Top Shelf Stories
In a world that often shuns the uncomfortable, we embrace it with open arms—and open laughs. Our candid narratives around our stories assure you that awkwardness is a shared human experience. Tune in, enjoy the ride, and maybe learn a thing or two.
Top Shelf Stories
Youth Sports Politics And The Cost Of A Dream
We argue about youth sports that bench kids while asking parents to fund the program. One father shares how his 13-year-old showed up, worked hard, and never saw the field, sparking a hard look at size bias, safety claims, and what coaches owe developing players.
• the costs and promises of select and club teams
• the politics of tryouts and who you know
• a 13-year-old wide receiver who never gets a snap
• safety rationale versus size bias in coaching
• development-first versus win-only priorities
• practice attendance, effort, and transparency
• pay-to-play pressure and fundraising fatigue
• parent advocacy that helps, not harms
• what fair playing time can look like at 12–14
• simple roles that build confidence and skill
Top Shelf Stories with Jay, Chris, and Tony's okay.
SPEAKER_01:What's up? How you doing? What up, Jay? So doing good, man. Doing good. On this uh on this week's episode of Top Shelf Stories, I want to discuss a little thing called United States sports and the descent. Fuck, I can't even say it right. United States sports? Sports and kids and how they fuck up the lives of children.
SPEAKER_03:How the sporting conglomerate is fucking up the lives of children. Is that what you're saying? Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. And I I'm gonna get into the reasons of it, but what were you saying? What Tony?
SPEAKER_00:My kid's on uh uh select volleyball team. No way. How much did that cost? Uh it wasn't very expensive, just a couple grand. And he's uh he's out here thinking he's about to get drafted for volleyball? Yeah, he's like to a college big contracts coming. He's always trying to hit me up to get an advance on his contract. What professional uh volleyball leagues are there out there?
SPEAKER_03:Uh sand. There's sand. Like wait, is that like a competitive sport? I think it's in the Olympics, isn't it? It's in the Olympics, but that's not in the sand?
SPEAKER_01:Oh.
SPEAKER_03:There's indoor Olympic volleyball as well. There's college volleyball, but I don't know of the professional volleyball league. Is it is there a thing? I don't know. There's not a I haven't looked into it.
SPEAKER_00:Apparently, he hasn't either.
SPEAKER_01:I've only seen the short shorts of women and uh yeah, that's what he wears. Yeah. So my kid's in uh in tackle football. He's 13. And this is his second year in tackle football. He is four foot nothing, uh, 50 70 pounds.
SPEAKER_00:I would call him undersized first grade. Time out. I just Googled professional volleyball.
SPEAKER_03:And I got to the uh let's see, what was the tab it said major league volleyball, provolleyball.com. And I clicked the MLV, you should have you should have to be able to do that. I clicked the link and it's women's volleyball. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Volleyball is a women-led sport, apparently. There are teams in this day and age, it's all about what you identify. You said federation. There's a pro volleyball federation.
SPEAKER_01:You just wearing a wig and uh shorts just has to say he feels like a woman.
SPEAKER_03:Our local team would be the yep, it'll be the indie uh the indie ignite.
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's over or Indiana's the closest. Yeah, it's the closest team.
SPEAKER_03:There's only six teams. It's not that far.
SPEAKER_00:They play each other every five weeks.
SPEAKER_03:It was formed in 2022 and began playing 2024.
SPEAKER_00:So there is potential for your son to actually get yeah. So he's stoked. He thinks I'm gonna give him an advance on his contract. I'm like, eh, no way.
SPEAKER_03:It's all all the pros volleyball teams are winning.
SPEAKER_00:Can you just Google how much does a professional volleyball player get paid? Quick.
SPEAKER_03:Pro volleyball salaries vary significantly from low to around$30,000 for practice squad to potentially over a million dollars for pro top international players. Really? And that's like PFV, the US Pro Volleyball active roster players have a minimum minimum salary of 60k. Top players will earn 175. But these are women. I mean, one seven hundred. So that's like playing leagues are in Russia, dude.
SPEAKER_00:You gotta tell you 220 in men's salary.
SPEAKER_01:There are no men's. Uh there are no men pros. I think that's the opposite when it comes to sports. That the uh the popularity in volleyball is women. Where you know because it's just creepy dudes watching it. Exactly. Exactly.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:The men's league is shit. Get back to my story. Kid, four foot nothing, 70, 80 pounds, soaking wet with bricks in his pockets. He's a smaller kid. He's playing tackle football. And some of he's at least the fastest kid then. Oh, he's super fast. He gets he gets that from me. He's I mean, I ran a 4240. No one believes me. I still don't.
SPEAKER_00:And I tell I tell I don't even know what that means, and I don't believe you.
SPEAKER_01:I tell that same story to and it just irritates the shit out of my brother-in-law. I'm like, 4240. Whenever I walk up to Ben and he's like, you didn't do that! You didn't do that. You'd be no the fastest guy in the NFL hasn't even run a 4240. I 4240. That's I just I just say 4240. It just pisses the fuck out of him. Just imagine me just walking up to bed. He's just he's so into what he's doing and whispered in his ear, 422, 4240. He just freaks out. He don't like it. No, he gets pissed. So my son, uh, obviously he's the smallest kid. And some of these kids on his team, he's in uh 13, he's in what fucking seventh grade, eighth grade, what the fuck is it? Seventh grade. So okay. Uh some of the kids are as big as him bigger than me. Yeah. And well, okay, fine. Big as Chris. Because you know what? In your guys' aspect of normal size humans, you make fun of me for being small anymore.
