Jonathan (00:00.372)
Hey, welcome to the show, all eleven of you. It's me, Jonathan, and my good buddy Cody. How you doing, Cody?

Cody Akins (00:07.59)
It is great to finally hear the voices in my head again. I know they're not real. I know they have bad ideas, but you know, I I you know, peace and quiet after the boomy boomies are done.

Jonathan (00:19.698)
the fireworks. Right. Yeah. Was it bad there in how do you live? What city are you in? I've been to your house. I just I can't remember. Raymore? Raymore, right.

Cody Akins (00:25.532)
Raymoor? Dude. I I'm I'm in Raymoor. And I'm fairly certain that my neighbor spent my annual salary on fireworks. and he got some of them south of the border fireworks, if you know what I mean.

Jonathan (00:43.336)
Okay. Yeah. I like the meme that was going around that was my unemployed neighbor would like to wish you a happy seventh of July. But here's you want to hear something messed up about it. Katie said she had somebody come into her bank the other day who was like, So do people take out a lot of loans for fireworks around this time of year? And Katie was like, We don't really ask what like for signature loans, we don't really ask what the money's for. Like, 'cause there's not like a fireworks loan, but

Yeah, maybe. I cause I wonder how many of these people are taking out payday loans. How many people cause there is no way that these people should be able to afford this much as far as fireworks are concerned.

Cody Akins (01:15.102)
That's

Cody Akins (01:19.197)
I mean if

Cody Akins (01:27.568)
I mean if you're buying them on a credit card, you're technically taking a loan to buy fireworks, but you know, what what doesn't scream Murka more than celebrating our nation's independence by literally burning money?

Jonathan (01:39.822)
Yeah, or blowing up a small piece of it. I also, nothing is more American than yeah, going into debt to have fun. Happy Fourth of July, kids. By the way, Christmas is fucking canceled. all right. we kind of we've we've had a weird stretch here. there's a lot of chief stuff going on. It's just we, you know, we were we're having fun talking about chief stuff primarily on this podcast for the last couple years.

we've been leaning into AI stuff, which we'll we'll get to some of that. I actually have a weird story that kind of crosses the streams on it. And it's a story about AI, and it's a story about football, but it's also a story about idiots and frustrating, frustrating idiots. Because the thing that I realize today, Cody, that AI has done is it's given.

Morons access to verbosity. Meaning you might have a dumb thought. You can plug that into AI. You can plug it in Grok, ChatGPT, any of them, and it'll turn it into a five-paragraph essay. You're I'll let me do it right now. Let's see. I'll pull up chat GPT, write a five paragraph.

essay on why feet how about shoes make good hats all right see how long it'll take it while we're waiting for that the reason I'm bringing this up is I went on the air this morning on my radio show after the US men's soccer team lost last night and said yeah I was a little bit getting into soccer I was kind of enjoying it

But I gotta tell ya, after they lost, I was kinda like, okay, whatever. Like I and if you looked at the stands, most of the people in the stands were just like, our team lost. No, that sucks. It went home.

Cody Akins (03:46.64)
I I I believe your exact words were soccer's over, NFL season starts in sixty five days.

Jonathan (03:52.998)
Literally that was me and everyone else. is hell, the the Hall of Fame game is in a month, you know? and I said that and I got a lot of texts from people like, I care, and who do you think you are? And soccer's awesome, and you just understand it. And there was also, I guess we have enough foreign born listeners who thought that it was based on American arrogance, and it's it's not. It we we just whatever for whatever reason, culturally.

We just don't care about soccer the same way that the rest of the world seems to. And the rest of the world wants us to be really sad today because our team lost. And it's very similar to when the Chiefs lost. Like people are like, You want you suck. Admit your team sucks. It's like we won two Super Bowls in a row and lost a third. I'm not sad. Like, I'm sorry. We had a great run. I'm a little bit sad that it might be over, but I'm not like sad that my team lost after winning two goddamn Super Bowls in a row.

Cody Akins (04:49.298)
I'm relieved I don't have to take blood pressure medication every week for the next six months.

Jonathan (04:53.132)
Yeah. yeah, my propanol prescription can go on the shelf for a minute. The but the thing that drives me cra that I I hate nothing more than that, by the way, is somebody wanting you to be sad. Whether it's about sports or a breakup or something else. Like it whatever whatever it is. Like, or I literally I lost a a job and people were like, my God, I'm so sorry. It's like, don't feel I hated that job. Like

That's happened to me twice, by the way, is in Boston. And when I was laid off from the railroad, people were like, my God, I'm so sorry. And I was like, I am not like I I mean, I gotta be wrong. It there's some stress wondering about the money, but that stress is nowhere compared to the stress I was undergoing just going in and performing that job every day.

Cody Akins (05:43.284)
I mean, honestly, when I started my business, I was working another job and I got into an argument with a coworker and they walked us both out that night and I was like, What am I gonna do? Like I you know, my business is not taking off. I you know, I I still knew like how am I gonna pay for everything? We literally just bought Laura a car like the weekend before.

