This is in the Locker Room, presented by Ford and brought to you by Akroshure, the official insurance and cybersecurity partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, by Bett MGM, Huntington Bank, PNC, PEPSI, and by FedEx. Where now meets next? Now here's Craig Wolfley and Max Starks.
And the MVP chance continuing back up here for Lamar who gets a snap, takes a knee, and Matt is going to do it. Twenty five seconds left on the clock, but no play needs to be run. The two teams are jogging in the case of the Ravens and walking somewhat dejectedly in the case of the Steelers, toward midfield to congratulate each other after an AFC North showdown that sees the Ravens send the Steelers to a fifth consecutive defeat and a quick playoff. Exit twenty eight to fourteen is the final.
Well that didn't go as planned. Max definitely did not. Wolf Yeah, I had a lot of hopes for this weekend and unfortunately none of it manifested itself. Saturday night that was This was a tough one. This was really tough to take and nobody took it harder, I'm sure than the players because what trends happened out on Saturday night in Baltimore M and T Banks Stadium. My friend, well, I've never quite seen a half like that. First of all, the first half where you know, King Henry and Lamar Jackson rushed for huge amounts of yardage and finished up with what two and ninety nine yards overall? It's just that's gonna it's gonna lead to a lot of soul searching here this offseason because right now there's a lot more questions than answers.
Well, one hundred and eighty six yards for Derrick Henry.
Yeah, what was it last time? Remember?
One hundred and sixty two?
Okay, so we went the wrong we definitely did.
And before that, what do you have like like like eighty something I believe the first time we played him?
Yeah, yep, I think so. Yeah.
So yeah, you know, how do how do we say this?
There's more questions than answers. That is really what's going on?
You know what, That's a good way of looking at it, and you know what, we'll just go with that.
We'll go with that. And the other thing is, you know, It was so funny because you and I kept going back and forth on that read option, and you were talking about the backside. Guy, Well, my backside was your front side in my and your front side was my backside. That's that's why I got some screwed up and trying to you're trying to and I got the you know, because in my day, the front side was wherever the point the ball was at the point of attack, you know what I mean. Yeah, by the way, I meant to apologize going you and I are arguing about him going, no, look it's the front side. It's the backside. I don't know.
Yeah, we wait, we were there and I'm like, I'm like, no, wolf has gotta be up. And in my head, I'm like, because the fake was you know, the read is off the backside of that because whether that backside.
Closes or not determines whether he pulls it.
Yeah, well, the backside of the play, because all the action is going to one direction and the mars going against the grain of it. That's why that's how I thought about it.
So yeah, and we probably should have talked about that during the break to get clarification, but.
You know, it made for great radio commentary, and you know, it.
Really was declarative of the whole thing of what Mike said in the run up. If you can't stop the run, you can't win. You can't And that's exactly what happened there. When you can't stop the run, when you can't stop Derrick Henry, and he's a train, There's no doubt about it. He is a train. And I gotta say the Ravens offensive line did a good job of blocking our guys unfortunately. Yeah. Yeah, And by the way, kudos kudos to Captain Cam how about that. I mean, you talk about a guy that had every reason when he was taken in just before halftime for a little brain check. You know, he got when they were worried, he was concussed, came back out ten tackles, two tackles for loss man. Kudos to that guy. What a year he had, I.
Mean, and all pro Pro Bowl caliber season to a Hall of Fame career. Notch it on the belt, but like you said, I mean exhausting every resource you know, and playing to the very last breath, not giving it. It would have been easy, it would have been comfortable in the and and also I'll put it this way. It would have been justifiable if he you know, quote unquote mailed it in or just you know, said hey, I can't, I can't do it, you know, I can't go. But he didn't. He didn't. He was he's a war daddy, and and and he's a gamer, and it meant it meant that much to him. And I think, you know, for all of us, you could take it. You could take a page out of his book, because this was one that was tough to take under the chin. And I mean and it also went to you know the old axiom, right, I mean of this game, the Ravens and the Steelers. Since I've put been playing in this game, and before I started playing in this game, since the Ravens have been a franchise, you know, Cleveland South, they have, it's always been whoever gets to one hundred yards rushing first wins the game. So that means who's the more physical team, who is the who is the tougher team is going to win this game. And they came right out the gates and it was action time.
