A Rewatchables Summer Mailbag!

22:54Bill Simmons:Rachel Ward. There's a good car chase in that movie, right? Really good car chase. Rachel Ward's throwing 102. I don't know Rachel Ward. What is Rachel Ward from? You should get to know her, Craig. Is that Taylor Hackford? Yeah. Okay. Mike from Western Mass said at the end of Dave, a movie that I'm ready to do to read Dave. Okay. Really love that movie. When did you do Dave? A long time ago. Dobbins? Yeah, years ago. He says at the end, this is inside for people who love this movie, but how is Dwayne, the Ving Rhames character, not wearing a sweater vest in the last shot? Because there's a kitchen scene in the White House when Dave and Ving Rhames are kind of, they're talking, they're eating a sandwich, and he says, you should wear a sweater vest.

23:37Bill Simmons:They look good on you. And Ving Rhames is like, really? And he's like, you could have brought that around. So he says that's a new category. the Dwayne Stevenson sweater vest missed opportunity award for a very small choice that would have made the movie better. I'm going to veto this, but I like the spirit of it. You like why you veto it? Just because you're like, that's... I just think it would be too hard they had to figure out. But I like the idea of it. It really would have been a good idea if you had a sweater vest. It's like loose threads. It's like you shouldn't tie a knot on that one.

24:04Bill Simmons:Blair Symes from Chicago says, the Rewatchables is my favorite pod and the Species episode is one of the best. All-timer. What about the species award for the thing no one notices or questions during the first few viewings, but then you see it and can't unsee it? So he says for him, it goes to the supposed evil alien plot to take over the world by breeding aliens with humans. How is this supposed to work? He says, Natasha Hendridge is half alien, but her kid would be quarter alien. Then it'd be eighth alien and so on. Eventually, human DNA is going to water down the alien DNA and you won't notice it.

24:39Bill Simmons:humans down the road will just end up being 3 % alien on their 23andMe test like they're 3 % Irish. Plus didn't those aliens send us to secret to unlimited energy as well as their DNA? They were good dudes. It's a decent point. Yeah. I don't know if the DNA would be strong enough that it wouldn't get watered down. You know? Well, there's also the henstrages going around killing guys who are diabetic. You know, like, it's like you basically like winnow down the like, like, most human beings have some frailty, some flaw with them. so then you're just talking about her breeding with like six guys after a while I like the idea I was trying to think of other examples where when you've seen a movie too many times and then you realize a plot has just been completely ruined which basically is what's aged the worst or picking nits for us but that's a good one it was the bad plan by the aliens yeah it's like there should be a special like especially for ones that are like big movies for us like the thing I noticed on the 12th viewing of this movie you know When it's like, why can't the aliens just come down to Earth in their natural form and just kill all the humans?

25:43Yeah, that could have been another move. Right, right. Why do they need to look like a human and seduce a human? It's like, couldn't they just kill them? Zap them. Yeah.

25:52Bill Simmons:Silence of the Lambs is a good one for this when they just have Lecter at the top floor with like one security guard and no cameras. And he's also three in pork chop lamb chops and stuff. Yeah, and it's just, and he asks for a second dinner and like, boy, that's weird. Like, you see that enough times. What's the one we have for Heat for this? I mean, there's a lot of things in Heat where it's like, does this guy who's so disciplined really go back for Wingrove? You know what I mean? Like, he's like so free. He's at the airport. Mike Kaiser says that we missed a huge plot point in No Way Out. I'm glad people are listening to the library.

26:28Bill Simmons:I really like No Way Out. I'd like to suggest you guys brand the Did This Movie Need a Better Ending category and make it the Tom Farrell single-handedly lost the Cold War award. Oh, yeah. Which Costner, when Gene Hackman's character was like, I'll give you anything you want. Why not just be like, oh, I control the defense secretary now. I own Gene Hackman. And then that could be the sequel. He just felt like he blew the opportunity. I'm going to keep an eye on this. I don't know if it's a category, but I do like, yeah, he actually would have been better off just being like, oh, this is actually better.

