matt Sick is UM who works for an
Speaker 1: editing team. UM. Just one of the many people at
Speaker 1: the at the company he put it together. He did
Speaker 1: such a great job with it, and UM, one of
Speaker 1: the people that the reason he was able to do
Speaker 1: that was because he knew Wes and he knew UM.
Speaker 1: The bond he had with us and with Ricky Hollywood. UM,
Speaker 1: and that was kind of just West in a nutshell,
Speaker 1: how everyone got on with him. And I was thinking,
Speaker 1: how like I in my whole life, UM, I was
Speaker 1: never was friends with someone as long as I was
Speaker 1: friends with West, and I met him in two thousand
Speaker 1: and now here we are in two thousand twenty one.
Speaker 1: I never got into a fight with West once. I
Speaker 1: never like we maybe would argue on the air and
Speaker 1: the podcast, but me and him never had a single
Speaker 1: like moment where we were crossed in like in each
Speaker 1: other's faces or ever. You know, we just got on
Speaker 1: so well because he did he got on well with everyone.
Speaker 1: And Mark and I were talking about this UM the
Speaker 1: night that he passed away over a few drinks, which
Speaker 1: I know West approved of. UM. That all three of
Speaker 1: us connected with West but in unique ways, which really
Speaker 1: speaks to Chris in terms of, you know, really he's
Speaker 1: such an eclectic personality and he was had so many layers,
Speaker 1: and like I, I connected with West as someone who
Speaker 1: grew up and m had not maybe a direct family
Speaker 1: that was large, but I had an extended family that
Speaker 1: I essentially grew up with tons of cousins and a
Speaker 1: lot of them boys, and was raised Catholic and grew
Speaker 1: up just in love with sports. And uh, I love
Speaker 1: stupid things like whiffleball and like West cornhole, which he
Speaker 1: introduced to us. And I know you guys have um
Speaker 1: reasons why you kind of felt close to him and
Speaker 1: and what what he said? How do you reconcile the
Speaker 1: essential meaninglessness of sports? And he he hit on something
Speaker 1: which was typically brilliant with Chris, which was this idea
Speaker 1: that you could see the human form achieving um at
Speaker 1: its peak physically. But it's sports to me. And the
Speaker 1: reason why I love sports, um is because it's more
Speaker 1: to me also than that. It's also how it brings
Speaker 1: people together. And um, you know, um, that's sports and
Speaker 1: the NFL's what brought us together. It's it's what brought West.
Speaker 1: Was on a message board, Greg, when you were, um
Speaker 1: a football writer once upon a time working in the
Speaker 1: fantasy realm and you and you saw this guy that
Speaker 1: was just writing brilliant long screeds about fantasy sports, and
Speaker 1: you smartly hired him, and then we're smart enough to
Speaker 1: bring him over here and it just changed all of
Speaker 1: our lives. Yeah, it's so well said, um, because you know,
Speaker 1: my my start to the relationship with West is Yes,
Speaker 1: reading this this blog post on his old site, Sons
Speaker 1: of the Tundra, a dynasty football blog, he had like
Speaker 1: a ten Yeah, it's a great site. He had a
Speaker 1: ten thousand word post um that I saw in the
Speaker 1: off season that was like I could have just dropped
Speaker 1: it and it would have replaced the first thirty pages
Speaker 1: of our preview in magazine and it would have like
Speaker 1: proved it. I was like, who is this guy? I
Speaker 1: need to Uh, I need to get this guy. But
Speaker 1: part of part of I think feel like the basis
Speaker 1: of our our friendship to start two was arguing and um,
Speaker 1: and that's what arguing about football, and it was never personal.
Speaker 1: We the two of us were never one to back down. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, Lakisha loves to say he's the most stubborn
Speaker 1: guy she's ever you know, met in his life. Um,
Speaker 1: And I think he got that from his brothers. You
Speaker 1: know we you mentioned having a drink. We we uh,
Speaker 1: we were sitting with Phil Um then Chris's brother who
Speaker 1: was here this week, and Um and then and they
Speaker 1: were they were like that relationship too, you know, a
Speaker 1: millionth degree because there was seven of them and Um
Speaker 1: and West. You know, West was the one who you know,
Speaker 1: he's the second oldest one. I think a lot of them,
Speaker 1: you know, really looked up to him. And that just
Speaker 1: that just came from from him. But it wasn't It
Speaker 1: wasn't just that you you said it so well and
Speaker 1: even just how you said it. The end made me
Speaker 1: think of how he collected characters around him, like so
Speaker 1: many different types of people, and I connected with them
Speaker 1: about about literature and talking about the you know, the
Speaker 1: meaning of life and everything um about life. And when
Speaker 1: I went down to Tybee, like and you guys saw that,
Speaker 1: we all saw that at the wedding to just like
Speaker 1: he could bring so many different types of people together.
Speaker 1: That's all he wanted was to be surrounded by characters.
Speaker 1: He didn't care what type of personality you were. He
Speaker 1: just like wanted you to be like a unique person
Speaker 1: and if you were, then you could ride with West
Speaker 1: and you were going to love him. Oh I love
Speaker 1: I love what you both said, and I part of
Speaker 1: me wishes we could have you know, said these things
Speaker 1: like another time. But um, I just I think my my,
Speaker 1: like my relationship with Wes wasn't really about football that much.
Speaker 1: And I think that's such just so unique that you know,
Speaker 1: we each covered such different territory with him, and I
Speaker 1: grew up loving boards as much as anything else, um,
Speaker 1: but not as much as not as much as Wes.
Speaker 1: I know that, um. But West and I like for
Speaker 1: the other eight eight percent of our relationship, I think
Speaker 1: that it when he showed up to to Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: I had been writing to him, um, because he had
Speaker 1: been remote for a while, and we we I just
Speaker 1: started to realize I was fascinated a bit, but fascinated
Speaker 1: by this person. And I would send him like, um, hey, West,
Speaker 1: like here's my top fifteen, like l a dive bars,
Speaker 1: so when you get here, like we're going to try
Speaker 1: these places out and stuff. And he didn't. He you know,
Speaker 1: he I think he was struggling with with who he
Speaker 1: was and where he was when he came to Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: and I think the other phases of his time here
Speaker 1: where my friendship with him was de emphasized a little bit,
Speaker 1: and obviously other plate people played a larger role. But
Speaker 1: I think early on, UM just something inside of me
Speaker 1: wanted to look out for West, and UM my thing
Speaker 1: with West, I think a little bit rom reminded me
Speaker 1: of some of my other guy friends growing up. Um
Speaker 1: was misadventures and pranks. And I like, I was up
Speaker 1: all night last night, Like I'm sure we all were,
Speaker 1: just um trying to get down to the nuance of
Speaker 1: what my friendship with West was about. And I'm not
Speaker 1: even an eighth of the way through figuring that out.
Speaker 1: But what kept coming to me where these moments were like,
Speaker 1: and Dan, you were there for some of this too,
Speaker 1: But I just like West, when you get them going,
Speaker 1: you'd wind them up off a few beers or something.
Speaker 1: I just don't think that there are He'll He'll be
Speaker 1: a top one or two or three friend in that
Speaker 1: way for the rest of my life. And you know,
Speaker 1: you'd be ten minutes in. I'd say to West, like, West,
Speaker 1: how much will you pay me to pick up this
Speaker 1: chair and launch it across this room? And He'd say, um,
Speaker 1: twelve bucks. So I was like, not enough. And then
Speaker 1: we we I mentioned this on Sky that there were
Speaker 1: just all these little instances. I remember a time when
Speaker 1: we were out with Colleen Wolfe and Gonzo and and
Speaker 1: we were upstairs at something the second floor of some
Speaker 1: um pub, and there were these tables of older women.
