Olympic Curling is all about precision. It’s a sport where less than half and inch can mean the difference between winning a Gold Medal and getting last place. Team USA Curling Olympians Ben Richardson and Korey Dropkin join us to talk Curling basics, the unique strategy behind each throw and falling on ice.
Then, it’s Curling and Ski Jumping vs. Figure Skating and Bobsled as we countdown the Top 5 Winter Olympic Sports.
00:00 Introducing Curling Olympians Ben Richardson and Korey Dropkin
01:16: The Extreme Precision of Olympic Curling
03:41: Curling Strategy
06:57: No Mistakes
09:03: Sweeping and Throwing in Curling
11:26: Curling Gold Medal Favorites
12:18: Curling Popularity
13:53: Curling Falls and Fails
17:30: Pointless
40:03: The Top 5 Winter Olympic Sports
Interview the Team USA Curling Olympians Ben Richardson and Korey Dropkin
Nick VinZant 0:00
Nick, welcome to profoundly pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode Olympic sports. And Olympic
Korey Dropkin 0:20
sports, there's a lot of shots in curling where the difference between the perfect shot and the worst outcome ever is a half an inch.
Ben Richardson 0:30
And it's all about like speed control, like you're just you're trying to slide out at a very specific speed. And we use stop watches to time ourselves when we're when we're throwing so and I was, you know, horizontal in the air, and everything just came smacking down onto the ice.
Nick VinZant 0:49
I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance subscribe, leave us a rating or a review. We really appreciate. It really helps us out. So I want to get right to our first guests, because I love this sport, and it turns out it is so much more intricate than I realized. This is curling, Olympians, Corey dropkin And Ben Richardson. So what makes somebody good at curling?
Korey Dropkin 1:19
Hand, eye coordination is key understanding balance. But when it comes to separating, you know, the the club curlers from the elite curlers, it comes down to is, is more often than not the mindset. You know, everyone will have put in enough reps to be able to make all the shots on the ice, but making those shots in the most pressure some moments really separates that crowd.
Nick VinZant 1:46
Do you think people realize how difficult it is?
Ben Richardson 1:50
It's way harder than it looks, for sure, lot more balance than you think it takes, just like, figuring out how to throw a rock and, like, get it all the way down to the other end, because it's like, 140 feet long, like, it's not a short distance.
Nick VinZant 2:03
It's 140 feet. I would have seen it on TV. I would have thought that was 30 feet.
Ben Richardson 2:08
And the rocks aren't light either. They're like 42 pounds solid granite. And it's all about, like, speed control, like you're just, you're trying to slide out at a very specific speed. And we use stop watches to time ourselves when we're when we're throwing. So if you're sweeping someone's rock, you time it from like a certain line to a certain line. And we're trying to throw like we're we're able to throw, say, like a 3.95 throw, and then go from that to like a three point 90 throw, like, within like five milliseconds, we're able to adjust our speed to, like, to the right type of speed that we need to be throwing.
Nick VinZant 2:45
You can make those small of adjustments. Like, can you really tell the difference? Like, oh, that throw was 3.92 this one, the next one needs to be 3.98 like, I was six. I was six milliseconds long on that one. Yeah.
Ben Richardson 3:00
Even, uh even, this morning, I was doing a drill with my teammate, Aiden. I would sit down about right. I'd get ready to throw, and Aiden would say, Okay, throw a 2.25 and then if I got it within point oh two, then he would move on to the next one. And then I would tell him, Okay, throw a 2.1 and like we would, we would throw it and be like, Oh, I think I threw it too hard. I think I threw it too hard. And then look back, and instead of the 2.1 we were going for it be 2.15 which is too fast, you know? And so, like, we can, we can feel our bodies and how fast they're going. And that's like, the main goal of the drill is to basically be able to tell, like, how fast your body is moving down the ice, and just have a sense for, like, the speed that you're going.
Nick VinZant 3:41
So what's, like, the overall strategy? Like, what are you fundamentally trying to do?
Ben Richardson 3:47
I'll give you some basic strategy. So when? So there's eight rocks that each team throws, and you alternate. So like, if, if we throw first, then the next team goes and vice versa, if you are the team that throws last, it's called having the hammer. So like, if, if my team throws first, then the other team has hammer, because if you go back and forth, and the other team is going to end up throwing last. So if you have the hammer, your the main objective is to kind of keep the middle of the sheet open so that you can make that last shot and and get multiple and just basically keep it open for that last so you draw all the play basically to the sides of the sheet, rather than the very center. But and vice versa, if you don't have the hammer, then you kind of want to plug up the center as much as possible and make sure that it's as hard for the team with hammer as possible for them to score on their last shot. But that is like the absolute basics. There is, like so much that goes into it, even the strategy is evolving, like you're seeing new rules coming out that change up the strategy. So it's changing on a yearly basis. But people call it chess on ice for a good reason, like no two ends are almost ever exact. The same and end is when all throw, all rocks have been thrown to one end of the sheet. So it's like, it's kind of like an inning in baseball.
Nick VinZant 5:07
Is it better to be first or second or like, not really.
Ben Richardson 5:11
It's better to have the hammer. Yeah, for sure. That's what you want. And before every game starts, especially at like, the Olympic and world level, we'll do what's called a draw shot, where each team for basically, like their practice, before the game starts, they'll throw one as close to the center as possible, and whoever gets closest gets to have the hammer in the first end. Which is, which is a pretty big advantage. It's not like going to win you the game all the time, but it's, it's, it's a nice perk to have.
Nick VinZant 5:40
Is it better to be first or second or like? Not really it.
Ben Richardson 5:45
I wouldn't say it would beat skill, but it can lose you games for sure. I've come across a lot of teams over my career that they're great shooters, great at sweeping, great at everything, but then they just they call the wrong shot, and even if they make it like we still we're still able to win, and we have a better shot to play. So I would say definitely can lose you a game. But the skill is, is definitely the most important part.