27:09Bill Simmons:And now Cold War leverage. Controlling it. Yeah. The sequel. One way out. Jason Peters says this is a great one. Not Philadelphia Eagles tackle legend. No. Spinoff character you would greenlight for a new movie award. A character so interesting you'd watch a whole movie based on them. And he mentions Baldwin and Glengarry. But he came up with this because of Tom Cruise and Tropic Thunder could less Grossman have carried a movie. I say no. That's kind of That'd be tough for an hour and a half. I did have a couple possibilities for this, though. Digum and the Departed. That was talked about for a while, right?

27:44Bill Simmons:That could have definitely been a sequel. Which one is Digum or my character? Oh, Wahlberg, sure. Quint prequel we talked about when we did Jaws. Could have gone back, maybe even gone back all the way to World War II there. My two favorites. Stormar, second reference. Dino Velvet. 8mm? 8mm prequel as he dives into the world of snuff films. But then, obviously the answer is Caruso in Proof of Life. We call it Stuff of Legends. Oh, wow. Stuff of Legends, the Proof of Life sequel. Dino on another case. Crow's not in it. Maybe he has a cameo. Maybe he just calls in. But yeah, Caruso is doing his second.

28:22I saw a randomly saw like a Russell Crowe press conference or podcast where he was taught, Proof of Life came up and he was like my girlfriend at the time. Meg Ryan and I was like yes oh wow he admitted that yeah oh my god that was on front street everybody knew that was happening but she was married they were like

28:43Bill Simmons:interesting Abigail wants us to have a new category would this movie be better with Buffalo Bill or Little Bill

28:52Bill Simmons:couldn't quite get there but did think about it I like it I feel like do you have a Little Bill impression ready to go I think Little Bill I'm trying to think which one to do I'm sorry my mind isn't on what does he say sorry my mind isn't on the projection of the film Derek Lady we talked about worst movie athletes and he was outraged that we forgot about Matt Damon and Legend of Bagger Vance which Damon's talked about he had to speed learn how to play golf in like two weeks and his swing is like really, really bad. But then we got a bigger email from Mike Montre. In 1998, I was an extra in the movie for love of the game.

29:39Bill Simmons:We got$50 a day. It was November in the Bronx. It was cold. Sam Raimi obviously wanted jackets off to display late summer baseball. Bronx natives grew tired of the request. Look closely. Winter jackets are in the background. Nights grew long and cold. Extras grew impatient. and John C. Reilly couldn't catch or throw. Couldn't throw the ball back to the pitcher at all. Costner was dealing. Reilly was fucking up takes left and right. The extras had enough. It was cold. The jeers began. Escalated into, you fucking suck, Reilly. Reilly had enough, flipped out, screaming at the extras, let me do my fucking job.

30:15Bill Simmons:He couldn't do the job. The next day, his lighting double replaced him in all catching scenes. Jesus. And he's like, how is that not your winner for worst actor as an athlete? I would love to know which actor who had to play sports in a movie required the most training to actually be, you know, somewhat believable on screen. One of my favorites for this is Rob Lowe did Know How to Skate before Young Bud. Really? And they did this five-week speed session with him, and then he actually got, like, pretty good. That would be a great documentary. I would love to watch, like, Kevin Costner just has to go on the Haney Project before Tin Cup just to learn how to play golf.

30:49Right. Like, I'm trying to think of what would be the thing, what would be the athletic... act that you feel like you could immediately go do and like plausibly do it on film right now i mean i think golf is easy because it doesn't require any like physical problem with physical stature your swing always looks 20 more awkward and bad than you think it does yeah because in your mind you're like boy i'm kepka and like and then you look at a video of yourself and you're like i look like i'm playing left-handed what is happening i think i could throw a fastball in a movie, believably. I was going to say, I think I could do Riley's job.

31:24I mean, it would be hard for me to get down in a squat for catching now, but I felt pretty natural being behind the plate. I was a pitcher growing up. I think I could get away with it. You have to be pretty uncoordinated to not be able to just catch Kevin Costner for three hours. What about you? You don't think you could conduct an offense and white man can't jump? Two on two?

