Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac on Wrexham’s Premier League Dream, Phil Parkinson’s Leadership, and the Magic of the Racecourse Ground: Men in Blazers 08/14/26

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I think when you go to that stadium and you enter that church, there's been so much waves of change

that have happened on that pitch. But there is one thing that has never changed and that's football.

There are great grandfathers and young people who left us too soon,

whose ashes have been scattered across that pitch. That's something that is so much bigger than us

and it's something that I think that the folks at the race course, the folks in rec some

that relationship they have with that place. I think it's one of the most beautiful things in the world.

Here to speak about the challenge ahead on the season's eve.

To join you to welcome back Mr. Ryan Reynolds and Mr. Rob Mc. Hello Raj.

Hi Raj. Nice to see you. It's a joy to be with both of you. It's an incredible time for your club.

Earlier this week, a couple from South Central Texas announced they are moving to rexham

purely because they fell in love with your show, fell in love with the club, the town, the people.

Ryan, remind us what you said on Twitter. I guess that I thank God they didn't watch Chernobyl.

But then I realized that's probably very insensitive. I mean, Chernobyl may in fact now be a

bustling metropolis full of life and a little of concrete, maybe not a lot of the watch fargo.

That's another rough, easiest place to live. There's been an accident. No need to panic. There was a fire.

The couple said welcome to rexham. This is quite beautiful. Give them a feeling they haven't had

anywhere in the USA. It is kind of amazing that what you have been involved in, a butterfly flapped

its wing in North Wales and a zillion-listing materialized in Texas. Yeah, I think so. It's a feeling,

right? I mean, they said it best. It is a feeling. Everything's everything. What's happened in

rexham is a feeling that has been created and shared all over the world. I guess even a couple in

Texas is not impervious to that feeling. When you started this journey, this rexham journey,

five years ago, could you ever have even anticipated this truly life-changing impact that you would

have had in not one but two countries? Oh, wow. No, I don't think we could have ever anticipated,

especially the specifics of it, but where we are has always been a part of the conversation

from day one. We knew that if we would start the journey by saying we don't know what we're doing,

but we believe our heart is in the right place and we're going to do our best and invest in this

community and invest in this club. That we think good things can happen and good things have happened.

They just happen on a very accelerated timeline. That's a testament to the people of rexham

and the fact that they have all these amazing stories to tell and that people all over the world

want to watch them. Do you have any advice for the couple from Texas, Rob? Do you see anything you

think they should know? Wow. Yes, the weather can change 20 degrees and go from sunny to raining

within minutes, but it'll never get too hot and it'll never get too cold. I'm sold. I'm here in

98 degrees London. We're all moving to rexham at the end of the day. Look, we are less than a week

from the start of rexham season, second straight season in the championship, the second tier,

seventh place finish, last season, highest ever in the club's 161 year history. The truth is you

came agonising close to the Premier League playoffs. An incredible run down the back of the season

meant you could qualify on the last day at whom against middle as per for the playoffs. The game

was like a rollercoaster right up to the 43rd minute. Rexham had one foot in the playoffs,

middle as per for all of us. They equalised. Another final whistle, Rexham was just one place. I

think with two points behind hull in six place hull actually ended up making it to the Premier League.

Gent, can you summon those emotions you felt at the end of that journey? You came so close,

you fell just short. What did you experience at the final whistle? Was it disappointment? Was it

relief? Was it pride? How would you describe it? All three. I felt like we're in a healthy

enough way. I want to speak for Rob because we have so many things in common. But there are a few

key things I think that we actually don't have in common but help each other with. These are

things that I might find deficit in that I sort of feed off of and get from Rob in a really

great way and then there are many things that he probably doesn't get from me at all. But

or care. Or care. I think I gave him COVID four years ago. That's about it. I think I have a pretty

healthy sense of divorce from that kind of rabid, frothy mouth sort of psychotic level of competition

that each and every one of these players have been imbued with since the day they were born

and the staff and the coaching staff. So I found myself in a moment of obscene pride at the end of

that season and feeling like here we are. If you could have looked at us five years ago,

we could have told you we'd finish in seventh or asterisk six-lice the championship league. I think

anybody would have just traded about any kind of football god gold that they've had at that

stashed away at that point to be in that place. I just kept reminding myself of that. I felt

incredibly emotional. I mean I really kind of broke down on the way home just trying to get

get myself together. I've been watching that last match upstate in New York and

was headed back down to the city after I just found out it was just a complete emotional rack.