SPEAKER_03:Five nine is the average male height. How tall are you? Five ten. I'm above average. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, my kids five.
SPEAKER_03:In almost always, Jay. Really?
SPEAKER_00:In almost always. My kid's like five's nine, a hundred and twenty-five. Jesus, really?
SPEAKER_01:I haven't seen that kid in a long time. Cause he okay. So my kids four foot nothing against kids that are five foot nine to fucking six. I mean, the biggest kid is probably six foot, maybe six foot one, maybe. And um he's in his uh okay, so throughout the year. So they're they're in their seventh game of the year. And our week seven. Week seven, might be. How much you up on DraftKings with them? My son still has not played at all. Like, they don't put him in at receiver for anything. They don't put him in as a block, they don't put him at nothing. Like, nothing. That's weak, dude. He really is the smallest kid, but he has the heart of a lion when it comes to fucking football. He is obsessed with football. His life is football. He's at home throwing the football in the air, getting yelled at by his own.
SPEAKER_03:There are plenty of throwing football in the house. There are plenty of professional football players who, by percentage, are probably smaller to their peers than your kid is to his peers. Agreed.
SPEAKER_01:And they play, correct? Yeah. Fuck, I hate that word. Right? Yeah. So correct. Seventh game. Still has not played. He goes to practices, they practice Monday through Thursday for two and a half hours. Um, he's he's obviously dedicated. He loves the sport, he does what he has to do, and still not playing. Every time we get into the fucking stands for his game, every single week on on a Saturday, we're waiting for him to go in, and he's always on the sidelines.
SPEAKER_00:So I don't know, sports, especially foosball. Isn't that the technical term for that called riding the pine? Or bench warmer bench warmer? Yeah. What do you mean riding the pine? Riding the pine. Explain that. Sitting on the bench.
SPEAKER_01:I know riding the pine would be something more of the lines where you can play, but you're not allowed to. You'd have to go into the examples of riding the pine to me, because uh bench warmer would be someone that sucks and they don't put him on because you know he's just he sucks. It's nothing to do with his size.
SPEAKER_00:Here's the thing. Do you and I know you're looking at this with with cloudy eyes because it's your son. But do you think in these practices is it is it a what kind of league is it? Is it a school?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. High school.
SPEAKER_00:Or uh excuse me, I'm sorry. Middle school? Middle school. So there so as a coach, they're not obligated to play any specific kid.
SPEAKER_01:And well, when you pay a certain amount of money for a um a sport, and it's nothing to do with professionalism at as at all. It has to do with sportsmanship and uh the growing a kid's you know knowledge of the game. I mean, I feel like yes.
SPEAKER_03:I remember in when I was in like second, third, fourth grade, I played baseball, but I was terrible. I was afraid of the ball, I didn't hit well, played second base, I was not very good at that. I'm not that good at baseball.
SPEAKER_01:I never was, right? No kick could throw a strike, so he just never hit it. He always walked the first base. I'm sorry, go ahead.
SPEAKER_03:So yeah. But I remember they would let me bat every game. I got to play second base for an inning or two. I got to play every time. Even if I wasn't a a good integral part of the game, I was never the leadoff batter. I never started the game, I never got more than like two at bats a game, but I got to play. But when I got to high school, if I wanted to play on the baseball team, I'd have to make the team, and if I made the team and sucked, I would ride the pine.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah. So but this is this is club.
SPEAKER_03:This is through schools. I want to tell you that this isn't through the school.
SPEAKER_01:This leads up to a very bad confrontation.
SPEAKER_00:But Tony, what? Uh I so I was gonna say that was actually the pep talk on my kids' volleyball team. Um, he had to go to tryouts. There is 14 kids on his team. Or no, sorry, there's nine kids on his team, and there were like 14 kids that went to the tryouts, and the talk that was had with the kids before they even started trying out is you might not make the team. Matter of fact, there's gonna be a couple of you definitely that don't make the team. And if you do make the team and you're not pulling your weight and doing what you're supposed to, uh you will not play if you're late to the game, you will not play. If you don't show up to practice during the week, you will not play.
SPEAKER_01:Makes sense.
SPEAKER_00:And uh that all being said, um uh my kids team is fucking terrible. They they couldn't get they couldn't get weak, they couldn't get any further in place.
SPEAKER_01:So that the the the everything you just said makes no sense. No, I'm I'm saying like so they play the best kids and they still suck. Yeah, terrible. Then every kid on their team sucks, and it doesn't matter who they play.
SPEAKER_00:No, they they cannot play well together. I feel like his team only has maybe two or three people that are actually decent and really want to win, and the rest of the team is is just bad enough. Like, these kids are literally getting hit in the face with fucking volleyballs.
SPEAKER_01:Are there kids on their team that they sit in the sidelines and never play?
SPEAKER_00:Uh there is one that plays for about one minute of every game. So he plays. And it's only because they rotate in like once one of the kids gets hit in the face with the ball. He plays, but why doesn't he play? Is he that bad? Like you notice he's really bad, but also short. No, he's not short. And and what's gotta be short, Chris? Volleyball.
SPEAKER_01:You don't hey, you could be a back setter, back bunter, but not bunter.
