Pointless Exercise - A Desipio Podcast

It's two pods in one as Praz and Oleg join Andy to talk about the Cubs and the Bears. In the first half of the podcast they discuss the Cubs dreams of winning the NL Central come crashing down with a loss to the A's (I mean, it's only been over since May), and they look ahead to who might get traded in the offseason to bring in some fresh meat? And who will be making those trades? We all assume it will be Jed, but what if the Cubs go bold and just promote somebody (not you, Carter). Then in the second half they try to pull the Caleb doubters back off the ledge. Andy has some advice for Shane Waldron, and wonders if Chris Morgan is all he's cracked up to be. They bask in the glow of another great defensive effort and look ahead to the Bears getting right with a home game this Sunday in Indianapolis. All that, and more.

A weird week at Pointless Exercise leads to a guest free podcast that touches on the Cubs pretending to still be playing for something, the team botching a celebration of two of their most beloved players, dissension in the front office but Jed's coming back and TV broadcasts best viewed with the sound down. The Bears reenacted just about every win in the Love Smith era, the defense looks awesome, and they have at least one too many kickers. You'll get a tease about what's coming to the site and much more.

Bears Hard Knocks is over and it was mostly fun. The finale had it all, guys getting cut (and most of them coming back to the practice squad), gumbo talk, bees, Ian Wheeler's book club, two very large nerds talking about whose country invented football, a guy who could barely get out of his SUV, genuine emotion, bare feet, profundities encased in lucite, the long awaited return of Rambo Biles-Owens, DJ Moore's daughter's interesting suggestion for where to put the pool, a not-at-all-shoehorned-in Kevin Warren scene, and just enough Austin Reed. Mike Pustateri and Mike Praznowski join me to discuss it all, and I hope you stuck around for the deleted scenes at the end of the episode, but if you didn't, I break them all down at the end of this one.

It's all hands on deck for the 2024 Super Mega Football Preview with Andy and all three Mikes, plus Oleg and David Brown. The guys are just full of football hot takery. They'll give you season over unders to bet or run away from, some bold predictions on the Bears, all 14 playoff teams and the Super Bowl winners and in a segment sure to enthrall, engage and educate you, they go over some batshit crazy DraftKings props about the Bears and give you the historical perspective on just how pathetic the Bears have been on offense forever. All that, and more.

The gang is back together to take a look back at the surprisingly emotional fourth episode of the Bears Hard Knocks. We learn why Rome Odounze was so far out of bounds against the Bengals, spend a lot of time with running back Ian Wheeler and running backs coaches Chad Morton and Jennifer King, get a glimpse of the only fight in training camp, see Rome go candy shopping at Woodman's, learn about a disturbing Theo Benedet mistake and see Wheeler make it rain. The backup quarterbacks go on a death defying trip to the lower atmosphere, we see Travis Bagent in action, and then his son, both in Kansas City. There's a terrible break for one player and a very long hug from his mom, Velus Jones goes on a couple of long runs which lead to a funny crack from The Flus, Reed steals the show in the final half of the final preseason game and Ryan Poles proves to be a pretty cool guy. All that, and more.

Week three of Hard Knocks gave us some stuff we had expected all along. Mike Praznowski joins me as we talk about a Flus nickname montage, Kevin Warren finally getting to talk about his beloved ill-fated lakefront stadium and punting! The Flus is coming off pretty well this season, which was clearly the point, and we also got a cool behind the scenes look at the Bears trying to trade for Matthew Judon and a flashback to their draft day trade for Austin Booker. Khalil Herbert gets a bad nickname and Velus tells a truly funny story about picking up his ferret. Caleb's helmet wasn't working but his right arm was, and Andy makes some pretty bold declarations about him and Rome Odunze. Now, if we could just get Simone Biles a new jacket.

Unsure which week it was, whether it was supposed to be the baseball podcast with David Brown or the Cubs podcast with Oleg and Praz the guys just all got together and had a four-way. A four-way podcast. Get your mind out of the gutter. Although they do spend a fair amount of time talking about how Yankees pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich once traded families, pets and homes, so I guess you can get your sick kicks from that. But, real baseball was also discussed like the Cubs waiving Hector Neris, the folly of trying to fix your offense with a catcher, the wild card races in each league and is Dean (Vernon) Kremer's ERA in wins and losses really that out of line? All that, and more.

Week two of the Bears on Hard Knocks gives us a a very small girl using a word that will make George McCaskey blush, Velus Jones regaling people with tales of his deceased ferret, Rome Odunze being awesome, Jonathan Owens getting his ass kicked by his wife in a rope climbing contest, dudes being dudes and talking about Love Island, the knowledge that there is an Ice Cream Museum (great) and something called Hot Dog Ice Cream (no bueno.) Plus, Caleb Williams actually played his first kinda real football as a Bear. All that, and more.

The Bears are finally on Hard Knocks and who better to come help us break it down than two of our Bears guys, including one who is an actual TV star. Praz and Mike Pusateri are here to watch The Flus get a haircut, be charmed by the ladies in his life, adore Rambo Owens-Biles, look in horror at Jaylon Johnson's new "car", hear Ray Clay finally get a gig again, and hear some sage words from Nick Saban. Caleb can't sing, Theo Benedet and Austin Reed can't catch a break but Kiran Amegadjie can play some mean tiny cymbals. All that, and more.

The guys are back and all over the place. They discuss whether the Cubs are playing for anything, how to binge watch TV shows, what's up with Isaac Paredes, and how Pete Crow-Armstrong fixed his swing by imitating who? They also wonder if the Cubs are playing with fire by letting Hector Neris get close to guaranteeing his option, and then the unthinkable...are we sure we want Cody Bellinger to come back? It's complicated and mostly because of the rest of the roster, not Cody himself. Andy compares him to Frank Sinatra via Bob Newhart, and then Andy gets confused and miscasts a great Stevie Wonder commercial spoof by forgetting that Stevie was in it! All that, and more.