Speaker 1: I don't know what they were doing there, but they
Speaker 1: were essentially sort of blue hairs, and um, we would
Speaker 1: just test each other to go do little things, and
Speaker 1: we would walk up to these these table of women
Speaker 1: and like sit down very seriously. I'd say we're we're
Speaker 1: reporters from NFL dot com and West would say we're
Speaker 1: real reporters, were scribes, and we would just ask, you know,
Speaker 1: do it. I would like to know, do you think
Speaker 1: that uh, you know, Iron Eagle is underrated as a
Speaker 1: play by play man. This is a hot topic. And
Speaker 1: we're going around the whole bar and like it's just
Speaker 1: like the the the that's you know, one little example
Speaker 1: that West and I would do these things. We read
Speaker 1: an airport once. Um what some people would call an incident.
Speaker 1: I would call it an uh an adventure to some degree.
Speaker 1: But we were rolling around asking people like how furious
Speaker 1: they were with fake microphones in front of our hands,
Speaker 1: like that the that the ravens had been pulled from
Speaker 1: the belly of the Browns. And you know, these gentlemen
Speaker 1: to be like, didn't that happen like twenty two years ago.
Speaker 1: We're like, yes, but we need your thoughts, and like
Speaker 1: you know, by the time that that night ended, West
Speaker 1: and I had um counted other incidents. But I I
Speaker 1: love I just loved being able to chat and talk
Speaker 1: with him, his verb his verbal skills. Um. That's something
Speaker 1: that always, like I find I value in a end
Speaker 1: and we've seen how much how valuable he was on
Speaker 1: that front. And this is one little um spoonful off
Speaker 1: an Iceberg. So I thank you and Mark you and
Speaker 1: Dan rather um for going out all those nights early on.
Speaker 1: I remember I met my wife, but I met him
Speaker 1: at this bar, like but I think the first day
Speaker 1: he was here. We both moved out here at the
Speaker 1: same time. I had worked for the NFL a little
Speaker 1: longer than West, about nine months longer before we hired,
Speaker 1: but we moved here at the exact same time, and
Speaker 1: I went out with I went out with him to
Speaker 1: a bar like the first night, and maybe did it
Speaker 1: the third or fourth night. And I was thinking, like, well,
Speaker 1: this isn't me. You know, I'm I'm not that guy really,
Speaker 1: and I've got a I've got a young, young kid,
Speaker 1: and UM, he's gonna need someone because you're right, I was.
Speaker 1: I was going to do everything I could to make
Speaker 1: um the work part of it UM payoff because he
Speaker 1: took a chance. He really debated whether to come here
Speaker 1: or not. He had he had just gotten promoted a
Speaker 1: road to world. He was moving across the country from
Speaker 1: Tybee Island. I was gonna do everything I could to
Speaker 1: make the work part of it good. But it's like
Speaker 1: I needed y'all. I needed you guys to be out
Speaker 1: with him that or else. I don't know. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you would have stayed well. It wasn't a
Speaker 1: hard shore Phil. His brother Phil told the story that
Speaker 1: I was not aware of that. UM. I believe it
Speaker 1: was Phil's daughter UM, And apologies to feel if I
Speaker 1: have the story slightly off. But was asked to do
Speaker 1: a book report on someone who took a chance in life,
Speaker 1: and she was like, oh, I want to do it
Speaker 1: on Uncle West, who had a perfectly comfortable life on
Speaker 1: Tybee Island. He grew up on the West side of Cincinnati. Um.
Speaker 1: He was a space alien for leaving the West side
Speaker 1: of Cincinnati, because, as he told us many times, no
Speaker 1: one really left the West side of Cincinnati. And he
Speaker 1: followed a friend of his that so many funny, strange
Speaker 1: West stories, but a friend from Ohio who moved to
Speaker 1: Tybee Island off the coast of Georgia and then became
Speaker 1: the mayor of Typee Island. He moves there on that
Speaker 1: guy's recommendation and then settles into this island life um
Speaker 1: or as Dave Damage was Dave Damage, I could say,
Speaker 1: Tabby Ahland and um, and then you know, made fast
Speaker 1: friends with everyone, um as Chris does, and built this
Speaker 1: whole life. And he was so he was the mayor,
Speaker 1: although shout out to Jason Buellerman, I believe, who also
Speaker 1: officiated his wedding. Right, let's not let's remember Buellerman was
Speaker 1: the mayor. But what West was everyone's best friend. But
Speaker 1: West was so you know, such a gifted writer, he
Speaker 1: was so talented that, um, he could have just stayed
Speaker 1: on that island. Um, got drunk with his friends, played softball,
Speaker 1: met someone, eventually got married and and and he nearly
Speaker 1: did that on that island as well, and then been
Speaker 1: an online football writer and had he carved out a
Speaker 1: nice life, but he did take that. He took that chance,
Speaker 1: and um, I like to say it paid off for
Speaker 1: him beautifully. In fact, we know because Lakisha, he doesn't
Speaker 1: meet Lakisha an NFL network, and if he doesn't meet Lakisha, UM,
Speaker 1: I don't think he would have survived cancer the first time.
Speaker 1: That's how special a woman she is. And then there
Speaker 1: would be no link. But it was touch and go
Speaker 1: West in l A initially, and you said, Greg, you
Speaker 1: you tried and that was not your forte going to bars.
Speaker 1: Mark and I definitely more up our alley and we
Speaker 1: both went out with West a lot because we knew
Speaker 1: we could tell immediately West was a good guy and
Speaker 1: um a great football writer and a great addition to
Speaker 1: the team, but like a really good guy like we
Speaker 1: wanted it to meet. We wanted it to work, um,
Speaker 1: but it was. It was tough because he was, yes,
Speaker 1: the most stubborn person I've ever known as well, UM,
Speaker 1: which could be a blessing and accurse sometimes, but he's
Speaker 1: His initial thought was I hated here, this isn't me.
Speaker 1: And I remember Mark us going out a lot with him.
Speaker 1: One one day, Emily, my wife, and I went to
Speaker 1: West's and I remember we all sat in the jacuzzi
Speaker 1: together and we threw corn together and listened to like Springsteen,
Speaker 1: and it was just like you just wanted him to
Speaker 1: get like in the flow of like this could work.
Speaker 1: I remember Mark, you and I with Emily and West
Speaker 1: sitting outside the city Tavern and Culver City and signing
Speaker 1: him up for Plenty of Fish, the dating site, which
Speaker 1: was that took a lot of a lot of convincing
Speaker 1: because he thought, oh, that's dating sites are for losers,
Speaker 1: Like no, Wes, this is I think we were out
Speaker 1: of the loop. But I think this is how it works.
Speaker 1: This is how people meet and date and have fun.
Speaker 1: Because you just wanted him to get his hooks into
Speaker 1: the city, and he did. He started dating a lot,
Speaker 1: and you could tell he started to get more comfortable.
Speaker 1: And then when he met Lakisha, who we had already known.
Speaker 1: Um that that's what changed everything. Once Lakisha and West
Speaker 1: got together, Um, there never again was there like I
Speaker 1: don't like it here, this doesn't work. Now. He had
Speaker 1: grievances with l A to the very end, but that's
Speaker 1: when you're like, Okay, he's not going anywhere, and that
Speaker 1: was a beautiful thing. He never did get that car
Speaker 1: back that he just like last lost the car. He
Speaker 1: lost the car. He just went to the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: down a note to that he got gotten some sort
Speaker 1: of like a minor incident or accident and just gave
Speaker 1: the car to the other party. Didn't he just give
Speaker 1: He gave the car away to the people that he
Speaker 1: got in the accident with. That's that's he just for debate.
Speaker 1: I I've tried to I even reached out to Lukisha
Speaker 1: at some point about two years ago. He was like, Lukisha,
Speaker 1: do you want me to like do some like works
Speaker 1: if I can find out where this car was? And
Speaker 1: I think it was just eventually auctioned off by the city.
Speaker 1: I mean I think it was. Also it was a
Speaker 1: car that was worth about three hundred and seventy five
Speaker 1: but it was now he got the one you're talking about.
