What's up everybody? Welcome to the front yard fantasy hour presented by FanDuel. I'm your host Simon joined as always by my very handsome co-host John Luke. What's up, JL? What up? That's all I know. Joey Wright is also with us. Another member of the FYF fan. What's up, Joey? Hey, I'm here. Oh, we got a special visitor. Look at that. Hello. Hello. Guys, and also joining us today as a very special guest, two very special guests. Absolutely. It looks like is a great friend of the show. We've got Cooter Doodle with us today for those of you that do not know Cooter Doodle. She is, she is, uh, what was the title again? You were trusted with nothing but the highest quality shitposts for Matthew Barry over on Matthew Barry's fantasy life. And, you know, chief shitpost officer, sorry for Matthew Barry's fantasy life and a writer over at trophy smack and probably the funniest person on fantasy Twitter. Yes. Cooter, thank you so much for joining us today. Not a problem. I'm excited to be here and I am probably going to lose, but it'll be fun. And who's, you've got a teammate helping you today. Yeah, I'm going to be able to call a friend, a four year old friend. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I guess we'll allow that. Yeah, we'll allow that. It's an unfair advantage, but we'll let you have that one. We got Mr. Scamper's in the chat saying the most heated bracket talk since I started watching the show. I'm still doing pupil dilation analysis through the archive. I've read that as heated blanket. That's like immediately where my mind went. A most heated blanket talk on your thing. Mr. Scamper saying happy birthday. Is it? Happy birthday. Cooter, is it your birthday? It's not mine. I thought it maybe was one of y'all's. No? It's not mine. It's my dad's birthday. Happy birthday dad. Did you know it was my dad's birthday? Is this someone that knows me personally? Are you his dad? Is my dad? Oh my God. My dad would be shocked of the century if my father was Mr. Scamper's in the chat. It was all just to get you to remember his birthday. That would unravel me to my core if that was true. Dame, what's up? Welcome man. Dame is ready for some jeopardy today. We got J. Wall in the chat as well saying it's about to go down. Goat guest. Absolutely. Cooter is a goat guest. Albert, what's up? Welcome in. Glad to have you here. And J. Wall said Cooter gives excellent Mother's Day advice. Yeah. If for no other reason but the Mother's Day advice, make sure you go follow Cooter on Twitter. It is top tier Mother's Day advice. Mr. Scamper's special guest guest. Not a double special guest, but a double guest. One special. And Scott said a very merry unbirthday to us all. Indeed. Guys, today we brought Cooter on to play some fantasy football jeopardy. Before we do that, though, a couple of reminders. Number one, if you're not already following Cooter on Twitter, go and do that right now. She's on Twitter at Cooter Doodle. It is right there below her face on the screen. And like I said, Matthew Berry trusts her. What other reason do you need to follow her? But on top of that, she gives out great fantasy advice. And it's truly one of the funniest people on fantasy Twitter. So go follow her right now after you do that. Make sure you're subscribed to FanDuel on YouTube and follow them on Twitch. They have a whole team of awesome content creators and you guys win your leagues and win some cash. So make sure you guys are following them. Then after you do that, check out FanDuel across TikTok, Instagram, Twitter. They're at FanDuel on all of those platforms. Hope you wrote all this down. You get a lot of homework. It's super easy. FanDuel. Just go to like any of your sites where you consume content and you can pretty much find them by looking up FanDuel right there. But guys, like I said, we brought Cooter on here today to play some fantasy football jeopardy. JL has prepared the game for us today. He is going to be the host, which means it's going to be me versus Cooter versus Joey. I'm going to explain the rules and then we're going to go ahead and get started. So the game today is a lot like the regular TV show Jeopardy with a couple of small changes. Number one, it's going to be mostly NFL or fantasy questions. We do have a grab bag category, which could be anything. It could literally be anything in that category. So nothing is off limits there. I'm imagining there's at least one Luigi question buried in there just to taunt me, but we'll see. But outside of that change, guys, instead of going buzzing in, we're going to be going in a turn order today. So we will go one at a time. Whenever it's your turn, you will pick