It was just really got a sense of the whole journey for so many years to that moment. And I

thought it was quite beautiful and painful but mostly beautiful. I love asterisk six.

Hard thing to say asterisk six.

When I just landed it then there was a sense of enormous pride. But I know

how tiny my life is. I was watching many times. What you've just said is so true. The past five

years have been so dizzying and you almost judged by your own high standards. There was a headline

in the Guardian in last week where they described you a seventh place finish. They said it was

quote a setback for the club which was pretty sensational. I'm quite funny.

When you remember that when you took over the team I think it was officially February 2021.

They were in the 13th season in the fifth tier. But Rob what was the biggest lesson you learned

about that? I guess about life or about football from last season in that footballing night fight

played out by prison rules that is the championship. Well that we belong there first of all

because that was a big question going into the season. We didn't know how we were going to perform.

It was it was such a new team. There were so many new players that filled one to bring in and we

knew it was going to take time to gel and it did. But when they did man did they go on a tear and

it felt like wow we really do belong here. And I think that's an important part of the journey

to dispense with the imposter syndrome that this kind of success is not for the town of Rexham

that it's not for the club because it is. It really truly is. And the fact that they were able

to prove that to themselves and prove it to the club to prove it to the town was really important.

And then also in the end I that we actually didn't get eliminated after our game. There was

whole city was still playing and if they drew or lost then we actually still had a chance. So I

flipped over and and and of course I was rooting for a hall to lose in that moment. But when they won

and I and they cut to the stands and we were watching all of the whole fans supporters crying screaming

the ownership box was all falling over themselves with excitement and this is this was not to win.

This was just to qualify for the playoffs and I can't help it. I don't know if it's the

softy in my heart but like I too can echo and went Ryan saying I'm intensely competitive

but that that fire that that I felt maybe in my 20s is no longer there in the same way. I was joy

I actually and I promise you I felt this. I was happy for them. I felt joy for them because I

know what that feels like and I was of course disappointed that it wasn't us but I truly felt like

wow they get to somebody gets to experience that and I wish it was us but it's not and I'm happy

it was them. So do you are such empathic man I mean you whatever I am 97% made up of shot and

for you but you guys you guys are like whatever the opposite I'm sure the Germans have a word for it

but I'm fascinated by that. I mean like that's the problem is like we're we're yeah I mean we're

doing our best but it is a cutthroat business and Ryan and I are not we're just not cutthroat

we're highly competitive we just we want to do it the way that we set out to do it and it's been

successful so far so I feel like we got to keep going with that. I'm not even drinking soda right now

this is the blood of my enemies. That's warm little metallic. This is actually on drinking test

testosterone right now because I got it I'm I'm both going up to be ready for the journey. If you

go back and look you'll see that Rob and I every time we've been promoted or won anything of

significance in the beautiful game we've always been the picture of stoicism.

No emotion at all because the game is the winner the game is the winner at the end of the day.

Anyway you're drinking the blood of your enemies you're drinking test testosterone certainly I might

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Last season watching you you beat Ipswich. You beat Coventry City two teams and now on now

in the Premier League. The game against Chelsea in the FA Cup where you taught them into extra time

now it's an ecstatic experience and I do wonder does does watching it the stakes have become higher.

You know the the the proximity to this ridiculous dream that you both had when you be

estes all when they're in the next. Oh we're going to get to the Premier League. You are so close.