Speaker 1: He got it shipped from Tybee shout out to the
Speaker 1: NFL actually gave us our moving expenses and so he
Speaker 1: had about a five hundred dollar car. You're talking about
Speaker 1: Big Irish, probably probably at the events of like uh,
Speaker 1: probably at the expense of far more value than I'm
Speaker 1: conflating stories because West lost two cars, but anyway, mark
Speaker 1: your turn. Well, no, I was just gonna say that
Speaker 1: I think that something else that happened to West along
Speaker 1: the way was you know, I remember talking to him
Speaker 1: that we would even go out in l A to
Speaker 1: various places and needs like this isn't huck a Poos,
Speaker 1: This isn't hucka Poos, like none of these places. They
Speaker 1: just couldn't find that home, I think, And and that's
Speaker 1: because I don't think l A really offers that um
Speaker 1: in establishments the same way that we having been to
Speaker 1: hucka Poos it does. But he went and created it
Speaker 1: on his own. And like we started to watch West
Speaker 1: grow with his Westlemania parties, which started, as you know,
Speaker 1: for ten or eleven or twelve people because the circle
Speaker 1: was smaller, but it started to grow and grow. And
Speaker 1: I remember at one point, I don't know what compelled
Speaker 1: me to do this, but I walked from NFL Network
Speaker 1: to Marina del rey Um to attend a Westlemania. I
Speaker 1: think I had sort of a heat stroke by the
Speaker 1: time I got there on some level, and remember punching
Speaker 1: our friend Jason Zumwald in the stomach and various other people.
Speaker 1: But um, these parties were these were absolutely epic events.
Speaker 1: And you know what it was. It was West cooking.
Speaker 1: It was West Um with his endless amazing playlists. And
Speaker 1: I think that the table started to turn because he
Speaker 1: just created the home that wasn't there for him automatically
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. And on the Lakisha front, first, I'll
Speaker 1: never forget. I think we were out to lunch, Dan,
Speaker 1: you and I with Henry Um, and you had told
Speaker 1: me that Western Lakisha were I mean, for lack of
Speaker 1: a better term, interested in each other, and um, my
Speaker 1: cupid skills are are are sucky? Because I thought to myself, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure about this. I I like, I love
Speaker 1: because I love these two so much. Um if this
Speaker 1: ever went south, what would it do to our friend group? Um?
Speaker 1: And I so I would just it was on It
Speaker 1: was on my radar, as you'd say, I was monitoring it,
Speaker 1: and then I suddenly became very pleased with what I saw.
Speaker 1: I think the softball team helped all that, and you
Speaker 1: can get into that. But um, their love and their
Speaker 1: relationship and and they're pairing to me is incredible because
Speaker 1: Lakisha's number one superpowers or positivity, and she walked right
Speaker 1: into a situation that got so gnarly. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think you're right without her and who she is inside,
Speaker 1: I don't think West would have gotten to the point
Speaker 1: where we watched him get married to her in Tybee Islands.
Speaker 1: She he always he always likes to tell me, I
Speaker 1: was there for the first time you saw him a fire,
Speaker 1: which was in our break room in our at work,
Speaker 1: and we're just like, I don't know, getting coffee or
Speaker 1: water or whatever. And she walks in on her first
Speaker 1: day of work or an interview, I don't remember which,
Speaker 1: and she was wearing a pretty short skirt and he
Speaker 1: just kind of like looks at me and just like
Speaker 1: a nice hire, you know, and pretty much pretty much
Speaker 1: pretty much from then on, Um, you said, you say
Speaker 1: it well, and I think it's it's one thing I
Speaker 1: this week has obviously been brutal and the best that
Speaker 1: that I think I felt. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: guys feel the same as like when when we're talking
Speaker 1: to each other and when we've we're talking about West,
Speaker 1: um and um, you know, at other times it crashes
Speaker 1: and you realize he's not there. But one of the
Speaker 1: things that that really UM has helped me just think
Speaker 1: about him, is that since since the first cancer battle, UM,
Speaker 1: no one has appreciated every day. He had more that
Speaker 1: I've ever met than West. He He already was like that.
Speaker 1: He was a deep guy. He was even before before cancer.
Speaker 1: We would talk talk about that. He had this saying
Speaker 1: he'd the call which was really just kind of follow
Speaker 1: your heart, don't worry about anything else but that. And UM,
Speaker 1: I think especially after what he went through, UM, and
Speaker 1: also just aware of what a beautiful, you know, amazing
Speaker 1: wife he had and what we had as a podcast.
Speaker 1: It was a huge, huge part of his life. UM,
Speaker 1: he did appreciate it. He appreciated every day. He appreciated
Speaker 1: the moments like that the summer they had before they
Speaker 1: got married, where they went all around the country, saw
Speaker 1: all the people that they loved, went to Tybee Island,
Speaker 1: had a big throw down. UM there that you know,
Speaker 1: the the wedding and last summer too. Man like no
Speaker 1: one you know, Damna Scheck says it. You know that
Speaker 1: cheating life. I mean, he felt like he was cheating life.
Speaker 1: He felt like he was one of the luckiest guys
Speaker 1: in the world. I would also quickly say, I don't
Speaker 1: think the four of us have ever looked hotter as
Speaker 1: a group than we did at West's wedding. I looked
Speaker 1: the picture. Those pictures are good. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: I don't remember going on like a weight loss plan
Speaker 1: during that period. But I was like, I wish I
Speaker 1: didn't have the beard. In hindsight, I wish I didn't
Speaker 1: have the beard. But his job by the photographer, I thought,
Speaker 1: ultimately it's possibly true. Now the transformation of West to
Speaker 1: from you know, from physically to everything else, from when
Speaker 1: we started with him to the way he dressed and
Speaker 1: the way he looked once the keisha was in was
Speaker 1: always staggering to me. Um, he just went on a
Speaker 1: journey and in his um seven or so years here
Speaker 1: and you know, it's like, you know, circling back to
Speaker 1: how he's just connected with so many people. And this
Speaker 1: has been, you know, a terrible week. I mean it's
Speaker 1: been and we could you know, open the Kimono. West
Speaker 1: was very fond of taking down at the talent summits,
Speaker 1: the corporate jargon that came out. Open the Kimono one
Speaker 1: of our favorites. And Um, he was very fond of
Speaker 1: um our show and doing our show, and even when
Speaker 1: he got sick, he wanted to keep doing the show,
Speaker 1: and we we knew things were going uh sideways. Um.
Speaker 1: Really as the summer I went into the football season
Speaker 1: and Mark and I had many painful like back and
Speaker 1: forth um where we just had this terrible feeling because
Speaker 1: it just we we lived it. We lived through the
Speaker 1: first nightmare of West having cancer, and it always felt
Speaker 1: like there was this clear path um, as difficult as
Speaker 1: it was for him, that he was going to get
Speaker 1: this treatment and then he's gonna have the surgery and
Speaker 1: then he had to go into recovery and then the
Speaker 1: doctors were giving a clear um directive of what he
Speaker 1: needed to do and he beat it and it was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this time it wasn't that way. And you know when
Speaker 1: he started not being able to do the show, Um,
Speaker 1: I know is if the listeners out there, you you
Speaker 1: could probably put together that things were getting dicey. And
Speaker 1: then when he was able to do those Sunday night
Speaker 1: shows this year, I mean that was one of my
Speaker 1: favorite West stories. Um. That connects to this is the
Speaker 1: we played softball together for three seasons and I don't
Speaker 1: know if I could ever play softball again, be honest,
Speaker 1: because me and West loved playing together so much, and
Speaker 1: he was Mike don Zimmer my Consigliari the Shield, and
Speaker 1: we went to the title game three times in a row.
Speaker 1: We won the first two years. First year was two
Speaker 1: thousand sixteen. He gets sick in two thousand seventeen. Uh
Speaker 1: and in the two thousand eighteen season he comes back
Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen, UM season, he's playing softball of this
Speaker 1: while he's undergoing chemo, and it's like, what is this
Speaker 1: guy doing? And then when it's just like this level
Speaker 1: and well yeah, and playing well but not feeling himself
Speaker 1: and you know, having to lay down and drink a lot.
Speaker 1: And in the final game when everything was on the
Speaker 1: line and he was third, he was the third baseman.
Speaker 1: Every week, I played first, Tony Garcia at shortstop, Nicolephelia
Speaker 1: at second, Brook pitching, Lakisha, and our friend Brassie catching.