SPEAKER_00:No needs that uh no, so this kid, this kid No one needs any short people in any sport. This kid can't serve really good, and the other kids made fun out of him. You can't get a pitch server. He refuses he refuses to serve. So they pull him out, they like he doesn't get to play the games.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so he refuses he won't serve. So my explain so he refuses to do something, so that's why they don't play him. Yeah. So I mean that's totally different than what what I'm gonna explain to you soon. But uh my son does everything, he's a great athlete. He's smaller than everyone, but he's fast as hell. He never he's got the hands of a okay, when someone never misses a catch, that's his hands. I don't have an explanation for it. He can catch anything. I've uh coached his, I know Chris is like, but he's stupid. Chris is the I uh I coached his flag football team for three years. Um and actually, our and I didn't tell you this guys, this yet. Our flag football team has been um invited to the world championship in Disney, Florida this year in uh uh February. And I'm going nice, nice. It's gonna it's gonna be an ESPN Plus TV ESPN plus, and we're gonna meet some fucking, you know, last year uh uh Tyreek Hill was there fucking and that's my son's fucking hero. So he's he's ecstatic about that. And it's like I don't think they're gonna allow Tyreek Hill on Disney. It wasn't there last year, so you know how he is with kids. Um I don't he has just a lot of kids and with a lot of women, and I don't think Disney, you know, respects the fact that you sleep around. I mean, you never know, you know.
SPEAKER_03:But so you okay, so now your kid is not playing, it's game seven, week seven, and what week seven.
SPEAKER_01:So week seven, and I'm there with with my wife watching the game. The coach told him, You're gonna start this time on kickoffs, you're gonna be on kickoffs. So they put him on one kickoff, they put him in the front of the kickoff where you're a blocker at that point, right? Okay, and uh one time he played, and that was it. So I'm just I'm as a parent, I'm frustrated. I'm just getting like they have and this and and then this league too, or uh in the school, they have an off offensive coordinator, a defensive coordinator, and then the coach. And I know this coach personally, he is um my parents' friend. I know, right? They have too many goddamn friends, parents' friend, and then their kid is a friend of uh their grand grandson. So, and I've seen this guy multiple times at my parents' pool parties where they are very popular in the New Berlin uh nation as the uh the as a house that has the good coke. The good New Berlin parties. Yeah. So I I had I just I mean, I just it kept bowling it up. I was like a fucking I was a I was uh I started at a five.
SPEAKER_00:I was filled up of this is a personal question. You can cut this out if you want. Would this happen to be oh yeah, we know. Uh would this happen to be the same kid's father who was bullying your kid and your mom went and had a talk with him?
SPEAKER_01:No.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So I am like a pot of water on an on a stove, and I'm on high. Okay. And but you forgot to pay the gas bill. I forgot to pay the gas bill. So basically, when I the gas starts kicking in, that's when I start boiling over. And I just I just couldn't take it anymore, man. It's like just seeing my son's face and his frustration and him being on the sideline, giving kids water, and never being able to play. I mean, he's the only one that wouldn't play. And not being able to play, it just if it brings back bad memories of being a Jehovah's Witness and not allowed to play sport.
SPEAKER_00:So do you do you go sit in on your kids' practices?
SPEAKER_01:No, I drop them off. Fuck that, dude. They're two hours, two and a half hours long, Monday through Thursday. There's no way I'm sitting in those practices. But go ahead.
SPEAKER_03:Why is he doing what is he doing at practice? Is that what you're gonna say? Yeah, like what's that?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I'm just saying maybe his his lack of time on the field is warranted compared to the other kids and and their practices. Well, he always brags about how he jumped over a kid or uh didn't know. Yeah, yeah, but a kid's flight.
SPEAKER_01:I understand different than what's actually getting done. Okay, I do understand that, yes. Fine. But to never play one, never ever play him. I mean as a parent, would you not not want to say something? Like not confront a coach at that point where there's two games, one game, I don't even know how many games, there's like no games left. They're not playing. And this team has won one game. They're not fucking amazing or anything. No, not at all. Not at all.
SPEAKER_00:And they have but they're in contention for a wild card spot.
SPEAKER_01:No, they're in contention for playing against the worst teams. They have four injuries. My uh my nephew, um nephew uh is on the team as well, and he has a broken leg. He doesn't play. Their main quarterback they still try to start him over your kid. They're like, get out there with your walker. My uh the main quarterback broke his collarbone, he's out, and there is two other or three other kids that are hurt too. I always see him on the sidelines with just jerseys on, and still has not played my fucking son. And my son is so dedicated and loves football so much that it breaks my heart that they don't even fucking try. Where is it where what position does he play? He's wide receiver.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, so they can't even have him run some fucking routes. Exactly. Let the kid run some routes. Exactly. You don't have to throw to him, you can just have him. Give him a fucking decoy shot. Let him be the streaker. Exactly. Take the the the dime defense off the bat.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00:Open up the middle, put him in his middle linebacker.
SPEAKER_01:See how that works out. Put him as a blocker for the quarterback, as a running back blocker. So the I just couldn't take it anymore, man. My my emotions got to me, and uh one of the last days, uh, it was a Thursday practice before their next, I think it was the eighth game. I waited till the practice was over, and I walked up to the um offensive coordinator and I asked him politely, um, can I have some reasons why my son has not been played like at all? He's on the team. I'm like, do you know he's on the team? Like he's on the sidelines waiting to be put in every game, and you do you do not use him ever. So offensive coordinator starts talking to me and explaining and to be honest, I didn't hear anything once no, listen, I didn't hear like one sentence before the the main coach walked up to me in huge, like just aggressive manner, saying, Why are you talking to anyone but me? I'm the coach, you don't talk to anyone but me about anything related to this football team. Okay, jackass.