the question that you want to answer. If you get it right, we're going to add that money to your bank. If you get it wrong, nothing happens. We're not subtracting any money. You do not need to answer in the form of a question. The other small change we are making on this show is if you get a question right, you will get to pick the category for the person that goes after you. So the order today is going to be Cougar, then Joey, then Simon. So Cougar Doodle, if you get your first question right, you'll get to tell Joey what category he has to answer a question from. He will still get to pick his point value, but you will get to pick the category. We will do this until we run out of questions or run out of time. At which point we will have a final jeopardy question. This is the only question in the game where you can lose the money that you have banked because you are going to be wagering from zero up to the total amount that you have earned so far throughout the game. If you get it right, you will add that money to your score. If you get it wrong, you will subtract that money from your score and the contestant with the most money at the end is our champion. You ready? Oh yeah. I'm ready. I have a question. Yes. Are you guys ready to lose? Hi Josh. Good one. That was for Josh and Outer Space. You and Josh right there. The chat is completely ready. Mr. Scamper is very excited that we have a who said it category. I'm about to go over these categories. I'm asking where did the odd man out category go? Yeah. I just decided to skip the periods this time just to save us the time and heading back and forth. And then Scott saying who said it? Bill Belchick or this rock? That'd be a tough category. That'd be pretty tough. That'd be pretty tough. All right guys. The categories for today. We've got five of them. As per usual, we've got fill in the blank. This is a new one. It's pretty simple. You're going to get a prompt. You've got to fill in the blank. We've got odd man out. This is a veteran category here. I'm going to give you a couple of players and I'm going to give you some criteria and you've got to pick which player it does not fit in that criteria. Then we have grab bag which is going to be completely random. I decide what that is. Easy as ADP which we tried last week. I'm going to give you a chart of dynasty positional ADP and you've got to tell me which player that chart belongs to. And then who said it? I'm going to give you a quote and you have to tell me who said it. Pretty self-explanatory there. Are you all ready? I'm ready. All right. Kudur, we're starting with you. What question category and question value would you like?  Let's do who said it. 500. Who said it? 500. All right, Kudur. Here is your question. Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. Was this Bill Belichick, Mike Tomlin, Dwight D. Eisenhower or J. Edgar Hoover? I don't. Getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. I don't know. Let's go Mike Tomlin. Mike Tomlin, final answer. Yeah. I'm sorry. It was Dwight D. Eisenhower. Oh, no. It didn't sound professional enough. You know what I mean? It didn't, right? It didn't. It sounded really bro. I knew it was in Belichick because there's too many words there. He doesn't speak Belichick. He doesn't speak Belichick. That's not Belichick. That's not Belichick. Very good. I'm sorry. That is tricky one time. Did you know that one? No, I have no idea. In the chat, we got a Hoover guess. We got a Dwight from J-Wall. Clearly cheating. Hoover from Scott. Well done. Well done. At least for J-Wall, the cheater. All right. We're moving on to you, Joey. What category and question value would you like? Grab bag for 300, please. Grab bag 300. Here's your question. Which character made their first appearance in Mario Tennis N64? Mario Yoshi, Waluigi, or Toad? It's Waluigi. I learned this today. If Scott wasn't lying to me. It is Waluigi. Well done. Well done. That was me who brought up that fact, Joey. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. How cool would it have been if like I was just playing the long game and I made that up on the stream? Just so sabotage. That would have made you feel better for Luigi winning the bracket today. Absolutely. It would have. And we got Scott in the chat as well. He was there and he said Waluigi. He knows. Waluigi. All right. Well, Joey, you got that one correct. So you get to pick Simon's next category. Where you sending them? Who said it? Who said it? All right, Simon. What question value would you like? Give me 300. I'm not as brave as Cougar Doodle. Who said it? 300. Here's your question. The most valuable player is the one who makes the most players valuable. Is this Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Vince Lombardi, or Mack Jones? This sounds like someone who hasn't won an MVP. I mean, this sounds like someone like, yeah, really I'm the most valuable player because I make everyone else more valuable, but that's not really appreciated. I'll go with Mack Jones. Final answer? Yeah. It was Peyton Manning. Oh man. The logic was solid though. That was good logic. I thought that made sense. Peyton Manning seems like he's a little too, like a couple of those MVPs went to his head and he wouldn't say something like this. Yeah. Yeah. A little bit tricky. We had some guesses here in the chat. Vince. Scott said Lombardi. And Jay Wall said Vince. Jay just came in here saying Luigi is the worst. Indeed. Mr. Scamper said Vince. And Albert said Lombardi. A lot of Lombardi guesses. I feel like Lombardi is very quotable. Maybe that's why. Yeah. Scott just mocking me relentlessly. Mack Jones. L-O-L-O-L. And Maria is saying it was actually a quote from Joey. It's true. Thank you for that, Joey. Probably. I mean, you know. All right. Well, let's see. So you didn't get that one correct, Simon. So Kudor, we are back to you. Yes. You get to pick your category and question value. Okay. Maybe I shouldn't do these high baller ones. So let's go odd man out 100. Odd man out 100. Just went from 500 to 100. All right. Here's your question. Kudor, which player had more than 4,000 passing yards in 2021? Kirk Cousins or Ryan Tannehill? I'm just going to go with my gut. Kirk Cousins is absolutely correct. 4,221 compared to Ryan Tannehill's 3,734. Well done, Kudor. That's going to give you $100. You're on the board now. You're going to get to pick Joey's next category. Before we do that though, let me ask you, Kudor, how are you feeling about Kirk Cousins? I know he has this like one term, one year extension deal. How are you feeling about him as a fantasy asset going forward? I mean, and super flex if you're struggling, it could be worse, you know, but I'm not comfy with it. He has, isn't he the guy, I think Mike, Daddy's home had pointed out one time that like he's so good on the road and terrible at home. Like it's just very, you don't get those consistent weeks. Yeah, now I'm with you. I've been like a firm. I just don't like Kirk Cousins. Firmly fading Kirk Cousins my whole life. Simon, how do you feel about these two quarterbacks? Not a firm fade for Kirk Cousins, more of a soft fade, but I'm in line with Kudor. If you waited on quarterback in your drafts and you need someone, he's likely to probably finish near that 12 mark as far as quarterbacks go. I know he finished much higher this year, but there's some safety there. He's got good weapons. It's a functioning offense. So you could do worse at the quarterback position, but it's nothing to be excited about drafting Kirk Cousins. Yeah. Nobody's like, oh yeah, snag Kirk Cousins today. Yeah, I got Kirk-y. Nobody's sleeper pick to like be like a top three guy this year. Right. Never really about you. If Earth Smith shows up, I think he could have a better year than he did last year though. Yeah. Post-type sleeper for Earth Smith. Yeah. Joey, let me ask you. Ryan Tannehill, Malik Willis was obviously drafted behind him. What are you doing with Ryan Tannehill if you have him rostered in Dynasty? I don't expect Tannehill to mentor Malik Willis. But no, if I've got Tannehill in Dynasty, I'm actually kind of looking to see if I can sell him. If anybody's actually going to buy, I'm definitely trying to make that move. And I'll say this, like I think Cousins leash is longer in Minnesota than Tannehill's is in Tennessee. So if you could get Cousins for Tannehill, you know, that's a terrible trade. I think Tannehill's job is safe at least for this year. Like look at the success that the Titans have had like the past couple of seasons. They're one of the best teams in their conference. Like they have deep playoff aspiration hopes. They're not going to plug in this rookie that came with almost like a developmental rookie. He wasn't a first round pick. He wasn't a second round pick. We were just waiting for Malik Willis to get drafted. I don't think we see Malik Willis barring injury or like late game snaps this year. So in redraft, Ryan Tannehill is another safe option at quarterback limited upside because of how they want to run that offense. But I'm not concerned about Malik Willis taking over. Yeah. I'm not worried about Tannehill's targets at all. I think Traylon Barks had a really good year. And then Robert Woods is there. So don't worry about his um, his players is going to target it all. Yeah. Yeah. All right. We're going to get into our next question here. Before I do who Maria said so glad Josh isn't here. That guy really grinds my gears. Yeah. Same. Same, Maria. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to say, let's do easy as ADP for Joey. Easy as ADP Joey. What question value would you like to go? 200 please. 200. Nice and easy as ADP. Correctly label each series in the dynasty positional ADP chart with its corresponding player. Um, Okay. You look at this. I can maybe zoom in a little bit. Maybe that helps. Um, so I'm going to say that the blue is Deandre Hopkins. Okay. The green is Davante Adams and the red is Odell Beckham Jr. All right. Final answer. That's orange. I think I did that right and I feel pretty confident. Yes. Is it orange? I'm sorry. It's totally orange. What is orange? Thank you. What is orange? There you go. All right. So you went with blue, nuke green and Davante Adams orange OBJ. Are you correct? No. Green. Davante Adams. Orange. Deandre Hopkins. And green. Davante Adams. I bought into that suspension too much. I guess. Or did I get it right? No, I got it wrong. No, you got the two switched. The OBJ. That like massive drop. The big spike to like the top overall wide receiver. And then that big spike to like the top overall wide receiver. And then the massive drop was the OBJ. One was the only one I felt like completely confident in, but the other two are tricky. Yeah. Yeah. You said blue. I wrote down blue and then I'm looking at the chart. Purple, right? Purple. Yeah. Are you colorblind, Joey? So today what I learned on the Fandle Streams that I'm colorblind.  I was just campers and saying blue is O'dell too. I'm guys are freaking me out. And then Maria said anybody else see purple? Yeah. Yeah. No, no, do not bring up that dress. Someone posted it on Twitter the other day. Oh yeah. It's just re rattled my brain because I saw it one way. And then I clicked on the tweet and it changed into the other one. And I was like, no, I'm not doing this again. Like I'm not. I've never seen it. I've only seen it one way. I've only seen it one way. It went immediately back. Like, and that's what makes me feel crazy is like, I'll just see it for a second the other way. And then it goes away. Back to what it was before. And I was like, okay. I don't like it. I do not like it at all. That's not a fun thing. Everyone should stop posting that. It makes you feel crazy. That's really funny. All right. Joe, you didn't get that one correct. So I'm going to go back to you and you get to pick your own category and question value here. I am curious about filling the blank. So we're going to go fill in the blank for 300. Fill in the blank for 300. All right. Here's your question. Simon Falcon selected BYU running back blank with the number 151 overall pick in the 2020 to do NFL draft. Shoot. What was his name? I know it. Joey just wants to rub in that he knew. I'm leaving. I'm going to the private chat to give myself a second to think, but I have a feeling this isn't going to come to me. And then as soon as you say it, I'm going to be so Matt. A B C D. I'm not going to pull it. Jail. Just, just put it on my miserable. All right. Give up. Yeah. Put me out of my misery. Cooter. You know it. Absolutely not. I don't know Ricky. Joe, you know it. It's Tyler Agliar. Algier. I would have gotten it wrong because I didn't pronounce it. Now. Is it? Was it that type of moments? I'm in that. It was that type of moment. As soon as Joey started saying top, I was like, yep, there it is. If I would have just kept going through the alphabet, I would have gotten there eventually. You would have gotten to T. All right. Why did T have to be so far in the alphabet? If it was one of the first five letters, I would have gotten this one. Yeah. The chat knew this one. Scampers. Tyler. Out your main. Sterling. J wall knew it. Well done. Well done. So they can't live in Utah and not know the answer to that one. Yeah. It is a requirement to know every BYU football player. Yeah. And students probably. Yeah. They have a quiz left for all of the students and you have to go through and memorize them. All right. Kudu, we're back to you. You get to pick your own question category and value here. All right. I did okay with it. Let's do odd man out. 400. 