Speaker 1: That was the infield. And West pulls himself out of
Speaker 1: the game for the finals and says, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm not, I'm gonna I'm gonna coach. I can use
Speaker 1: my powers better positioning people on the field and and
Speaker 1: watching the game and I'm like, this guy is so
Speaker 1: different even when you're doing softball and like, but also
Speaker 1: like the toughest of playing while having cancer. The fact
Speaker 1: that he was getting um hanging on every Sunday like
Speaker 1: and he was always tired. West, he struggled to sleep
Speaker 1: because he was in a lot of pain and discomfort
Speaker 1: uh during this final illness. But the fact that he
Speaker 1: would always stay up and do for most of the
Speaker 1: regular season, almost the whole show before Nick Shook would
Speaker 1: help out at the end, and then in the in
Speaker 1: the final playoffs and everybody you could hear his voice.
Speaker 1: I know you guys listening could hear that he was
Speaker 1: really struggling and in trouble, but he still wanted to
Speaker 1: be a part of it. And he was on the
Speaker 1: divisional round playoff recap with us and I. The last
Speaker 1: text that I ever had with him was after that,
Speaker 1: after that show and I texted him that was great, West,
Speaker 1: it was great to have you on and he wrote,
Speaker 1: thank you. That means a lot. Can't wait until I
Speaker 1: can do a full one. He never he never quit,
Speaker 1: He never gave up like that was two weeks before
Speaker 1: he died. Um. He was the toughest, bravest, guy, I know,
Speaker 1: and that's stubbornness that sometimes would drive you crazy. Is
Speaker 1: why he he made it as long as he did.
Speaker 1: It means a lot to me that one of um,
Speaker 1: you know, our final moments together, UM and I think
Speaker 1: really our finest, uh final kind of pure moment in
Speaker 1: the West sense, because that's what he was all about.
Speaker 1: He was just like searching for these pure moments in life,
Speaker 1: and a lot of them were at bars. Some of
Speaker 1: someone were just talking to his friends. UM could have
Speaker 1: been in sports. UM, I was talking about that Brown's
Speaker 1: game was the four of us, you know, and he
Speaker 1: knew he knew if he was gonna be on for
Speaker 1: one one game there that like we've been waiting um
Speaker 1: the whole the whole time we did the podcast to
Speaker 1: see a Brown's win, and he wanted to be be
Speaker 1: there for Mark and he wanted to be there with
Speaker 1: with Dan and I too. That the four of us
Speaker 1: could couldn't enjoy that as a podcast. It means a
Speaker 1: lot to me that that he did that, and he
Speaker 1: was really pushing himself to do that. It's it just
Speaker 1: seemed like um our respect collectively and individually for West
Speaker 1: would grow with each year, which is a great way
Speaker 1: to feel about someone. And um, it was even last
Speaker 1: night when uh, you know, I I'm not alone. We've
Speaker 1: been looking at little clips of West and people of
Speaker 1: our listeners are amazing and have found some incredible stuff.
Speaker 1: But I just was watching this random UM pod from
Speaker 1: I think it was like summer, and it was like
Speaker 1: list teams that are you know, not gonna fulfill their promise.
Speaker 1: And I went on this like rant about Rex Ryan's bills, UM,
Speaker 1: having no idea that I would later on hang out
Speaker 1: with Rex Ryan and he actually at some point, UM,
Speaker 1: while I was traveling with Rex Ryan went I can tell,
Speaker 1: went on the internet and looked for articles written by
Speaker 1: me about him, and there were a couple out there
Speaker 1: that were unfriendly. Let's put that's a whole different story.
Speaker 1: But um, but I'm watching this thing and it was
Speaker 1: you know, we'd look a lot younger for or five
Speaker 1: years ago, all of us, and like, um, I was,
Speaker 1: you know, it was a rather directionless rant about the
Speaker 1: bills UM. And then someone else spoke and then West
Speaker 1: just said I agree with Mark. And I was sitting
Speaker 1: there with Simone and I just got off up the
Speaker 1: couch and I started pumping my fist yeah. I was like,
Speaker 1: if West believes in me, if he believed in my football,
Speaker 1: take I am a shining diamond. That was like all
Speaker 1: I needed. Stop the tape. I'm out that. It wasn't
Speaker 1: always the case, but it meant a lot when he
Speaker 1: agreed with you, because like you would put the work
Speaker 1: in or you got lucky, but he agreed with you.
Speaker 1: And it means so much for me to be on
Speaker 1: the right side of things because West on football almost
Speaker 1: always was that. I mean, that was It's funny you
Speaker 1: should say that because that's something I wanted to talk about,
Speaker 1: which was West obviously. Um, what made this and what's
Speaker 1: made this podcast successful is the dynamic and the four
Speaker 1: of our personalities mixing together and you know, our strengths
Speaker 1: um and our weaknesses all you know, being offset the weaknesses,
Speaker 1: the strengths being amplified when everything is cooking. And I
Speaker 1: always the West was so vital to the dynamic and
Speaker 1: it's you know, as we look forward, and it's hard
Speaker 1: to look forward right now, but as you look forward,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know what our podcast is
Speaker 1: going forward with that West. I know we've we've done
Speaker 1: it before without West because he got sick and missed
Speaker 1: time the first time, and then we did this whole
Speaker 1: season mostly without him. But I don't none of us,
Speaker 1: we haven't sat down and talked about like what is
Speaker 1: our podcast going forward? Because West was so vital. He
Speaker 1: was his his football acumen was off the charts, and
Speaker 1: you know, in terms of um his knowledge of sports
Speaker 1: I think he's one of the true great sports fans ever.
Speaker 1: And I would put him up against I don't care anybody.
Speaker 1: You show me who the biggest sports van you know is,
Speaker 1: and I'll put him up against West. And the now
Speaker 1: of games that West watches across the spectrum, Pro College,
Speaker 1: whatever the tape he watched, the reading, he did, the
Speaker 1: instincts he had, he could see the game in a
Speaker 1: way that none of us could see it. And his
Speaker 1: he was so important to the show because he would
Speaker 1: push back against Greg and that was the scientists heat
Speaker 1: um with me when I was trying to make people laugh,
Speaker 1: I would always if I got West, I knew that
Speaker 1: I would get the audience. And West was such a
Speaker 1: great uh person for me to be able to play
Speaker 1: off and understand where the tone and the field of
Speaker 1: the show was. And Mark with you, and this is
Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever shared this with you, but
Speaker 1: it was something that I always noticed, the way where
Speaker 1: I sat um with Greg to my right and then
Speaker 1: West to my left, and then you on the far left.
Speaker 1: When you would make a football point, Mark, you would
Speaker 1: reflexively kind of turned toward West when you made it,
Speaker 1: because it was almost like you you were putting it
Speaker 1: out there for West and and will Wess agree with it.
Speaker 1: I want because you wanted that just like we all did,
Speaker 1: because you nailed it, like we all wanted West to
Speaker 1: agree with our football takes. But I always noticed you Mark.
Speaker 1: You aways looked to West when you were kind of
Speaker 1: putting yourself out there. I don't have the quality that
Speaker 1: Greg has to where he wanted to engage with West.
Speaker 1: I At one point I remember challenging West on his
Speaker 1: Bengal fandom, telling him that I'll never forget this, that
Speaker 1: maybe you should rethink this huge binder you put together
Speaker 1: about the Bengals because if you're loyal and this was,
Speaker 1: you know, the Browns were in like a deep apocalypse
Speaker 1: for year twenty eight in a row, and like, Um,
Speaker 1: I was like loyal, people stick with their team. And
Speaker 1: I don't remember Wes's response because it wasn't on the show,
Speaker 1: but he he uh destroyed me verbally for that. It
Speaker 1: doesn't being me, but he basically was just like, your
Speaker 1: opinion on that is completely wrong. And I was like,
Speaker 1: I learned that arguing with West was not my forte um,
Speaker 1: was not my strength. Um, And I probably did try
Speaker 1: to avoid that and create some sort of agreement because,
Speaker 1: like you said, I mean it meant a lot. I
Speaker 1: sure I looked at him all the time because if
Speaker 1: he's smiling, I had the same mine. You say something
Speaker 1: and he's smiles, he laughs. I've done anything anything I
Speaker 1: could possibly hope to do on a show. I mean
Speaker 1: that's why I like when Dan asked the other week, um,
Speaker 1: you know, whether what Belichick's opinion was or feelings watching
Speaker 1: Brady and West came down on my side. I mean
Speaker 1: that was a bigger fist pumping celebration that I had
Speaker 1: than any Patriots game all season. I was just like, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: West is the decider here. But then mad Dog Russo
Speaker 1: straighten you right out. Now, I'm taking taking West. I
Speaker 1: love to wind. I've you know, I just for fun.