31:45Bill Simmons:Basketball's hard. Basketball's hard because people, especially if you play your shots your shot so i always had a little bit of an ortho unorthodox shot that would make it look like i didn't play but i did play yeah so it's almost like you're better off learning from scratch but snipes is a good example of they he was a good athlete that they taught to play basketball you know to mix results i was never a huge fan um i think the toughest would be for me it would be tennis because i've played tennis forever but my serves weird so it looked like i've never played tennis before if you saw me so you had to get a lighting but i've been playing Yeah, I never like bring it back.

32:22I would love to see the training that went into filming Challengers. Yes.

32:27Bill Simmons:I think an underrated one for this is a track and field movie. Because you have to see yourself running. Well, but to be like if you're Steve Prefontaine, you have to have like basically no part of your body is moving as you're running. But it has to seem like you're going fast, which I think is really hard to do. if they keep doing like weird live stunt things on netflix they should have crud up race leto now to see who was the faster pre-fontaine dressed as with pre-fontaine wigs this is a great one it's from charles how do you and kyle brant sleep at night knowing you failed to choose the storm family portrait as the piece of memorabilia you'd keep from heart to kill in 1990 it's seen early in the movie right before Felicia Storm is brutally murdered during foreplay with Mason and before their son Sonny escapes.

33:18Bill Simmons:See attached. As Penance, please do an episode on Deadly Ground. So he sent a picture and this is the Storm family photo. I didn't notice it. I apologize. I know Kyle apologizes as well. This is amazing. I can't believe they did this. I'll tell you what you guys should do. By the way, that's Sharon Stone, I think. To make up for this, you should get those made into t-shirts and wear them the next time you and Kyle record. I feel like Kyle is crazy enough and there's no football right now that he's going to show up on a rewatchables with the Storm family portrait on there. But he should do it for like a really serious movie for like Deer Hunter.

33:53Bill Simmons:I'm wearing the Storm family. Thomas Levy says, How is this for a CR? Thinks Luke Wilson could have been Harrison Ford. Hottest take. Buckle up, CR. Are we sure Daniel Day-Lewis is in the acting version of James Harden? Come on. He's never appeared in a Best Picture film. He has zero appearances on any film listed in the AFI Top 100. Wait, didn't Lincoln win Best Picture? Yeah. No, but it didn't. It did not. He's never been in a film that won Best Picture, Oscar. That's actually the wrong way to criticize Daniel Day-Lewis. Because, yes, first of all, he's unquestionably the best actor of his generation.

34:34Listen, I'm just reading the emails. I'm not saying I agree with it. I'm just saying Daniel Day-Lewis fucked up by never being like the bad guy in Con Air. Like, Daniel Day-Lewis should have done one bad action movie where he's like Hans Gruber. That would have just been amazing. Or done his version of Lecter and Silence of the Lambs.

34:53Bill Simmons:Yes. Did Daniel Day-Lewis need his training day? Is there another podcast that would compare Daniel Day-Lewis to James Harden? No. I'm just trying to imagine if Daniel Day-Lewis today was like, so disrespectful I love training day I'm gonna just remake it but I'm Alonzo I love taking I liked what Liam Neeson did do you like to get wet what basketball player is Daniel Day-Lewis um it's a tough one it's somebody who won MVPs but was never on a and can transform themselves yeah cause it's in some ways it's like the only thing you do is win rings so is it Robert Ori you know what I mean is it Mike Trout No.

35:36Bill Simmons:Just multiple MVPs, but never won the World Series? I'm just saying by the logic of this question of like he was never in the best movie of a year. Steve Nash is good. Oh, Steve Nash is good, yeah. Steve Nash is good. Technician. Mid-2000s Suns offense. Or it's somebody who's like a chameleon as their career changed. I don't know. John Craig Howell said he just caught up to the Live and Die in LA episode. Says, you talked about whether prison phones during visits are tapped and recorded. He said, the answer is yes. I know this because my wife had an internship with a prosecutor's office during law school and was signed to listen to some of them.