SPEAKER_02:So that's a fucking what is it, 10-year-old kid? 13 13-year-old kid football team, man. That's what I said.
SPEAKER_01:That's what I thought.
SPEAKER_02:Are they even paying you, bro?
SPEAKER_03:What do you mean you're the coach? You're the sucker who gives up the most time volunteering. You're not a get out of here.
SPEAKER_01:I'm pretty sure he gets he does it for free. So I look at him and I'm like, uh, excuse me? I'm talking to your, I mean, do you run the offense or do I have to just go through youth for everything? Because all I wanted to know was my why my son's never played, and I wanted to talk to offensive coordinator. Why? Maybe I mean, throw him in for a couple fucking let him be a fucking decoy, let him run out and drop dime, you know, like you like you just said. Let him do something to take away from the actual receiver that's gonna get the ball. Something. I mean, Jesus Christ, he's not gonna get killed. So I looked at him and I'm like, what? Are you serious? And then I said, I I asked him why, because he said, then he said to me, he's like, What do you want to know? I'll let you know what what's going on on the R team. And I'm like, okay, fine, then fine. You want me to talk to you? I'll talk to you. Why are you not playing my son? Which is probably one of the most dedicated kids uh on this team, and likes football more than I mean, fine, I don't know the other kids, but like he's obsessed with football. Why are you not playing him? What's the reason? And the first thing he said to me is your son is so small, he'll get killed out there. I don't want to put him in harm's way.
SPEAKER_03:And I'm like, Well I would have been like, Well, as far as parenting a child, you talk to me. I'll tell you what my kid can and can't do. You need to put him on the football field.
SPEAKER_01:I just said to him, I said to him very kindly, and I'm like, Isn't this what football is about? You get knocked down and you get back up. You fight the next for the next fucking play. If you get hurt and you're done, you're done. Give him that chance to get fucking hurt. And then he's like, Well, you know what? Um your son is just, he's and then he's like, Your son doesn't really put ever all the effort into practices. He's really not, he's not there all the time. And like he just starts rambling on about more excuses that basically just made him look worse because he's making shit up now, because I confronted him about never playing him, and him talking shit about my son being small. So he had something else, he had to put something else in there to make it seem like, oh, I'm doing this because of that. And I'm like, you play everyone else but him. And if you're afraid of him getting killed or destroyed or hurt or whatever the fuck it is, then you fucking talk to us and tell us that's the reason why he's I mean, like, seriously, I can't take this anymore. Just fucking put him in and play his fucking ass. Just fucking do let him go out there and do something. Give him a chance. Fuck you. Give him a goddamn chance. And then he comes at me again and saying, Your son's never gonna be playing football ever. He's always gonna be small, and he's always gonna be a little, or not, excuse me, he's not always gonna be small. If he's ever if he grows up being this small and being this way, he's never gonna play football because he's gonna get hurt and he'll play one whatever it is, one two games, and then he'll never play again because he's he'll get so hurt. And I freaked out and I said, Fuck you. Your team sucks. You have one win out of eight games. What the fuck else are you gonna? And I just I just can't, you know what? I blanked, I I blacked out. I blacked out, but I was just ramping and raving, and and I did it so much that he turned around and walked away like he couldn't take it anymore. And my son was obviously pissed at me because he didn't want to be confronted, he didn't want to be the uh I thought this was gonna end with the cops being called too much. Oh, I I didn't I didn't if you would have Well, I mean you totally made it worse for your son. I I understand that. Yeah, I understand that because I went I got to a point in in that conversation where I couldn't win it by talking to him normally. I had to aggressively attack him, and if I that didn't work, then there's no talking to him at all. So now I know there is no talking to him at all.
SPEAKER_03:So have they had a game since this blowout?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it was the uh it was two days after that.
SPEAKER_03:And did your kid play? Didn't play him one time, didn't play him at all. Didn't play him one time that's fucked up, and uh the next game uh coming up this week.
SPEAKER_00:And they lost by the way, they lost too. Sure. Coming up this week, uh like you can pretty much expect that your kid's not playing again.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, he's not he's he's not even going to practice anymore. He's done. And I told him, Yeah, I'm fine with that. You decide what you want to do. If you want to go to practice, I'm fine taking you to practice. But I'm gonna tell you right now, uh, he's not gonna play you. Uh that's why our uh a school is is kind of cool where next year he doesn't have to see this piece of shit.
SPEAKER_03:Why he's not gonna be the coach anymore?
SPEAKER_01:He's gonna go to high school. Yeah, they have they're gonna be in ninth grade next year. Yeah, like the the year before this year. Oh, he's gonna travel for the high school team. So, so the yeah, and so the year before uh uh this year uh was a different coach, and he actually played a lot, and he was still really fucking small. He was smaller than he is now, and they played him.
SPEAKER_03:And they actually won uh way like so now he's gonna go play for the Hale team or what or Eisenhower? He's gonna play for the high school team?
SPEAKER_01:He's he's in Ike, he's an Eisenhower, yeah. So he's 14. So no, you're not gonna be that's still not in high school. 14. So he's still one more year from seventh grade. He's gonna go he's going into eighth grade. He's going into eighth grade.
SPEAKER_00:He's going in wait. You sure about this? Because I thought he was a grade ahead of my grade.