It's championship football more agonizing to watch. Does football get harder to watch

lives the higher up you get the stakes so much more seismic. Does it almost does it does it stop

feeling fun or does it feel the same. I don't know I I feel like I'm I handle the highs and the

lows a little bit better now and not because I want to I have to. You know this beard was

chestnut brown at the beginning of the transfer window. And here you know you got to just take a

step back from some of this stuff for Italy you alive. So I don't know I feel like I'm a little

bit I'm a little bit more even about it because I see this sort of this whole thing so far has been

a couple steps forward a step back a couple steps forward a couple steps back you know it's been

that sort of cadence since the beginning and you know we are making a measured an incredibly

measurable difference in the town as we've gone on this journey on a football pitch. So you know

you just sort of see how both are just benefiting so exponentially from all of this and you you

can't help but kind of mitigate some of that pain that you might feel and some of those highs

because you think tomorrow might be a different day you know so I don't know Rob I don't know

Rob feels bad. I do enjoy as much rope. Oh absolutely. What is it you enjoy about the watching?

I would say that the games there's just fewer goals scored so I missed the you know six four or

five four game against Dover in the National League. I do miss those big shoot up. Those are super fun

and I feel like there's a lot of nil nil draws or one one nil you know nail biders which

are can still be fun but they're not as enjoyable and it does create a lot more tension at the end

of games because you could be dominating as we just saw in the world cup you could be dominating the

entire game but only be up by by one goal so it does create a lot of tension at the end but as far

as stakes go I feel like the stakes were higher in the beginning than they are now way that like

by a factor of 10 but only insofar as we really truly were walking into the abyss we didn't

know we didn't even know what we didn't know we just knew as as well documented in the first episode

that there's a version of the story where we are villains villains like truly we have ruined

something that is beautiful in the heart of north whales those were the moments that were

terrifying because we we just didn't we couldn't I don't know I wouldn't be able to live with

myself if I knew that we had gone in there and done something like that and I believe that now

after five years that we've proven to ourselves and proven to the town what our intentions are

and and how we go about things and so you're always going to win or lose and you're going to win

and lose it's going to go up and down and it's going to be you know a fester famine but again as

long as our foundation is there and that we are we are always sticking to our original mission

to make the community proud then the stakes remain exactly the expectation was you know set so

indefinitely in that first press conference when you even say the words premier league and there's

a wave of titan laughter that kind of extends up the stands of the press conference out the front

doors of the race course ground and across whales and then eventually all of the UK you know you go

well the expectations are not mighty out there and and I think that that in some ways really

worked in our favor like it really allows us to have that thing I've mentioned earlier where I

look at and go out five years from now five years ago if you could have looked at where we are

right now where wrex and aFC is well known so well known that a couple in Texas decide to I think

burn their home to the ground I made red there are two whales to wreck whales north whales

well you know I would have probably said you're crazy great one Rob what would you say

rowing's best trait is his a football owner oh god uh his integrity his kindness I would actually

know I would flip that I would say his kindness is number one because I think you have to start with

kindness um to build integrity and his curiosity in fact you know what strike all of those

I think his curiosity is number one because he is 100% comfortable and confident to say I don't know

which is the first step to building all all of those other things that's that is how you can

build curiosity but you have to be curious about how other people are feeling how to read a room

to even understand how to build empathy and compassion um and so I would say number one his curiosity

right what's the worst trait Rob Maccas as a football owner the worst trait Rob Maccas as a food

Raj come up but no it is integrity and curiosity worst we have too much get too much integrity come on

dance question no I'm gonna I guess here's the thing though I'm gonna just answer how I want to

answer it because this is my podcast wait no it's not um Rob is a guy who I honestly believe that

it had we pursued something else together that that the the the the the the factor the X factor that

made it work the engine is is is Rob I really do believe that Rob is he's an incredibly inspiring

person but and I've said this many times before on the record that if you want something to get

something done tell Rob Mac that it's impossible just say that's not man you can't do that or no there's

no way that can be done and you'll watch a vane go think in his forehead and he'll just somehow

manifest a reality in which that looked easy and I think that that to me is is is really awful

as a dream I mean I'm just repackaging this how it works you know the vane he's talking about

yeah it's somewhere up in here but I feel like amongst a a long list of things that I've learned

from Ryan and that he's reflected back to me recently that really feels good because it feels

