what's going on everybody it
is lunch time lunch with
the clydesdale tuesday
afternoon what's going on I
was really struggling today
to come up with some things
to talk about on the show
today and I made some stuff
up had some stuff going on
put it in the description
and now I think we're gonna
scrap most of that
Um,
I watched boys interrupted this morning
and now I've got some content,
got some content.
So we're going to go down that road.
The other thing is, uh,
it was announced this
morning that my Chicago
bears signed Joe Tooney to
a two-year extension.
We traded for him this off season,
got him from the Kansas city chiefs.
He is considered to be the
best offensive guard in football.
And now we have signed him
to a two-year extension.
So we have him for three years.
And that is awesome.
I'm really excited about
this year's bear season.
I was excited last year and
got thoroughly disappointed.
I'm hoping this year is much better.
The other thing about today
is I hopped on here and
StreamYard actually worked
correctly today for the
first time in like a week.
So that's good news, right?
So that only means that
today's dart throw has got to be good.
It's got to be.
So here we go.
If you guys saw where that land,
you would laugh your ass off.
Oh my gosh.
So I have a shelf.
I have a shelf below the
dartboard where I put like
markers and stuff for a
whiteboard to like keep
track of everything.
I hit the front edge of the
shelf with the dart and it
is sticking right out of the front.
Yeah.
Terrible throw today.
Jody Lynn says,
is Tyson Bajan still with the Bears?
He is.
And I actually featured an
interview with him on
Friday's show right off the top.
He actually brought up
CrossFit in an interview
with a local Chicago sports
guy that does sports radio in Chicago.
Brought up CrossFit as his workout style,
what it means.
He described it.
Great ad for CrossFit.
Talk about the kid preaching
what CrossFit is and what
it's done for him in his life.
It's pretty freaking awesome.
But he is still there.
They love him there as their
backup quarterback.
But he's starting to gain
interest from other teams.
So I don't know what that means for him.
So...
I hope I would like for him to stay there.
But my other hope is that
Caleb Williams actually
turns out to be a great
quarterback as well.
And then it's a good problem to have.
But but he is still there.
He is still their backup quarterback.
But yeah,
there's actually talk in some of
the local circles that the
Bears are trying to assign
him to an extension.
He'll make a lot more money
than he did on his rookie contract,
but I have not seen where
that is or where that
stands at this point.
Corey says,
if you look up good dude in the
dictionary, there's a picture of Tyson.
He's a good dude.
It was a great interview.
Being a Bears fan and just
overall his optimism for
everything and the way he
looks at things is really, really cool.
I really just enjoyed it.
It was about thirty five minutes long.
If you go back to Friday's show,
I quote or I show the video
so you can actually see
where I got it from.
But it's only thirty five minutes long.
Super quick.
And you can check that out there.
It's actually called Recap, R-E-K-A-P.
And it's David Kaplan is a
sports radio guy on ESPN,
one thousand in Chicago.
And he does a podcast on the side.
Clark says,
given how few quarterbacks went
in this draft,
you might think some teams
would be interested in Bajent.
They actually talk about
that on that show that I used on Friday,
that the New Orleans Saints
had contacted the Bears
about the availability of
Tyson Bajent because of
Derek Carr's retirement.
And they don't really have
much in the quarterback category.
room and they they did draft
a quarterback this year but
they did contact him about
being the starter uh and I
don't and I think the bear
said no so there is
interest in him and there
is interest in him being a
starter in the league but
we'll see where that goes
so the first thing I wanted
to show real quick today
and this isn't really what
we're going to dive into
but I wanted to show this
I went to the CrossFit game
site because yesterday in
Dave's week in review,
he said there's going to be
a big announcement today.
So I've been watching to see
what that might be.
Still nothing on the game site.
Um, but I wanted to show this.
I thought this was really, really funny.
Um,
so I go here and I click on the story
just to make sure nothing is going on.
And I don't know if you guys can see this.
This is advertising for
twenty twenty five CrossFit
Games tickets.
And the video they use is an
athlete who has chose to
sit out the twenty twenty
five CrossFit Games season.
I'm sure you have video
footage of athletes who are
actually participating in
this season to sell your tickets.