You know, absolutely this. The Steelers allowed the most rushing yards in team history and postseason in this game. Two hundred and ninety nine, Max, I mean to both Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson, and it would have been three hundred, but it took a knee, you know. But according to the next Gen stats, Henry gained one hundred and fifty seven of his one to eighty six yards after contact.
Max.
I mean, they're they're crediting the Steelers with twelve misstackles trying to bring down Henry.
Wow, yep, I mean it's it's pretty. It's pretty.
Yeah when you.
Think about it, Oh, I mean bad as bad as itself.
But yeah, I mean there's really no polishing that, you know what I mean, there's no way to And I know that you and I both know. It's former players and we've been through situations similar to this, not necessarily the same thing, but you know there is with the end of a season, when it crashes down and it's done over finisimo, that sort of thing. It's really difficult to take.
Man.
It's you've been on this rush since really what February March, being able to lift go in train the off season, spend all that time up in camp, go through the preseason, regular season, you got hopes for now you hit the playoffs and then it just crashes down on you. And I I know just how how devastating that can be for a player, at least you know, for me, it was I just they used to kill.
Me well, I mean and and it used to crush me too, right, because it's like, no matter what I do, you know, I need my entire team with me, like we all have to be together on this. And that's the frustrating part about it, was that no matter what happened, you know, there's only so much I can do as a player, as a teammate, and you know, like I said, I have to do my one eleventh and I and and when you feel like you do your one eleventh, but realizing that you need other one other one elevenths in there, that makes it that makes it really tough, you know. But but this is the ultimate about it being a team game, you know.
Oh absolutely, I mean, you know the I you know, And here's the thing. I look at your career. You know, you've achieved super Bowls, so it's like you went to a higher peak than I ever went to. And then you've also experienced not being there, you know, not not being in the playoffs and that's also you know, that's tough. I can join you there, you know, but it never never stood on you know, on the platforms. Never never had the chance to hoist the Lombardi. But I got to believe that that would hurt the words. Having been there and done that and then not to do it. It's got it. That's got to be tough. Yeah, you know, it is. It is frustrating.
You know, it's tough for me to talk from my perspective, right because I know from my perspective I have I've done it, but I've also witnessed the you know, just the downplay of it as well. Whereas we didn't we did not get it done how how we wanted it to be done. And that's the frustrating part as well, is that, you know, when you come up shore, especially when you feel like, hey man, this is this is the team that we were supposed to have it and we didn't. It's a frustrating down, you know, down feeling, especially the day after, right because you know that it'll never be the same again. It'll never the way the team is constructed, right, it will never be the same squad again.
Yeah, that's true, that's true. You know, they're gonna bust it up. You know. It's like I said as we started off, saying, there's more questions than answers, and we'll get into that a little later on, but certainly, I mean, the disheartening thing is defensively being run over like that. The disheartening thing is you know, Derrick Henry gaining a buck fifty seven of his one to eighty six after contact. I mean, those are things just they've got to I mean, if you talk to a cam, if you talk to a Larry Ogan Jobe, you talk to a Pat Queen or any of the guys out there, that's just got to be something that just absolutely tears you up.
Yeah, oh man, I mean and to see the see the guys on the field afterwards, right yeah, I mean that's the other part. That's just that just that just that just gets at you, that nows at your crawl, right, you know, the guys just sitting there and just like, hey man, I have no answers, uh, you know for what happened? You know that that's that's the most that that's the most frustrating thing to see guys just standing there and just realize, hey man, you know regardless of whatever we did, it was not good enough. And and and that's what and that's and there's nothing you can really say about it, right, you know, there's no there's no quick fixed answer, no, no.
Uh.
I think that's the other part about it is that you know you're you're left asking why you're let your left asking man, what could I have done? When you realize that there's nothing you could have done? Man, not in that moment, you know, it's it's frustrating. I mean you because you heard, I mean you know, I know you heard the postgame commentary, right, the postgame interviews, and you know you had you had you had uh TJ Joey.
Nause.