SPEAKER_03:I gotta, I get a I get a fucking Well, I got a same situation, kind of not the same, but sorta. My kid's in gymnastics, she's on the team. She was in the practice team last year because they had too many kids on their squad to have her on the team. So she was on the practice team last year. She joined the team this year, but she's older, age-wise, because she was on the practice team. So now every week every tournament or competition she goes to on the weekend, she goes to practice every week, she practices with all her teammates. They go to competition and they get like ranked into these like A, B, and C like juniors and then like littles or something, and she's in the juniors, but she gets put in the highest like difficulty one, like the most competitive people are in her class, like her grouping or whatever, I guess you should say. So she'll go on a beam, get a really high score. But when it comes time for awards, some of her teammates and all the other kids who are in the lower class get they had a less score, but they get a medal. But when it comes to her, she's not she's not yet gotten a medal because she's in like the highest, like the most senior kids, the kids that have been doing it for five or six years, but even though it's her first year, she's in this higher class, which is good because she's gonna she's against the best competition. But she never gets a medal.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you know, when she finally does, that medal's gonna mean so much more. I can't wait than her getting one fucking three. Three times a week. Right.
SPEAKER_03:Because this is what happens too in in in gymnastics. So they do four different events. They do floor, balance beam, bars, and vault. And each one is individually scored. And each one there's a medal for. So if you take sixth or third in one event, like bars, well, you're probably good at all of the four events. So you probably took like third in all four of them. So you get four medals, right? And then also there's an overall score, which adds up all four scores and gives you an average, and they award for that. So the kids who do get a medal, you go home with five of them.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they probably keep it. Like almost every time.
SPEAKER_03:It is a big fucking garage. That's the thing. So yeah, it's pretty wild. Like you're saying it's the in the like the industrial complex of sports that's ruined kids because the kids should be able to play. The kids should get a quarter. Each kid on a gate, a team like that should get playing time 25% automatically, like minimum. So I I've I've coached uh soccer for and it's not about participation trophies, but it is about I mean, you kind of for participating, you get to compete.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so I've I've coached soccer for 10 years. My my my young or oldest son's 18 now, gonna be 19 almost. I coached him since he was fucking six. And you give every even if the kid is the like absolute worst, you give him a chance because you don't, they're never gonna learn unless they're on the field or yeah, whatever it is, way different than practice, whatever it is. And at his a speaking of my son, 13-year-old with the attack of football, him not ever playing, how does that help anything other than possibly make and then maybe he needs to play to realize this isn't his sport because of his size.
SPEAKER_03:There you go. He can continue to enjoy the sport, he can continue to support the team.
SPEAKER_01:Get hurt on his own accord. Yeah, you want the kid. And if he wants to get hurt on his own accord and understand that football is nothing to fuck with, yeah, then let him understand that. Don't decide that on your your own affair.
SPEAKER_03:But you as a father should realize you should probably wean your kid into like table tennis because he's so little.
SPEAKER_01:Like, but for real, though. No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_03:Like, I don't have my kid playing tackle football.
SPEAKER_01:I never back down from anything. I don't care about anyone's size. I'll fight someone 10 foot tall. Yeah, but just I don't give a fuck if I lose. I understand that I took that uh uh what what I'm trying to say here is I took whatever I thought I could do and put it into sure, sure.
SPEAKER_00:So so Jay, how do you feel about like selecting club league sports?
SPEAKER_01:So I my kid, uh my nine-year-old went out for select soccer, and they said uh they he didn't make the team. And he so how do you feel about that? Like that was an injustice? No, I I was happy because you know it's like fourteen hundred fucking dollars. No, but seriously, no, I was a little bit upset because I feel like I saw the kids that played and I know the kids that they got on the team, and they're no better, and they're no worse. Don't get me wrong, they're no worse than my son, or no better, but I think it's very political and very who you know when you get on these types of teams, especially at this certain age. Like when we're talking about This is happening in the gymnastics circuit for sure, right as well for sure, 100% everywhere and anything, it's it's all political, it's all who you know, it's all um your circle of fucking life. It's circle of life, dude. It's like you can be the worst player, or you can be the worst musician, you can be the worst fucking mathematician, you can be the worst anything. If you know who you know, you're gonna you're gonna get somewhere. But when you get to the point where you are somewhere, then they know if you're not good or not. But you still get to that point saying, like someone that might be really amazing never gets to that point. You should probably still get that chance.
SPEAKER_03:You should probably still be making your kid go to practice, though.
SPEAKER_01:No, I'm gonna I'm giving him the decision to do what he wants to do. If he wants to go, he'll go. And if he doesn't want to go, he doesn't want to go. I'm not gonna force him to do it if he's I'm not. I just uh I'm beyond that point, man. I'm beyond it. Why about I force someone to do something where they know they're never gonna play? And you know what? Maybe, yes, it's like a slap in his face saying, I'm at every practice still, and fuck you. Uh I know you're not gonna play me, but I'm still practicing, kind of thing. But again, I am not gonna force him to do something that he doesn't want to do.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you know, the thing is is that that's part of being a father, dude. That's uh I forced him, okay.
SPEAKER_01:So in the beginning of the school, then no, because beginning of the school year, he didn't even want he wanted to quit football. He's like, I don't want to practice, this is too much work, blah, blah, blah. He didn't even want to do it. Right.
SPEAKER_00:And I forced him to do it. And then if you give any child a way out of doing hard work, they will take it. They will tell, dude, my kid wants to quit everything he starts. So he signs up for bad. How about how about this? I I want out a bath.