Speaker 1: I don't take it too seriously with hardcore football takes.
Speaker 1: But I would go up against West and just have
Speaker 1: fun with it, even though if I knew it was
Speaker 1: a mismatch. The thing, real thing I love to do
Speaker 1: with West and the shows just wind him up, and
Speaker 1: that would be you know, whether it was him carrying
Speaker 1: the pail up and down the hill for the Patriots
Speaker 1: and all get him all fired up about the fleet
Speaker 1: gate that was so fun, or Eli and his being
Speaker 1: hall of Famer and West say, I think West's take,
Speaker 1: and it's sad that Well never get to see Um
Speaker 1: if this would have played out, I think he said
Speaker 1: he would never he would never either watch a Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame speech or go to the Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: if Eli got in. He felt so strong and that
Speaker 1: Eli was not was not a good quarterback, which was
Speaker 1: always a fun little back and forth. He was just such.
Speaker 1: He was such a great podcaster because he was um
Speaker 1: smart as a whip, articulate, um. He knew everything, he
Speaker 1: did the work, and he had a sense of humor.
Speaker 1: So he was kind of a total package guy. He was.
Speaker 1: He was the not so secret weapon of the show.
Speaker 1: I think about this. He was so stubborn that um
Speaker 1: he he ended up eating his own softball pants because
Speaker 1: he refused to back down off and take about the
Speaker 1: Raiders based on their general manager, who he disliked, a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of other stuff and softball pants. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: you're someone new to the show, I believe. Um it
Speaker 1: was he said he would eat his softball pants if
Speaker 1: Dennis Allen Raiders had a certain win total. I think
Speaker 1: we had a six or something it was. I think
Speaker 1: it was five or six, and and they easily. I
Speaker 1: think they might have gone eight and eight that year. Um.
Speaker 1: And so he was in trouble early. And uh that
Speaker 1: that is still my avatar on our our in company
Speaker 1: uh client messaging climbing client which we do not name,
Speaker 1: is West eating softball pants. So out of Dan's he was.
Speaker 1: So it was. It was a bit that we had
Speaker 1: built up for for weeks and weeks and uh, I
Speaker 1: remember calling West before we got on the plane to
Speaker 1: go to New York. It was the it was the
Speaker 1: Seahawks Broncos Super Bowl at Giant or MetLife Stadium. Said West,
Speaker 1: you gotta bring the pants. You gotta bring the pants.
Speaker 1: We need the softball pants to do the pants bit.
Speaker 1: Uh we didn't. He didn't bring the pants. I don't
Speaker 1: was it the Giant, Maybe it wasn't the New York
Speaker 1: New Jersey Want, I can't remember. But he didn't have
Speaker 1: the pants, and uh, we had to go out and
Speaker 1: I think he had to get the pants mailed. And
Speaker 1: then it just so happened. At the rate at radio
Speaker 1: there was a hot dog stand and there was a
Speaker 1: the world's biggest hot dog or something, and it was disgusting,
Speaker 1: and a chili and relish sour kraut and all this
Speaker 1: other stuff, guacamole, bacon. It was insane and it was
Speaker 1: about like two ft long. And we we cut up
Speaker 1: a portion of the pants and just sprinkled it on top.
Speaker 1: And West again a great podcaster. Um, he took a
Speaker 1: bite out of that hot dog. He ate some of
Speaker 1: his own softball pants. Because so strong was he in
Speaker 1: his opinion about that particular Meaningless Raiders team. He was
Speaker 1: willing to risk everything he was. It was something that
Speaker 1: some of the someone tweeted about that I thought was right.
Speaker 1: Was just he was. He was real. He was like
Speaker 1: the realist of the real. He was always West Um.
Speaker 1: And so I think that podcast is the perfect form
Speaker 1: for him, um, because he could never be anything but West,
Speaker 1: which was stubborn everything, but also incredibly generous, you know.
Speaker 1: And and just like he was never he didn't have
Speaker 1: a fake bone in his body. There was zero bullet
Speaker 1: with Chris Wesley. A little anecdote that UM, Ryan Bartlett
Speaker 1: from our podcast crew mentioned that I just thought was
Speaker 1: so West and it kind of shows you that he
Speaker 1: did not care about how he was supposed to appear
Speaker 1: or be dressed. Um that they got into this deep
Speaker 1: conversation about limousines, and you know, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: things that happened in limousines. But West told a story
Speaker 1: of UM going on a pub crawl when he was
Speaker 1: a mailman. Um in a limo. He walked into a limo,
Speaker 1: went from from pub to pub and his mailman outfit.
Speaker 1: Like it's a completely beguiling visual. Um. But it's like,
Speaker 1: of course West did that. You know, he's not going
Speaker 1: to change into something else. I love it, you know,
Speaker 1: is he you know, That's how he started his and
Speaker 1: that's how he of course got the nickname Mailman. His
Speaker 1: father I believe was a mailman, right, yes he was.
Speaker 1: And again like and this is one of the things
Speaker 1: I related to I know, you know, we both kind
Speaker 1: of I know he's on the west side of Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: But it was like a small town, UM, just like
Speaker 1: I grew up in and and the idea of UM
Speaker 1: leaving town or or doing something well outside the box
Speaker 1: wasn't something that that immediately, UM a young Chris Westling
Speaker 1: thought about. So he went from high school and he did,
Speaker 1: he did some college, and then I was working, as
Speaker 1: an imagine someone is smart and gifted as he is,
Speaker 1: UM working at the postal service, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: I know people that work in the postal service, and
Speaker 1: it's a perfectly um, honest living and and and and
Speaker 1: a good job. But I'm saying with with the abilities
Speaker 1: and the skills that he had, I'm so happy he
Speaker 1: took that chance, not just because it meant that we
Speaker 1: got to know him, but that he gave so much
Speaker 1: to everyone. He's such, he's such. And go back, please,
Speaker 1: if you do one thing, go back and read some
Speaker 1: of Chris Wesseling's writing. Um he wrote. He wrote about
Speaker 1: the Cincinnati Bengals um um offense under young Bill Wallace.
Speaker 1: He wrote about Ohio River offense. He wrote about love
Speaker 1: You Blue, about those famous Houston Oilers teams. These are
Speaker 1: just a couple of his like really widely acclaimed long
Speaker 1: forms he did for the NFL, but then also just
Speaker 1: read like a game story he wrote, or like a
Speaker 1: takeaway post when we were doing our blog or anything
Speaker 1: he wrote recently right up to the end when he
Speaker 1: was doing Chemo and he was doing his QB rankings
Speaker 1: piece and just doing the best writing on professional football
Speaker 1: on the internet, like West was doing that to the
Speaker 1: very end. So read about read West because of all
Speaker 1: the things. I just said that he was a brilliant podcaster.
Speaker 1: He wasn't even he was even better as a writer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think Um. I think it was the first QB
Speaker 1: Index of this season. He wrote the intro to it.
Speaker 1: Um just kind of in the same vein a similar
Speaker 1: vein of what we heard at the top of the
Speaker 1: show about what sports means, and uh, I would really
Speaker 1: recommend people check that out. I believe it was. It
Speaker 1: was the week week one thing. Um. I talked to
Speaker 1: Spice Rack, who you know, if you're a regular listener,
Speaker 1: you guys will remember is Um. You know his consigliari
Speaker 1: in Vegas Desert, a friend of his Um from from
Speaker 1: his childhood and Cincinnati originally like one of West's brother's
Speaker 1: friends and then came to it and and he said
Speaker 1: to me, when when West started writing for Rhoda World
Speaker 1: and and that, and that was that a bit of
Speaker 1: a low moment for him. You know, he was trying
Speaker 1: to figure out what he was doing. He had just
Speaker 1: just started a job delivering pizzas and he was in
Speaker 1: his thirties, um, and and it started to go really well,
Speaker 1: and he got hired you know, full time, sooner than later.