And I was just losing my mind. And then the next morning I woke up and I said, you know what? This is the best thing that could happen to me. And then they called and offered me my job back. I like, shit.

Jonathan (06:15.374)
that happened to me when I was working at I was working at 97.1 radio station in St. Louis, and the railroad called me back and said, Hey, you can come back to work anytime now. And I went, I can't because I already have a job. And they're like, Really? How much does it pay? And it's like, not even half of what I was making there. Well, it's a true story. I honestly in my head have been in denial about that. I looked it up.

Cody Akins (06:18.244)
Hmm.

Jonathan (06:44.238)
On SSA.gov, you can look up how much money you've made every year of your life. I was literally not even making half when I was working as a producer at on the Dave Glover show in St. Louis in 2009 than I was when I was working on the railroad from 2005 to 2008. but again, that I I I I think I've told myself I wouldn't make that much money on the railroad. No, I was doing I was doing okay. Like I wasn't rich, but I was doing okay.

but it didn't matter because I was happy. back to this though, I just hate it when people are like, Come on, admit it, you're sad. Like, I'm I'm sorry. Like, I'm not. Like, if I was, it would come out as anger. Right? I I would be like, This is bullshit. Like, I can't believe I'm not angry, not sad. I I'm kind of shocked by how much other people seem to care because this is the problem in the United States.

We don't care about men's soccer. That's it. Here's another fact. We do care about women's soccer. Our women's team is phenomenal. They won four World Cups since like 1990. They in fact, if you add those all men and women's soccer, if you add up all of the World Cups, the United States is second in the world in men and women's behind only Germany.

Cody Akins (08:03.26)
Okay.

Jonathan (08:11.042)
That's dominance. And we just won the gold medal in 2024. Anyway, all that to say, I said it on air today. I was like, I I don't care. If America cared more about soccer, we'd be better at it, but we don't. That's just a fact. It's just a fact. if you if you are a parent of a kid in Germany and your kid is really good at soccer at a young age, you know what happens? He gets recruited into a club. They go, Who cares about your grades?

We're gonna pay your parents for you to play for us. It's basically treated like being a kid actor, a child actor is treated here.

Cody Akins (08:51.636)
It sounds like American football to me.

Jonathan (08:53.868)
A little well, a little bit. So if you want your kid to be in an elite club in the United States, you think they're paying you? Fuck they ain't paying you. You're paying for your kid to be able to play in the club. You're paying fifteen thousand dollars a year, not to mention travel expenses for your kid to play in that club. We don't care. If it was important to us, that wouldn't be the system. It just wouldn't. All that to say, because I said that, I've been getting harangued about it.

I got a lot of people on the text line angry, and then people that's followed me to Twitter. And somebody sent me, and I I'm gonna say this as nicely as I can, had the audacity to send me this article from some youth football, sorry, soccer coach named Paul Spacey. And the article goes like this: The best athletes myth is a lie. Here's America's real soccer problem. And then I'm not gonna

Read the whole article because that would be arduous and annoying. But it goes on to make the case that the reason Americans aren't good at soccer is because we don't have world-class athletes. It's because we don't have an when it comes to our sports, we don't have a meritocracy. And the only sports that Americans are good at are American sports. So, first of all.

I'm just gonna attack this on the substance and then we're gonna talk about the AI aspect of this. The first thing is if that were true that Americans weren't good at soccer inherently somehow, because we don't produce the right athletes for it, then why is our women's team so dominant? Why do they do so well? That's it, that might be an entirely different question, and I can answer it real quick as as best I can.

The reason is because there's no female equivalent to the NFL. There's a WNBA, and that's gaming traction, but there's no WMLB. There's no W NFL. There's no W N H L. Those don't exist. So there's so for a woman, a professional athlete, or for a woman, if she wants to become a professional athlete, it's understood. You go play soccer. That's where you make the money.

Cody Akins (11:04.158)
Mm.

Jonathan (11:15.872)
And people make that if you don't think people are cynical enough to make that decision, people make that decision all the time. Like Patrick Mahomes could have played baseball. He was drafted by what was it, the Indians? Detroit by the Tigers. I knew it was one of those rust belt.

Cody Akins (11:29.075)
Detroit.

Cody Akins (11:34.324)
Think think about that. The Detroit Tigers have drafted more Super Bowl winning quarterbacks than the Detroit Lions.

Jonathan (11:40.814)
Well, that would mean that the wait. No, that's not true because they drafted Matthew Matthew Stafford.

Cody Akins (11:45.268)
yeah, yeah, yeah. He he he he has since won. Well though he didn't win for them though.

Jonathan (11:50.338)
Yeah.

He didn't win one for them. You're I mean, he didn't win for one for them, but they did draft him. So it is it is a funny point. but yeah, Mahomes made that decision. He won he'd rather play f and that wasn't based on money. That was what he would rather do, but but people make that decision all the time. There are athletes in in the NBA who have said I knew I would make more money in the NBA than playing the NFL. I LeBron James has basically said that.