Nick VinZant 6:13
Will you kind of watch film on the people that you're going up against? Do you adjust the strategy for every time?
Korey Dropkin 6:20
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, you know, definitely watch a lot of film. I do think Curling is one of those sports, especially mixed doubles curling, because mixed doubles curling, you always have, like, a stationary setup for the most part, and so in the beginning of the end, there's a lot of similar shots. But I think it's important to know your your opponents, and to know where your most likely mistake on their behalf is going to be to try to set yourselves up to you know, open those windows of opportunity.
Nick VinZant 6:57
I don't know if this question is going to make any sense, but so let's say scale of one to 10. A 10 is a perfect throw. How close do you need to be to a 10 in order to have a good throw? I'm basically trying to ask like, how much of a mistake can you make? Like, if 10 is the best throw, can you be an eight and still be okay? Or do you have to be like, No, you need to be, like, 9.6 like, how does that make sense when I'm asking you, like, how much leeway Do you have?
Korey Dropkin 7:31
Absolutely the best answer is, it really depends on the shot. If it's just an open draw to the forefoot. I mean, you can probably get away with like a six or a seven, if you have really good sweepers. You know, a good set of sweepers can probably drag a rock like, you know, eight feet, give or take, depending on the conditions of the ice. And so there's a lot of shots in curling where you will, there's a lot of shots in curling where the difference between the perfect shot and the worst outcome ever is a half an inch. And it all depends on the it all depends on the angle setup. Um, curling is a game of angles. It's a game of trying to get control of the House, of the forefoot, but of the best angle on the sheet. And if, if you are a half inch too deep, or a half inch off center of where you need to be, that is potentially the difference between a 10 out of 10 and zero out of 10
Nick VinZant 8:42
that much, right? It's that specific,
Korey Dropkin 8:46
especially in mixed doubles. You know, one inch wide, one inch under curl, and you've potentially just given the opponents the biggest out to score a bundle versus, you know, having a steel locked in like a score of one without the hammer.
Nick VinZant 9:03
Locked in. Are you ready for some harder slash? Listener submitted questions, faster you bet better to be a good thrower or a sweeper. A good thrower is sweeper even close, or is it like no thrower by a mile?
Korey Dropkin 9:17
Oh, it is. It is sweeping is very close. Sweeping has become such an important piece of the game, especially with how effective we have become as sweepers.
Ben Richardson 9:25
That's actually part of the controversy that's happening a little bit right now with the sweeping in our sport, is people are getting so good at sweeping and so good at the techniques involved with it, that it's taking the throwing part a little bit out of it. So like, the sweeping is very important. But like, at the heart of curling, people say that the throwing is the important part. Like the sweeping, you should be able to make the shot with like, 80% throwing, and then the last 20% with the sweeping. It shouldn't be like 5050, the sweeping is just like, to help it out a little bit. You know, the throwing is. Like the main part of the
Nick VinZant 10:00
sport, can the people who are sweeping, can they tell what needs to be done, or does somebody else have to be telling them what to do? Does that make sense?
Ben Richardson 10:11
It does. And that's a that's a really good question, because it's a little bit of both. As a sweeper, you are primarily responsible for the speed of the rock. So say we're trying to throw one right in the middle of the, you know, the bullseye, which we call the house. If whoever throws it through it not hard enough, then we need to sweep it to get it there, because that's, you know, sweeping makes it go further. So that's our responsibility. And then if, say they throw it too hard, then we don't sweep at all, because it's we just need it to slow down where we don't have any control, where we need something to be decided for us is the line of the shot. So like the trajectory of where the rock is going. So on the team, you have the skip who's standing at the other end and calling all the shots. He's the one that's watching the line. So say that there's a rock that we're trying to go around, but we're getting, like, really too close to it, like, we're going to probably touch it and wreck on it. We need to sweep it to hold it straight, and that's what the skip is responsible for. And we can't see that at all. So we're the sweepers are responsible for the speed of the shot, but the skip is the one that's yelling at them. Like, hard. You got to go for line. You gotta, you gotta get past this rock. They're responsible for the line. So it's like, half and half between the two.
Nick VinZant 11:26
Yeah. Speed one, speed one trajectory. Yeah, yeah. That's good way to put it. Who's kind of like, considered, and if it's you guys, like, who's the, who's the best, I guess, who is everybody kind of looking at is, you can look
Ben Richardson 11:37
at the rankings and be like, okay, like Scotland and Switzerland, Canada, and then it's us, and then it's like, Sweden and Italy. But, like, it's, it's really just all about like, who has a good week, you know, like, we've beaten all those teams before. It's not like, if you're number one in the world, you're unbeatable. Like, we curling. It's just a matter of, like, who shows up that week and who gets hot?
Nick VinZant 11:59
Yeah, that's what I was going to ask you, is it the kind of thing where, hey, the person who's supposedly the best usually wins the most, or is it we're all right there. You just got to have a good day.
Ben Richardson 12:11
The best teams tend to, you know, win more than the not so good teams. But it's, it's, it's more so just whoever shows up that day.
Nick VinZant 12:18
What's it like to be the most popular sport in the Olympics, like curling is, to me, the most popular sport in the Olympics. Did curlers get a sense of that?
Korey Dropkin 12:31
You know, I would say it's, it's, it's humbling and impressive and really appreciated, but it's also, in a way, slightly disappointing. And I say that because I love that the all the eyes, there's so many eyes on our sport, but it's every four years, and and so like, where are all those eyes in between, you know, and, and, and part of that is just needing to build more exposure for the sport, needing to, you know, have, you know, more streaming outputs, more you know, a network that's as you know, wanting to expose and capture more of curling more frequently.
Nick VinZant 13:15
Can you make a full time living in the United States off of it like, Could you do it?
Ben Richardson 13:21
I'd say no. I mean, there's teams out there, and I think of like, you know, Team Shuster, they've, they've been curling for a long time, and they've been, they've gone to the past five Olympics, and they have some pretty nice sponsorships that can allow them to mostly curl full time. But that's just like one team, you know, like, I don't want to say that, like one team equals the rest of the teams in the country, so I we're not at that point yet, but we're getting there where we're taking the right steps.