like I am learning and growing is that like you know fewer and fewer people in our sphere are

willing to say no to us it just happens it starts to it's insidious but it does happen or give

us the full truth or like fully read us in to what a situation is they just want to protect us you

know from from things and so it facilitates lots of things in our life and and in some ways that's

great and in other ways it's really corrosive and terrible because it doesn't give you the ability to

get honest feedback and grow so you really rely on people closest to you who you respect to give you

the the the real the truth and you know a few years ago I was on a call with some people in the

club and you know I was probably being sharp I know I was being sharper than I probably should have

been and we hung up and I saw that Ryan was calling me back and I picked it up and he said very kindly

hey man like we're partners in this and I just want to point something out to you um you know I don't

like I don't love communicating to people like that and oftentimes when you speak you are speaking

on behalf of us and I just want to make sure you're getting that that feedback because I don't

think what you're trying to communicate is what you communicated and I was like floored because

hey I was so grateful that he would that he would do that and pointed out because I was on it was

unconscious to me I was sort of like pushing so hard um to to get what I wanted or needed in the

moment that I was disregarding a lot of people's feelings and it's not because I lack empathy which

is what he knows that it's that I had a blind spot and I've learned so much about how to navigate

those things from him and even though yes I've got lots of things I want to get done there's a

way to do it because I've seen it by example by literally one of the greatest people in the world

to do it um to build something very large and very successful um but with integrity and with a

quiet voice a very quiet voice um and not a big stick um just intelligence and curiosity and integrity

I'm just trying to know that I'm dying inside after everything Rob just said I just want

out there and it shows the audience by the way they're gonna cut that out they don't

doesn't let me say it because like you can cut it out if you want but like I have never had a friend

like I have with that man like there Rob Mac I really have it and I'm not saying that just to

to hit the ball back after he did all those things because Rob is the guy that cares for people

and I you use an example where I would say that I care for you in a way that um is that's caring I

think like that's how you care for someone you love is that you you you you reflect them back in

a way that maybe they're not ready for and Rob has done that for me many times many times in which

that have like intervened in moments in my life that really helped write the course I was uh

clearly off and um I it's harder and harder these days especially men of advancing age uh to have

friends that genuinely care about you friends the way you did when you were 12 you know what I mean

like that that that's something that I don't take for granted all and Rob cares when it's when

no one's looking you know and that's a that's a that's a different level of friendship now go on with

our little talk sports we're varying into you that you tell it to keep going real can you just

take that whole section and just send it to me so we have it for each other it's a nice it was a nice

glazing back and forth across the country and uh you know I mean I'll end it with this when I was

just recently with Ryan he turned to me and said hey buddy um you have a a giant uh booger hanging

out of your nose and I said oh my god thank god and I did and I wiped it off and he's the kind of

guy who will tell you when you I'm there I we all know what you did you did this ends in a

Burton Burton early bedroom sit you you know this guys I gotta wipe the lens off guys this is

oh my god to end it when both either of you are the graves are going down it's like genuinely we

just play this part of this is like this is like we always can always get there with you jokes on you

I died six years ago how do you like me now how do you like me now oh yeah god six police

asterisk in the championship it's not so bad guys because at the end of the day children watching

we're all gonna die I want to talk very quickly about Phil Parkinson a genu could launch a

duo lingo course and swear in as a foreign language five years 41 days championships longer serving

manager think only Michaela Tesseror Arsenal has been at a club longer than Phil he is a singular

human being how is he different now as a leader um as a manager um than he was when you both first

grown a lot I think he's I think he would tell you that he's grown into his role a lot you know I

think he's a guy that doesn't you know I think you know there's this I think a lot of the reason

there's so much turnover is just a thing called the Dunning Kruger effect which has kind of been

something I would say an arguably that's been the secret to our success it's when people who

who basically in a nutshell overestimate their competence at things you know and I think that

the great leaders in this world know who to draw from and know when to ask for help no one to say