400 odd man out. All right. Here's your question. Which of the following NFL players was not drafted in the second round of their NFL draft? Cortland Sutton, the Andrean, the Andre Hopkins, Derek Henry or DK Metcalf. I don't know this at all. So it's going to just be thing. Oh, oh, my kid has to go number two. Let's go with taking a second round. Let's go with DK Metcalf. So you're choosing DK Metcalf as the player who was not drafted in the second round. Correct. Yeah. And if I get it right, if I get it right, let's go with ADP for Joey again. Okay. Well, I'm sorry. You weren't right. It was the Andre Hopkins. He was drafted in the first round of his draft. Simon, did you know that one? I did, but only because I've spent a lot of time writing trivia questions about who was drafted and what round. I give it wasn't for that. I would have never known that one. He also went to a school that you like. Yes. Yes. I also was heavily invested in where he got drafted, where he went. Absolutely. Looks like Jay wall got it. Mr. Scamper said DK and DK was round two. I picked 64. Scott said Henry. And then Dave got new great. Well done. Well done. All right. I thought it was Metcalf too. For some reason I thought Metcalf went 17th overall. That was like a number that popped in my head. It seems I feel like rarely do we have a I get to pick my first year dynasty player, especially at the wide receiver position that gets launched to that height in like the rankings that wasn't a first round selection. Know what I mean? Like we watched DK Metcalf go from nothing to the number one overall wide receiver in dynasty that off season. Right. And he was a end of the second round pick. Like I feel like that's a little bit odd. Yeah, that is. It's definitely odd to see that. Let me ask you guys this before we go on to our next question. Deandre Hopkins with the news of the suspension. How are you viewing him as a dynasty asset? Where's his arrow trending? What are you doing if you have him rostered? Simon, why don't we start with you? How long is the suspension? Seven games. Seven games in dynasty. It sucks if you have him this year, but this is not the cell window for him. Know what I mean? If anything, this is this is the hold window in the buy window. Like if someone's panicking and wants to sell, I'd go get him. He's still one of the top receivers in the NFL and a pass heavy offense that just got rid of Christian Kirk. So I'm still in on Deandre Hopkins.  He's going to miss the first seven games. But he's still a great dynasty asset. Yeah. What about you, Joey? So speaking from like a draft perspective, if I'm drafting into the first four rounds, I really like my team and I feel like, okay, this team is really solid. Because I feel like Hopkins, he is going to miss those seven games this year. Oh yeah. It is six games. My apologies. Oh, it's six. Yeah. I thought it was six, but I anyways, it's easy. We had to confuse because he said but we trust you, JL. We just trust you. Yeah, never trust me. You should never trust me. You're right. I love that this afternoon. But no, I mean, we don't know where Hopkins is. If he's the same player that he's going to come back as. So if I like my team, I think that risk for Hopkins is absolutely worth it. But if I'm kind of on the fence, like I'm going to take a safer player, then I will take Hopkins and that spot. All right. All right, Joey, you get to pick your own category here in value. Where are you going?  Grab back 400. All right. Here's your question in the show parks and recreation during the campaign for the city council election. Who is Leslie knows biggest competition, Tammy, Jeremy Jam, Ron Swanson or Bobby Newport. Yeah. I got this. Okay. What was she running for? City council. Council election. Oh, she ran for something late in the series and Bobby Newport was her competitor. But jam is a effing. You know what? I can't say that. It's Bobby Newport, but maybe the council was Jeremy Jam. Okay. Bobby Newport is what I'm going to say. Final answer. Yeah. Bobby Newport is absolutely correct. Well done. I actually knew that one. Do you know that one? Yeah. Yeah. Ding. What did jam run against her for? Like that's what I'm trying to remember. I don't think he ran against her. I think he opposed her in something. She was always pushed through. I think he was like an opposition. And like helping with the recall. Do you remember the filibuster? Where was the Puppa course? Yeah. Yeah. That's great. You just got jammed. That show. I was watching it late one night alone in my college department and like I had been like binge watching it. And I'm watching this episode and I'm like, man, they're doing a lot of like flash forwards for these characters. And then about halfway through, I was like, Oh my God. This is the last episode. And I was just not prepared for that. And I just like started bawling on the couch. If anyone had walked in, they would have thought I was insane, but being caught off guard halfway through the show finale was, was a highly