It was it was it was like it was a scrum of like four different guys in in this uh in this clip. I saw right that they were showing all of their postgame interviews in the locker room, and yeah, everybody was talking about how good of a week of prep it was. You know, everybody felt like they were healthy going into it. And when you hear that, you know now that you're looking for the built in excuse right, wolf, but say that you're looking for somebody, say you know what it seemed a little off. You know, you want some justification for it. We're here now, now everything was good. It's like, well, what the heck? You know what I'm saying, Like, that's where that's where it's like, it's like even more frustrating because you know, what do you do in that moment, wolf, you know, when you felt like everything was ready, but then you just come out flat? You come out as flat as an r C cola. That that that's been uncapped for five minutes, right, you know, what what what is? What is the difference you know between what transpired Monday through Friday and then what what happened Saturday night? And when you can't answer that, and then when you know, as a coaching staff, you're like, well, we can't play for you, you know exactly. So hey, you know, there's always so much we can do. So that's the other part that that you know, that just it gets at you. So you know, it's like, where's the disconnect?
It was? The disconnect came at the very end of the game. Okay, we disconnected that season?
Yeah, uche that's.
The only one I can figure off the top of my very flat head here, you know. Ah, you know I just the coup de gras to me, all right, the finishing blow. The Steelers closed to twenty one to seven, and then d Henry goes forty four straight down the middle. I mean, oh, that that was just that's heartsickening. Just just tore your heart out.
Yeah yeah, I mean that that forty four yarder man was just brutal.
It really said everything about him. You know, what a what a great competitor, what a great back, how big, how strong? You know, here he is having one of his greatest years ever. I mean, Tennessee's guys sit there and going, we might have prematurely not put money in him.
You know, Tennessee's saying that, Uh yeah, you know, think about the Raiders getting rid of Josh Jacobs. That's what they said to.
You.
I mean there's a hole going.
Yeah, there's a whole bunch of teams that were like, yeah, the New York Giants.
Oh, man Buyer's remorse, huh.
Who you telling man that is? I mean, yeah, he has to be like this dude ran for two thousand yards on us.
Oh my gosh. All right, you know what, we're gonna regroup, We're gonna go to break here Max is up next. We'll be back. We'll probably get you. We'll get some calls going later on here today, as the lamentations in the whalings begin. Absolutely here you are in the locker room and the Steelers Audio Network.
This is in the Locker Room, presented by Ford and brought to you by acro Sure, the official insurance and Cybersecurity partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, by bet MGM, Huntington Bank, p n C PEPSI, and by FedEx.
Where now meets next?
Now here's Craig Wolfley and Max Stark's.
All right back inside the locker room here, and we are we are, we are. We are parsing through the straws. Guys. Uh, I think that's the best way of putting it is that we are we are trying to, uh make sense of a season for the Steelers, you know kind of one of the biggest things is really you know, kind of where where did where did it go right? Where did it go wrong? And of course everything in between. I think, I think the biggest thing, you know, when we look at this kind of loss, you know, to the Ravens, you know, it was one of those that we thought the opportunity was you know, it was there. Uh, we had we had all of the things you wanted to have in a game. You know, happened the way that we thought they were going to and and it just didn't manifest itself for whatever reason. You know, it was just it was not the way that we prescribed it to be. And you know, they came out, let's face it, they came out flat. Okay, I think that's the best way of putting it. They came out flat. And it was just it was not that it was it was not, you know, the kind of game that we wanted, especially that first half. Man, I mean, you know, they they they they fought the second half. I thought, you know, they took they took they took the reins off in the h In the second half of the game, I thought Russ you know, really started coming to his own and really started playing really well. But you know, it was just it was too little, too late, I think, you know, for all intents and purposes, and that was and that's that's that's what was frustrating.
Well think about it, rush through for two twenty six in the second half, I mean, you know, you got to give props and I don't care. People can pile on me and all that other stuff. I don't care.
You know.