Speaker 1: And then he went to the NFL and he said,
Speaker 1: like everyone that knew him growing up was like, well,
Speaker 1: of course, like why did it take this long? Not
Speaker 1: why did it take this long? But like of course,
Speaker 1: like he was the most brilliant guy, um, that we
Speaker 1: all knew growing up, and and he was the most
Speaker 1: brilliant guy about sports growing up. And when he was
Speaker 1: sixteen seventeen, like he had all these notebooks, the same
Speaker 1: handwritten notebooks that that he had now and and and
Speaker 1: Spicy said something that really stuck with me, um, just
Speaker 1: like about how much West believed in him and that
Speaker 1: how much that meant to him. And that really resonated
Speaker 1: because I just from the people that I know, uh,
Speaker 1: in West's life, I think that's true of a lot
Speaker 1: of people. Um that it really meant a lot when
Speaker 1: West believed in you, that he saw like a like
Speaker 1: the best side of you, and he and he tried
Speaker 1: to take to get that out. And uh, I know
Speaker 1: that meant a lot to spice Wreck, but me, it
Speaker 1: meant a lot to a lot of people. I love
Speaker 1: what you said. And I would say one other thing
Speaker 1: about West that that lifted me up when we first
Speaker 1: met was, um, you know, we're in a world where
Speaker 1: a lot of people they go to college, they go
Speaker 1: to journalism school, and by twenty three their rising stars.
Speaker 1: And um, I didn't come to the NFL until I
Speaker 1: was like thirty six or thirty seven, and West West
Speaker 1: and I took very st huit is bizarre routes um
Speaker 1: to get where we are. I mean all four of
Speaker 1: us did. If you look at the way that we
Speaker 1: all got to into that podcast studio together, UM, it's incredible.
Speaker 1: It's it beats the odds because of what what we
Speaker 1: went through. Um. But we always have younger writers and
Speaker 1: stuff ask how do you do this? How do you
Speaker 1: do that? And I find that my roadmap is a
Speaker 1: terrible uh diagram for someone to follow. Don't do what
Speaker 1: I did? And maybe don't do what West did. But
Speaker 1: maybe the lesson in there a little bit is when
Speaker 1: I think about West, he went and lived this incredibly
Speaker 1: varied life with adventures that would say, well below him,
Speaker 1: why are you a mailman when you're doing all this
Speaker 1: other stuff or whatever? And I hear all that, and
Speaker 1: it's true, but I think all that informed West and
Speaker 1: who he was. Had he gone a journalism school and
Speaker 1: been like a shiny employee from day one, I don't
Speaker 1: we never would have known him. It would have been
Speaker 1: a different person. So I I think like whatever wherever
Speaker 1: you are, if you're listening to this um, there's always
Speaker 1: hope to get back on course or just to wind
Speaker 1: up where you should up. And that's what West did. Ricky,
Speaker 1: I would love to hear um from you. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's so beautiful to to hear you guys. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: we all have our different relationships, like us as a whole,
Speaker 1: as a five some were very tight, but I have
Speaker 1: a very different relationship with each of you, and I
Speaker 1: did with West. And I met West when he came
Speaker 1: back from cancer the first time, and I'm this new producer,
Speaker 1: who am I? And the first thing he ever said
Speaker 1: to me is, Oh, you're the one that's taking our
Speaker 1: videos to the next level. And even in cancer, he
Speaker 1: was watching what we were doing and he was like,
Speaker 1: it's so great to meet you. And and from a
Speaker 1: writer and a football standpoint, I mean, he's the smartest
Speaker 1: guy I've ever met. But me and him together when
Speaker 1: when we I mean, you guys, you know Dan and Mark,
Speaker 1: you like you like to tie it on. But Me
Speaker 1: and West together were absolute tornadoes and and and he
Speaker 1: was just the most slice of life that you could
Speaker 1: ever ask for. And from even petty stuff to being
Speaker 1: in the office and I'd be like mad about something
Speaker 1: Caddy that happened, and he would look at me and
Speaker 1: be like, what does it matter? He would just straight
Speaker 1: straight face, what what are you? Why are you upset
Speaker 1: about this? And I would be like, you're You're right,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. And and just his outlook on on life.
Speaker 1: And I know there's videos and stuff going around, but
Speaker 1: he was just the most fun. And he made me
Speaker 1: so much worse out in public when there was alcohol involved.
Speaker 1: If he was there, it was it was. It was terrible.
Speaker 1: But it's so much fun. And I think that there
Speaker 1: was those photos from us at St. Elmo's and it's
Speaker 1: really foggy. But I think we told them that it
Speaker 1: was West and Eyes anniversary, so we got a free dessert.
Speaker 1: But the league fence is it anyways, and so we
Speaker 1: have to cut this anymore. But we told them it
Speaker 1: was our anniversary for a free dessert. And we're at
Speaker 1: a part. We're at a table like twelve at the time,
Speaker 1: like just the two of us, and you were putting
Speaker 1: cake in each other each other's mouths. You bought like
Speaker 1: you bought other things that contributed to that. It was
Speaker 1: an incredible that was West at his liveliest, like post cancer,
Speaker 1: and he was having that was February. That was a
Speaker 1: year ago. That was fifty weeks ago. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: and that's the the sad the sadness about this, and
Speaker 1: it is and I'm happy. I'm so happy we're doing
Speaker 1: this because we were, you know when when when he
Speaker 1: first passed away, we didn't know what we were doing.
Speaker 1: We didn't should we do a show? Should we not?
Speaker 1: I'm glad. I am so happy we're doing this. And
Speaker 1: it's like Ricky hit the nail on the head, just
Speaker 1: like we all have so many great stories of great time.
Speaker 1: So he was such great company. UM. He was just
Speaker 1: such a great person to be aroun on. And you
Speaker 1: knew if West was there, UM, it was gonna it
Speaker 1: was gonna be a good time. And and Ricky, I'm
Speaker 1: so happy that you um entered the fold because UM,
Speaker 1: in addition to making the podcast even better, you um
Speaker 1: got along so well with him. And just another example,
Speaker 1: like you're saying, and when I was saying earlier that
Speaker 1: we all had different kind of portals of how we
Speaker 1: connected with him, UM, and that goes for you as well,
Speaker 1: and they goes down the line. West was West was
Speaker 1: trending and as with Lakishan link uh in the UK
Speaker 1: on Twitter and here in the United States. UM, when
Speaker 1: when the news came out on Saturday, I mean just
Speaker 1: think about that. I mean Roger Goodell sent an email
Speaker 1: uh to everyone in the company rich eyes and has
Speaker 1: had amazing words UM during the pregame show for Super
Speaker 1: Bowl fifty five, and Ricky, if you could play this.
Speaker 1: And I know Colleen, who we love, and she's this
Speaker 1: is the first Super Bowl, UM since two thousand twelve
Speaker 1: that we're not at the city for COVID reasons. Colleen,
Speaker 1: because she's a big shot and a much bigger star
Speaker 1: than us in the company. She went and helped anchor
Speaker 1: the coverage and did an amazing job. Um. She was
Speaker 1: crushed when she heard the news and I can't. I
Speaker 1: reached out to Gonzo, her husband, and I think you
Speaker 1: know who he is, and she connected with he connected
Speaker 1: with Colleen and and she was a total mess. And
Speaker 1: I remember talking about um on a video chat like
Speaker 1: can she do this? Is she gonna go home? Is
Speaker 1: she gonna ask out to not do the coverage for
Speaker 1: the rest of the weekend because she doesn't think she
Speaker 1: could do it emotionally? She she goes through with it
Speaker 1: and as a total trooper. And um, like I said,
Speaker 1: rich eyes and said words and they were great. Earlier
Speaker 1: in the morning on Sunday. Uh, they had um other
Speaker 1: like a little moments to to Chris and an article
Speaker 1: in NFL dot com. But Colleen, it wasn't slated in
Speaker 1: the show for her to say anything about West, but
Speaker 1: she she changed that. And I just wanted to play
Speaker 1: that because it was a really special Well, Lily, you're
Speaker 1: going the box, I'm going with the chiefs. Um My
Speaker 1: m v P is going to be Chris Jones in
Speaker 1: this game. Um, but I am gonna go a little
Speaker 1: rogue here, and I apologize to the producers and the
Speaker 1: control room, but I just want to say these past
Speaker 1: two days, I've been doing shows with a really heavy heart,
Speaker 1: and I wasn't sure if I was going to be
Speaker 1: able to put into words, um, how much Chris Westling
Speaker 1: meant to me, meant to so many people at NFL Network.