SPEAKER_01:How about this, Tony? This is a little bit off track, but somewhat in the same realm. Okay, I'm gonna give you 20 uh estimates to go to. You're not gonna get anyone but one, but you still have to go every single one, and you still have to give a fucking life, and you still have to give a price to that's literally my life. You still have to get a price to 20 people, and you're only going to get one. Yeah. You have to go to them. That's my fucking life. Okay, so here's the thing now. Now you have that. Bro, I did I did six estimates today. So listen to me now, now. Listen to me. Now, on the 20 side, you're only getting one. That's the right side. Left side, where there's 10 estimates, and you're gonna get five of those. Now, I'm gonna make you go to those 20 because I'm your father. I'm not gonna go to the easy route where you go to 10 estimates and get five. I'm gonna make you do to the hard one. That doesn't make any sense. It does it makes it makes a lot of sense when you look at the whole fucking ratio and aspect of everything.
SPEAKER_03:It's a bad analogy. No, it's not it's not a bad analogy. It's the worst analogy I've ever heard. It's a bad analogy. I wouldn't say it's the worst, but it's bad. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:No, it if if a kid, if a kid dedicates himself to something, he signs up for something, blah, blah, blah. It's your job as a parent, and I mean I kind of get the football thing because you ruined it for him. But but when they sign up for something, they immediately want to quit. When my kid said he wanted to fucking play the baritone, I'm like, cool. You know how fucking hard this is? Like, this isn't an easy thing. Kids think that they're gonna be the fucking best at everything the second they sign up, and then when they realize it takes real fucking hard work, dedication, like an actual want to do it to succeed at it, as soon as they realize that they want out. And it's your job to as a parent to explain to your kids like when you make a commitment to something, you fucking see it through. I understand that. I understand that. If you don't want to re-sign for football next year, that's fine. But you dedicated, you're not letting yourself down, you're letting your fucking team down, regardless if they play them. They're still using them in practice, they're you know, and that's not to say that he wasn't gonna get played at some point, you know, if enough people got hurt on the team, but like enough for like they have no extra people.
SPEAKER_01:Is that what you're saying? Yeah. So you are an advocate, you're uh a complete advocate for uh fundamentally starting what you finish. No, no, fundamentally or finish what you started. That's what I meant. I know I got I know what you meant. Fundamentally, uh exercising where you should be the one to tell the kids that they shouldn't do or shouldn't play, but still go. Like I mean, how does that make any sense?
SPEAKER_00:Dude, your fucking nephew is going to all the games and the practices with a fucking broken leg. No, he hasn't been in one practice since he broke his leg.
SPEAKER_01:And he doesn't put it. That's a bad ex bad example. He's a wiz newski. The last game he went to, uh no, he is the Trevaro. Last name's totally different.
SPEAKER_03:Not even a Wiz Newski.
SPEAKER_01:But Tony, you gotta understand though, when something is in your face and it's about you, it's a bit different than you can say about someone else. You're see your your kid might be playing. Okay, your kid might be showing up to ever practice and playing. But it's different when you're looking at someone else's eyes and seeing what they see. So you can't look at what I'm uh going through or what he's going through when you haven't gone through it. So you're telling me like you should do everything you should do because you made a dedication, but at the same time, you're not looking at every single player. Some players never go to practice and still play because they're big, they're tall, they're strong, and they can catch. And other kids that happens in real life, and other kids that are small and can catch, can play, can do it, but don't they don't play them is because they're small. Bro, they should go to every practice. This is so you this is real life shit, though. But you have no idea on both spectrums.
SPEAKER_00:No, this is real life shit. You're looking at one spectrum. No, this is this is like why my OnlyFans account is no. Okay, so the best stars in the world. Brett Favre.
SPEAKER_01:But nobody comes. My favorite, my favorite star, my f I'm in there just rubbing it. My favorite star of all, Brett Favre. Never went to practices at it at the end of his career. He's like, fuck that. I don't need practice. And people respected that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and people are still buying his Wranglers.
SPEAKER_01:And I think I'm wearing Wranglers right now. He played and went to the Super Bowl won. And he almost did it again for the Vikings. Never went to a practice because of who he was. Yeah. He already, he already proved himself.
SPEAKER_00:Established? Yeah, I understand. He's already established. I understand that, but you have to look at the match. You're telling me when Brett Favre was in high school, he was like, fuck these practices. I got this shit. When they fucking started him every day.
SPEAKER_03:He actually kind of was like that.
SPEAKER_01:But but but Tony, I didn't say that. I didn't say my son said fuck these practices. I know, but he goes to practice. Some people have the easy route. Yeah, and I'm saying, yes, that's fucking hundred percent true. I'm gonna tell you right now, the biggest fucking kids on their team, I know for a fact don't go to every practice. And they still start them and play every fucking game.
SPEAKER_00:This is real. You have no idea what you're talking about. This is the shit that happens in fucking real life. Remember, I understand. Some people's dad own a company and they get a fucking amazing job with these companies. While the people that have fucking dedicated for themselves that has nothing to do with playing a sport.
SPEAKER_03:I remember in high school I was on the soccer team. Show me a lot of things. I was the starting left wing. Hold on, hold on. I was the starting left wing, right?
SPEAKER_01:Not a lifestyle.