Cody Akins (11:59.246)
Yeah. But he he he had to get it somewhere else.

Jonathan (12:22.57)
I knew I could play in the NFL, but I knew I'd do better in the NBA. So the the avenue for that is there. That's why there's a lot of other reasons, and maybe I'll go into them some other time, but that's why women's soccer does so well here. as far as Americans are only good at American sports, who wins the gold medal count in the summer Olympics every four years?

Cody Akins (12:45.69)
I mean America's up there. Well, the United States is up there.

Jonathan (12:47.678)
believe that's us. It's almost always us. So I think last time we we tied with yeah. we tied with China, I think in the last in twenty twenty four. But eighty percent of the time, the United States wins the gold medal count. So if we're only good at American sports, why are we winning all the other sports too? Except for soccer.

the reason again, soccer is not I'll get in the meritocracy thing in a second. the reason that soccer is not as successful here is because we just kind of think it's a weird sport. It didn't, it didn't develop here. It's also it it has developed in a lot of other countries because they're poor. And I hate to to make it about economics, but that's part of it. To play soccer, you just need a ball.

And an area to kick it into. You don't even need hands. You know? You just need a ball and an area to kick the ball. It can be played on a big pitch, a little pitch. You know, baseball, you need a glove, a bat, a ball. You need nine guys. It you need a big area to play it in. You know, you can improvise it, but for the most part, baseball, you need a bit. Football, sh you know why football is only popular in America? Nobody else can afford it. Forget the the

Uniforms, forget all of the equipment, just the insurance policies that schools have to take out because kids are getting crippled playing this sport. That was my high school in in Belleville, Illinois. It wasn't for football, but it was for hockey. We had an unaffiliated Belleville Township East high school hockey team, and they were unaffiliated because like we couldn't have like a coach and the whatever.

They but they were they were f kids from that school who played under the name of that school, but the school had nothing to do with it. Like the school didn't provide a coach and all that stuff because they couldn't afford the insurance. Okay. Not a lot of guys getting crippled in soccer. They might look like they get crippled, but they aren't getting crippled. basketball, I think, does the best internationally because it's the most similar to soccer in that you just need a thing to throw a ball into.

Jonathan (15:08.61)
You don't need that much room. I mean, that's the the sport that we all played in alleyways and driveways and things like that, because you don't need that much room to play basketball. So that that's one right. As far as the meritocracy part of it, because he's like, Well, one of the reasons that that soccer it doesn't succeed in the United States and succeeds everywhere else is we don't respect the idea of a team loses and then they get punished for it. Okay.

Cody Akins (15:15.848)
You need a basket and hands.

Jonathan (15:36.664)
That's the only point I actually kind of agree with. Now, not not saying that it's the reason we don't do well, but it is something that I hate, that I feel like soccer has actually gotten right over American sports, is the fact that if you are the worst team in the league in pr the Premier League in England, you don't get a draft pick. You don't get number one. You know what you get? You get sent down to a worse league.

Just imagine how great the NFL would be is if if the worst team in the league that year the next year had to play in the act and XFL.

Cody Akins (16:17.844)
I've I've heard that theory before. Speak speaking of teams that being punished, did you hear that one soccer team actually made all their players find their own ride home, canceled all the charter jets when they got eliminated?

Jonathan (16:28.162)
Yeah. who was that? Was it not Paraguay? Yeah, I I did hear about that. Yeah. That that's the other thing. They're crazy about it. Like they're insane about it. All of that's the other reason why other countries do better at in if you look and I I was talking to my buddy John Grayson, who lives in Portugal today about it. I was like, what is the number two sport in Portugal? Like soccer's number one. He's like, I don't know. It ain't baseball, it ain't basketball.

Cody Akins (16:34.068)
yeah. Yeah.

Jonathan (16:58.016)
It's not hockey. Like, I don't know. And I looked it up. The number two sport in Portugal is surfing. Surfing. That's how far away from a real sport. Not that surfing look, I'm not saying that surfing doesn't take a lot of skill and isn't awesome and it's really cool. But like it's not it's a skills competition. It's not it's not com like it's it's not a sport in the same way I think of sports, you know. I think of it the same as way like of a sport like Louge is a sport, you know.

But that's the other thing. They are obsessed with it. That's all they care about. We kind of spread our interests out. Granted, the NFL has kind of taken over, but it's a it's a fairly bigger, you know, larger spread. So it's it's frustrating to s see an article like that thrown in my face by somebody who's like, this guy proves everything you were saying wrong. Like, no, I didn't prove jack shit. Like there was nothing there that proved me wrong.

The other part of it in this article, Cody, and I'll post the a link to this along with the Patreon in the comments for the Patreon is this is obviously AI generated. And that's that's what frustrates me. Cause again, this guy's making a stupid argument. He went in to ChatGPT or whatever and said, All right, write a 10 page it wasn't 10 pages, 10 paragraph essay.