This is Jack Farlow with his
big lift at the Games two years ago.
It is a heck of a lift, Halpin,
but you're advertising a person.
It be like...
It'd be like the Bears
advertising season tickets
with a picture of Mitch Trubisky.
It just doesn't make sense.
I mean, I don't know.
That's just a thing I wanted to show.
I just found it very
peculiar that of all the
video footage you have in
the history of the CrossFit Games,
I am sure that people that
are participating in the season,
people who have already qualified,
you could use in the
promotion to say whatever.
I don't know.
Andrew Sten says,
maybe they did it to say we
can use you in advertising
our event that you don't want to go to.
I guess.
Hoppin says, oh, I get it.
I have an article that was
supposed to come out today,
and I purposely didn't use
non-games competing athletes.
I think if you want to be
topical and you want to
talk about the season,
you should use athletes
that are competing in the season.
It just makes sense.
I mean,
it's not like this huge error that
is going to cost them their
business or whatever.
It just seems like a little
bit of laziness or I don't know.
The quality checks on these
things you would think
should be a little bit
better than they are.
Aaron Frazier says maybe
there's NIL deals for
CrossFit Games athletes.
Yeah.
NIL has spread from college
football to the CrossFit Games season.
But as of yet,
the big announcement that's
supposed to come out today,
I have not seen anything on
any of their socials.
So still waiting to see if
anything comes out from
that announcement today.
And that was something that
Dave said in his week in
review yesterday.
And it seemed to be pretty
big because he wanted to go
into aspects of whatever
this is going to be.
And he kept stopping himself.
So it doesn't seem like it's
a simple thing like the
lifting shoe is now the
official lifting shoe of
the CrossFit Games like we saw yesterday.
It seems like a much bigger
deal that's going to be announced today.
So the other thing I wanted
to talk about is Will Morad
was on with the Boys Interrupted.
And...
And they actually talk about
something we talked about
last Friday when people in
the comments here were
saying that they didn't
like the WFP because
athletes were quitting.
And so in The Boys Interrupted,
Dallin actually speaks to
this exact thing of
athletes quitting during the WFP.
And so I want to share this.
So here we go.
Again, this is Boys Interrupted.
You can go to their YouTube
channel to see the full
interview with Will,
but I'm going to do a
little recap after this.
I think some of the craziest
comments I've seen is
people saying that we're
going to show up to these
events and not try.
There's no incentive to do
well because there's the
minimums on contract, all of those things,
and I promise you,
The last thing we want to do
is show up and lose to any
guy that's on the floor.
And two, there are incentives to do well.
Yes.
Trust me,
the last thing I want to do- The
reason you're not out there
is because you think that
that's a possibility that
we would show up and let someone beat us.
Yeah.
I mean,
the last thing I want to do is-
Stay out of my comments.
Will these two dudes the
next day listen to them
beating me in a competition?
Yeah, I don't know.
It's important not to read too much.
Dude,
you're crazy if you think I'm just
cashing a check.
I love beating these boys.
So they all speak to there's
no way they're quitting on the field.
They want to win every event.
And...
And that there is,
there's too much
competitiveness between them, uh,
that money has no factor
into this at all.
Um, and so I find that, uh,
I thought that was really
cool because Justin Kotler
jumped into the comments on
Friday and said that, you know,
these athletes would run
over their grandmother to
win a game of checkers.
Um,
And so I like that they kind
of answered to that in kind
of a comical way that they
want to hear the BS from
the other people that they lose to,
and they want to beat each
other so bad at every competition.
Aaron Frazier says,
Bethany Flores mailed it in.
There are more competitive athletes.
I think Bethany is an
outlier in this case.
Bethany got hurt.
It seems like it's bigger
than we know about.
If you look at her social
media and her YouTube channel,
she actually did a long
video about what happened,
but she has not said what happened.
And I think her idea was
that she still wants to
compete for a pro card,
and right now her body just won't do it,
but there was a way to go get some points,
and then hopefully her body
would be ready by tour stop
two to then take whatever
points she could earn and
move forward into the season.
But that's like a
reoccurring thing with Bethany.
It happened at Rogue.
It's happened at the games.
They're just...
So, yeah.