SPEAKER_03:Starting left wing on a team we were undefeated. We were gonna go on to the state championships. About two weeks into the season, new kid came to school. He was like four inches taller than me, two inches thicker, three inches wider, and he stole my spot without even going to practice. The first day he signed up, boom, he was the starting guy, and I sat on the bench the rest of the season. Okay. Shit happens. Okay, yeah, I understand that. Your kid didn't play. No, no. At least you got a chance. I didn't. I did until I didn't, right? You did until you didn't. Your kid shouldn't have been. But wait, wait. Well, I was never a did though with my kids. Your kid should have been able to play. There was never a did should have told you here's your money back if he was never gonna play you.
unknown:Your kid.
SPEAKER_03:Here's your money back. If you was never gonna play your kid, you're not part of the team if you're never ever gonna play.
SPEAKER_01:Here's the funny thing is they ask you to pay for more things. They want you to pay for these cookies, and you have to pay for them ahead of time. Oh, but then again, sell them to people you know. But pay for them first. And then they ask for you a fundraising thing. So there's a party after the whole season's over that you want that they want everyone to go to, but if you go to it, you have to give a hundred dollar donation.
SPEAKER_03:Sure. Sure. So you're gonna go?
SPEAKER_01:Fuck no. I'm just saying that I understand life isn't fair. But when life isn't fair, I'm gonna tell you it's not fair and I'm gonna fucking punch you in the face and show you it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I would have talked to the coach for sure.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know.
SPEAKER_03:By the end of the season, I would have. I've been like, hey, my kid the season's almost over. My kid's here at every practice, he's at every game. You don't ever play him. Put the kid in the game. Put the kid in the game.
SPEAKER_00:So what do you have to say about it, Tony? I don't I alright. Just for the sake of argument here. Well argument is great. I would like to have confrontation. Your kid deserved to play every game, even though I don't know the whole story of it. I don't know what he did at the practices. Who knows? He could have fucked the coach's wife.
SPEAKER_03:Everyone gets a snap, though. You should get a snap. Like they put him in on kickoffs. Good. That's a he played.
SPEAKER_00:I feel like I feel like that that's a valid argument up until like fourth, maybe fifth grade. But now they're getting into the time when when the teams are actually competitive. And they're they're trying to set a tone, even though your kids' team fucking sucks a dick, they're still trying to trying to win. And if the coach feels like the only way they're gonna win is by not playing your kid, that's the coach's decision. But the only way you're gonna change that is to you get him fired, you become the coach, and then you set your Madison everybody's included lifestyle that you're trying to portray on everybody.
SPEAKER_01:I I uh I somewhat agree with that. Yes, you are right. And I think you should be playing the best kids. But the problem is you're only playing kids within a fucking uh 50-mile vicinity. You're not playing the entire uh United States like you are in high school. Like it's it doesn't matter that much.
SPEAKER_00:But the thing is, dude, you don't go to the uh yeah, you're right. It doesn't matter. That's the thing. It doesn't, it doesn't.
SPEAKER_01:So if it doesn't matter, help him progress in his career or whatever he wants to do, help him grow. Don't fucking decide that he can never play because he's small. Give him a chance when he comes to high school and he's still small and they're competing against a whole fucking uh Wisconsin. I understand. Yes, don't play him.
SPEAKER_00:His chances to prove himself are in practice. I didn't You're not at the practice, is you're right. You're right. You're right. He might be fucking off with his friends. Okay, so when I walked up, he might, he might, he might get to play in practice, he might not try real hard because he's might be defeated on the inside.
SPEAKER_01:All right, well, when I what I walked up to the coach, the first thing he said to me, the first thing and then when I confronted him about being little and giving him a chance and making him feel like an idiot, that's when he attacked back with oh, you know what, he doesn't really actually try practice. Like he had something to prove to me so that I would have calmed down and and okay, you're right.
SPEAKER_03:He doesn't think I think he should have sent Tracy, and Tracy would have got him out.
SPEAKER_00:The thing is, is he's discriminating against your kid. Which in a way, I mean, is a coach's job, but it's a job that they can't fucking admit to the fact that they do. You're saying a coach should discriminate?
SPEAKER_01:Well, they they do. No, but like uh you but you can't just say discriminate because that's a vague term. You gotta say, um there's a better term than discriminate, but go ahead. No, it's discriminate. No, discriminate on what?
SPEAKER_00:There's on the different things to discriminate about size, playing abilities, color might be it might be in your case, and dude, I've I've met your kid. He he is fucking tiny. I know he's not a bad thing. I mean, he's just a tiny kid. Yeah. And he's playing a full contact sport, and the coach might have fucking been playing him in practice and watch him get fucking leveled over and over and over. And he's like, Well, they don't I can't have this with fucking they don't tackle in practice. They don't tackle 100%.
SPEAKER_01:They don't tackle. Why would you okay? Not in even the fucking NFL fucking facilities, they don't tackle in practice. That's fucking that's that's fucking science. You don't fucking tackle someone in practice and hurt them before you're playing a regular game. No, you fucking have tag or you you just push. It's not tack okay. Go ahead. That's fucked up. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00:Next see, I imagine practice very different. Give your next point. I imagine kids getting hauled away on stretchers.
SPEAKER_01:You don't tackle in practice. That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. I mean, I think there's flags even.
SPEAKER_00:But I I don't I don't know, man. And see, maybe this is why I'm not trying to tell you.
SPEAKER_01:I I agree with the ambition part. I agree 100% ambition. But ability, size, fucking color, whatever the fuck it is, you want to say discriminate only. Whatever your discrimination is that you say, yes. No. I mean, there's no discrimination when it comes to playing a fucking athlete.
