Where Hope Takes Its Lunch Break: The Break Room (Ep. 5)

Hello, I’m Trevor, your district rep for next year’s season. Tickets calling to re-up. And I’m Zach, your chief officer of misery and pain. And this is the Misery Sports Company, the official podcast home for fans of terrible teams. If you’ve ever started looking at mock drafts three weeks into the season, then you belong at MSC. That hits home. Each week we unfortunately take a look at our teams, namely the Browns and the Titans, and stick to our mission statement here at Misery Sports Co. Survive another bad week of sports. Laugh if you can. That’s right. In last week’s meeting, Zach took a look at the Washington Wizards and explored the history of their heartbreak. In today’s meeting, we’ll cover our weekly earnings report, check in with the moral victories, and then we’re going to step into the break room for the first time this year for some honest fan talk. And then we will wrap up with our pep talk. But before we dive in, let’s pause to recognize the only people who believe in us more than we believe in next year our sponsors. Yes. So this segment will be sponsored by the Browns. Quarterback carousels. Spin the wheel, pick a name and hope for the best. With more rotations than a carnival ride and just as much nausea. This is a high powered sponsorship, Trevor. Never ending. That thing is powered by rocket fuel. Thank you. Browns QB Johnny Manziel’s cocaine habit. Just mix those two together in that tank. Light it off. There it goes. Uh, well thank you. Browns quarterback carousel. We appreciate you for sponsoring this podcast and for proudly supporting fans who never get that support from their teams. We really do appreciate you. That’s right. And now it’s time for our weekly earnings report. The part of our show where we file the paperwork on our two most underperforming subsidiaries, the Cleveland Browns and the Tennessee Titans. Let’s take a look at the spreadsheets. And surprise, surprise, I’m seeing all red. Let’s unfortunately start with the Titans. Well, Zach, they finally did it. We are we are six weeks into the season and they finally gave us the pound of flesh we have been clamoring for. But before I get to that, uh, I do have a game to recap. So sometimes a performance is so spectacularly bad that it alters the course of a franchise. And Sunday was one of those days with the Titans twenty to ten loss against the Las Vegas Raiders. So we are now one in five. The Raiders improved to two and four. so that really turned their season around. But why was this game so bad? We only lost by ten points. That’s. Is that really bad? Well Zach, one time you asked me about a Joe Flacco game where he had thirty six pass attempts. I think he had thirty six in that game. Uh huh. Uh, well cam Ward had thirty eight attempts. So we’re we’re you hoping that he landed? Yeah, I’m hoping for. I mean, even in a bad game, you got to be pushing three hundred three fifty, right? Yeah. For sure, for sure. Cut that in half and subtract some. He had one hundred and sixty yards passing on thirty eight attempts. The weird news is that’s only two more yards than the Raiders had. So like, we out past them by two yards. In fact, they only outgained us by one yard in total yards. And we still lost by ten because. I saw this on X and I should have clipped it for tweet of the week, but I didn’t. The tight. There has never been a team that is so bad at screen passes, and yet convinces themselves that they’re so good at them. Then the Tennessee Titans. I watched screen after screen. Bubble screen. Tunnel screen. Bubble screen. Just constant screens. And like, they got blown up every single time. And like, I get, like, you have to set. You have to set things up. So we should have patience while you set stuff up. But at some point after the seventh screen for minus two yards, you have to say, this isn’t working. We should try something else. And they didn’t. They just kept throwing it. I just gotta think outside of the Xbox stuff. I almost cursed that stuff. doesn’t work in that stuff doesn’t work in Madden. Don’t do it in real life. It doesn’t. And we, like Titans. Fans, are still reeling and just traumatized from screen passes. Because I’ll take you back to when we, uh, were the first seed, which seems like a lifetime ago and got a first round bye. And we’re playing the Bengals. Um, I’ll recap that game sometime because that’s there’s a lot there. But we drove down the field with former Browns great Deontay Foreman. Uh, he ran the football all the way down the field. And like we were ready to go. We were on like the ten we were going to score. It’s great. And Tannehill just whoop screen pass and a defender. All he had to do was put his hands up, popped the ball up caught it turn over. So like we’re traumatized from screen passes. And I’ve never watched a team where they worked. So like they’re bad. They’re just bad. So anyways, lots of screen