I don't know and really they start to understand the expansiveness of their own echoing I don't know

in life you know and I think Phil is one of those guys who is just constantly feeding and understands

that that's a you know that's a huge recipe for success and I think that's I would just venture

the guess that that's that's the operating system inside Phil Parkinson and the secret to to his

I don't know how in the 60 years uh uh uh coach over reximathy Rob I want to ask you about the

incoming the change within the squad this season big one uh reported record signing adding goalkeeper

Anthony Patterson in from Sunderland clubs in the championship often try and invest heavily in

strikers on the goal scourers on the gents who can deliver at the other end what's had rexim to

invest so seriously uh in that side of the field well uh as you know Raj we we try to stay away from

all football related decisions uh just from a from a strategy standpoint um we approve budgets and

then we were helpful insofar as we're happy to reach out to players and we have a great relationship

with all the players or incoming players to to get them to understand what the culture is but

we really truly rely on Phil and he's done so from the very beginning it's not that he just built a

team he built the entire uh culture at at the club on the pitch and so we're just always listening to

whatever he wants and what he what he asks and then we try to give him the resources to go and

and and execute on that if you add the magical power to some one player any player in the world

for rexim who would he be and i know you phone up the players on occasion rob you're still the great

seducer what would you say to them i tried yesterday i tried to seduce a uh a player in that

directs him and i did not succeed so i'm gonna leave that to rob from now on i i now i understand

you're the great seducer rob well i guess no i don't know i think what we tried to what we tried

i mean what we do say um is we're we're as honest as we can possibly be which is that

we want to win and we want to win right now and and that's what it's a funny it's a funny thing

that we're always talking about where we're just not zero some people um but we're highly

competitive we want to win we just we don't want to win at all or any cost but believe us when we

say we want to win the championship go to the premier league become the best because that that

is what the entire endeavor of football is is about but it's not just winning it's about becoming

the best version of yourself on a day to day basis in every coach every every one of the greatest

players of all time i've had the pleasure of talking to tom Brady quite a bit about this and

asked him all the same questions that everybody are always asking him and his answers are always

the same which is you wake up every day and you try to just become a better version of yourself

become the best version of yourself and then the results will follow and we give people space at

rexham to do that and then we shine a giant spotlight on them and say okay all of the work that

you've put in the whole world now can watch you do that so all of those reps when you were six

and seven and eight years old and your parents were driving in the rain for three hours and and

investing in you to get to this moment well right now in this moment you have the ability to

demonstrate all of that work and passion and you can do it for a global audience here is the spotlight

go young man go is usually what we say something to that effect when you look at the roster

of players going to the season i think it's just defender max clew earth in part the club longer

than you have he was in the academy i think when you both talk over what about rexham feels like

the same to you has the same vibe as it did five years ago oh i think that's a great question

that i would say that it's the intimacy within that stadium oh that's exactly what i was going to say

yeah i think when you go to that stadium and you walk through those doors and you enter that church

there's been so much waves of change that have happened on that pitch and that have happened

outside the walls of that stadium in that town but there is one thing that has never changed and

that's football and that is the thing that is on that pitch and that is there are great grand

fathers and great-grandfathers and young people who left us too soon who's ashes have been scattered

across that pitch there are you know it really does feel like a church and the the kind of spirits

of those people that have it's meant so much to so much so that they've said that the last thing

i want you to do with my vessel is scattered across that pitch you know um

that's something that is so much bigger than us there's so much bigger than anything we could ever

imagine and it's something that i think that the folks at the race course the folks in rexam that

have been going there long before we were ever had anything to do with it they all know that

and they always have and they always will know that i think that relationship they have with that

place and everything that's happened within that cathedral is something that is i wish i could know

on the level they know and i mean never i'll die trying and chasing it but i i think it's one of

the most beautiful things in the world when things are running smoothly security usually is