On why Americans are bad at soccer and make it clear that it's not because they don't have the best athletes playing soccer. Which we all know. Like, Cody, do you think that if LeBron James played soccer, he wouldn't be good at it? Like, do you really want look at look at Messi. Look at like the best soccer players in the world.

Cody Akins (18:51.208)
Yeah.

Jonathan (18:55.544)
They're nothing compared to some of our best at Can you imagine Derrick Henry as as a defensive player in the backfield for soccer? Guys would be running away from him. Like they would be terrified.

Cody Akins (19:05.745)
Yeah.

Dude, if he just kicked that ball and you got hit by it, could you imagine being a goalie trying to stop that?

Jonathan (19:14.054)
Right. Well, that's the other thing. You know who the best kickers are in in America? The the placekickers for our NFL teams. They're not playing soccer because they know they make more money as a place kicker on an NFL team.

Cody Akins (19:21.982)
Yeah.

Cody Akins (19:28.104)
Did you did you see that penalty kick where that dude didn't cover his junk and got hit right in the fellas? Dude, that poor guy.

Jonathan (19:35.66)
Yeah. Well, the most humiliating thing I saw was last night our goalkeeper g coming out of the goal, trying to kick the ball, forgetting how kicking works and getting the ball stolen from him.

Cody Akins (19:48.794)
Someone get Tommy Townsend out there and show him how to punt the ball.

Jonathan (19:51.798)
it was it was so bad. Last night was it was humiliating. It was and it was and it was it was embarrassing and it shouldn't have been unexpected. We again, this is how it is for America, as far as the men's team, every year. Cause we just don't care that much about it. Like every other country, they show the stands when they lose, and it is it's somber. Like

That what remember that one guy when the Chiefs beat the Bills in 2023? And he's like, it's at High Mark Stadium, and he is just bawling. No, he does that in the locker room in front of the press. No, and I'm not talking about the the player for the Bengals who pushed Mahomes out of bounds. And then I feel bad for that guy, actually, crying. He cried on the bench for like 10 minutes, and the cameras wouldn't leave him. Like, we get it. He committed a penalty. Jesus.

Cody Akins (20:29.574)
Are are are you talking about Josh Allen? Sorry, sorry.

Cody Akins (20:47.048)
D yeah. I I felt bad for that dude.

Jonathan (20:50.786)
Yeah. You know how much it takes for me or Cody, I think especially Cody, to feel bad for a bangle? God, if he was a cowboy, Cody would be laughing, but even Cody has soft spot for the Bengals. I so I don't know. I it's it's frustrating because this is obviously also AI. This guy just went in and said, Hey, write a big article, let me post it on Twitter, and then a bunch of idiots will throw it back at Jonathan Weir going, look, this guy proves you wrong.

And you can tell it's AI and I don't know if it's you know, let's get into that. How can you tell something is AI, Cody? Like if it's written or if it's visual?

Cody Akins (21:30.792)
Well, I mean, obviously, you can see a lot of visuals. Like it either seems cartoonish or it's got really highlighted aspects, it seems like. Yeah. The from the writing aspect, and I I've noticed this a lot in articles, I don't know if iPhone has it, but on Android, if you open up your Google app and kind of scroll through the just the articles, that's what I was doing just a minute ago. Scroll through and look how many actually say

Jonathan (21:39.891)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, the contrast. Yeah.

Cody Akins (21:58.473)
This article has, you know, AI in it. You'll you'll find that it's probably about six or seven of them. and then you just read it and like some of the facts are completely wrong or off the wall. But you believe it because it's on the internet and it and it sounds they they use that word salad and and make it sound really professional, which is what we so do on this show, you know, as we don't stumble over our words. But it it you can almost kind of feel like when you're reading it, you're like,

Jonathan (22:01.603)
Yeah.

Jonathan (22:09.762)
Yeah. Yeah, totally. Right.

Jonathan (22:20.864)
I so Right.

Cody Akins (22:28.404)
I don't know, this seems weird, or they throw a completely random thing in there and you're like, No, I know for a fact that's wrong. And usually when they screw up that bad, it's AI.

Jonathan (22:39.374)
If it's not factually inaccurate, it's that it's for me, I can spot it from a mile away because it's trying so hard to sound profound. And it will AI in mimicking human writing will try to make it it'll it's I don't know how to put this because it's it's so obvious that a computer wrote this because it doesn't understand humanity. Like

Like what what it does a lot is it anthropomorphizes things that you would never anthropomorphize, meaning gives human characteristics, personification gives human characteristics to things that you would never give human correct characteristics to. Here's an here's a line from this guy's article. a 4.3 second 40 does not buy you a first touch. A 40-inch vertical does not teach you to receive on the half.

Turn with a man on your back. The gifts are real. They land on a field that asks different questions.

Cody Akins (23:47.559)
No, that's AI.