passes. Uh, our offensive line was booty. Our tackles are terrible. Cam Ward got sacked several times. He had some really bad fumbles. Uh, we got reverse tuck ruled. So finally the NFL was like, it’s time for a make good with the Raiders. We’re we’re it’s several years later but it’s time. And cam Ward had a pass where his arm was moving forward. And he kind of pinched the ball out or I’m sorry that’s not the case. Sorry. Uh the Raiders had that where they like pinched the ball out is what they said. Mhm. They let it play out initially and we ran it back for a touchdown. But all Titans fans knew in our heart they’re going to overturn that because we never get a call like that. And then one day I will put together a history of turnover calls that don’t go our way. Uh they overturned it. They said that it was an incomplete pass. I think the ball was not controlled when the hand was going forward. Those are always tough though. Like are you kind of pushing it forward? You know. But they the call on the field was a a Titans touchdown and they overturned it. So what are you going to do. Um it was just bad. It was terrible. Um it was really bad and demoralizing and all the random good stuff that happened. The good vibes left after the Cardinals game. So, uh, somewhere Jeff Fisher is sitting in Titans stadium smoking a stogie, saying, I could have given you another nine and seven season, baby. Yeah. Could have. Was nine and seven really that bad, you idiots. I could have won a tenth game. Now with seventeen games, I could be ten and seven freaking morons. So they fire Brian Callahan, who is statistically the worst coach in Titans Titan’s history and one of the worst coaches of all time. Stay tuned for that. Uh, his dad left his bro. That was like an assistant coach. He got walked out. Yeah, yeah. He left. Bill Calhoun. Oh, yeah, he said, I watched my son have one of the most publicly embarrassing coaching careers, so I’m just gonna see myself out, if that’s okay. And we were like, sure, Bill. Thanks for your service. He’s gone. Wow. Yeah, yeah. He left. I don’t know how he could stay on the beat. I saw I didn’t see a super awkward I know. Yeah, it would have been really uncomfortable. There was a tweet somebody said like, uh, uh, give us what we want, Titans. And make Bill Callahan the interim head coach. Oh, which would have been great. But anyways, uh, we lost. We have an interim head coach, uh, Mike McCoy, who already sounds like more of a head coach in his three days of coaching than Brian Callahan ever did. Um, and so we will see. So theories aplenty about what’s next for the Titans. But it was a super demoralizing game followed by a lot of craziness. And you know, they draw you back in with a coaching search. Maybe the next guy’s the guy. That’s what we’re all about here at MSC. Maybe the next one. You know maybe maybe this will be it. So I’m back in on brand baby. Yeah. Brand. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. So Zach, how was the week for the Browns following up that performance from Dillon Gabriel? It was brutal. Um, so the Cleveland Browns played at the Pittsburgh Steelers okay. Tough opponent AFC North. You know it’s going to be a tough game. So I think Kevin Stefanski head coach of the Cleveland Browns. Knew that cam Ward was going to throw thirty eight times. And he said, how do I do better than that? I’m going to call fifty two pass plays. I’m sorry. What? Dillon. Gabriel. That was five two five two in his second game ever. Oh my gosh. So of course he got sacked I think it was six times. Um. Absolutely brutal. It’s just one of those games where the defense continues to keep them in the game. It’s something like nine to three at this point, and we’re going to force a punt and we run into the kicker. And from then on it was just Steelers marched down the field with that goof up scored a touchdown. And the rest is history. Um, I don’t even want to focus on the game anymore. There was nothing to pull out of it. Uh, I think that Kevin Stefanski is going to get Dillon Gabriel killed. We’re on our, like, fifth tackle at this point. I know that I said bad things about Joe Flacco. Joe Flacco was never going to do anything for us. That’s true. This is not good. This is not good right now. I want to give you a quick update. Right. So we’re going to do a uh a little report card for our teams. So I like that within the NFL. Uh, looking at the team rankings, we the Cleveland Browns and the Tennessee Titans are the bottom two in scoring offense. Yeah. Just barely. The Cleveland Browns are dead last at thirteen point seven points per game. We have to be like thirteen point eight thirteen point eight. Yeah see I know I knew it I knew we were like, there’s no way we’re averaging two touchdowns a game. There’s no way the nearest team is at seventeen. Good grief. We are. Good grief. That’s the Bengals who no longer have freaking Joe Flacco. Oh my god they don’t have