36:14Bill Simmons:They monitor just in case the prisoners are dumb enough to discuss things they did, which they do. And a phrase she heard still is used by them today. HNL, because one of the prisoners told his visitor, oh man, that's HNL. HNL, man, whole nother level, as in something has really escalated. so they always say H &L because of these prison things that they heard. Okay. So apparently they do record them. Yeah, that makes sense. I figured they did. I just didn't know if they recorded L.A. County Jail in 1985 or whatever, but yes. This is a great one from Justin in Los Angeles. What about the Sharon Stone fuck of the century for excellence and craft?

36:53Bill Simmons:As Michael Douglas tells us in Basic Instinct, Catherine Schmel is an otherworldly lay, not an all-star or an NBA level, a singular sport-defining level talent. So what other deeply skilled movie characters are eligible? He suggests Danny Ocean as a generational thief and Machine as a world-class sadist. Multiple 8mm references. I really like this. Vincent Loria as a nine-ball and stalker player in Color of Money. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But what else do we have for... I think it almost has to be more obscure, right? So this is like somebody who is overly competent at their specific job. Is this like Keitel and Pulp?

37:35Yeah, like a folk hero level of what they're good at. Keitel and Pulp?

37:40Bill Simmons:Yeah. Oh, yeah. The Wolf. That's good. Yeah, that's good. I like that. I'm going to keep an eye on this one. Sonny K from Vancouver says, Long time fan. Been re-watching Miami Vice on streaming. Us too. Why didn't the actor who played Tubbs become a bigger star or do anything after Vice? Good looking guy. Not quite as charismatic as Don Johnson, but held his own in multiple episodes. what held him back? You probably know better than I would. What happened to Phil Micah Pums? I never understood it. He liked music more too, right? I thought he was total package. Like handsome, funny. I thought he was the fuck of the century.

38:16Good action star.

38:17Bill Simmons:I don't really have an answer for this one. Maybe he was an asshole. We've both been re-watching season one though. Yeah, I was thinking about do we give the re-watchables audience a season one starter kit for episodes? which I think is the two-part opening. Sadly, I can do this off the top of my head. The two-part opening. Calderon's Revenge, which we already did on Rewatchables. Great McCarthy. Great McCarthy, definitely. Glades? I don't love Glades. You like Glades more than I do, but Glades does have people we've talked about on this pod. The Golden Triangle episode is amazing. The Bruce Willis as a domestic violence arms dealer.

38:58Bill Simmons:Oh, wow. I didn't know he was in. Oh, my God. Could not recommend that episode more highly. Evan, which is no longer available on streaming because they end the show with Beko by Peter Gabriel and he must have cancelled that one. There's a great one, the last couple. There's one when Crockett falls in love and it starts affecting his job and then Tubbs get beaten up. And then I just watched Lombard recently, the last episode of season one, and it's Dennis Farina playing the Midnight Run. The guy, Sydney, have a cream soda, do some fucking thing. Basically playing this wisecracking gangster. And I texted Ciara about this already.

39:37Bill Simmons:During the episode, they play the entire song of Wire by U2, which is probably the single best U2 song of the 80s. And they're just cranking U2 during this chase scene. I'm like, this is the most 1985 moment of my life. Did you say Milk Run? Milk Run's another good one. And Smuggler's Blues. And Smuggler's Blues, yeah. So that would be the starter kit. We might have to force Craig to watch all this this summer. you like all these 80s things though I do I love the 80s I also Heart of Darkness where Susie Amos plays a young porn star in Miami and they break up an underground porn ring oh that's that's one of the early ones yeah everything leads to the third episode that's before almost and then the third episode of season two which is ends with the Dire Straits song is the best one I think probably should I start growing my hair out should I do should I give one shot at it do it use it before you lose it man that's my attitude I've thought about it but there's such an awkward middle period I feel like before it starts to look good that you have to I don't know I think Chalamet has paved the way for the mullet again too yeah but you know I'm not Timothy Chalamet Steve W wants us to basically do an on-screen smoking hall of fame as a special episode that's good okay and wants us to have a mailbag episode best actor best actress for the spiff girls most passionate worst on-screen cigarette that felt the best best film cigarette just do like 10 categories and go.