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terms apply a mentor that um i want to finish by looking at the season ahead very quickly because

since you both took over rexam you've always said and yet hit this earlier the premier league was

the ultimate goal is you said everybody laughed ain't the laughing is died down it's gone from

the two of you being the only ones who maybe believed it like me saying i want to go to the moon

you know too many people feeling it many people joining that journey many people wishing

alongside you i think is probably the the way i'd say it you'll one step below the premier league

promised land you're so bloody close you can smell early in harland sweat you can you can glimpse

mckelar teth's head gel what you're most looking forward to about this season to come visiting the race

course and getting that feeling that ryan was just talking about which which you get every time

every time we enter and exit the same exact way we did from day one and that feeling um right before

a match i don't care if it's a preseason match if it's a if it's a playoff game if it's a

an f a cup final it it or semi final it that feeling is unmatched and that's what i'm most looking

forward to i missed the games though this feels like the longest offseason we've ever had it does

we got us i know it the season for most sports just i mean this is a ridiculously small window

but i feel like what the hell is i i feel like a year what the world count did it ruin it for everyone oh

i think it's i think we all know what a disappointment that was for the sport

i mean i was just i know it really was amazing to see how much the united states

canada and you know have the uptick you know i think mexico always knew uh but yeah it's it's

pretty wild i mean it has it's like eating up so much of the air it is incredible for this club

game to return which team you're most looking forward to facing and isn't i guess i'm asking is

it tom braids mesmerizingly white teeth that haunt you would like to see before you go to sleep

that you see in your eyes you'll i mean it's always a full moon when he smiles at night

just giving you high beams right there uh that is it i'm telling you right now though

it's a very handsome man very handsome you would yeah

yeah i'm really gonna yeah tom Wagner too both of those just the tombs

very very good the two tombs yeah yeah sure am i looking forward to playing i i can't i can't say

there's any one team well certainly Birmingham it's just been fun um as a part of uh of the experience

just to know those owners so well and um and to be able to to go to the games together and sort of

shake hands and have a drink and have fun and then kind of hate each other for 90 minutes and then

afterwards go back to the pub and have a good time and talk about workouts or whatever tom talks about

um but yeah i mean other than that um i i don't know i'm just i mean anxious

to get to get started my answer is card of city because that's that's that's that's who we're playing

next week so let me see i think i'll get it it's gonna be interesting hmm yeah quick one then i've

got one more for both of you where were rex and finish this season in your heart in in our hearts

top six in the room you're not having this mathematically can that happen no no

i mean i mean my priest was telling me no just whatever you say a six year old girl with my last name

um she says nope i don't i'm not i'm not gonna play that game rock might but i won't uh i i value

my heart too much roach yeah rope you're not gonna play that game you're asking where they're going

to finish in our heart which leaves us with a very easy answer which is always number one in our

hearts that you care where do we end on the table i don't know that's up to the the players and fill

you're gonna be point five just a scosh past one scoosh is a word i've never used before but

wait question everyone football is asking seduce marie kill steven fletcher ben foster change

McLean can't kill any of those guys like what i mean McLean is unkillable uh

yeah it's her name made true um yep so seduce or marry McLean i like this

poignantly kind of correct seduce marriage

rob is the great seduct as he knows you said there's a six year old with your name standing right by you

something you know what i mean she's fine she's heard much worse i god why roach i mean

you know we got we got fletcher we got uh uh McLean and we got foster yeah the answer is gonna be

polygamy yeah yeah yeah i'm talking like early turn of the century 150 year ago shakers

community that we're all uh just platonically living together until we all just

divulge we're all tradwis last question for you both rob last game of the american tool in your hometown

Philadelphia rexham sundaland ultimately welcome to rexham playing sundaland till our die the two

documentaries in fact their documentary was the one uh you know in the mythology of rexham it

propelled you inspired you i want to know the answer is too how great was that for you to be

sitting there watching it was wild uh people people think i'm exaggerating when i say this i had