burrow anymore. Um. All right, I’m gonna I’m gonna, you know, just kind of cool myself down a little bit, but we are just bad. Another stat I thought was interesting. Um, I looked at the the drops leaders within the NFL. Number one, Jerry Judy of the Cleveland Browns with eight drops eight. Your man Calvin Ridley is tied for fourth with four drops. So we have players for both of our teams. Top five. We can’t catch a ball. No, we can’t score. Um, I don’t know where to go. It. The weird thing is. So there was a lot of, you know, fire or smoke whatever with with Callahan. There’s really no smoke right now with Stefanski, and it just feels like they’ve built the defense. And now they’re going to go all in on the offense next year. I haven’t seen any of the beat reporters say, oh, you know, Stefanski’s, you know, he’s heating up. He’s going to get fired. It’s it’s just more of the same. Oh, you know, nobody could do anything with this roster. And I’ll get to it in our our tweets of the week. But even opposing coaches are now saying things that you would never hear them say of another team. So yeah, I’ve been here. I was born in this misery. Uh, I’m not going to say I’m used to it because it’s not even competitive at this point, which I know Titans are in the same boat and it’s super frustrating. So another wonderful Browns loss. So that’s your weekly earnings report. Proof that no matter, no matter how bad things get, Hope still refuses to enter the transfer portal. Speaking of portals, let’s warp over to another one of our proud sponsors. Hey, did you just get fired from that huge, once in a lifetime job that you’ll never get back to again. Well, nothing hits back at your employer like cutting a timely diss track from one of the rappers going right now. That’s right. We’re talking about Will Smith and his new company, Will Smith’s diss tracks. If he can write a song to convince us he’s straight with lyrics like, not a lot of women who aren’t pretty to me. I mean, she pretty to me. I like pretty girls. I love pretty girls. Then he can slam your former employer to keep your name out their damn mouth. Hey, Emily Dickinson, get ready to piss your pants suit at the beauty and wonder of Will Smith’s diss tracks. Don’t be dissing my boy. Getting jiggy with it. Have you listened to the new stuff? I saw an AI video, like he had a music video, and it was. Yeah, and it’s not. It’s. It might as well. AI can put together better stuff. Please go listen to Pretty girls. It’s some of the worst stuff out there. But you know, he can write a good diss track, I’m sure. I’m put it in my Spotify rotation and make sure to subscribe to our channel on Spotify. Mhm. Nice plug. I like that other investors are satisfied. It’s time to hand out some equally real awards as we step into the Office of Moral Victories. That’s right here at MSK. Underperformance isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. But per corporate policy, we’re still required to hand out some hardware. Our first employee of the week goes to Amy Adams Strunk for finally coming to her senses and canning our coach, Brian Callahan. Uh, Zach, we’re no stranger to, uh, discussion boards and posts about, oh, I’m connected to this person. I’ve heard this. I have this source. So according to some threads that I got down, which I really needed you to pull me out of because I was deep in them and it was unhealthy. Uh, somebody who has been reliable in the past and claims to be connected to sources on the team, says that Amy Adams Strunk was finally listening to players and coaches because players actively hated Callahan. An exact quote from a running back on her team. He thinks he knows football because he played Madden while his dad coached. I’m not sure if it was a closed or open session, but we had refs at training camp. Uh, the DB team overheard him have a fifteen minute discussion with the ref while the ref was explaining rules as if he was a child. Learning how addition works in math class. Uh, Amy, the owner of the team, stormed out yesterday from her watch and said, I’m not losing to Mike Vrabel with that coach. Give me anyone else. So I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s fun to think about and for just having the gall to fire a coach who needed to get fired. Congratulations. Amy Adams Strunk, you are my employee of the week. And in the spirit of force positivity, we always give out one more. Zach. Who else managed to do the absolute bare minimum this week? So I am actually going to go outside again. Right. So Browns can’t really highlight anything at this point. I am going to highlight a team that did have some success last year, but overall has been real bad before this. And my employee of the week is Curt Cignetti. So the Indiana Hoosiers head coach out of twenty four total seasons before him since two thousand. Trevor, how many times do you think they had a winning season since two thousand? Um. Seven. Seven. Good