Korey Dropkin 13:53
Last time you fell, I have actually more than you'd think, close calls of, like, being able to also catch myself, sort of like partial mid fall. But my last, like, big spill, I also published online, and I was, like, taking my warm up slide down sheet eight of the Duluth curling club, and was sort of getting up out of the slide, and my gripper foot was a bit greasy, and it just sort of slipped out from under me, and I was, you know, horizontal in the air, and everything just came smacking down onto the ice. And you see me, sort of like getting up looking left, because there was other curlers, you know, in the club, like, able to just hear the pound on the ice.
Ben Richardson 14:43
So a couple events ago, not too long ago, there was, we went to an event in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, that's, there's this grand slam circuit kind of similar to, like the the PGA Tour for curling. It's. And there was a grand slam event, and we were playing a game, and I was sweeping a rock and trying to, trying to make it curl, and my feet got caught underneath me, and I tripped forward. And if you hit the rock while you're sweeping, it's called Burning the rock. Thankfully, I didn't burn it. I was able to, kind of like, move my arms around the rock so I didn't touch it. But funny enough. Every every slam event, they have what's called the whiff of the week, where they just compile these different like, See, they're like, a really bad shot, somebody falls, somebody just does something kind of dumb. So I made the whiff of the week along with two other clips, and they, they did, like, fan voting for it, and it hasn't been released yet. Who's won it? I think actually, very soon they're going to release, but if I win it, I get 1000 bucks. So it's like, I get to I get money for being stupid, which would be
Nick VinZant 15:47
kind of cool. That's that seems worth it, honestly, like I would be going for whiff of the week every Oh, he fell again. Why does he always fall whenever we have this?
Ben Richardson 15:55
Yeah, weird. Why does he keep doing that?
Nick VinZant 15:57
Where do you think this sport is going? Where do you think it's headed I
Ben Richardson 16:02
think it's heading in the right direction. There's been some exciting stuff happening recently. I mentioned briefly the the professional curling league that's being worked on. It's the same people that run that, that slam event, that tour for curling. They're the same ones that started what's called the rock League, which which is premiering this April. But their goal is basically to create more full time curlers. So they're going to, like, you're going to be part of this league, you're going to get a salary for being in this league, and then maybe you don't have to work a nine to five job anymore like we do. So it's cool, it's it's a hard task. We need to get some bigger sponsors, you know, to make that work, but they're a Canadian company, so it's, it helps them that they're in Canada. You know, Canada, it's easier to get sponsors for curling because it's so much more well known than in the States. But yeah, it's, it's getting more popular every single day. More curling clubs are popping up across the country every time the Olympics comes up. Is there's that big surge of interest and that that always helps. You know, even though it kind of wanes over the next couple years, it still helps the sport grow. So it's going up. It's really exciting to see.
Nick VinZant 17:09
I want to thank Corey and Ben so much for joining us. If you want to connect with them, we have a link to them on our social media sites. We're profoundly pointless on Tiktok, Instagram and YouTube, and we've also included their information in the episode description. And if you want to see more of this interview, the YouTube version is now live. Okay, now let's bring in John Shaw and get to the pointless part of the show. When is the last time you ran full speed like as fast as you can,
John Shull 17:43
I fat guy jog, and sometimes I try to run fast.
Nick VinZant 17:47
I don't think that I've probably dead sprinted. It's probably, it could be it's between 15 and 20 years.
John Shull 17:57
Just not sure that you need to run. You know what I mean, like, what the purpose of running is to run away from something or run at someone, and I just don't know. I mean, what, what experiences or what instances on everyday life do you have to do that?
Nick VinZant 18:13
You really only be running from a disaster, whether one that is natural or one that is caused, like you really don't they. You really don't have any reason to run if I didn't like do some exercises where I jump, I probably also wouldn't have jumped in 20 years. But you and I are not alone. I polled the audience about this. 14% of people, like 57 people say within the last year. I bet that audience skews a little bit younger. In that regard, I bet we got some early 20 year olds in there. 0% say one to five years. I think that will change as this poll gets older. 14% say five to 10 and 29% say more than 10 years. Is the last time that they full on ran.
John Shull 19:01
I mean, that's fair. I mean, I think that's if you're being truthful with yourself, that's correct.
Nick VinZant 19:07
Golly, that's crazy. What would our ancestors think about that? If you were suddenly in a room with a bunch of like, cave men, and they were talking about, when is the last time you full on ran? And they were probably like, every day, and we're like, I haven't run in 20 years.
John Shull 19:23
It's probably what they would have said, which, by the way, I need to put this out there that I sent you one of the funniest Instagram reels I've ever seen, and you put it down by saying it was AI and it evolved the horse. And I'm disappointed, disappointed it's AI.
Nick VinZant 19:39
It's like, I'm just like, when I see something that's AI, I don't care how funny it is, I'm not interested in it. I'm not interested in it because I don't want to see more of that crap. Like, that's that's an automatic delete for me. I already, as soon as I saw that went, That's AI, I deleted it. I didn't just respond. I didn't just, like, not play into your game. I deleted it off my phone.
John Shull 19:59
Yeah. To leave. I was trying. You know, they say there was a poll done by myself this past weekend, and I amongst the three voters that were in the room with me. Instagram reels are a way of love. I was showing you love and appreciation.
Nick VinZant 20:15
Well, I would love and appreciate it if you don't send me AI slop anymore.
Speaker 1 20:19
See, I'm saying, See, it's just because it's another
Nick VinZant 20:21
it's another thing of getting old, right? Like, you're the person who now you're on Facebook typing in people's names in the search bar, like you post things when you think it's the search bar. Like, that's where you are now you're like, you're the old internet grandpa that doesn't know what's going on. Is that a thing? Do people actually do that? That's hilarious. Yeah, you've never seen that before where someone's like, clearly made a post that they thought the post place was the search bar. Like, that's not how that works.