But the idea that people
come in the chat and say
that Laura quit on that
last overhead walking lunge,
there's no way in hell that
woman would ever quit anything.
If anybody's going to run
over their grandmother to
win a competition, it's Laura Horvat.
And her body just gave up.
She just couldn't.
She missed on the last step
of one of the lunges,
and then she kept trying to
rush it when she wasn't ready,
and her arms gave out.
Halpin does make a good
point here that there is an
incentive to do well,
but there's also an
incentive just to show up.
You get two seventy season
points for showing up.
You get zero if you don't show up.
So, yeah.
And I think that that that
is what happened with Bethany.
But I think if you are
healthy and you are there to compete,
you don't want to lose.
Aaron Frazier,
she blew up like she did at Wazza.
She did.
And maybe that's a training
thing because this has now
happened at two events in a
row where on the last event,
she was unable to finish in a way.
She lost to Lucy Campbell on
the last event at
Wattapalooza after having a lead.
And then she loses on the
overhead walking lunge
because she can't get the
twenty five feet in without
dropping the dumbbells.
Corey Leonard,
you've never heard anyone say,
I used to have a bad back.
I feel Bethany is saying
what Bethany is saying,
but she may be done.
And so, yeah, I, uh,
hope not I think that
bethany is the most
talented athlete to never
podium at the games because
her her back has just never
let her do it um and it's a
shame because what I saw at
west coast classic in I
think it was she was as
good as anybody at that point
And it's just a shame that
her back has failed her
time and time again.
And as someone who has had
as many back procedures as I've had,
I empathize with her in a huge way.
So...
So there we go.
Haley Adams got a zero.
Now the most Haley can get
is fifteen hundred if she
sweeps the next two.
Anyone getting zero is
behind every pro and
challenger for a pro card,
as is McQuaid and Kyra Milligan.
Well, Kyra, Kyra was a challenger.
She wasn't in the pro division, I believe.
Um,
but she did take a zero instead of
taking whatever that was.
But anyway,
so I wanted to go over a couple
of things that Will said in
this interview,
because I think it
contradicts some other
things that we've heard.
And it just goes to show you
that there's two sides to every story.
And probably neither one of
them are a hundred percent accurate.
There's probably something
in the middle that's more accurate.
And so they were talking
with will on there and the, and the,
and the boys, Dallin, Jason,
and Justin were doing a lot
of comparisons between
CrossFit and the WFP.
And one thing they said is
that they felt listened to, um,
during this,
which they don't always feel
like that is the case with CrossFit.
Uh, when they bring things up there,
sometimes you don't get a response.
They said they used one
example that Pat Felner,
a lot of times in an athlete briefing, uh,
when they're told that they
cannot do something and he'll say,
what happens if I do it anyway?
And they just say, don't do it.
And there's no real answer
as to what happens if you do.
in this case at the wfp they
were told those things or
they changed the rule to
allow it if they couldn't
come up with a good reason
to not allow it they did
will talked about why
things why the feed was on
their website as opposed to
um youtube and it's because
If you watch the feed, you saw commercials,
which we never see on the CrossFit feeds.
Like there were Stri-V ads,
there were Adidas ads,
there were a lot of different ads.
And they can control that on
their own website.
They cannot control that in YouTube.
And so they were actually, I'm assuming,
getting paid for those ads,
or there was a deal done
for those companies to get those ads,
and they couldn't do that
on the YouTube platform.
They did say that they
realized that there is a
big problem with not being able to rewind,
and they are working on that.
The reason they could not
rewind is because of the AI
translation problem.
but they are looking at
doing an English only
version that you can rewind
for tour stop two.
Will also said they had
about a half a million viewers.
I don't know if there's a
way to confirm that because
it is self-contained and on
their own website.
There's no way to really see
if those numbers are in fact true.
Um, they did,
will did say that the
lighting at the event was
done by the world wrestling entertainment,
WWE.
Um,
they brought them in to give it a
different look, to give it more of a,
like a theatrical look to
the whole thing.
Um, and that's what they did.
And the,
the boys on the show said that
they actually did like the
lighting and some of the
effects that happened.
Um,
especially when the lights followed
them down the floor, uh,
to follow the storyline.