40:59You guys would know this better than us. How has Marlboro never approached us? Yeah. You don't ever really, can we like, why of all the things that advertise on podcasts,

41:09Bill Simmons:like, would it be weird if we were like, this episode is brought to you by Boris Head. What if we told you the taste of deep fried turkey is now available at your local deli? Well, Boris Head just did that. Bursting with flavor, perfectly seasoned with that indulgent taste that usually means planning your whole day around it. Presenting the Friars Turkey Breast only from Boar's Head. A backyard tradition now available behind the counter. Visit your local deli today, discover the craftsmanship behind every bite. Boar's Head, committed to craft since 1905. 100 free events, 6 ,000 kids, one mission.

41:46Clinic Kids is using sports and evidence-based wellness coaching to help kids build confidence, resilience, and the tools they need for life's challenges and opportunities. Up through August 2026, they're running 100 free sessions for school and community based organizations near you. Learn more at clinickids.com slash 100kk. That's clinic with a K. Clinic Kids is a registered 501c3 nonprofit. Look, I wouldn't do it now, but I used to do it then. We're not condoning it. We're appreciating it.

42:16Bill Simmons:He wants... Smoking problem? Call 1-800-MARPRO. He recommends CR look up on YouTube the compilation of match strikes from the long goodbye. He says Elliot Gould is the Michael Jordan of Strike Anywhere. If we did this, you guys would have to smoke cigarettes during the taping. I mean, fine. You said you did or didn't have one in 2026. I had one. I've only had one. I had one two weekends ago. We're recording this before Memorial Day weekend and very strong possibility this weekend. This is an amazing one from James McElroy. Probably not the same James McElroy. the Sasha Jenkins award gets me every time.

42:57Bill Simmons:That's for the award where we can't figure out why the actor didn't become a bigger star. And we've been doing this, what, for four years? Since days, yeah. His name is actually Sasha Jensen. You guys getting it wrong for so long really hits the point because he should have been bigger than he was. We've been saying the wrong name the entire time. Yeah. I think we keep it. I think it's funnier that it's a Sasha Jenkins. Yeah. Or maybe call it the Sasha Jenkins Jensen award. I don't know. Do you think Sasha Jensen is just like, God damn it, guys. It's like, how do you get my fucking name right?

43:27Bill Simmons:Yeah, so this whole time we've had the wrong name. Adam from Westport says, Thank you for so prominently featuring Crisp's ponytail in the Kindergarten Cop episode. I saw it when I was six. I spent the remainder of my childhood completely terrified of any man with a ponytail. Do you think Kindergarten Cop was directly responsible for the sharp drop in popularity of long hair for men in the 1990s. I have no idea. I'm going to say no because of grunge. I feel like long hair actually became a thing. But I do think ponytails went away in the 90s. And that might have been a reason. I also remember the ponytail from the guy in Good Will Hunting being like, you don't want a ponytail.

44:11Seagal ponytail for a long time, right? Sure.

44:13Bill Simmons:He also might have helped kill it. Yeah. Because people hate Seagal. Avi from Staten Island says, I have my own hottest take. we're all very well aware of Bill's correct views on the Kay Diane Keaton character in The Godfather. Avi from Staten Island wrote that, huh? Just read the email. Not Bill from Los Angeles? I would never make up a mailbag. The argument was always Diane Keaton, great actress. Kay Adams, bad character. Poorly written. Okay. I stand by it for the rest of my life. Kay Adams? Was that her name? I was just about to say her name is Kay Adams. Kay Adams, Carol Leon. Oh. I did not know that.