guess they had three. Oh, no. Their record in that time was one hundred and three and one eighty one. So a thirty six percent win percentage. He went eleven and two last year. He’s six. And oh this year they just went to Oregon and beat him there. Number three in the country. Mhm. I also dug into it two four seven sports does a all the recruiting. And they have these composite rankings where they put everything together from all the various sites. The team ranking for Indiana is number seventy two. Holy cow. So they are way overperforming. Yes. And to tie this all together there is a connection. Do you know who is an Indiana Hoosier graduate and booster? Oh, no, I, I do not know. You don’t? It’s Mr. Mark Cuban. Oh, of course, of course I should have known. He was such a big fan of Yogi Ferrell, that he brought him on our team and he played for us for a while. Of course, you’ve got this machine now with Curt Cignetti that like he he is an interesting interview. He is completely brash. He’ll just say, Google me. Um, but congrats to him. He’s really turned around that program, so he’s my employee of the week. And while those plaques will probably end up in a clearance bin somewhere, it’s time to shift from recognition to reflection. Let’s head down to the mail room for our standout posts of the week. Trevor Watts landed in your inbox. I have two entries from this week. They are really just sad more than anything. Uh, one of our beat writers, Zach Lyons, posted about the run pass option plays that the coaching staff keeps selling us on, that they’re going to call for cam Ward because that’s where he looks really comfortable. Uh, let’s get the pocket moving a little bit. Let’s get them rolling out. And they swear to us. They swear that they’re gonna do more. Hurry up and pose. So here’s a list of RPO plays by week. We did four for twelve. That was cool. Went back down to three. And then we had the staff saying we’re gonna call more. We’re gonna call more. In week five, they called one and week six they had zero. So they are just keeping him in the pocket for either a second to call a screen pass, or waiting for a play to develop with receivers who cannot get separation and an offensive line who can’t block. And I’ll tell you what, that’s a recipe for disaster. Uh, but our my entry for tweet of the week comes from the folks over at Set the Edge who said the Brian Callahan era will be quickly forgotten. But I will always remember him saying, if we keep playing like that, everything is going to be just fine. He said that after the Cardinals win, which you’ll remember, we needed five different things to happen. So he said that, uh, Set the Edge says after a win to a team that only won because their opponents started slipping on banana peels and had pianos and anvils fall on them mid-game. So. Thank you. Set the edge. That’s exactly right. It’s absolute clown show from our former coach, a true masterpiece of online despair. How about you, Zach? What do you got? All right, I have two submissions this week. Um, this one is from at Tamar, twenty five. He writes I hate the Miami Dolphins, I hate Tua, I hate Chris Greer, I hate Ross, I hate TD, I hate that one with the blue wig. I hate Mike McDonald. Donald. I hate that stadium. I hate the colors. I hate the logo. I hate everything about this horrible freaking franchise. Who’s the lady in the blue? Yeah, who has blue hair? I’m over here going like a super fan. Oh my God, super sorry to coach Tmrw. Um, I have one more. This is from Ari. Uh, he does a lot of sports updates. Pretty well known in the Twittersphere. And it’s, uh, Mike Tomlin’s post game interview after, uh, beating us, and he wanted to make a statement about our general manager. So here it is. You know, to be honest, it was shocking to me. Um, Andrew Berry must be a lot smarter than me or us. Um, because it doesn’t make sense to me, um, to trade a quarterback that you think enough of to make your Opening Day starter to a division opponent that’s hurting in that area? Um, but that’s just my personal feelings. Never have I ever heard an opposing coach call out a GM. We can agree or disagree on Joe Flacco, right? But like to have Mike Tomlin, who is well respected, calling you out in a press conference is absolutely wild. Now, I do give him credit. This is the point that just really grinds my gears. We’re in the preseason, right? The people that were taking the majority of the snaps, Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett, aren’t on a roster. Six games into the season. So you just wasted a whole preseason and then gave Joe Flacco to the Bengals who are begging for a quarterback. So you’re just guaranteeing another, you know, tough game at the end of the season when we have to go to Cincinnati. I mean, it’s Absolutely wild, absolutely wild, poetic, hopeless, and exactly the kind of content that keeps this company afloat. So congrats to this week’s