Speaker 1: We lost him two days ago, and he was like
Speaker 1: one of the most beautiful people I've ever known. Um,
Speaker 1: He's gonna be so missed, and I didn't feel like
Speaker 1: it was right to not say it um today on
Speaker 1: this show, because I've been trying to just get through
Speaker 1: these two days and pretend that it hasn't happened, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't really feel real still that we lost him.
Speaker 1: He's been family from the second I met him at
Speaker 1: NFL Network, UM, and he's such a big part of
Speaker 1: my family still. My parents, they loved him. They don't
Speaker 1: even know. They're just finding now some Mom and dad.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry that you're finding out this way. But more importantly,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to say to Lakisha, his wife, and
Speaker 1: Link his son, we love you guys so much, and
Speaker 1: we're all here to support you. And we know that
Speaker 1: wes Is is watching over all of us here um
Speaker 1: today and forever. Uh. And I'm sorry because there's no
Speaker 1: good transition um to keep it moving about the game,
Speaker 1: but sometimes there's things that are more important to the
Speaker 1: game and the people that we meet here at work
Speaker 1: talking about football. I've met so many great ones, and
Speaker 1: Chris Wesling might be the greatest one I've ever met.
Speaker 1: So he's really going to be missed. That was amazing
Speaker 1: And we can't wait to have Colleen back on the
Speaker 1: show and when she gets back into town and where
Speaker 1: you know, this isn't gonna be the last time we
Speaker 1: talked about West, not by a long shot. He's part
Speaker 1: of the show for as long as this show continues,
Speaker 1: however long that may be. And we have no idea
Speaker 1: West is always going to be a part of it.
Speaker 1: And and and I just want to thank the NFL too,
Speaker 1: because when you're working for a thirteen billion dollar company, UM,
Speaker 1: there could be times where you feel like you could
Speaker 1: be lost in the shuffle and overlooked. And I think
Speaker 1: it's it's normal. And you know, when this went down,
Speaker 1: something that's so incredibly personal to us, and we knew
Speaker 1: what a big deal. It was, obviously, and the listeners,
Speaker 1: you guys understand what a m a monumental loss it
Speaker 1: is for West not to be with us anymore. UM.
Speaker 1: I just I I had hoped that the NFL understood
Speaker 1: the gravity of this and and I really thought they've
Speaker 1: come through with flying colors, both in recognizing wes Um
Speaker 1: on air UH and on our website and all the
Speaker 1: people behind the scenes, all our shadowy league figures, UM
Speaker 1: Mark Brady, who has been a tireless soldier UM behind
Speaker 1: the scenes and been such a great leader helping UM
Speaker 1: shepherd this show through good times and bad times, UM,
Speaker 1: John Marvel, Matt Schneider, Jason Kleinman, everyone who helped make
Speaker 1: this tremendously difficult process, uh just a little bit easier. UM.
Speaker 1: Thank you to everybody at the NFL listening now. And
Speaker 1: I want everybody to know that because the NFL is
Speaker 1: can be a big target sometimes and you think, oh,
Speaker 1: this is you know, you know, an organization, it's a
Speaker 1: cold thing. No, it has not felt cold. Has felt like, Uh,
Speaker 1: the NFL was a big family the last couple of
Speaker 1: days and and and that's what it felt like. We
Speaker 1: lost a family member and there was a closing of ranks.
Speaker 1: You know when you say that, like there's not one
Speaker 1: bad thing you could say about a person that's actually Wes,
Speaker 1: Like there's not one person across this company, across Twitter.
Speaker 1: Social media is such a dark place. Sometimes there really
Speaker 1: is not one bad thing you can say about Christmasling.
Speaker 1: We'll put Ricky, We'll put I'm really glad Colleen took
Speaker 1: that chance. Think West has taught a lot of people
Speaker 1: to take chances, and they I think NFL Network was
Speaker 1: probably just overjoyed with what she had to say. Um,
Speaker 1: I remember the first time we met her. I'll keep
Speaker 1: this really really quick, but it was West and I. Um,
Speaker 1: We're at the Whaler as we often were, and she
Speaker 1: happened to be there with her parents and she we
Speaker 1: had maybe seen her once or twice and unpil network,
Speaker 1: but she didn't have any friends. She had moved out
Speaker 1: here without Gonzo for a period of time, and West
Speaker 1: and his West Way, I mean, we were thrilled to
Speaker 1: see her, but I think he made it really clear
Speaker 1: that day, you're our friend. You're hanging with us, always
Speaker 1: open arms with West, always always welcomed you in. I
Speaker 1: I've told Wes, I always marveled with him that I,
Speaker 1: by my nature like to keep things a little tighter.
Speaker 1: And and that goes for like even when we have
Speaker 1: like meet ups with listeners at their live shows. I
Speaker 1: always did it because I love our listeners. But I
Speaker 1: never was quite always comfortable. It was just a little
Speaker 1: too much. But west could could have been at a
Speaker 1: after show drinking session for twenty four hours and it
Speaker 1: w didn't matter because he always people, always wanted people around,
Speaker 1: and he always welcomed anyone in and he was so great.
Speaker 1: He was so great with that too. But that's the generosity.
Speaker 1: And I'm glad we got Colleen's voice in there because
Speaker 1: her and Gonzo really, um, it meant a lot to
Speaker 1: ta Keisha and in west Over the last a few
Speaker 1: years really and like um he uh you know he
Speaker 1: he did. Um, he did have a preference I know
Speaker 1: in this game by the way tonight, which I was
Speaker 1: thinking about, he was he was hoping that the Bucks
Speaker 1: would win. His brother Phil could not resist asking him,
Speaker 1: I know, um this week while while he was in
Speaker 1: the hospital, and and Phil being a Westling, and they're
Speaker 1: all they all got this like you see it come
Speaker 1: out where they're they're all a little, you know, similar
Speaker 1: in some ways, but I don't think West was really
Speaker 1: even playing ball at first. Eventually got the answer out
Speaker 1: of him. He wanted to see he wanted to see
Speaker 1: Brady win one more. Ye's always loved Brady because he,
Speaker 1: you know, West is such a student of the game
Speaker 1: and new really what Tom Brady has been able to
Speaker 1: do for twenty years now now winning a seventh Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: which obviously you wish, you wish West saw it, and
Speaker 1: maybe he did. Mark Sessler, You and I had to
Speaker 1: talk late, late, late, late, um Friday night, and like,
Speaker 1: where where is West now? And uh, you know West
Speaker 1: was open, Like I said, he was raised Catholic like
Speaker 1: I was, but he had you know, fell away from
Speaker 1: religion as he got older. And we would often joke
Speaker 1: on this show, um when we started to duck into
Speaker 1: those waters of religion and faith of save it for
Speaker 1: the theology podcast, and this is not going to turn
Speaker 1: into the theology podcast, but it did. It crossed my mind.
Speaker 1: And uh when he passed on where he was and
Speaker 1: if he's listening to us now? And um, my grandmother Granby,
Speaker 1: who I I love forever, and she she passed away
Speaker 1: a couple of days before I moved to l A
Speaker 1: to take this job, and she give me a rosary
Speaker 1: right before she died, and I always kept it with me.