The point is certain people out there, like Cam, that was a heroic performance. I know. It does nothing for satiating those that want to, you know, move on to the next round of the playoffs. And I agree with you. I mean, football is not for the weary or the the uh, you know, the weak of mind. It's it's all about being able to overcome. That's what it's all about. But the fact of the matter is along the way, for those of us outside the locker room, there is still a reason to appreciate the effort that went into what happened Saturday night with guys like Cam Heyward. You know, yeah, the fact that he would come out and have ten tackles, you know, two for for loss, after getting dinged up in the second quarter, getting checked for your gord and so forth. Then iginologists cleared you. You know, there's an appreciation I think both you and I as players, You as his teammate, a former teammate of is you appreciate what he's goes out there and lays on the line. You know, I mean, look at Russ. Russ did not play a very you know, big first half there. But he comes back in the second half and he throws two TD passes in the third quarter that were absolutely beautiful, I mean, just great, great jobs. He had some excellent passing. But again it was a little too little, too late. But you appreciate the fact he didn't he didn't come out and bag it in the second half. He didn't, you know, he didn't gripe, he didn't. You know, he was not seeking comfort, as Mike likes to say, you know, and there's an appreciation that you I as a former player, at least I like to throw out there some flowers say, hey, there's a couple of guys there that showed leadership, showed it under heavy negativity out there, and still you know, the the game with their heads you know, held high because of the fact they they laid it all on the line. They were burning their boats so to speak in Arthur Smith language.
Yeah, Now, the veterans did all that they could, you know, and and that that's all that that's all you can ask for, right I mean, but like you said, it just it wasn't enough for this day. Yeah, you know, it was that that that's that's that's that's just that's just the course of action, however you want to look at it. They they were not prepared at all, you know, to handle what they were doing. And it was and it was like the little things, right, I mean that that that's really what it comes down to. The little areas were not taken care of like you wanted them to. And and some people just weren't ready for for what for what was to come. And I can sit there and you can try and point to it all you want and say, hey, man, you know, if only, if only we did this, if only we did that. But shoultar, waters are are are are are left out of this this part of the equation, right, right, it's do or do not. There is no try when it when it comes to this, right, it's Yoda Yoda rules, Yo, Yoda always rules, like O Doyle rules. I don't know if you guys remember Big Daddy Doyle rules.
No, I don't remember who's Big Daddy.
Oh no, it was it was it was It was a movie with an Sandler.
Yeah, okay, I remember that. I remember that movie. Yeah, remember a lot about it. But yeah, yeah exactly.
But yeah, a boy this day about these kids is one like family that was like, you know, they were like the bullies Doyle rules. I bet they do.
Oh Doyle, Yeah, I would say the Ravens have that had that Saturday night. You know, it was just it was just so disheartening. I mean, Max, you know, he just kept turning the you know, the sticks over and over and over. I mean they had twenty almost twenty first downs by what the halftime I think it was, yeah, I recall. I mean it was just unbelievable. And you know, you've got to believe that the defense was suffering from their ineptitude, you know, and it wasn't that they weren't trying. Some people say, well there was no fight back. I don't know. It seemed like there was fight back, they just were not fighting back very efficiently.
Or well, yeah, it just wasn't. It wasn't what you would have expected it to be. You thought that, hey man, listen, listen, this this didn't have in the way that we thought it would. But no, no, it was. It was. It was far from that.
I mean, look at the touchdown drives ninety five, eighty five, ninety and seventy Oh.
My, I mean it was like all of them. It was like all the touchdown drives.
Yeah, I mean it was huge. I mean ninety five eighty five, ninety and seventy yards. Wow, I mean that that's that you remember back in the day. I mean you with Bussy and so forth to us, me with Franco. You know, there were times during the career you know you're putting the team away, you're putting the boots to them in the second half and you just running the ball and you know you're running them into the ground. These guys are getting up and they're slow to stand up. They're yelling at each other, they're arguing in the huddle. You know, you can tell you're you're getting to them, you know, because they're just very very short tempered with each other much us, you know what I mean. And so that's that's the perfect But this started. That's usually after like you take the lead and sometime in the you know, halftime, by halftime and then the second half, you know you're putting them away. This was like right from the get go. Yeah, yeah, no, this was and.
You thought it was more effective. Hey, we're gonna come out and we're gonna be you know, we're gonna be aggressive, we're going to you know, we're gonna take the ball first, and you know, you get that first down and it's like, okay, well there we go. We're ready to rock and roll. And then wrong, wrong, wrong, they got the ball and they just absolutely just you know, did what they wanted essentially the entire time.