honorees. Your awards are definitely in the mail, right next to our team’s playoff chances. Don’t like those? And helping cover the postage on those awards is our next proud sponsor. This segment will be brought to you by the Baltimore Ravens Turnover Tax Agency, collecting your interceptions, fumbles, and gift wraps for the opponent all in one place. Because when Cooper Rush is passing out the ball, we’ll be here to audit your misery. Cooper rush the answer to the question, what if Lamar Jackson couldn’t run? Cooper. Rush. Thank you to the. Fair enough, fair enough. All right, all right, all right, all right. Meeting agenda says it’s time to step into the break room. No slides, no stats. Just two fans trying to process why we still care. This is a new segment where we take a breather from the official reports and talk like the rest of the office fans, just trying to keep the faith. That’s right Zach. So today let’s chat about what’s been going on with our teams and around sports, maybe with some other teams that we watch or enjoy what it’s like to keep showing up for them and how we somehow convince ourselves it’ll get better. I wanted to start this segment out with a little bit of hope. Okay, so I was looking around the league and at Misery Sports Co. You know, we accept all teams and we have many teams and fan bases that are welcome here and are suffering. So I wanted to just show that there can be a light at the end of the tunnel. The two three actually that I am going to focus on the Jaguars. The Patriots both at four and two. And the bears. The freaking bears are three and two right now. I mean I. Trevor last year Caleb Williams was getting the cam Ward experience. It was just. Yeah. He was getting rocked. Uh, it it offensive line was horrible. Um, there just wasn’t any cohesiveness. And so I want to give you a little bit of hope right there is the potential that cam Ward can still be developed, can still be taken care of. And I just need something to lift my spirit right now because I’m in a dark place with the Browns. Yeah. And I may be wrong on this, but there were times where we had buried Drake Maye, right? I mean, that was it was like, oh, he’s not working out. And now he looks great and can play serviceable quarterback for a four and two team on a gritty team. Man. That’s. Yeah. Who’s building that grit? Trevor. Yeah. Gosh. He was literally with the Browns as well last year. Mike. Really? Yeah. Stefanski brought him in for the entire year as a special advisor, and we somehow let him walk without kicking Stefanski out and putting him in. I mean, to me, that’s kind of the key takeaway is like, it’s more about culture, it’s more about toughness, discipline than it is about X’s and O’s. Like you can find dudes that can call plays, but I just don’t see it with Stefanski either. I just I don’t know, I just don’t know. It really is about building a culture and getting buy in from the players. And like that is obviously where somebody like Mike Vrabel excels like that. He is phenomenal at that. uh, for better or for worse, he will squeeze every ounce of juice out of a player, uh, and get them to give their all. A lot of players love it. A lot of the veterans didn’t love it, uh, when he came in, but he built an incredible culture that was starting to turn around with Mike Munchak. But he he really took it to the next level. Um, I think where he has struggled was, uh, with a little bit of cronyism. He had some really bad coordinators who were his buddies that he could not let go after repeated terrible performances, um, thinking especially to offensive coordinators and special teams coordinators, because he was pretty involved with the defense. Um, so hopefully he’s grown in that. I mean, I want him to do well in New England, uh, between some cronyism ISM and wanting a little too much of control around the roster. Like I’m pretty split. I could see it both ways. On why that was a good. Just because Brian Callahan was the absolute worst pick does not mean that we, you know, needed to let Vrabel go. It just it it hurts looking back on it and seeing what he’s so quickly established. And he has more wind. He has the same number of wins in New England in his first six games than Brian Callahan had in two seasons or a season and a half, whatever. I mean, he’s just it’s been been really, really, really bad. The coach in Jacksonville is a goober, though. Like you remember that video of him going Duval like, that’s I’m waiting for that house of cards to come tumbling down. But I don’t know. I kind of thought, uh, uh, Mike McDaniel, which that poster really didn’t like anymore. No, like he was. He was kind of a goober to like his his culture was questionable. And, you know, looks like that’s not sustainable anymore. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Um, I was wondering. Why do we keep coming back? Like. Like how? I guess. Let me frame it this way. Have you ever gotten close to saying I can’t do it anymore? Let me pick a new team. I have never gotten close to picking a new team. Um, I have certainly fast forwarded games and parts of seasons right where you’re just like, okay, we’re zero and twelve. I don’t need to watch this game, right? I you know what this is? This is an existential question. And, um, I think, why do I keep coming back and watching the Browns? There’s a piece of it that, like it is nostalgic. It kind of brings you back to, like, when you were a kid and you first took up your fandom. Um, there’s a piece of it that’s like, okay, well, with the Browns, like, it’s it is close to home. It’s Ohio. It’s, you know, and it’s just like I have poured so many years into this thing. Yeah. I cannot miss whenever the lightning strikes. If it’s when I’m fifty, sixty, whenever something good will happen. I don’t know when. And so it’s a combination of all of that. And like seeing that there is a path because I know that there’s a path with the Browns. They had a fantastic draft this last year. They had probably five starters that are legitimate. So it’s like, okay, I saw something there. If we can just keep building on this, then maybe. But it’s it’s the same thing I’ve said every single every year. Here. Trevor. Yeah, I totally get that. It really is the small amount of hope that maybe they can figure this out. And also, combined with what you said with I have to be here when, if when they do like I, I can’t not miss it because it would be the season where it’s like, okay, let me switch to, you know, the Seahawks or whoever, wherever I, you know, I have some connection to this other team. And then that very next season, it’s like the Titans put it together. It’s like crap. So it is that that hope that gets you. And I don’t know there’s something enjoyable. This is kind of sick. I think I might have something wrong with me, but there is something enjoyable about being a fan of the team that nobody thinks is going to do anything. Because when they mess around and make some noise, it feels really good. like nobody thought. Yeah, nobody thought we could do this. And look at us now like that. Titans run where we made the playoffs and won some divisions. Like, it was just fun because nobody was, you know, giving them a lot of respect. And we were just messing around and making noise and and it was fun. So like, there’s something enjoyable about having no expectations and then occasionally being able to clear that very, very low bar. Yep. It’s what makes Misery Sports Co so special. Yeah. It’s a special place, man. Special place. Um, how about the Mariners? I know that we covered them. You covered them, uh, in the in the deep dive. That was another one. I mean, they’re they’re up at least two. One. I know the the third game’s going on right now. And they weren’t looking great, but they already had a two zero lead. Yeah. And they won both of them in Toronto. Uh, they’re a fun team. That’s a that’s a fun team to watch. I really, really hope that whoever comes out of the Al wins that World Series. I don’t want the Dodgers to win again. That would. I really don’t want to see you look like a freaking machine. They they yes, they are a machine. And it looks like they’re walking to another one. But I really hope whoever comes out of the Al can win because I. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this on the podcast, but I’m a big Cubs fan. Not big anymore that, you know, I’m a Cubs fan. To find out how you will, I’m a fan. Uh, you know, I recently learned our roster after we made the playoffs, so I’m. I’m a huge Cubs fan. Uh, but I’ve. I hate the Brewers. Um, with with a passion and something about it. Wisconsin sports fans. And we have a couple in our life. They are just grating when their team is doing well. I don’t like it. And so anytime like Wisconsin or um, not. Maybe not the bucks. The bucks are pretty great. I like Giannis, he’s pretty great. Um but like anytime they’re doing well I just they’re passionate. They’re passionate. And it comes out it comes. They’re sweating the cheese curds and they just yeah they go crazy man. When they watch they’re crazy. They go crazy I will say I’ve I have a carve out for the Packers just with. Um eyebrows over there. He could have been our head coach, Matt LaFleur. Oh. And now he’s. Yeah. He came through and coached for us and then went up there. He could have been another Titans coach. Um, but I you know they’re they’re okay. So mostly it’s whiskey basketball football Or the Brewers just drives me insane. So good luck to Seattle. I hope they win it. Speaking of Seattle, um, if they did win it, I wonder if things would change for their fans because, uh, my question to you is when your team wins a championship, which we’ve had that happen a few times. Um, does it make you feel different or less invested? Do things change after a championship at all? Um, yeah. My my experience with that was with