Speaker 1: I actually wore it when I first moved here. Um
Speaker 1: and um, but I had kept it in my closet
Speaker 1: for years, really um because it wasn't I wasn't somebody
Speaker 1: who's going to church or praying. Um. But I took
Speaker 1: it out last week and and kept it by my
Speaker 1: bedside and said prayers for West. And I let him
Speaker 1: know as much in a text. And Lakisha told me
Speaker 1: that that he did see that in the hospital room. Um,
Speaker 1: so that that meant a lot to me too. And
Speaker 1: and if you are listening West right now, I hope here.
Speaker 1: I hope this is okay with you. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you're mad at us because we're not talking. Why
Speaker 1: would it be mad because he would be mad that
Speaker 1: we're not talking about the chiefs O line crumbling. He
Speaker 1: would be mad at people saying it was mahomes fault
Speaker 1: on Twitter. I can I've been thinking mad about that, yeah,
Speaker 1: like tweeting back at people he doesn't even know, getting
Speaker 1: telling them that they, you know, don't have eyes. And
Speaker 1: I just he would sneak. He would sneaky like Mahome's
Speaker 1: getting taken down a peg. But I don't think he'd
Speaker 1: be mad. I think he would. I think he would
Speaker 1: say I was thinking about this too. We were thinking
Speaker 1: about on Friday night, like what would West want? And
Speaker 1: like West would say, do what you want, you know,
Speaker 1: like West would say do what your heart tells you,
Speaker 1: Like I don't care if you talk about football or not,
Speaker 1: like you guys should do what feels right. You guys
Speaker 1: know your podcast. Um, you guys know our podcast the
Speaker 1: best and like and whether what did you actually talk
Speaker 1: to Wes um afterlife? This is coming in from a
Speaker 1: definitive place. Keep going. I'm just well Phil agreed with
Speaker 1: me on this one. Remember Um, we we talked. I
Speaker 1: just feel like that is that is what he you know,
Speaker 1: because he was not gonna that was gonna put put
Speaker 1: his thoughts on you and and what you said about
Speaker 1: looking down on us, Um, it just made me think
Speaker 1: like he's he's here regardless, like he's here with us,
Speaker 1: Like he is part he is part of us. He
Speaker 1: is part of who we are, not just the podcast,
Speaker 1: but just who we are as people and how how
Speaker 1: we act as people and I've thought about that that
Speaker 1: that's that's the best way to honor him is is
Speaker 1: how how we act. You know, I would tell you
Speaker 1: say one thing like like I said, I think my
Speaker 1: my relationship with him was about at best twelve percent
Speaker 1: about football, and that was just simply because we were
Speaker 1: at work doing that half the time. But um, and
Speaker 1: I'm not the person you should trust with every football opinion,
Speaker 1: but I do trust some things that I feel inside,
Speaker 1: and I feel him with us since since he's left.
Speaker 1: I mean that seriously awesome. UM. You know, I want
Speaker 1: to point out Greeby, who is one of our long
Speaker 1: time listeners and one of the founders of the subreddit
Speaker 1: um around the NFL UM started to go fund me
Speaker 1: page UM that I want everyone to check out, uh
Speaker 1: and if you can, UM, all the all the donations
Speaker 1: go directly to Lukisha and link um, So please check
Speaker 1: that out on our respective Twitter Twitter pages UM and yes, UM,
Speaker 1: link is you know the you know Lukisha And it's
Speaker 1: so tragic and sad that West didn't get more time
Speaker 1: with link but I know we're all going to be
Speaker 1: there for him as uncle's and Ricky as an aunt
Speaker 1: and UM, every listeners can know that. I know it's
Speaker 1: everyone feels for Lakisha, as they should because she has
Speaker 1: such a gargantuan uphill climb in front of her right now,
Speaker 1: and we're trying to be there for her as well.
Speaker 1: But none of us can put ourselves in their shoes,
Speaker 1: But listeners just know that where we have her back,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna do everything we can UM to help
Speaker 1: with Link as well, because that's how it would be
Speaker 1: if it was any of us that switched places with West.
Speaker 1: I know you guys would be the same way with me,
Speaker 1: and I would be the same way with you. Absolutely
Speaker 1: all right. Whenever you listen, whenever you listen to she
Speaker 1: is amazing, I have I have no I have no
Speaker 1: doubt that she will rise above and and overcome the
Speaker 1: challenges in front of her because she is They were
Speaker 1: a power couple, and they are a power couple forever
Speaker 1: UM and she will UM she will get this thing
Speaker 1: figured out in time, but it will it will take time,
Speaker 1: and it will take time for us to because it's
Speaker 1: obviously this is a time of um unforeseen and tragic
Speaker 1: circumstances UM for our show and trying to figure out
Speaker 1: what comes next and what's the right thing to do,
Speaker 1: and and we all feel and we hope that you
Speaker 1: the listener understands that we're not ready to We'll see
Speaker 1: on Wednesday to talk about how the Chiefs fix their offense.
Speaker 1: Like we're not going to be doing that. We're gonna
Speaker 1: take a little time off, um and and when we
Speaker 1: come back, we have, you know, more planned. In terms
Speaker 1: of remembering West, we talked about doing a show where
Speaker 1: we remember some great West moments. And I would say
Speaker 1: this is a great opportunity for crowdsourcing. If you're not
Speaker 1: on the Around the NFL subreddit, go get on it,
Speaker 1: and please maybe Greeby or whomever else can start a
Speaker 1: thread of favorite West moments on the show that we
Speaker 1: could begin to just build up a library. And like
Speaker 1: I said, West is and has been reiterated by everybody here.
Speaker 1: West is a part of the show forever. He's part
Speaker 1: of the show right now as we speak, and it's
Speaker 1: going to stay that way as long as the Around
Speaker 1: the NFL podcast exists. All right, boys, Ricky anything anything else.
Speaker 1: I just want to want to reiterate what you just
Speaker 1: said about Lakisha. I mean, we saw her briefly Friday,
Speaker 1: and you know, obviously as tough as it is. She
Speaker 1: was laughing with us when we were remembering West too
Speaker 1: before he had even you know, passed the hospital. And
Speaker 1: she is just the most remarkable person I think I've
Speaker 1: ever met. Yeah, Like I I feel so lucky that
Speaker 1: we were able to see her um and fill that morning.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's it's complex, just to be really real, UM,
Speaker 1: I look back in the past couple of months and
Speaker 1: I wish I had sent that extra text or two.
Speaker 1: I didn't really get to say goodbye to West. And
Speaker 1: in the vast majority of people, UM have those complex feelings.
Speaker 1: But but this, but there's so much about him that's
Speaker 1: gonna um bring life and vibrancy and and it's through
Speaker 1: Link and it's through Keisha, who are who are with
Speaker 1: us and we will look after in our own ways,
Speaker 1: um until the very end. And so this is just
Speaker 1: the beginning of what we are going to uh be
Speaker 1: doing for them. It hurts because there there wasn't there
Speaker 1: wasn't the time, you know that they would have wanted,
Speaker 1: in any circumstance, UM to to say those goodbyes and stuff.
Speaker 1: But of all people, West knew like all that I
Speaker 1: thought about it a lot like in Keisha Um absolutely
Speaker 1: knows how we all feel about her. Um. But but
Speaker 1: he knew like all the things we we we wanted
Speaker 1: we would have wanted to say, or other things like
Speaker 1: he he knew all that. I believe. I believe that
Speaker 1: in my heart. Alright, So yes, we will at some
Speaker 1: point return to talking football in this podcast, but right
Speaker 1: now it's about West and remembering West and listeners out
Speaker 1: have reached out thank you to everyone. We can't say
Speaker 1: thank you individually to everyone's has just been such an outpouring,
Speaker 1: but we really appreciate it and understand what West meant
Speaker 1: to you, um, because he meant so much stuff. So UM,
Speaker 1: until next time, thank you very much, and Chris Westling,
Speaker 1: wherever you are, rest in peace, our good friend. I
Speaker 1: love you, Love you wess. Me and West always used
Speaker 1: to say that, like adults don't drink milk, and we
Speaker 1: would always laugh at adults don't drink milk. So I
Speaker 1: think I'm going to have a glass of milk tonight.
Speaker 1: Make him laugh. No,