It seemed like it didn't it. Yeah, you know again, Russell, if you look at those overall overall numbers twenty to twenty nine, two seventy with two tds twenty six to twenty six and two TV's in the second half, you know, it's just again, I appreciate the effort. It's just we got a little too late. But just to highlight a couple of good things, because I can't stand the douriness of, you know, always just being down about the whole thing. There were some good, good efforts there. We've already talked about Cam. You know, we talk about Russell Wilson. I mean that throw to Mike Williams on that thirty seven yard go ball. I mean, that's beautiful. That was exact major stuff. That is really great stuff that you know, where's it been over the last five weeks. You know, Russ's thirty yard moonball to Van Jefferson gad zekes what a piece of work that was.
Oh man, Yeah, I mean, like you said, I mean there was just so many moments that were just like solid efforts, right. I mean that that just really kind of kind of capitulated everything thing, right. I mean, it was like it was like, hey, this is what we want to see, this is what we need, and guys were giving it at the right time, you know. But but like you said, but the overall effort, right, the lack of attention to detail for stopping the run, those were the things that were kind of missed and fell short of the mark, you know, when you're talking about guys and and and how they were going to respond to just constant you know, pressure by the run game, you know. And I think it started early because they were just slow to adjust what we talked about, right of the of the actual not of the actual pitch off the backside, you know, the keeper right, the read option, back door pull it by Lamar. I think that at the beginning of the game really set the tone like that, that was the one that said, uh, oh we've got we've got we've got some issues, right, you know, Alex crashed first, and then you know, and then right after Alex crashed and then TJ had had two of them as well, where you're attacking the guy who was the runner. Uh you know that that that didn't have the ball versus versus watching Lamar and the way you spied him on that. I mean, they really designed it really well to really capture that. And then of course, you know offensively like running the ball, I mean some of the confusion and the plays and some of the confusion and the and the execution. You know, Michael Pierce once again, we were worried about him right right, and and old tugboat there just just kept wedging his way in between in between the cruise ships, just kept bouncing his way in there and just being a nuisance, you know, roquad Smith, I mean, Darius Washington. Everybody was flying and filling gaps. The discipline was there, and and that's the frustrating part about it, right because it's like we knew what they were going to do, we knew how fast filled they were, and we didn't take advantage. And then I was sitting there saying, hey, you know what, let's pass out of the you know, the first play of the game. Let's catch them off guard. They think we're gonna run. We had thirteen personnel that looked like twenty one. Right, it was. It was set up exactly how I wanted to see it. And then of all people, right pat Fire move the most sure one of the most sure handed guys. We got right drops the first pass of the game, and I know that ate him up. Oh ya, you know it's it was just like it was just like not being prepared, you know. And I don't know how else to say it, right, you know, there's no kind way of saying it. But I mean, you you get you got punked out there. They called your car. They said, hey, hey, you're tough. Well we're gonna see how tough you are. We're gonna go put We're gonna come straight in, no gloves up, and we're just gonna start swinging haymakers at you and see if you and see if you can block them.
Yeah, and they're.
And there and there Haymakers landed. Ours didn't.
Yeah, well we did land a few, you know what I mean, No, we did, just you.
Know, the second half, I mean it was like, you know, hey, third you know, third quarter is like hey, okay, we kind of readjusted right, and then we went and then we went back on the offensive. The problem was we were not prepared for their offensive as well, because they came out and said, hey, we're going to keep doing the same thing that we did before, and we're gonna dare you to stop us.
Yeah, and they they did. I mean when again, when they closed, when the Steelers closed to twenty one to seven, I thought, oh beautiful, we're on the comeback trail here something happened, and then Derek goes that forty four yarder and it just like it just ripped your heart out. And I mean it just all that hard work to claw your way back at some sort of level of being, you know, into the game at all, and then to have that happen four plays after you closed to twenty one to seven is just emotionally rending as possible.
Yeah, it was. I mean that was one where you're like, okay, we got this, we're calling oh no, yeah, I mean that that's what That's what it felt like. It was like, we can we can't. We can't seem to get it right no matter how hard we try. We couldn't. We we were just always like one step behind. And that's the frustrating part about it, right, is to feel one step behind, yeah, and just think that hey man, they've got a beat on us, and and there's no way, there's nothing we could do to get out of their crosshairs. That's that's where the frustration lies.