Jonathan (23:48.794)
That last part, they land on a field that asks different questions. Like what what does that mean? The fields are known for asking questions. Fields are fields that doesn't nobody would associate human characteristics with a goddamn field and not in that way. They might say they land on a field, or I don't know, they they are part of a field that requires different abilities.

Or something like that. You wouldn't say they land on a field that asks different questions. The field isn't asking anything. It so it's it's that. the other part he says, and this is a little bit more minor, but the skills and the movement patterns are different, and the athleticism alone does not carry them across the gap. Sit with that. If athleticism does not even transfer clearly between two positions inside one sport, it does not transfer across sports into soccer.

Again, it's just like overly wordy, but also just the the sit with that part, like that came out of nowhere. Like that's again trying to sound profound and like, hey, hey, hey, hey, pay attention to this part. But it's in the middle of something that isn't that interesting or written to be that interesting.

Cody Akins (25:07.144)
And that whole thing about athleticism not being able to transfer between different spots. How many players have we seen recently besides Patrick Mahomes throw some touchdown passes? We've

Jonathan (25:16.93)
So here's the other, here's the other problem I had with the whole article is it describes a soccer player like this. let's see. Coordination, repeated sprint capacity across 90 minutes, not one explosive snap, balance during contact while controlling a ball at their feet, split second decision making while exhausted, technical execution at full speed with a defender manhandling you.

A top center back is not a failed athlete. He is built for different sport and he is elite at it. All right. All the things that you describe are not the goddamn shit I'm seeing on a on a soccer field. What what are you talking about? The are if go watch a game. Are you seeing repeated sprit capacity across 90 minutes? I'm seeing a bunch of really tired dudes by the end of a game looking exhausted. I'm seeing guys that we have to have hydration breaks for now.

Who also, by the way, across ninety minutes, there's a a halftime. So it's across forty-five minutes at best with a break around 15. All right.

Cody Akins (26:23.228)
And how many times do you see that ball getting passed yards away? Like they're not running it across the field, they're passing it to a player halfway across the pitch.

Jonathan (26:32.49)
And and I I have heard by the way that outside of track and you know marathon running, that it does require soccer as a competitive sport requires more cardiovascular capacity than any other. I and I believe that. It's a lot of running back and forth. But like

Cody Akins (26:48.542)
When I played when when I played in high school, we did a lot of conditioning.

Jonathan (26:51.65)
Yeah. Yeah. That I mean that's it's the same with wrestling. Like it you have it's the most important thing. It's not like they teach you all the moves that you can learn, but at the end of the day, if you're tired, you're gonna lose. balance during contact while controlling a ball at their feet. Again, I see guys losing the ball during contact constantly. in fact, I saw Christian Polisic do that 11 times yesterday.

split second decision making while exhausted. Well, hold on. I thought they were never exhausted. Huh. technical execution at full speed with a defender man handling you. If I were to sell to describe what a quarterback, what every quarterback in the NFL is, and I said, Well, what you have to do is analyze the defense and know exactly what.

formation they're in, who the Mike and Sam line linebackers are, know who's coming, who's not. You have to know all of those things. You then you have to get the ball, drop back perfectly, and then throw the ball while a defender is hitting you at full speed and you have to throw the ball 80 miles 80 miles, 80 yards down the field. You would say, yeah, no, you don't. That's not what you need to do to be

A quarterback in the NFL. That's what you need to do to be an elite quarterback. That's what you need to be to be Patrick Mahomes or maybe Aaron Rodgers when he was really good. But Tom Brady only did half of those things. Like Tom Brady didn't do all of the what they're describing is a perfect athlete. That by the way, Messi is the best soccer player in the world, and possibly ever. I'm not seeing him do any of this stuff, like, not all the time.

He occasionally gets lucky and gets a breakaway and stuff, but it's not constantly he's he's got perfect control of the ball despite of defender manhandling him. That's not a thing.

Cody Akins (28:48.018)
And I wouldn't call a defender man handling, you know, during

Jonathan (28:50.734)
Well they grabbing a guy's arm from behind. I don't know. okay, here's another a a couple of other a l AI lines.

Gifted 10-year-old in Lagos, Sao Paulo, Osaka in Leon is being developed and filtered at the same moment as your kid inside systems older and deeper than anything American soccer has built. Again, I okay. It this I I can't really put my finger on why that's AI, but that's that that's definitely like comes off like older and deeper systems. Again, it's just like giving these weird characteristics to things. and then

The the other last line I'll give is you earn your level or you fall out of it. Competitive systems built like that are anti fragile.

Cody Akins (29:45.028)
Anti fragile.

Jonathan (29:46.08)
Anthophray, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So again, it's AI goes, okay, I need to sound smarter. I need to make you sound smart. So I need to say competitive systems are anti-fragile instead of competitive systems built like that are stronger than you think. Like instead of sounding like a human. so anyway, I'm I'm glad a bunch of people sent me that goddamn article so I could use it for the show.

Cody Akins (29:49.556)
Okay.