70 members of my family at the game what 70 sorry that that's actually not even accurate because

i was not counting kateland and my two boys so 73 members of my family that would be an all-time

stabbing death if i tried to do that like multiple casualties just a whole mess yeah 73 members of my

family it's it was wild and uh also it's right on the waterfront and you could see from our vantage

looking out of the stadium you could see the dock where my grandfather was a long shorman and where

he shipped out of when he was in the navy on for world war two i mean it was a very uh emotional

and profound experience for all for my entire family you gave a really beautiful pregame speech

which i didn't encourage anyone to find it you talked about the connection between the two towns

their economic plight and you know the shipbuilding that you're related to from sundaland

sense of connection football can bring and you finished it by saying these are your words

when underdog teams play everyone in this stadium comes from a place it was built from blood

sweat tears from our grandparents and great grandparents who we just want to make proud

and in that same spirit of community i'm so proud to introduce sundaland versus rexam when did all

this come to you because it really was beautiful and it really was inspiring look everything is

storytelling um everything is trying to find meaning and connection in what we're doing all day long

we wake up and once our basic needs are met we're then out creating a story of why things matter

why our life matters why we belong on on the planet and i just felt like a little bit of context

would be important to the story and to say hey these two towns these two clubs uh everybody in the

stadium they may be competitors for the next 90 minutes but um we're all human beings all trying

to do our best and uh there's a connective tissue that i just want to make sure that as the world

seems to get further and further divided although the world has been divided since humans have been

around um but now because we have access to these devices that allow us to communicate so yeah we've

really behaved since we picked those up yeah right i mean like an elegant form of communication um

that i i have myself i have victimized other people with this stupid machine um but i i just i feel like

reminders uh through story not through not through um lecture or uh or classrooms but just

reminders that we're all human beings all trying to do our best and that we're connected by

each other it would sound so hokey but i i think about this all the time that we are all descendants

of the first beings that ever lived and we all seven billion of us get to live together at the same

time the odds of all of that happening are astronomical and i just don't want to spend my time

on this planet wasting it by uh by by being divisive or hating other people i want to be

competitive because that's the way we're engineered and then i i want to live in a i don't know

in a mental state of abundance not zero song the final speech is a Pulitzer prize winner for

poetry candidate Ryan last one for you i think you won a Nobel Prize for poetry for your team

talk in the second to last game of last season it was it was genuinely w8 Jordan word they

Ryan we i last talked to you around the world cup final we were looking at lamina mar 19 years of age

i said to you what would you do when you were 19 i was working uh driving a fork lift at the safe way

occasionally back in sarah maglocland's groceries if we went back to that time and i told you man

you would be bringing joy with the championship team called rexham finding the vana in north whales

obviously you we have would have had many questions so what does this whole journey teach you about

about life ultimately well you know there's a big part of it you just want to do you know

confirm we must be in the sim uh but i you know that would be a cop out i think you know i i i can't

look it i can't go back and think in my whole life as i look back at everything that led to this moment

now like how on earth would any one person deserve to experience some of the things that i've

been lucky enough to experience i mean that but i look back i never had an expectation for myself

i really didn't it wasn't that i didn't have any self esteem or belief in myself it was that i

i didn't i never really settled on what the one thing was i meant to do this one thing and i never

had that when i've ended never really moved to los angeles i didn't move there to be a movie star

or a tv star or anything like that i moved there in the hopes that i could join the groundlings and do

improv comedy and find a way to keep a roof over my head while doing that and then you know i just

kept listening and and and i i think that 19 year old kid to be to answer your question

i think he would be less kind of blown away hearing that then 45 year old me would if that makes sense

i think he knew a little bit more that like hey you know if you kind of work your ass off

at whatever it is you do you don't have to decide what that is and you don't have to be graded

everything you can suck it's okay go suck you know that's kind of the attitude i had it as i got

older that sort of you know calcified more but so i think yeah i think he would have been proud you know

but not totally blown away go whales what or you know like but you you know you've got six more

palettes to move with the forklift baba let's go you know like um so i i don't i don't know

yeah i just can't i just know enough to take it for granted not for a fucking second do not take

this for granted and the losses and the wins in the in the in the many summers in between never take

it for granted that is the truth and in life ultimately we've all got six more palettes to move

uh to your both it's been an incredible joy listen to you i got to tell you i cannot wait for

the season proper to start to follow along to get to wrecks them to revel in the community and

it really is the good stuff to you both health happiness big big love thanks roge thanks roge

always a pleasure courage