Well, it's when you can't turn the tide back, you know what I mean. You know, you can feel it sweeping you back, and you keep thinking, we're going to get you, get our feet planted somewhere, and then we're going to start the comeback and claw away. But that to me was again that the coupdi grad or the finishing blow, was that forty four yard or because when you you're already being swept up in this tide of you know, relentlessly being driven backward. I mean again, ninety five, eighty five, ninety and seventy yard drives. Twenty four of the first thirty two plays were all runs. You know, I mean that that's as debilitating as you can do. This is this is what you and I used to love about, you know, your period of time with Bussy and mine with Franco, where you could run the ball, run the ball and just put it to the defense and just again have your way with him and know that they were just going downhill, and it just it was from the opening salvo, you know, yeah, I.
Mean it was from the moment they said go they went, you know.
But you know, let me finish on one good note, okay, okay, one good note to it that third and nine from the Steelers three yard line when Russ hit Calvin Austin on a twenty five yard throw over the middle. Was that beautiful or what?
Oh? That was absolutely gorgeous.
That was that was unbelievable and I you know, again a tip of the cap to the fact there is Hinzward used to say, sometimes you gotta take your head off and give it to them. But you know, that was I gotta I gotta say that was a beautiful throw under pressure when a lot of negativity was happening, and it did, like at least give the Steelers some footing to start a comeback. But wow, again, not not at all, not near enough that it was going to be successful.
No, you're absolutely right, man, I mean it was. It was just a little bit too late in the process. All right, Well, with that, we're gonna we're gonna step aside. We'll be back with more here inside the locker Room. And uh it's the wolf segment coming up. We'll be back with more here on the Steelers Audio Network.
This is in the Locker Room, presented by Ford and brought to you by acro Sure, the official insurance and Cybersecurity partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, by bet MGM, Huntington Bank, PNC, PEPSI, and by FedEx. Where now meets next? Now here's Craig Wolfley and Max Starks.
And it's time for the word of the day. And the word of the day is shus. Yes, shus. If you use that as a noun, it would be a straight downhill run on skis, Max, or as a verb, it's to make a straight downhill run on skis. How about that, my friend.
To be confused with chasse shosse.
Wait a minute, isn't that like ballet stuff?
I'm sure it's not.
That's pye wee and seshe.
No.
Now, now here's the thing. Well, late in my career, I played a little bit of goal line tight end, right, so I would go and what I did a play little goal line tight end.
You know, look at you Jumbo, Hey, hey, Jumbo, did you ever know this before? Oh yeah, I of all the times I've talked about my Jumbo tight end days and Zach Banners of the world, this is the first I've heard of Wolf committing to say.
Like Max being like, oh, just in case you guys didn't know, I'm actually like a world class skateboarder.
I used to do nine hundreds with Tony Hawk. Okay, let's let's get it right. The reason I was in was not for anything other than fact I could wham all right. I was, you know, being a guard, you you learned the trapping system, and so when you do it from an h back position, coming in motion and then you get a head you know, lead up on a linebacker, there's a lot of fun there. I mean, you can you can wham the daylights out of some guys back in the day. So that's so. Anyhow, Tounch said, one we're in the meeting room, we're watching film, and I go in motion right, and Hunch goes, look at your prancing. I got I'm not prancing. That's not prancing. That's that's as a strong motion, sir. That's that's a constant motion. Towards the whamman. He goes, no, you're prancing. I got I'm not, So we engage in an argument.
On a lateral rotational axis thing.
All right. So getting back to our shusting after the lesson, here's a how to use it in a sentence. After a lesson on shusting, I was much more confident on the mountain. That's a good idea, because if you go straight down the mountain, you know. I taught myself out to ski Max. I did it in the local, know, at a local park, you know, at up in Orchard Park. It was a chestnut ridge and I and I just I learned how to do it right. But one of the first times when I I skied, I was learning the snowplow.
You know.
You got your skis the tails of them out wide, and you're making a V. And I'm yeah, you make the V going down the French fry, yea. So I'm going and there's this very nice looking lady perched on the edge of the hill, right, She's just standing there like waiting for I think a friend or something come down. And and I'm like panicking because I'm trying to turn, you know, and I'm trying to go left and I'm trying to go right, and then it just over.
Trying to yeah you shast instead.
Of whatever I did, I ran over her. But I was, I was kind enough. I was like twelve years old. I remember just before I hit her, the lady turned around, look in these eyes of terror, and I said, sorry, lady ran over her skis knocked her down and I couldn't stop the rest of the hill, but I heard her. He was swearing at me in some foreign language that I went.