Um,
And they did not speak to
the jerk itself in the
lighting that has been
brought up a couple times.
So there's that.
And then he also answered
the question as to,
was there a meeting set up with CrossFit,
as Dave had said on his
Week in Review a week ago,
and what happened there?
And that is that there was a
meeting set up
will was it was will was not
the point of contact for
that meeting but he was on
that initial email the
world fitness project
according to will wrote
back and said could they
reschedule because they had
some people out of the
country at the time that
the sit down was to happen
when they sent that email back
Will never got another email
back on anything, but then again,
he was not the lead person.
So he can't speak for sure
that CrossFit never got back,
but they did say that they
did ask for a reschedule.
And Will said,
I never heard another word
from that point forward.
And he also said that Dave
never tried to reach out to
him personally, but when asked,
would they do that?
Would they do, um,
and a sit down.
Will said with the pending
sale of CrossFit,
what's the point in going
and having a long
discussion with the people
that are there when if they sell,
it may not be the same
people there in a few months,
which I thought was
actually a pretty excellent point.
Why would you meet with
people if they're not going
to be there in a few months?
Um,
And again,
we don't know what's happening
with the sale.
We don't know who's gonna be retained.
We don't know who's gonna be let go.
And so I do kind of
understand when you're trying,
when you're busy trying to
put this thing on for the first time,
why would you waste time
having conversations with
people that may not be a
factor when it comes to that?
Andrew Sten says in CrossFit's defense,
you don't want to have a
negotiation with athletes in a briefing.
Yes, there should be some set penalties,
but often athletes are
looking for ways to skirt the standards.
The other thing that I think
the WFP did differently is
that they released the event,
the events three weeks ahead of time.
So there was plenty of time
to ask some questions
before the briefing to get
some things ironed out
before the briefing happened.
And I think that that was a good thing.
And they also let coaches in the briefing,
which isn't always allowed by CrossFit.
It's the same reason many
athletes ask judges when
they walk out what they should be doing.
Yeah, that should never happen.
As a judge,
you're told not to tell them anything.
And Corey, of course,
doesn't follow the rules.
Yeah.
The judge is not supposed to
clarify anything out there
that that should be done by a head judge.
Has the jerk been brought up
by any athlete that competed?
I have not heard a single
athlete talk about the lighting.
And Andrew, this is what we're taught.
And Corey,
that is why we tell judges to say,
do what you were briefed.
Athletes are briefed in the big briefing.
And right before the event,
I tell judges to be a jerk
and shut down questions.
Um, Aaron Fraser,
I don't think that athletes
are the only opinion that matters,
but I think in this point where they were,
Will was talking to athletes.
So you're getting, um,
he was getting feedback on
what they felt was going on
with the WFP and what their
reactions was from the athletes.
But I do know that they also
asked spectators, they asked volunteers,
they asked other people.
And I know that Dallin even
brought up in one of his
suggestions that the
community event seemed
forgotten about back in the corner.
And that I guess they are
going to work to get the community event,
at least a few events on
the main competition floor for Mesa.
so um the way I took coaches
and briefings was they are
allowed that they are
allowed just coaches to go
to the briefing meaning
athletes weren't required
to sit through them if they
wanted to leave um
think what the the guys were
referring to is sometimes
at the games the coaches
are not allowed at the
games briefings um and I
and I don't and I think
I've heard dave say that
there are times that they
want the athlete to be able
to make their own decisions
without it without a
coach's um input but I
don't think that tests anything
If you're going to be more
of a pro-ish style sport,
then athletes are going to have coaches.
That's just what's going to
be the case and why.
But I know in tennis,
like you're not supposed to
be allowed to talk to your
coaches during a tennis match.
Once you're out on the floor,
you can't really talk to your coach,
but that's tennis.
So.
dry your dagger telling my
kids I won the first ever
WFP community events since
there will never be any
proof or any eyewitness
testimony to say I didn't.
I'll clock correct me tennis
does allow it now.
Yeah.
What?
And maybe like I just been
around too long and too
much stuff is cluttered in my head.
I think it was a two
thousand sixteen games when
they went to Aromas.
They took the athletes but
didn't allow the coaches to go.
So when they went to Aromas,
they didn't have in the ranch.