John Shull 20:50
No, I haven't seen that. So come on, let's
Nick VinZant 20:53
I'm not gonna play into dooming society.
John Shull 20:56
Let's hear it. I wanna, I want, I want you to talk about, rub it in my face that the Detroit Lions are the worst NFL team ever. Seattle Seahawks are the greatest. I don't
Nick VinZant 21:06
think that needs to be rubbed in your face. I think that's a common knowledge. Like you don't really need to rub it in someone's face that two plus two is four. Everybody already knows about that. Like, the only people who think that the Detroit Lions are a good team or have any sort of redeeming qualities are people who are deluded in Detroit like, Oh, we're gonna go be good this year, which is what you said at the beginning of this year, oh, I want to put $1 on ruin Super Bowl. You need to make the playoffs. You're not a good team. Like, a good year, the best year in Detroit Lions history is, what, like, a couple of games above 500 like, you guys make the playoffs. It's a big deal. Detroit sports are terrible. You're terrible. You've always been terrible. You're always going to be terrible. It's at this point there's not going to be any good Detroit sports teams ever like you're never going to be good at anything. It's over.
Speaker 1 21:58
Do you want to do shout outs now?
Nick VinZant 22:00
Yeah, let's go nothing. Like, you can't say anything you get. Well, what about
John Shull 22:07
No, I mean, I mean, you're wrong. We're we have the best basketball team currently, no, you don't hockey team currently,
Nick VinZant 22:13
no, you don't do the championship. They win the championship because I only count championships. I don't count like, Oh, they're pretty good early on in the season, but you didn't see it. They have a lot of moral victories. They're really doing well. Like, the only reason you think you're doing well is because you do so terribly all the other times that, like, Wow, man, we're doing great this year. No, you're just not as bad as you were last year, but you're going to be worse the next year. I wouldn't even be a fan. And this is, this is where I get mad at like, Look, I know you have great passion for Detroit, and I respect that, but at some point you have to hold those teams accountable. And you guys aren't doing that. You got to stop showing up. You got to stop rooting for me. Like, this is not acceptable. We're not going to tolerate this, because having a bad sports team says a lot about your city. When a city has a good sports team, that city becomes on the rise. You see it all guitar, you clearly you're
John Shull 23:14
not, you know, you do a little history. Take a history lesson before you start talking shit about the lions, who were the worst team in the NFL for easily five years. They missed the Super Bowl by 3.2 years ago, okay, three years ago now, like, Oh, wow.
Nick VinZant 23:33
So three years ago, they almost got a chance to get second place.
Speaker 1 23:40
Why? Why am I even engaging?
Nick VinZant 23:42
Because you need to hold people accountable. Detroit needs to rise up and tell the owners of these sports teams that we're not going to tolerate this. You're the problem. The whole city of Detroit is the problem. You're allowing it. You're allowing it to happen.
John Shull 23:55
Here's some shout outs. But it's been quite cold here, by the way. I'm sure it has, all right. Well, here's some shout outs for you. All right, Freeman, hang Yeah, they're all new.
Nick VinZant 24:09
Usually the name Freeman I haven't like, sometimes we'll have repeat names or similar names. Freeman's a new one, in my opinion.
John Shull 24:18
Surprisingly, we have enough people every week that either like us or, you know, comment or something, that it's an easy enough time to get new names, all right. Gretchen Levy, Ray Wolf, Raphael Werner, Jed Allen, Jenna Snyder, Mike moody, Stacey Pittman and Virgil Dyer. I think that
Nick VinZant 24:41
if I had to share a name with an animal, Wolf would be wolf would probably be the number one name, Wolf. I had to have an animal based name, Wolf would be it. I would want Wolf.
Nick VinZant 24:58
Yeah, I think of a better one. Man, can you think of a better can you think of a better name to share an animal with? Wait, can you think of a better animal to share a name with than Wolf?
John Shull 25:11
I mean, realistically, no, like shark would be pretty cool.
Nick VinZant 25:14
Shark, shark could be in there, yeah.
John Shull 25:17
But like Tiger would be cool. Yeah, but like, it's not real. You can't name your kid, you know, tiger, but Wolf is a name. Like, I feel like you could name your kid Wolf, and it wouldn't be too out of the blue, like, naming your kid like crab, you know, like, I mean, crab just wouldn't pass, you know, orca or Gunga, beluga.
Nick VinZant 25:43
Balloon. You wouldn't want beluga would be one of the worst elephant. I wouldn't even mind elephant, to be honest with you, because, like, maybe people would make fun of you. But then elephants are cool, man.
John Shull 25:54
They're okay. They're smart, right? That's about it.
Nick VinZant 25:57
They're smart. They show emotions. Take care of their young and their old. They grieve. All right, let's grieve elephants.
John Shull 26:05
Grieve. Was that it, by the way, was that the only question you had? You said you had some bangers. Was it just a bank?
Nick VinZant 26:10
I never said I have any bangers. That's not the kind of word that I would ever use.
John Shull 26:14
You said you were ready and you had some, some good questions or something. Is that a turtleneck? I love how you can't admit to anything. No, this is
Nick VinZant 26:23
not really distracted by the idea that that could be a turtleneck. Did you ever wear a turtleneck? No, yeah, that's, that's one of those clothings that I don't care what your sexual preference is. I don't think that men should ever wear turtlenecks, just for the record.
John Shull 26:39
Nick didn't have another question, but that that's actually a pretty good question.
Nick VinZant 26:43
No, oh, would you ever wear a turtleneck? No, I think that no man should ever wear a turtleneck. There might be, there might be three men in history who can pull off a turtleneck.
John Shull 26:55
Okay, I no one else cares, but let's go one for one here, because I have three names that just popped into my head. So you Okay, okay, okay. So you go, first, you say one, then I'll say one.