As as, uh, yeah, please don't do this again.
Yeah. So my sussing, my first shossing experience, was not very good. How about you?
Uh yeah, no, I I just you know, it's funny enough. My first time ever skiing was it was at Seven Springs grand opening, grand closing. Yeah, I was there. My aunt, my aunt Helen was. I was. I was an eye surgeon in Pittsburgh for a very long time. And uh and so she she owned her optical shop up there up there in Wilkinsburg and Mount Pleasant and we were up there for one Chris and She's liked, hey, let's go skiing, all right, cool, I've never gone. I'ment like in the seventh grade, and so I remember getting these skis and you know, you do the you do the intro lesson and you you go and they get you up the bunny hill. You know the little little lift that you put like that it has like a little arm. You kind of put it behind your back and you ride up the hill.
Yeah.
Well, well the rope toe I always thought was the one you held with your hands right in front.
Yeah.
Yeah, this one was like kind of like weird because it had like a little bit of a U and you put it behind your back.
Was it like a T bar?
Yeah, almost like a T bar?
Yeah yeah, yeah.
So so you know, we go up to the top and you know, you go down, it's like hey, you know, make the pizza, you know, and then of course, you know, then the French fry and and then worst case scenario. You know, you you you straight to one side and you just drop to your hip right just to stop like the emergency exit.
Which done when I when I it's.
Just yes, so so you know I'm shussing. You know, it's like it's going good. But like you said, similar thing, I don't know what it is about, like little kids and like don't women they seem to always be there. I don't know if she was there watching her son. She was running out and I'm sitting there. It's her and then a haybiale behind it, right, And so I'm coming down and and pizza is not working. I'm trying to get there, you know, I'm trying to get to the New York slice not and then you know, not the not not the school lunch slice, right, trying to trying to get move out the way. No, no, lady, she has like hot cocoa in her hand. Oh no, But luckily she whatever reason is, it was like catlike reflexs. She just kind of jumps just enough out of the way that I miss her. Right, Oh my goodness, wow, but I can't I catch full haybail full haybail declete her or skis stuck it to the haybiale. My body went flying forward and it was it was like, you know what, this might not be the profession for me. And meanwhile, so my mom sees me do that. Okay, so that's already terror enough because I'm like this, I'm like six ' two, you know what I'm saying as a kid at twelve, right, So to this humongous manchild just go flying over a haybale, no skis because they're stuck into the hay. And then my younger brother justin he misses the whole Buddy Hill area and he's trying to stop. But now he's skiing towards the ski lift in the Black Diamond area. Oh no, he goes completely to the right, trying to avoid because he saw me cram out, so he veered off to the right. But there's no stopping to the right. So now you have my mom who's frantically now running out in the snow to catch my little brother. I don't know how she expected to catch him on skis, and she's on foot to stop him from going to the Black Diamond area because she thought that the hill started up there. No, but there was actually a ski lift, so she caught him at the ski lift. Oh so, needless to say, no more shifting, more or sashing, or it was more shushing by my mom. She's like, hey, can we go skiing? Sh don't speak, don't ever say that word again.
It went from shussing to shushing.
Yes it did, and and I never skied again until I actually got on a ski bike with my girls a couple of years ago up in Tahoe. And uh, that's like, that's like, that's like snowboarding on a bike where you have a thin blade as like your wheels. But I love that. Now I could do that. You got two feet as breaks, so that's a lot easier.
Well, let me let me in the ground. I gotta I gotta add a little of denim to my story because Max, I'm being critiqued by Hoopy, which, for folks, if you don't know, that's my mom. She's currently in Florida and you know, enjoin the nicer weather in Florida, and she said you were more like fourteen or fifteen instead of twelve.
Oh, thank you, thank you Hoopy for the clarification. Wolf is over here trying to try to try to set he's over here selling Wolf tickets.
At least at least that wasn't like twenty five.
You know something, It actually happened last year, guys.
Oh my it was Hoopy.
It was Hoopy Paluza twenty twenty four.
Disclosure, Full disclosure, full disclosure. We're going to break now because I think I think Hoopy's gonna she's my fact checker right now, I think she's got more to say. We'll be back after this. We got more coming up in the in the Power Hour. Right, we'll be you're listening to the Seelers Audio Network. I'm laughing too much.