Jonathan (30:15.598)
To also make points about prep, sorry, not prep, but AI and soccer. I I am glad the US men's team lost for the for the fact that I don't have to actually care about any games anymore. I'll still probably watch. And by the way, the the the thing I have actually come to in this World Cup competition is the understanding of why why people like it so much. Like it's fun, like it is.

Like I I've enjoyed watching some games and like your team your team is down. Today Argentina had this insane comeback against Egypt. It was crazy. it it was really fun to watch. I mean, I was in studio and on air talking about it, but it was really fun. I I'm not I'm not as dismissive about soccer as I used to be. I will say it's still gonna be down. Like I would still rather watch the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Cody Akins (30:53.396)
Yeah.

Cody Akins (31:10.312)
Y you're turning into the old Hank Hill, the new one.

Jonathan (31:12.942)
I think he started preferring soccer, though. I don't prefer it. It's just here's the thing. If soccer were on in September, or sorry, if if the World Cup were on in September, do you think Kansas City would be the number one city in the country as far as ratings are concerned, like we are now? No. No, we'd all be watching football. And I guarantee if you put the US men's team versus

Cody Akins (31:34.287)
No, 'cause we're all watching football.

Jonathan (31:43.162)
Belgium up against the Bills versus the Patriots.

Jonathan (31:52.874)
It's losing to the Bills versus Patriots in Kansas City. In Kansas City, not not just Buffalo in Kansas City. It's losing.

Cody Akins (32:01.748)
Speaking of the Patriots, I know this isn't really in line with our conversation. Dude, FIFA's strict ad regulations and everything like that. You gotta feel for the people who had to put the blue tape over the word Gillette in every single seat at Gillette Stadium.

Jonathan (32:17.474)
I didn't know they did that. Jesus.

Cody Akins (32:19.56)
Yeah, they they had to cover ev because I guess every seat has the word Gillette on it. So they took blue tape and covered every single seat.

Jonathan (32:23.308)
Advertising. Yeah.

Jonathan (32:28.494)
I mean, I guess, I guess, whatever. They they they they that's a I I don't want to get in too far into there. But the whole thing with Balogun and then Trump like calling the head of FIFA and saying, hey, maybe look into this or whatever. I just I felt I talked about that on Monday, but I really felt like that was overblown. I think they were gonna over I thought they were gonna overturn it anyway because it was a bad card. Like everybody said it was a bad card. I don't think it was a good look for the president to get involved in something like that.

But at the same time, I don't think it really mattered at the end of the day. but FIFA, the the bigger thing is, I don't think FIFA gives a shit if the president of the United States calls them and says, Hey, don't you think that was a bad call? Why don't you overturn that? I think that FIFA, once the tournament is going, they're like, We don't, we are the we're the government. We're look at us. We're the captain now. Yeah.

Cody Akins (33:22.94)
Yeah. We are the captain now.

Jonathan (33:26.018)
I don't think I don't think they care. they they they have shown to be an incredibly corrupt. The only thing you maybe that could have happened is if they weren't gonna overturn it, that maybe got changed is maybe Trump offered them something because they're an incredibly corrupt organization. And one of the things that they've been caught doing a lot is being susceptible to bribery. So maybe, maybe that happened. But even then, I just don't I don't see that that was the case.

Cody Akins (33:49.837)
And

Cody Akins (33:55.089)
And all the anger and everything about that call being overturned, a lot of good it did to the US men's team.

Jonathan (34:00.531)
yeah. Yeah, it was great. I I said this on air today. I think that it

And people thought I was blaming Trump for I really I really wasn't. I was saying that they all of a sudden the world turned on them. It was kind of a feel-good story. And all of a sudden the world turned on them. And it reminded me, and they they looked like it. They were on their their heels, they they played like dog shit. It was horrible.

I think the most like to like comparison I can make to that is the Chiefs against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl. Going into that Super Bowl, the Chiefs right before before the Super Bowl, before like the week of, they're gonna take on Tom Brady. Patrick Mahomes versus Brady. Let's go. Yeah. They're taking down the big, bad, cheating Tom Brady piece of shit.

And then Britt Reed cripples a little girl and puts her in the hospital. And all of a sudden, nobody wants us to win. All of a sudden, the Chiefs are a horrible organization that employed drunken assholes who cripple and possibly murder children. And going into that Super Bowl, I I was optimistic that maybe they could compartmentalize that. But I went back and watched that game about a year ago. And I gotta tell you, if you think it didn't have an effect on the it did. If not.

Cody Akins (35:11.529)
Dude it

Jonathan (35:26.464)
If not on the team, it the one person it didn't seem to affect was Mahomes. It that the one guy was like, I do not give a shit. It is not my fault that my coach's son is a drunken asshole. I'm gonna win this game. Everyone else is like, I don't wanna win because it looks bad. And I I really think it probably got into Andy's head too. Like, how bad would it have looked him up on a podium covered in confetti while a little girl is fighting for her life in a hospital? And you know, his son put her there. It just

It wouldn't have been a good look. And I think that that was part of it. And I think maybe a less dramatic version of that had played out with the men's team on on yesterday night, last night.