44:45Bill Simmons:We've talked about this. That's where Kay Adams I think got her name because her name's not actually Kay Adams. The sports personality? She named herself after Michael Corleone's wife. Kay Adams isn't her real name. And you think she watched The Godfather? I don't know. Maybe she liked Kay Adams. I didn't know any of this. Yeah. Holy shit. So Avi says, I'd like to take, I'd like to go one step further and suggest Michael should have had Kay killed for aborting his son. Michael had his own brother killed for being stupid and putting his family's lives in danger. No one was harmed. Kay who in his own eyes actually murdered his own son should have at least been sentenced to what happened to Fredo that takes too hot pretty retrograde take it is interesting though that he kills Fredo but with the with the mom of his kids that was like a bridge too far for him yeah Fredo betrayed the family Fredo was so weak look at him we all have stage names I just get now I'm like dang what should our names have been.

45:48You could have started when you became... I should have just been Michael Corleone. Yeah, Craig Corleone. Yeah, that place. Could have been Craig Beck. Just gotten rid of the horal. Yeah, I know. The horal's not great. I like the horal.

45:58Bill Simmons:The horal works for you now, though. I guess. For those who can pronounce it. Matt Larkin, another Deion Waiters question. He thinks the all-time Deion Waiters performance is Alec Baldwin and Glengarry. Think about it. With no warning, breezes in partway through the movie for a single scene, delivers all his lines in an epic monologue absolutely cooks and dresses down a room of legends yeah it's a pinch hit grand slam shits all over Jack Lemmon it's pretty good the one scene Dion Waiters is like a special category it's also like that one is specifically Mamet writing it for Baldwin is pretty nuts yeah Baldwin's whole career is kind of Dion Waiters everything he's in he's I mean 30 Rock he's amazing and it's I feel like it hasn't really lived on in a way that other huge show characters have decided they didn't like Alc Baldwin No, 30 Rock still goes.

46:47Bill Simmons:I think people have turned on Alec Baldwin a little bit. He is amazing in 30 Rock. It's like an all-time character. If he does the Gene Hackman and just leaves in 2012 and we never see him again, we're talking about him reverentially. Yeah, but he's nowhere. I mean, I think that there are other reasons why people turn on Alec Baldwin. That's what I'm saying. Yeah.

47:06Bill Simmons:Hans says, thanks for all the laughs. Huge fan of the show. Has a new idea for a flex category. It's the Sharon Stone Going, Going, Gone Award. the point in a movie where it actually goes from something you believe could happen to suspending all belief and then just sitting back and enjoying the ride an example die hard when john mcclein jumps off the exploiting roof of the fire hose yes loosely tied to his midsection you're like all right i'm just gonna ride with this so this is a variation on the dan dan campbell or then the tank showing up in animal i think this is more so the reason he came up with this in honor of sharon stone because she was on my podcast once and told me in an interview that she hit a home run in Dodger Stadium.

47:44Bill Simmons:To his credit, Bill didn't impress her. He just sat back and enjoyed the fact he was interviewing Sharon fucking Stone. Do you remember her saying that? Now, after I got the email, I did. I didn't challenge it. You didn't challenge her when she was like, I hit a home run at a Major League Baseball stadium. Apparently not. I guess I wouldn't either. No, that's smart play. Business decision. But I like the Sharon Stone going, going, going. That would have been great if you were like, was it the swing of the century?

48:16Bill Simmons:Pat S. wants us to do the Robert Duvall Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore Surf Session Award for the character who loves their hobby so much. They do it in the most unusual circumstances possible. And he suggests the lead bad guy in Die Hard 2 doing naked Tai Chi. Yeah. And then Finch practicing putting in American Pie and Apollo Creed's coach playing chess and Roller Girl keeping her roller skates on. I don't know I appreciate the The theory Alright A couple more here quick Travis This is really good Vincent Hanna brings Portman's character to the yard Drops her off in a gurney And just starts ordering Everyone around I need a trauma surgeon A vascular surgeon She cut the main artery arm Why did nobody tell him To shut the fuck up And get to the waiting room Like what happens To everybody else Because he's a cop Okay Luke Skywalker attends the pre-flight meeting before the Death Star one, then starts talking about the size of rats on the home planet.