Nick VinZant 27:07
The guy from Devil Wears Prada, I think his name is Stanley Tucci, okay, yeah, that's the really, honestly, the only person that I can think of that could wear a turtleneck as a man is Stanley Tucci. No one else I think should wear own
John Shull 27:22
for some reason Paul Rudd came into my mind. No,
Nick VinZant 27:27
no. Okay, I don't I don't agree with you. I don't agree with you. I don't think Paul Rudd should wear a turtleneck. There's also a guy that makes a small appearance in the movie Sweet Home Alabama, that could wear a turtleneck. I don't know what his name is, but it's like, Oh, that guy could wear, he could wear a turtle neck.
John Shull 27:43
I love how at least two people out there were like, Oh yeah, that guy,
Nick VinZant 27:47
but somebody's gonna know who he is. He's in the scene where they go find out that the one guy makes the glass
John Shull 27:53
I've never seen Sweet Home, Alabama. It's not, it's all right, is somebody playing
Nick VinZant 27:58
ping pong behind you? Yeah, I have a ping pong table in my basement. It's amazing. I'm going I'm going to go ahead and say that Ping Pong is one of the greatest games we've ever invented. It's all the fun of sports without any of the exercise.
John Shull 28:11
I mean, it can get I mean, you're moving. I mean, I used to have a ping pong table in my basement.
Nick VinZant 28:17
How did that go? Didn't you somebody hole in the wall. You could somebody
John Shull 28:23
went through the wall, literally went into the wall,
Nick VinZant 28:27
and you got rid of the ping pong table. You couldn't stick to your guns.
John Shull 28:30
I mean, we got a couch. It's when I didn't have any furniture down here.
Nick VinZant 28:35
You got rid of a ping pong table to get a couch. Yes, sad to me. God, domesticated.
John Shull 28:45
You want to see the basement? I can show you. No, I don't. Alright. So one of the questions I have, or one of the topics I had for you today, okay, okay, okay. Michigan today announced that high school athletes will be able to have n i l deals and be paid for their likenesses. I think it's the first, the first state to do that. Though I don't know that for certain, but that's dangerous. I mean, that is, I feel like most college kids who are and on N i l deals can't, you know, and I don't want to speak for them, but I feel like if I was a college kid and I got, I made $10 million a year playing a sport, I would, I wouldn't know what to do with the money, right? I would have no idea how to be financially responsible. I I'm okay.
Nick VinZant 29:36
The only reason that I would not be okay with it is because I think that there are too many people who would try to take advantage of the kids, and those are kids right? At least when you're college age, you are technically an adult. Even though I don't really consider an 1819, 20 year old to be an adult, you have all the legal whatever to be an adult. I don't. Like, for some reason it gives me pause for college kids to have that only because I feel like people are going to really try to take advantage of those situations. But look, schools, everybody else is making money off of this. The athletes should be making money off of it too, right? You can't treat sports as a in a professional way where you're making money off of it, and then just say, but let the kids play for free.
John Shull 30:27
I don't I don't disagree with you. However, I'm a traditionalist in I would not have n i L for any you know, would not have it in college. I wouldn't have it in high school. Why?
Nick VinZant 30:39
Why would you not have it in college, like they're making billions off of those people.
John Shull 30:43
Yeah? I mean, listen, I don't really have a good argument. I don't. And once again, I'm not against, you know, I mean, I mean, what? Florida, state, Michigan, you name, the top college football programs and those, those universities make billions.
Nick VinZant 30:59
Yeah, awesome, kids.
John Shull 31:01
I mean, I don't, I don't know if it's a traditionalistic problem. I don't know if it's, I don't know how to root it really, but it's just, I just think like you should be learning, like you should be, you know, going to college. When I think of college, for most of us, it's learning about ourselves, right? It's, it's not being handed $40 million and being a uber rich millionaire by the time you are done. Like it just, I feel like that just creates, or almost sets somebody up for failure before they even, you know, turn 22 years old. Yeah.
Nick VinZant 31:39
I mean, I can see where you're coming from. I just wouldn't agree with it in any way.
John Shull 31:46
Yeah, like I said, I'm sure it doesn't make sense, and I'm not against athletes making money. Like, as soon as I heard this today, the first thing I thought about for high school students is, man, like, who's gonna who's gonna manage their money their parents? Like, that's just setting up like them and their families for disaster.
Nick VinZant 32:04
Yeah, there's too many ways for the kids to be taken advantage of in that regard. And because they're not, they're minors, and maybe they don't control the money. I think that there's too many ways for the kids to be taken advantage of, but then other people shouldn't be make and look, then other people shouldn't be making money off of it either.
John Shull 32:21
Like, like, I don't know how real this is, but I saw a headline the other day that said, Mark Cuban offering the quarterback of Indiana $40 million to stay at Indiana and not go to the pros. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's insane. Like, if you're that kid, take the money play one more year and then never play football again? Yeah.
Nick VinZant 32:45
I mean, I don't have any problem with the amount of money. Like, people made billions off of those kids for years. I don't feel bad for the colleges or the administrators or anything like that. And like, I get your idea that, okay, you're supposed to be getting an education, but none of those kids
John Shull 33:01
are getting an education. No, I guess the thing, like, I get thinking on it, and it sounds so dumb and so grandpa, but like, if, if they had, like, a financial literacy class that they had to take before getting the money, I would feel better. I just feel like, you hand, you give for a 14 year old $3 million that like, that's just not a good situation for anybody,
Nick VinZant 33:28
yeah, but I would much rather be handed 14 or 3 million, be that age and be handed millions of dollars and wasted then be that age and not be handed millions of dollars. Yeah.
John Shull 33:39
I mean, and I saw kind of an article today. I said there's no difference. Because, you know, I was obviously every This is one of those side issues where you don't really have the middle ground, right? You're either for it or against it.
Nick VinZant 33:50
So again it is the way that I prefer you to say it for it, or again it. I'm not gonna say that for it. Are you for it or again it?
John Shull 33:59
Anyways, they compared it to I can't
Nick VinZant 34:02
listen to you until I know if you're for it or again it. Are you in for it or again it?