Cody Akins (36:07.078)
It's crazy you say that because I had the exact same thought. Yep. That was the first thing that came to mind. I was I was reading something about how the whole world kind of turned on the US team on that overturned call and I was like, man, this is this is the whole Kansas City thing with Reed all over again.

Jonathan (36:10.412)
Yeah, really? Yeah.

Jonathan (36:22.466)
Yep. It well, you know what was funny, though, I felt like the whole world was attacking us and calling us cheaters. And it it was really I I already had like the muscles for that for being a Chiefs fan. And I just wanted to be like, see, motherfucker, this is what it's been like for the last six goddamned years. Like, this is what it's been like ever since we won the Super Bowl in 2020. This is what it's been like.

Technically the 2019 season, but in 2020, you know. but everybody calls us cheaters. Everybody says you you you guys are the it's rigged, it's all rigged somehow for you. And it's like, even if it is how we didn't do it. If again with the Chiefs, and I again flexing these muscles. I wish somebody could possibly explain to me just once if somehow the league is rigging the game.

For the Kansas City Chiefs for the 34th biggest market in the country. If somehow they're doing that, please explain to me why the Chiefs are guilty of anything. If you're the kid in the family and for whatever reason you're your mom's favorite, is that your fault? Or is it your mom? Your mom's fucked up and weird because she prefers you, because you're the youngest born or because you have.

Blonde hair like you know she had or whatever.

Cody Akins (37:48.91)
And if we if we believed that it was being rigged and we thought the Chiefs were gonna win, I wouldn't have lost five hundred dollars to DraftKings last year.

Jonathan (37:58.5)
God. I actually almost bet on Argentina today during the game. This is this is how I think corrupt football, soccer is, by the way. During the game, Egypt goes up two to nothing. And I'm like, boy. I was like, I I have a feeling that they're not gonna let Argentina lose because Ronaldo's already out of this motherfucker.

So they're not gonna let Messi get out. People won't watch. And everybody and they love Argentina. And it's it is a little look. Here's the problem with FIFA. The it is so subjective sometimes. Nobody knows when the game ends. Like it's just up to a ref to decide to blow the whistle whenever he feels like it. And he can do it at any time. and a lot of the calls are subjective. And Egypt got screwed over on a goal.

And I was like, I'm gonna go bet on Argentina. I'm gonna go bet on him right now. I went to the app, and this is how corrupt FIFA is. I went to the app to bet on it. Even though Argentina was down two to nothing, even though they were almost down three, but then the goal was called back for a bullshit call. DraftKings still had Argentina as favorites.

Cody Akins (39:21.32)
They ain't even hiding it.

Jonathan (39:23.682)
But it was like ne it was like negative one twenty to negative one ten or something like that.

Cody Akins (39:27.39)
You bet bet ten bucks and you only gonna win five.

Jonathan (39:31.126)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was like, okay, damn it. I really thought I had something. I really thought I was gonna make some money here. Anyway. Cody, you wanted to talk about Sony and getting rid of the disk drive and Jesus. Yeah.

Cody Akins (39:49.223)
Yeah. So Sony made the announcement last week that starting in twenty twenty eight, they are going to stop all physical media. So they're not they're not you know, the PlayStation 6 isn't gonna have a disc drive. They're not gonna be making new games with discs or anything like that. And the internet has lost its collective mind over this. and I know we've talked about this a couple of times as far as like do you prefer physical, digital, whatever?

My thoughts always been I really love physical. you know, I I love having a tangible asset. The problem is cartridges degrade over time. Nintendo DS, Game Boy cartridges, all that stuff, they tend to degrade. If you don't take care of them, Blu-ray dro discs and things like that can be subjected to disc disease. For those of you who don't know what disc disease is, it's when it starts to peel away, and the media can't be read anymore.

Jonathan (40:30.179)
Yeah.

Cody Akins (40:48.392)
However, Sony also just got popped for removing five hundred and something titles from licensing. So people who bought what they thought they owned just got ripped away. Yeah.

Jonathan (40:55.864)
Yep. They thought they bought it. Right. Twenty dollars for Terminator Two. you don't have it anymore. Yep.

Cody Akins (41:04.124)
Yep. and it's crazy because Nintendo the the Switch 2 when Nintendo launched it, they said we're not doing games anymore. Like your cartridge is going to be a key card. And you put your key card in, you download the game, and you play it. And people got really upset about that. And then people got really upset about Sony announcing

That they're removing that they're gonna stop Blu-ray productions. Then Grand Theft Auto Six gets dropped for pre-orders for a digital only game. And it amassed a billion dollars in estimated sales already. Pre-orders for a digital only game. Yeah, there's no tangible asset here.

Jonathan (41:52.438)
Nobody is nobody even knows if it's good. I mean you can assume it's good 'cause all the Grand Theft Autos, at least since three, have been really good, but yeah.