the Cavaliers. Right. So we of course had one of the, you know, greatest players in NBA history. But we never could do anything with him. And eventually we got over the hump. We won the championship I you know it was incredible. It was awesome. But at the same time like it went back to the grind because he left. He went he went to quote unquote greener pastures in LA. And it’s like it I don’t think it changed anything for me because I want to see them back on, on top. And it’s been a while now like we’re coming up on oh my goodness, like nine or ten years since Cleveland won that championship. Like time. Time goes so quickly with these seasons, and especially when you’re part of one of these less, uh, sexy franchises. Yeah, it’s harder to build it, even even with Cleveland now, they have a great team, right? But it’s still like, how do we get over that next level to win the Eastern Conference, to compete with someone like an OKC? I think if Seattle wins, it changes. It’s almost like a relief. It’s a release, right, of all of that suffering. But you still have that history. You still have the scars. And we will celebrate with you at Misery Sports Co. Yes, we will. We will party with you. I hope they do it. I hope they do it because they they honestly deserve it. I mean, it’s been a long time coming. Uh, super pumped for them to get this far. Hope they can get over the hump. So I mentioned some teams that when they’re doing well, it kind of is a little more grating for me. But I wonder, being fans of two terrible teams, in fact, probably the worst teams in football with those stats you shared earlier in this episode, how does it feel when you read other people talking bad about your team? Like, does that do you laugh along? Does it affect you at all? How do you is it in one ear, out the other? How do you handle that? I am so numb to all of this that someone can, you know, shoot something out in a text message and tell me how terrible they are. Yeah, it just doesn’t it really doesn’t impact me. And in fact, I welcome and embrace it. And I want to try to one up it at that point, like, oh, well actually you forgot about this one stat where yes, it’s so bad. But like I, you know with the Browns it’s like, yeah, they suck. Now if I go to the playoffs and get killed by the Houston Texans like we did a couple years ago, then like, yeah, if someone’s like, dude, your team sucks like that to me is a little bit. Yeah. It’s like, well wait a second. Like we had a decent season. Like, right, I need to celebrate this. We’re typically typically awful. Yeah. Yeah it it it does say something that we’re so numb to it there there will be some the same way for the most part. Yes. There’s some times where I’m like, I know my team sucks more than you know. My team sucks. Like like you said you were, you know, introduced to this darkness. We were born in it and molded by it. Like, I know my team sucks more than you know. My team sucks. So sometimes when I read it and I’m. It’s probably my fault for being more sensitive getting triggered. But there are times where I read something online and I’m like, what the like? Why are you coming after us? Like, we know we suck. Like we don’t need some national person or some from another team to be like, oh my gosh, have you seen what the Titans are doing? Like, yeah, bitch, we’re living that. That’s my every day. Like I don’t need it from you. So like sometimes when I see the bigger talking heads, if they can spare a second to talk about the Titans or if it’s like a long thread about like, oh, let’s all look how much a Titans suck. I’m like, I don’t need this from you. And that’s why I like Misery Sports Co like the idea, right? Because we’re trying to learn more about these fan bases. But we’re not we’re not like legitimately we’re not poking fun. We’re not mocking. We’re just trying to like, understand and bring more fans in because there are so many fan bases that feel the same way, that have never reached the mountaintop, haven’t even gotten close. Yep. And so it’s like we we want to understand those fan bases. And I think there is a respect, right. You’re going to another tribe and you’re like understanding what makes them tick. It’s it’s kind of cool. Yes. We’re all in this together. We really are. Well, if that didn’t qualify as group therapy, I don’t know what does. Let’s take a quick break to hear from another one of our sponsors. From the makers of Will Smith’s diss tracks comes a new comes a new family therapy sweeping the nation. It’s. Let’s air our trauma together. That’s right. With trauma together, forget intimate conversations with loved ones in which you slowly start to rebuild trust after one of you sleeps with your kids friends. Now you can talk about it on a podcast in front of everyone. All of your friends will ask you, are you alright? And after the seventh time someone asks you that today, you’ll start to wonder am I? And that’s when