John Shull 34:11
I'm reluctantly for it. I'm sorry. What for it? For the record, I hate him. I'm reluctantly for it,
Nick VinZant 34:23
for it. Okay, all right, now proceed. Thank you. I didn't know where you stood.
John Shull 34:27
I hate you and I hate everything about you either again. Me, are you again? Me, yeah, I'm again you, for sure. Okay, thank you. All right, they compared that. It's no different to being a childhood actor to like this, like the amount of responsibility and money and that, that makes sense, but it just feels different and weird. I don't know. It just feels different.
Nick VinZant 34:50
Oh, yeah, but I think that anything new feels different, and old curmudgeons such as yourself are always against anything that's new. What's this new fangled? Oh. Mobile thing. We were made to ride horses.
Speaker 1 35:05
That video, fantastic. And you say it's fake. So this is a two part,
Nick VinZant 35:11
bringing out the extra eyes. Huh? You brought out the extra eyes. I had
John Shull 35:14
to put on my glasses to see what my note was. So this is argument. I Okay, here's a small rant. I ran out of contacts, okay, and it's been a year and a half since I had an eye exam, and they're saying that I have to physically go in and get my eyes re examined before they give me more context, yeah.
Nick VinZant 35:35
I mean, your eyes may have changed. They don't want to give you the wrong prescription. That sounds like that sounds right.
John Shull 35:40
I just, but I have none. Just give me a pair to get me through two weeks.
Nick VinZant 35:43
Then they don't want to give you the wrong thing. Like, they don't want to be liable for potentially giving you the wrong thing and messing up your eyes and then get sued. But, like, that's they have licensing, and they go to medical school and all that kind of stuff for a reason. Like, go get your eyes checked. I'm sorry. Doctors trying to take care of you. What do you mean? He's got to see me before he prescribes me this.
John Shull 36:05
So here, here's my question. Or yeah, I guess the question so outside nine of 11, nine of them,
Nick VinZant 36:12
I got 911 I don't even want to answer this question. I don't want to answer this question outside 911 again, it
John Shull 36:18
what is the most harrowing event to unfold on TV that you had ever seen or been a part of, or had people tell you about,
Nick VinZant 36:31
oh, on TV would probably be the Oklahoma City bombing, because I remember that was kind of the I don't remember anything about it. I just remember, like, they wheeled the TV into the classroom, and I remember being like, what's this? I don't I was pretty young, yeah, probably only in like, third or fourth grade, but I remember seeing like, oh, because I was in Wichita. And Wichita is not very far away. It's like maybe hour and a half, two hours away from Oklahoma City. So it was kind of close by. The most like harrowing thing that I would ever say, that I personally saw was I was in the middle of a mass shooting. One time, working as a news reporter, I was in the middle of a mass shooting. Actually walked out of it. Happened next to my apartment. I actually walked out of the apartment. Turned to my left, and there was three cops there with shotguns pointed at me on horseback.
John Shull 37:34
The horses again, see, that should be the theme of the episode, horses. Well, anyways,
Nick VinZant 37:40
was that horse that you sent measurement? I have no idea what it's about. Oh, it's a 14 hand horse
John Shull 37:46
that that's whose hands crazy? No, so I was referring to the Challenger explosion.
Nick VinZant 37:53
Oh, I don't remember that. When was that? 1986 but you were you even born then?
John Shull 38:00
No, but I said no, of whatever. Regardless, it's the 40th anniversary.
Nick VinZant 38:04
Wait a minute. Your question is about the most is the scariest thing you ever seen on live TV, and your answer is that you didn't see
John Shull 38:11
or I said, we're told about because you ask anybody, you ask your parents, my parents, we know what are some of the craziest things you ever seen? And I swear, it's the moon landing, and it's challenger exploding, and then it's Oklahoma City. It's 911 you know, things like that. But two things came to mind when I thought of Challenger one, what, what I would you got
Nick VinZant 38:34
to think like, I don't want to get into let's just, I'm just going to say this, and then let's just move right on. But January 6 was a pretty crazy thing to see unfold on live TV, like there's people storming the Capitol. Like that was one of those where a lot of people saw that happen live. But anyway, let's just move on from that.
John Shull 38:52
That was, yeah, I stopped after 911 I didn't, didn't keep going regardless. I can't believe it's been 40 years and I was thinking about this, and I kind of really miss just anything space related, like we used to, we used to do missions and things. Now we just have SpaceX where all their rockets explode, yeah.
Nick VinZant 39:16
Like, I'm still just trying to get over the idea that, like, What's the scariest thing you've seen on live TV, and then you just brought up something that you didn't see on live TV. So I can't, kind of mentally get past that,
John Shull 39:29
rewind it because I said that you've seen or that you've been told about happened.
Nick VinZant 39:35
Oh, maybe you might be right, but still i i understood it in a different way. And so I can't get past that. Well, just, I'm a little worried about again, this I'm again, I'm
John Shull 39:44
a little worried about our top five list because you didn't spend, well, you didn't specify if it's, you know, if it's just overall, or if it's related to us a specific year of these events. So I'm curious to see i. What you what you thought for the top five this week?
Nick VinZant 40:03
Oh, I just did top five Winter Olympic sports. What did
Speaker 1 40:07
you do? No, it was fucking Winter Olympics.
Nick VinZant 40:10
You literally not be. We're coming up to the Winter Olympics. Why would it be Summer Olympics? You legit? Just said Olympic sports. That's all it said. I just assumed.
Speaker 1 40:19
Well, good thing I came up with the weather
Nick VinZant 40:23
outside is that it's winter.
John Shull 40:24
I just knew. I knew it. I knew you weren't like specific I knew it.
Nick VinZant 40:28
Why didn't you? Then listen to your gut. I did I have into your
Speaker 1 40:32
instance, okay.
Nick VinZant 40:35
Oh, you got multiple lists. Oh, yeah. Little scratch pad there, yeah, bring out the extra eyes to see it. Oh, extra eyes. Are those reading glasses or full time glasses?