They didn't have the coach
with them to help them kind
of figure out what was
going on on the fly.
And that was intentional by Dave.
So maybe I'm just
remembering too many things.
But that was what was said by Jason,
Justin, and Dallin.
And nobody quibbled with it.
So I don't know what's going on there.
um d reed says in individual
sports the onus is on the
athlete to know the rules
and what to do yeah but
anyway I thought it was
just an interesting
conversation to kind of
hear what will had said
especially about uh the
communication with crossfit
and whether they
And the reason why they
wouldn't meet with them now
until the sale is done,
that made a lot of sense to me.
I don't know.
I think it's a cool concept
what they have going on.
And I know that I'm probably
in the minority.
I do like the season
structure that they have.
And so, like, I'm all in for that.
So...
Anyway,
what else do we have on the docket today?
I saw an interesting, well,
I was watching dense
updates this morning and
she brought up an
interesting conversation
about teams that.
at the regional level or at
TFX's last weekend,
the vibe when the pro teams
were on the floor was
higher than when the
individual athletes were on
the floor because the teams
draw more people from the
affiliates to the event.
But then when we get to the games,
the stadium empties when
the teams hit the floor
because everybody's there
to see the individuals.
And so that brings up like a conundrum.
Do we need the teams to
actually fill the stands on
the way up to the games?
And then because they helped us get there,
we can't ignore them once
we get to the games.
And I thought she made a great point.
I remember back in the regional days,
the teams were well attended.
It was as loud for the teams
as it was for the
individuals because they
were associated with an affiliate.
The affiliate would drive to
the regional event and they
would cheer their asses off
for those people because it
was more the people that
they worked out with on a
day-to-day basis.
And it seemed like that's
what happened at TFX.
You had big crowds going to
TFX just to see the teams
and root on their friends
than there was in an
individual field where
people were from all over
the western part of the North America.
And Aaron says,
that's the difference from
regional teams and
communities versus super
teams not connected to the communities.
I think you're right.
I think that back then the
affiliate teams were a big
part of regionals because
they did bring in the crowds.
That's when the regionals
were way more attended than
anything that we have done
in the past five years.
I think hearing the teams
themselves on what would work,
I was cheering on local
teams even though I don't
go to their gym.
Yeah, that makes sense.
I know in two thousand
sixteen when the regionals
were here in Columbus,
two local Columbus gyms
were in the in the race for
the last spot to go to the games.
they were like fifth and
sixth place it was crossfit
grandview and uh cross our
friendship crossfit and the
place was going ballistic
when they were on the floor
because it was the two
local teams trying to vie
for that last spot to the
crossfit games and it was
so so loud and the funny
thing is the guy on
crossfit one of the guys on
crossfit grandview that
year was joey tutoro who is
colton's coach now
But it was insane.
Insane during those events.
Coda had five teams there.
They did.
Imagine how many people that
draws in from Coda.
And I know there's like
three or four different
locations of Coda.
So... Yeah.
I just...
I think she's right.
I think that we do need to
kind of bring back the teams into these.
If we're going to keep the
in-person qualifying events,
maybe teams should be
included in that to get a
spot or two to the games.
why not?
If, if,
if TFX is going to hold a pro
division for teams,
syndicates holding a pro
division for teams,
why not give them a spot or
two to fill for the CrossFit games?
It only makes sense, right?
Like,
They're already doing it.
Why not put the legitimacy
on it instead of an online
version with no video
review and just trust
everybody that's doing it?
D. Reed,
this is why belonging to an
affiliate matters.
I would include that for individual.
The games has to be a
showcase for the affiliate
and the community.
And then, I mean,
I do have to jump off here
because I do have a one o'clock meeting,
but, um, but why,
what happens if what Matt
Sousa said is right this
week and Berkshire decides
to sell off the,
the games portion of
CrossFit to this new group
out of Texas who may only
want to buy the sports side
and not the affiliates.
If that happens and there's
no connection with the community,
we're in trouble.
We're in trouble.
And that can be a longer
discussion tomorrow when I
have Corey on or on Thursday.
But it seems insane to me
that that would happen.
I don't know.
Uh, Aaron Frazier agree.