49:16Bill Simmons:Why did nobody turn around and ask him, excuse me, who the fuck are you? Rebel Alliance. There is something here. The Vincent Hanna walking into an ER room of irrational confidence. I don't know. Last email from Jeff K from New Jersey. Love the pod. I've listened to just about every episode since the beginning of my buddy and I came to see you do the Creed live show in Philly. Yesterday I attended my daughter's Elementary School production of Charlotte's Web It was as boring as you can imagine My daughter's small part My mind began to wander After a few minutes I began thinking about What rewatchable awards I would give to the kids in the play Oh shit And who won the movie to different kids And it got me thinking Have you ever applied rewatchables categories To other aspects of your life Like when I gave the Deion Waters award To one of the kids Regardless, thanks for helping me get through it It is interesting the concept of just applying the rewatchables to other parts of your life, like at a party.

50:16Bill Simmons:Like, you just went to a wedding at Heifetz. Yeah, right. Who won the Dion Waiters Award at Heifetz's wedding? There was a guy who hit, like, this really awesome dance right as Jump Around came on. Really? And I'll never forget it. What was Heifetz's playlist like? Mostly classics or more new stuff, or what was it? It was a DJ who did a lot of blending. So you could go from ABBA to Jump Around to Shout. it was all over it was good who was the champion of the shout dancing at his wedding anybody we would know nobody you would know but Heifetz Heifetz does a good job Heifetz has like water people around the wedding where every like half hour he has people come and bring him water just to check in and make sure he's staying he's staying level he had hydration experts yes he has hydration assistants that are always like it's been a half an hour I'm gonna make sure Heifetz has a water wow that's really smart yeah My wife and I recently were going through all the trips we had done since we had moved to LA.

51:15And I realized I was doing what's aged the best, what's aged the worst with them. You know, like where I was just like, actually that experience was great or that restaurant was great or it was amazing when the cat sat next to us in Croatia. But then like that was actually Dubrovnik sucked or whatever. Like it was fun.

51:33Bill Simmons:Do you wish you had kept more notes of things that happened to you and over the years so you could remember the details better? Yeah, you know, like... Just journaling, essentially? I try it every once in a while and I find that, like, my journal entries are just too boring. They're just, like, went to work, did a podcast, came home, watched a movie. Like, you know, it's just not like when you read journals of people who are, like, fighting in this Spanish Civil War. You could do the rewatchables categories for the first 10 years of The Ringer. Who's the Dion Waiters? Oh, that's interesting. We are heading up on the...

52:06Bill Simmons:It's probably just, was it June 1st? We just passed it. Was that when it was? Mm-hmm. My biggest memory of the first actual day of the ringer is, did Mallory break Sean's shoulder or vice versa? Somebody hugged Mal. Mallory hugged Sean and knocked her shoulder out of socket? No, I think someone hugged Mal and she like cracked a rib or like something. Wow. With her shoulder or her rib, yeah. I think it was her fault though. Yeah. She was over-hugging somebody and cracked her own ribs. Yeah, Jesus. Yeah. Okay. That was at a big bar. celebrating the first day of the Ringer. Yeah. She's like, yeah, that was good.

52:40Bill Simmons:The other thing I remember, Muhammad Ali died. Oh yeah. Right around then. The other thing I remember, maybe it was the next year, we're at the 4th of July thing and there was some, somebody got traded or free agency or something and we all had to start working at the July 4th thing. There was a July 4th. What's like the biggest news bomb in Ringer history? The Kyrie Irving trade. I think, well, the first, what I have like a clear, clear memory of is Prince, Bowie and Muhammad Ali all dying kind of in a cluster around each other. But I could be getting that wrong. But I remember that being like, I think Muhammad Ali news broke at midnight.

53:17I thought it was the Kyrie Irving. We were actually prepared to handle that.