Speaker 1 40:44
Full time glasses wait
Nick VinZant 40:49
on your neck beard that you have growing there? Do you just have a space right in the middle of your chin where no hair grows that you're not going to go ahead and shave and act like other people can't see that? Are you just like, how do you leave that and just have it on both sides, except for this one space on your chin, you got to shave that every day that. No, that has to be shaved every day. I'm like, listen, I understand that some people, such as yourself and myself can't grow hair in certain places, but I'm not going to go out in public with that thing. People wondering, like, what did he shave one part and then give up. That's ridiculous.
John Shull 41:28
It'll be shaved. It'll be shaved tomorrow morning before I go to work, if you really
Nick VinZant 41:33
want should be did you not have to go into work today? Did you work remotely? Because if you actually saw another single person today? That's not acceptable. It's not acceptable.
John Shull 41:43
Yes, I was in the office today. Actually, I got multiple comments on my like, nice shirt I wore today.
Nick VinZant 41:50
Oh, they weren't really giving you a comment. They were secretly staring at you, wondering what was up with your facial hair. And then when you made eye contact, they had to think of something else to say, like, oh, nice shirt.
John Shull 42:04
I mean, yeah, I mean, I don't, I don't know what to tell you I have a bald spot, like, under my chin. I don't know what to tell you.
Nick VinZant 42:12
You should tell me that you're going to shave that every day from now, you don't have the luxury of not shaving. You. Doesn't that? Dad, you don't. And I'm in that, I'm in, yeah, you can't allow that to happen, like I can grow a mustache in probably maybe six hours. Now, that's not true, but I can grow a mustache really quickly, and I shave it every day, regardless if I'm shaving the rest of things, because that's what has
John Shull 42:38
to be done. That's where you can tell me, that's what men do.
Nick VinZant 42:42
No, that's not what men do. That's what anybody with any sort of courtesy does have some courtesy for the people around you. Are you ready for our top five? Was top five Winter Olympic sports?
John Shull 42:58
Hold on. I need three minutes just to just to get my list together.
Nick VinZant 43:02
Here we'll put your glasses back on so you can actually see it. Do I have enough time to go play ping pong because there's some pollen going on in the other room and it's calling my name? No, there's no way. There is no way you can hear ping pong being played and not want to play ping
John Shull 43:19
pong. I mean, you're probably not right.
Nick VinZant 43:23
Yeah, do you want to go play ping pong right now, just hearing the background noise of ping pong in my house?
John Shull 43:29
Not really, no, you're thinking about like me. All right, my number five Winter Olympic sport is hockey.
Nick VinZant 43:39
Oh, okay. I mean, great sport. I like to watch hockey, but during the Winter Olympics, it's kind of just like I don't want to watch it's, it's too regular. I want to see the stuff I don't usually see. So I would not put hockey on my list.
John Shull 43:53
See my my argument is, is I love seeing the smaller nations like Finland, Sweden, battle Canada, the United States. I love seeing China, what, you know, battle the United States, and it's Olympic hockey. They play in a bigger rink than they do in the NHL. And it's just, it's just, it's awesome, like, I love, I love the nation. You know, the nation feel to the Olympic hockey games, to Olympic hockey.
Nick VinZant 44:22
Can I give you my rant about the Olympics?
John Shull 44:26
I mean, did I have a choice?
Nick VinZant 44:28
Yeah, well, I mean, no, not really. I would probably do it anyway. Yeah, my rant about the Olympics is, I don't understand how the United States doesn't at least get a bronze medal in every single event. With all the people and all the money that we have, we should place in every single event, every single one,
John Shull 44:52
I mean, but to be fair, to be fair, you could go back in, you know, most of the. Sports, where, the, where the, where the, you know, first, second and third, even if it's a different country represented, a lot of times they train here or they have lived here for years, like someone from Romania usually doesn't still live in Romania, though they, you know, play or compete under the Romanian flag.
Nick VinZant 45:20
I still think that we should have people due to our sheer size and our resources. We should place in every single event, Winter Olympics, Summer Olympics, the US because of the size and money we have. I don't understand how we don't place in every single event.
John Shull 45:39
You're once again, I You're not wrong by any but, but we don't like it. Just it is what it is.
Nick VinZant 45:46
Is what it is. My number five is ski jumping. Oh, that's a fun sport to watch. The only reason I don't put it higher is because, after you see the first seed of, like, five to 10 times, kind of like, okay, I got it. Like, guys gonna Oh, did he go farther? Like, you really don't know if they went farther or not. Yeah.
John Shull 46:06
I mean, it's, I don't know. It's definitely thrilling, but I don't, doesn't make my top five, not even in my top like, 50% Okay, wow. So my number four is speed skating.
Nick VinZant 46:23
Oh, okay, okay.
John Shull 46:26
I love speed skate. I in particular, I love short track speed skating. Where they go, you know, they do, like the 30 laps around the little rink, like the little the little course, and people like Anton Apollo Ono, I think, made it really. Made it really famous here in America.
Nick VinZant 46:44
It's a sport where you it's a sport where it seems like anything could happen. Anything I have no idea what's going to happen in
John Shull 46:51
this sport. It's, I'm looking forward to it this year. Can't wait.
Nick VinZant 46:55
Speed Skating is my number three. Okay, my number four is the biathlon
John Shull 47:01
that that was, like, my first runner up, my first, you know, honorable mention was the biathlon. Because if you think about it, the biathlon probably is the most athletic winter game.
Nick VinZant 47:13
I half the sport is just standing there shooting a gun,
John Shull 47:17
well, isn't it? But no, I thought it was cross country skiing, and like, having to be accurate with with the gun,
Nick VinZant 47:24
no, yeah, yeah. And half the sport is just standing there shooting the gun. Like, I don't think that you can say it's the most athletic. Half of it is standing.
John Shull 47:33
I don't think it's half standing. I think you're there for like, 20 seconds.