Look at the crew Haley
brought to semis when she
was at the affiliate in Virginia.
Um,
I would argue that Haley brings a big
crowd wherever she goes in semis.
And even if she's back at mayhem,
that's still an affiliate and they,
they ride deep there too.
Um,
Austin Hatfield brought a huge number
to semis last year, Austin and Haley, uh,
Their crowds were so big
last year at the affiliate, for sure,
at the semifinals.
D. Reed says,
the sport without the
affiliates will die.
That's my fear.
That's my fear without the
connection because...
And that's where I think
like the WFP might get the
upper hand if this does happen,
because they're
establishing a tour that
isn't necessarily community based.
And maybe it will be easier
for them to move forward
than whatever they're doing
on this other side.
And again,
I don't know what the plan is to
do with it.
Um,
I've heard some rumblings on
the wp stuff that they
already have lined up that
could help them sustain
things and move things
forward uh but none of that
is confirmed so I don't
want to really dive into
that too much I I think
that splitting the
affiliates and the crossfit
games is a huge mistake and
I wasn't always a thinking
on this side um but I do
think so now for sure
that it's got to get back
somehow to a
community-based event a
t-bird the sport is
different than it once was
it's sport not affiliate
crossfit it is but the
affiliates are what filled
the arenas back in the regional days
And when we've moved to a
different concept, we lost.
We lost the crowds.
And somehow we've got to get them back.
And if that means that you
have to find a way for
people to come root on their friends,
we've got to figure that out.
Got to figure that out.
But it all comes down to
like having a plan.
Um, and I'm,
and I'm not sure that CrossFit
has sat down and had a
long-term plan in a while.
That just, it has.
And I talked about that
Sunday night a little bit
at the beginning.
I just watching welcome to
Rexham and watching how
they sit down with their
group and have a plan.
I don't think that CrossFit
has had those discussions.
Denise, I feel if the sport gets spun off,
then I don't see any reason
for affiliates to do the open.
You're probably right.
The sport cannot sustain
itself without the affiliates.
I agree.
Especially if it's just
another private equity firm
coming in and taking it over.
Like they're not going to
invest enough money into
the sport to create something new.
Because they're there to make money,
not spend money.
CrossFit doesn't get to
decide who they sell to or
at least full control.
Selling for parts is very risky.
It is.
But that is the decision of
Berkshire right now.
So everybody's just waiting
with bated breath to see
who is going to win the
bidding war for whatever is there.
Aaron,
they're just holding on because they
don't have a real leader.
Well,
it's hard to tell who the leader is
because you have this
private equity firm that
really does own them.
And they're the ones who
make the ground rules for
what the CEO can do.
So that really handcuffs the
CEO in what they want to do
on the day-to-day life.
The CEO is just the
public-facing figure that
takes all the heat.
But the rules come from the board.
I mean, we can't forget that.
And they say what can and
cannot be done going forward.
Not that WFP is for sale,
but if you look at what's
been said about TPG,
why would someone buy
CrossFit Sport versus WFP?
I don't think they should.
unless they see something in
it that we don't.
And from what I understand,
TPG is buying up a lot of
niche sports to put together.
And the only the only like
parallel to that that I can
see is like the extreme
sports category with what
Red Bull TV has done to
make a lineup of these
niche sports in the extreme
sports category that they
can air on their Red Bull channel.
throughout the day and then
they create a conglomerate
of stuff that together they
kind of support each other
and it seems to me that tbg
is trying something in that
vein um but I don't they
were only created a few
weeks ago so to understand
what their plan and their
process is and what they're
trying to do we are way too
early in the game to figure all that out
Love, welcome to Wrexham, and I do too.
I can't wait to dive into
the rest of the season.
Good point.
Red Bull TV was talked about
a lot at WFP and Indy.
Yep.
That's what I call a breadcrumb, Mike.
That's what I call a breadcrumb.
As I look around, that's a breadcrumb.
Just saying.
But anyway, I have got to go.
I've got a meeting in about
four minutes and I've got
to get changed into my work clothes.
So with that, guys,
thank you so much for being here.
You knuckleheads get back to
work and we will see
everybody tomorrow on
Cooking Up Cajun with lunch
with the Clydesdale.
Bye, guys.