Cody Akins (42:00.905)
Yep. If you are one of the people who are bitching about Sony getting rid of the physical d physical discs, but you pre ordered GTA 6, you're a part of the problem. Fight me on it. Because you gave Sony and Microsoft every bit of firepower that they needed to do this now, because the you will just admit that you're willing to pay for a game if you think it's good enough. It doesn't matter the media that it's on.

If you think it's good enough, you're willing to pay for it regardless.

Jonathan (42:34.446)
I mean I

having a discussion with a friend of mine earlier about collective bargaining and how it's sometimes the we forget how much power we have by linking arms. Like at the end of the day, Elon Musk, the CEO of Sony, Bill Gates, whoever's running Microsoft or my Xbox now, they're it they're just one person. They're just one guy. And there are billions of us. And if we actually linked arms

And fought back against this, then we would make a difference and we get the change that we want. But at the same time, boy, that new have you seen the graphics? Cody, it looks so real. yeah, it's it's I I'm I'm frustrated by that. I'm also frustrated by the the fact that you know Sony by getting rid of the digital or physical.

media and increasingly as we go away from that, is it any wonder that we've become a more subscription based society when you don't own anything? They own it and they're lending it to you and they can take it back anytime you want, anytime they want.

Cody Akins (43:47.039)
Hey man. Yeah, if if yep, if buying isn't owning, then pirating isn't stealing, and it's time we sail the seven digital seas again, my friends.

Jonathan (44:00.012)
Well, I the thing that drives you crazy though, how many of us started playing video games by going to stores and renting the games? I mean, maybe kids today haven't experienced that, but that's that's how I s I would go to Blockbuster. My mom I had a an allowance. I got five dollars a week and every week I'd have my mom take me to Blockbuster where there's there's this mom and pop place a C and video near us, and I would go in and rent a game.

And play it for the weekend. That was my weekend every day. Or every I'm sorry, every God, I'm not talking right today. every year from like fourth grade to eighth grade. That that's what I did. And we don't we the that's not a thing anymore. Not renting games. You're buying them, and now they can jack up the price as high as they want.

Cody Akins (44:53.108)
And then you get idiots like me who pay fifty bucks for Star Fox. Even though it's a game that's been remade five times. I did. yeah.

Jonathan (44:56.846)
Did you get a cartridge? Well, at least you got a cartridge. That incredibly small cartridge that you will never lose. By the way, I I do love the the irony that the system that is most built, and no offense to you, because I love Nintendo too, but the system that's most built for children, which is the Nintendo Switch.

Also has the smallest cartridges that are so incredibly easy to lose. And I know that because guess how many times I've had to buy Mario Kart 8?

Cody Akins (45:30.708)
For for those of you who've never seen a Switch game, I mean, they are small.

Jonathan (45:33.89)
That is it's ridiculous. It's it's small it's like a micro SD card. You know? Anyway, that's a show for today. Thanks so much for your patience this week. Cody. What's going on at Aiken's PC repair?

Cody Akins (45:49.683)
Well, as we talk about subscription based things, man, I hate to lead right into that. and now that the fireworks have stopped and you too can hear that voice inside your head, may maybe you've seen that ad that says hot singles in your area would like to hook up. Or maybe you're trying to sell something on an online marketplace, but that buyer wants to confirm you're a real person, so they need you to send that six-digit code back to them real quick. we try to be the voice in your head that says

I wouldn't click on that if I were you. And if you do click on that and you are one of my peace of mind customers, we can try to help you before that you go too far down that rabbit hole. what does that mean for you? For $15 a month or $150 a year, we cover all the cybersecurity and all the support on your computer. And as computer costs continue to rise from the RAM shortages and the SSD shortages, it's more important now than ever to make sure that your current equipment is up and running to the best of its abilities.

you get free tune-ups with the Peace of Mind plan. If you have an issue, you have a question, call us up, we'll remote in and get it taken care of for you.

Jonathan (46:55.446)
that absolutely. the peace of mind plan is awesome. And also your computer's running a little bit slower. Guess what you're not replacing it with anytime soon? A new computer. Cause they are all going up exponentially in price. It's a lot better to go to Cody and have it fixed.

Cody Akins (47:14.12)
This actually happened last week. I had a business order a computer. Well, they got a quote for a computer. And the next day, it was $100 more than what I quoted them. I I went ahead and honored the price because that's what I was trying to do. But now, man, I I tell people, I'm like, look, if you leave, this price is no longer valid. And like if you want this computer at this price, you have to order it right now. Cause I mean, that's just how volatile the market is at the moment.

Jonathan (47:24.078)
Jesus.

Jonathan (47:29.292)
Yeah.

Jonathan (47:39.734)
Yeah, I mean otherwise you're eating that cost all the time. 'Cause that's i it's insane. It's insane how volatile it is. So make my computer guy your computer guy. Go to Akins P C repair in Belton, Akins Pcrepair dot com. All right, boop.