53:21Bill Simmons:We were all together and then the Kyrie Irving trade happened. A month after the ringer started, Durant signed with the Warriors I think. July 2016. Yep. That was a big one. the Anthony Davis that happened on a was it the Kawhi thing happened on a Friday night? Remember we were waiting for it all week? That was the earthquake. And it was the same day as the earthquake? Yeah. That was a good one. Even Luca was a Saturday night I think or a Friday night. Yeah, I was at Long Legs. Yeah. Got out and I was like holy shit. Is that true? You had the phone off? I was just in the movie theater and when I walked out it was like Luca got traded.

53:58No wait, Long Legs was when Trump got shot. Luca Luca was I can't remember what happened why I was in a movie it was like January February I was seeing the movie Companion and when I came out Luca had been traded yeah

54:11Bill Simmons:yeah when we started the ringer I don't think the Pats had won the Super Bowl that year but it was still the Patriots were in control of football the Warriors were winning 73 but then lost the finals to LeBron 2016 is one of the craziest years in sports the Cubs the Cubs had the World Series that year the 18 inning game or whatever the two biggest musicians we had were Adele and Kanye the summer that TV summer was Thrones but I also think Stranger Things premiered that summer Stranger Things premiered it was the it was the 23 comeback was 2016 season I think it was 2017 when the Super Bowl was played but that was the 2016 season honestly we won so many Super Bowls I can't remember the years UNC Villanova was the national champion that year with like the back to back buzzer beater yeah oh the Jay Wright the what do you say bang or he didn't say anything he just He just walked it off, right?

55:02Bill Simmons:And then Sal and I lost our parlay of Hillary Clinton to win the presidency with the Pats to win the AFC. Oh, I remember that bet. Huge bet. And the Pats in late October had like a six-game lead. What were Hillary's odds? Hillary, even two days before, we could have hedged with Trump at plus 500, and we decided not to and ride it out. So that was a tough loss. And then we lost on the Warriors, was the other one, 2016. we had them we could have hedged after game four Draymond got suspended really was like it was a crazy year that's the 73 game season right yeah unfortunately that's one of the craziest years of my lifetime just in general just things happening in the middle of it I think that was Leicester won oh shit it was the craziest year of the 21st century in sports also I had a show that was on HBR every week and then got cancelled that happened in 2016 and you that's when you couldn't see for three weeks remember yeah Your contact thing?

56:01It was longer than that.

56:02Bill Simmons:Yeah. Do you know that story? No. I couldn't see. And I thought it was stress from the ringer in my HBO show. Like everything was blurry? Like we would have the teleprompter and I couldn't see it. And I was like, and I was getting these huge headaches. And I thought I had like a brain tumor. And I actually did have skin cancer, which was a separate thing that I had to remove from my forehead. but I couldn't see and it turned out when you hit your mid 40s your eyesight can shift sometimes if you have bad eyesight and get better yeah oh whoa so my contacts which were like minus 11s my prescription went down to like minus 9 and a half wow it improves?

56:39Bill Simmons:yeah that's crazy so I was constantly like doing this and I couldn't I couldn't see and focus and I was like I'm fucking dying and that happened to me as I'm trying to do The Ringer and the HBO show and I thought I was having like a mental breakdown wow and it was just my contacts were too strong. So a little cautionary tale out there for everybody. Just get your eyes checked. If you have an HBO show, make sure your eyes are checked. Well, I went to the doctor and he's like, oh yeah, this happens to everybody in their mid-40s. He's like, well, nobody fucking told me that. That my contacts would go for minus 11.

57:09Bill Simmons:Not yet. My other thing is getting worse. Your eyesight's getting worse? I think also it's been 10 years of kind of looking at my phone like this and now it's like, I need like I mean I have readers but I need progressive lenses and stuff so yeah I've just I won't wear reading glasses so I just can't see even if you can see in the when I'm doing the mailbag I'm like I've just learned how to live with it it's what we do in the rewatch we just string it together that's why it's been Sasha Jenkins that's why you were like Tim Masterson Sasha Jensen must be so fucking mad at us just doing Sasha Jenkins over and over again alright thanks CR Thanks, Craig.

57:50Bill Simmons:Thanks, Keha.

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