you’ll find out the true wonder of trauma together. No take backs. You just gotta. You just. You deal with it because everyone heard you. And. And now we all know. So just. You did it and it’s over. And we all know. And maybe you shouldn’t have. You know, maybe you shouldn’t have done that. But you did. So thanks trauma together you’re going to get smacked in the face by Will Smith. Yeah. You’re gonna be number two. They went on a podcast and they talked about it and I can’t get over it. It was years ago and I’m not over it. Oh my gosh. I need you to get Sarah so I can put you in a video. Getting smacked by Will Smith. Getting smacked. Oh my gosh. Well, I want to give a big thank you to Will Smith specifically proving that someone, one person out there actually cares about us continues to invest in us and doesn’t really care what we say about them. No he doesn’t. That’s the great part about it. He just doesn’t care anymore. Before we wrap up today’s meeting, let’s end on a high note with our pep talks. Missouri Sports Co, we believe in leaving every meeting with a little hope, even if it’s wildly misplaced. I actually, uh, this is interesting because I haven’t thought about my pep talk yet. Trevor forgot to disclose that. Perfect. But what? Just see what comes naturally. Yeah. I mean, if I were to give a pep talk right now, it would be to the rookies on the Cleveland Browns roster. So we’ve got Dillon Gabriel. We’ve got, uh, Quinshon Judkins. Schlesinger is a great linebacker. Mason Graham’s doing stuff on the on the D-line. Fannin as a tight end like they’re producing. Hey, guys, listen up. We’re in for the long haul. No matter what happens this season, just brush it off. Prepare yourself, get ready for next season. Continue to do the little things. Catch the ball, maybe, I don’t know, um, the little things. I don’t know if you have to you don’t have to necessarily listen to Kevin Stefanski, but just keep producing, doing whatever you need to do to put the ball in the end zone or to stop the other team. And honestly, they’re doing a great job. So keep it up. Browns rookies and I didn’t say this yet, but should. Hang in there, buddy. You’re going to get your time. It’s a long season, brother. It’s coming. Yeah, and that’s my pep talk, Trevor. So, uh, what do you got for us this week? You know, I thought about, um, a couple different pep talks. I thought about pepping up miss Amy again. Uh, just thanking her, but she got employee of the week, so I don’t feel like she needs a pep talk. She’s already overachieving. Um, I’m going to rewind. I have no idea where this person is, but I’m going to give a pep talk to Todd Downing. I don’t suppose that name rings any bells. Yeah, does not perfect as it shouldn’t. So I want to take you back. A few years ago, uh, we were playing a game in green Bay. Mike Vrabel was our coach. Uh, and we beat the brakes off the Packers. We scored forty something points. Life was good. We were a few games over five hundred like we were maybe, I don’t know, seven and two, seven and three, something like that. And then Todd Downing, who was somewhat maligned but got us to score a bunch of points, he went out and got drunk and got arrested for DUI. So after that DUI, things crashed out. His offense got historically bad and he was fired. And Mike Vrabel eventually stopped being the head coach. And we have not been good since. So we like to say around here things were good until Todd Downing got drunk in green Bay. So wherever you are today, Todd Downing, I want you to know, um, that you are important. You matter because you single handedly changed the course of my favorite NFL team, and not for the better. So I want you to know how important you are, um, that the choices that you make in life matter and that they control the happiness, potentially, of dozens of us Titans fans that are out there. You you had a lot of control. So I want to thank you for that. And I want to, uh, whatever high school team you’re probably coaching now or maybe a prep school or something. Um, I, you know, I want you to to know that people care about that. Have a, have a great game out there. And if you ever want to get back into coaching, don’t just don’t. Oh thank you. That’s a heck of a pep talk. I’m ready to run through a brick wall. You know, I’m just hoping that, like, at some point we we make it big and then these, these folks just start listening from the beginning. And Todd Downing’s just like, what the hell? Like catching strays in this? Yeah. You’re talking about me in the first five episodes are working through a lot of trauma while we explore other fan bases. You know, there’s a lot there’s a lot of trauma. Well, that’ll do it for this week’s meeting of Misery Sports Company. We hope you’ll become employees here by subscribing to the podcast, following us on X and checking out our new website, Misery Sports. Com. Until next week I’m Zach and I’m Trevor. See you next time.