SPEAKER_00:And and the thing is, is when you're in any position of power over children, every every fucking parent corners you and fucking has something to say.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I got that.
SPEAKER_00:It doesn't matter what it is.
SPEAKER_01:I have 100% got that through fucking years of coaching soccer. And every time when I talk to a parent, it's the kid lacks fucking he does he's fucking around during practice. Uh he doesn't come to practice. He uh all he wants to do is play with butterflies and and eat fucking grass.
SPEAKER_00:You know, so as far as far as things go, I was I was uh den leader for scouts, and I got talked I got talked to individually by every parent of every kid in my true. I'm saying it's a position of power over a kid. Uh I was assistant to the coach and my kid's fifth grade basketball, okay, okay, and assistant to the coach in last year's school's volleyball. And every fucking parent, and not everyone, but half the parents all fucking all said something. How come you're playing this kid over my kid? How come you're doing this? How come my kid was on the bench in the fourth quarter?
SPEAKER_01:Well, that's crazy because you live in a fucking posh fucking society. Uh I live in New Berlin. It's not fucking everyone makes uh a million dollars a year.
SPEAKER_00:What the fuck does financial standings have to do with children's abilities? Because they think their kids are better than everyone else. You you're saying nobody in New Berlin, Jay, uh, goes and has talks with coaches about their kids not playing.
SPEAKER_01:No, it's fucking everything. I'm saying there's no posh kids in New Berlin like they are in your poshy shit.
SPEAKER_00:I uh at the end of Scouts I had to give out um They weren't really trophies, but but it was like The Weebelows? Weebelows? The Weeblow 2 awards.
SPEAKER_03:What's a Webelow? They're scout rankings. Oh okay.
SPEAKER_00:Um but but they got like it was it was like the arrow light, and two of the kids didn't get it. There there was fucking work that needed to be done to do that they didn't do. Understandable. And I got pulled aside by both of the parents, and one said that I humiliated their kid by not giving them this arrow of light like everybody else got.
SPEAKER_01:Does that not sound poshy, dude?
SPEAKER_00:And I had to politely tell this lady, like, hey, there was work to be done. Like your kid didn't do the work. Because your kid didn't show up, your kid, your kid had this, your kid had that, you called me every week that your kid couldn't come.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, like I understand that, but what has this? What does that have to do? What does that have to do with my story? Well, I'm just it's relevant.
SPEAKER_00:No, it's not. Yeah, not to to what I feel. No. Has nothing okay, not to what you feel, but the coach having to explain himself why you're not the only one that has said something to this coach about their game. I bet you I am the only one.
SPEAKER_03:You should write a strongly worded letter.
SPEAKER_01:Because I am you know I'm the only one, because that's the only one they don't play. I know that I've fucking been to every single game. Every game. I've watched every kid go on the field.
SPEAKER_00:I wish you would have gone for the practices.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so I'm gonna go to every practice six days a week. Some uh for two and a half hours.
SPEAKER_00:I sat and watched kids play volleyball for an hour and a half yesterday. In studying my kids' technique.
SPEAKER_01:No, that is I think you got it bad. Studying my kids' technique, that's psycho.
SPEAKER_03:Do you do you go do you go to your I don't watch all of them, but I go to everyone, and I'm there for at least 15 minutes of every single one. Like I said before. I used to watch the whole things, but like I said before, I watch a bunch of seven to eleven year old girls flip around in a gym that smells like fucking feet. Smells like a staff infection.
SPEAKER_01:I coached for 10 fucking years for soccer. I seen the kids that had dedication, and I see the ones that didn't. Okay. And if my kid didn't have it, then I didn't see it because I wasn't at practice. But again, I'm his father, and you never play him. I never did that to any kid in my fucking coaching career.
SPEAKER_03:Kids should get to play.
SPEAKER_01:Kids should get to play. Especially at the fucking young age of 13.
SPEAKER_03:You're gonna have to move to Madison. Nah, kids should be able to play.
SPEAKER_00:No, dude, 13 is when shit starts getting competitive.
SPEAKER_01:No, you're right. They at football, they take shit way more seriously at a younger age. You are right.
SPEAKER_00:Your your fucking kids' middle school team has three coaches. That's gross. Yeah, they do.
SPEAKER_03:It's ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00:And my kids' volleyball team last year had two coaches, and they were both high school. Six kids, six kids on the field or court. Our main coach was on junior varsity. He couldn't even make varsity. Our assistant coach, I was assistant to the coach, but the assistant coach was varsity, and he never played a game. He was telling me about it. He got to play one game because the kid who is the lead of his position got busted drinking and they wouldn't let him play for a week. It's the only reason he got to play. That makes sense. Like, shit's not fair, dude. Alright, well, you know what?
SPEAKER_01:I'm just gonna end this with this is at a certain age you should learn how to play a sport. And you should not be fucking handicapped it because of who you are, the size, or whatever. I think at you should be given fucking same opportunities.
SPEAKER_00:And if you don't believe in that, then you know that's true, but at the same time, they trim 20 yards off the women's in golf.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I'm not talking about sexes, I'm talking about kids. I'm just saying that's a handicap. And then, you know, fuck everyone that doesn't believe it. And this has been a fucking long ass episode.
SPEAKER_00:I could argued for another hour on this.
SPEAKER_01:I'm gonna still argue when this is done. But hey, we all love you. I love you too, Tony. Say it back, say it back, you dick. You can't. You peach.
SPEAKER_00:Top source! See you later.