Nick VinZant 47:37
It's the biathlon. By means, two, right? I think you do, you ski and you shoot. Half of the sport is shooting and half is skiing. By I do. I go buy Athlon is three sports, whatever. Decathlon is 10, the pentathlon is five. You want me to keep going with this? No, I don't.
John Shull 47:54
All right, my my number three is the luge.
Nick VinZant 47:59
Oh, I'm just, like, one ahead of you with each sport. But my number two is all of those. I put bobsled, luge, skeleton, I put all of those in the same thing, and I put that at number two. That's pretty cool.
John Shull 48:15
Yeah, it's, I mean, they're going, what, 80 miles an hour, like, that's, that's in insane. I can't even imagine
Nick VinZant 48:23
that's like, I would not do that, like you're gonna go 80 miles an hour, and the only thing separating you from rock hard ice is this small piece of metal and plastic.
John Shull 48:35
Yeah, it's, I described it to somebody as, like, being on an out of control water slide.
Nick VinZant 48:42
Oh yeah, that seems a lot like what it is.
Speaker 1 48:45
That's why I don't go on water slides.
Nick VinZant 48:49
I mean, is that really the reason you don't know?
John Shull 48:51
I don't like when you get going fast and you like do this where you go to one side and then all the way back to the other. And like, I've never enjoyed them. I don't enjoy water slides one bit.
Nick VinZant 49:03
I don't really like anything that I feel out of control in I don't mind going fast because, I mean, you know, like your boy's out there on his mountain bike going pretty quick, but I'm in control of that. Like, I don't really ever want to be going fast and out of control. Those are two things I don't want to be
John Shull 49:22
doing, ah, that's a that's a bad mixture. All right, so my number two, I went with curling.
Nick VinZant 49:29
What's your number one? Then, God, you're gonna say something. I really like to see figure skating. I don't understand figure skating at all. I don't understand figure skating at all. I don't get it. I'm just like, Okay,
John Shull 49:44
are you assuming my number one is figure skating?
Nick VinZant 49:49
I don't know what else it could be,
John Shull 49:53
because my number one is figure skating. Is it? It is I'm not even ashamed of why. Because. Because, I mean, two main reasons. One, it's the only time of the year that I, or I'll say every four years, where I remotely give a shit about figure skating like I just I don't, and I think it's the second reason is, I think it's incredibly difficult to do what they do. I don't think they get enough credit, but you know, it's, it's and to be honest, it's one of those sports where you start watching at seven, and before you know what, it's 11 o'clock, like, they just, time just seems to fly by when you're watching figure skating.
Nick VinZant 50:35
My problem with figure skating is I don't understand the out outfits that they have. Like, the whole time I'm just wondering, like, Who made that? Where did you get that? Like, that's I just, I can't never get past the logistics of figure skating uniforms. Like, where did they, where did you get it? Who made that? Like, how much did you pay for that thing? Where did you buy that? And that's all I'm thinking about the whole time during figure skating, is like, where did they get that?
John Shull 51:05
Not the fact that they literally get one, maybe two attempts, you know, to nail it, to be almost perfect, or that they're doing, you know, 30, you know, revolutions in a run, or anything. He just cares about the outfits, right?
Nick VinZant 51:22
I The athletic prowess is impressive. It's incredible the things that they do. But I'm just distracted by thinking about, like, where did you get that outfit?
John Shull 51:32
I'm curious to know what is your number one, curling.
Nick VinZant 51:35
Curling is the best sport in the Olympics. Curling is, to me, by far the best sport in the Olympics. It's fascinating, way harder than you think it is, too
John Shull 51:45
it is, yes, I mean, obviously I had it at my number two. I really enjoy it. I don't think it's the most fascinating sport of the Olympics, but it's damn awesome.
Nick VinZant 51:56
You don't know anything about it. You don't know anything about it. How long is the thing? Do you know? How long it is from where they throw it to where it stops? Do you know how long
John Shull 52:05
I really take a guess? Don't try to look it up. No, I wanted to make a your mom joke because that's what you would have done to me. But I'm not going to be that
Nick VinZant 52:12
untactful to you. Oh, that's good. My mom's dead. No, I don't know how long it is. Why would you make a your mom joke when my mom, my mother's dead. I didn't make a joke about I got one too. You were going to you would have said, my dad, no
John Shull 52:27
matter, you were still gonna assault my mother. I never would do that.
Nick VinZant 52:32
Would never do but anyway, how long do you think that thing is?
John Shull 52:35
But the mom joke you said to me earlier, your mom's alive. It's different, which, by the way, I've shown to at least three people, and they all say that you're a great friend. And I said that, how's that being a great friend?
Nick VinZant 52:46
Oh, it was a pretty good your mom joke. There's not a lot of times when you can still throw in a your mom joke, as people's moms get older. But this was a very good your mom's joke. I'll read it. Actually, I still have it. No, let's see. Where is it. Oh, wait,
Speaker 1 53:03
I hope you still have it. Sorry.
Nick VinZant 53:05
I'm going through all the memes that I sent you about how bad? Oh, yeah, we were talking about the lions, and I said, I can't believe, listen, I find this fascinating, because the Lions have not gone to a Super Bowl in more than 100 years. I really thought the only thing that could suck that long, that hard was your mom. Oh, that's a pretty good your mom joke. That's a pretty good your mom joke. If you would have hit me with that, even though my mother has passed, I'd be like,
John Shull 53:39
that's pretty good. Yeah, I would never do that, though, because your mom has passed, I would never do that.
Nick VinZant 53:44
Would you have anything in your honorable mention? No, I really just want to leave that was a really good your mom joke, though, that was a good your mom that was for sure, like, and I set it up and you didn't. I don't know if you saw it
Speaker 1 53:58
coming. Course, I did. Your
Nick VinZant 54:01
mom saw me coming. I'll tell you that. Okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of profoundly pointless. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, leave us a quick review. We really appreciate it really helps us out and let us know what you think are the best Olympic sports, I've never understood figure skating, like I just I don't get it. Curling, though. Oh, incredible. I.