emotional moment. You got to, you got to prepare for. Right. I need to know I'm going into the last episode. My favorite piece of physical comedy is Ron Swanson eating a banana. I have never had so hard on my life. Yeah. Love Ron Swanson. Go ahead. Sorry. All right. Joey, you got that one. Correct. I did. So you get to pick Simon's next category where you send Simon. I'm going to send Simon to. Let me look at these values here. I got options wherever you send me. Easy as ADP. Easy as ADP. All right, Simon. What question value would you like? 500. He has ADP 500. Here's your question, Simon. Which of the following series corresponds to Michael Pittman in this dynasty overall ADP chart. Pink, green, orange or purple. And as always, he's came from DLF. Okay. So step one is making sure I remember what year Michael Pittman was drafted. Was it 2020 or was it 2019? And as I have said before, once the season ends, all of my memories about what year things happened leave my brain. How many? He was drafted in 2020. I'm pretty certain. So I think it's either purple or orange. Sorry. I mean, blue or red. The purple and orange are so similar. It's just like one's a little lower than the other. They're exactly the same. Orange. Final answer? Yeah. I think I got a 50-50 shot. Unless I remember the year wrong. He says orange. Show me orange. And he says orange. And he says orange. And he says orange. He says orange. Show me orange. It was orange Simon. Well done. That's impressive. Well done, Simon. Very impressive. So the purple was T. Higgins. And you're absolutely correct, Simon. The clue there was that he is higher. He's ranked higher than Michael Pittman. And then Deontay Johnson was green. And pink was Terry McLaurin. I went orange because I didn't remember people being, like, super excited about him after rookie drafts. Like, it just, he was a player. People were, like, drafting as a value. You know what I mean? Like, not someone that they were, like, ages four or so. It's like a round two. Early round two in rookie drafts, I feel like. Yeah. I'll say when you know the answers. It's very clear. Yeah. Yeah. So I kind of like this category. Yeah. I like this category. These are fun. They're kind of puzzling. Yeah. Yeah. You can reason them out. But you really stress me out when they'd start in different years. Like, every time they start in different years, I'm like, oh, and it could just be a clue, but I could ruin myself from the very beginning. Like if I picked the wrong one. Yeah. Marissa said, Poncho, alluding to that scene in Parks and Rec where, what's her name? Who's the lady who's like the campaign manager?  I was like, is this his nickname I've never heard of? From now on, he's known as Poncho. Yeah, he's known as Poncho. All right, Sam, you got that one correct. That's going to give you 500. And you were in this game. You were in this game. I'm going to pick Cooter's next category. Where are you sending? Let's send Cooter to grab bag. She hasn't got any. Joey's been hogging them. All right, Cooter, what do you think? 100, 200, or 500? I don't know. Let's go 500. I need to catch up. All right, 500. Grab bag. Here's your question. Spell the following word for me. Oh, this is the worst. This is the worst because I have anxiety over doing things time for spelling. Oh, no. All the time I spelled poot instead of put on a second grade test, I'm scoured. My teacher was like, Poot? Poot. Poot. Poot. Poot. Poot. Poot. Poot. Poot. Poot. Poot. Poot. You have perfectly hit on the perfectly wrong question for me. Thank you. All right, Cooter, spell the following word for me. Orangatang. O-R. Mm-hmm. A-N-G. Mm-hmm. U-T-A-N-G. So you have said O-R. Orangatang. You have told me O-R-A-N-G-U-T-A-N-G. Is that your final answer? If that's the answer, that's my final answer, yeah. I can't reveal that information. Sure, it's my final answer. But I will take that as that's your final answer. I'm wrong. I know it. And the correct way to spell orangatang is? There's like a sign. I know it. No, G. You were so close. You got it all right. I thought there was a hidden G at the end. I thought there was a hidden G in there. Oh. Hey, J-Wall. J-Wall was with you with the G at the end. He also got an even more wrong. He said orangatang. Orangatang. Man, I thought there was a hidden G. That's what orangatang's drink is, orangatang. Yeah. The orangatang at the Atlanta Zoo is one of my favorite animals in the world because it's known nationwide for being willing to accept, like, abandoned orangatang babies. Like sometimes the moms will reject their kids. And the orangutan at the Atlanta Zoo has never rejected one. And so zoos from all over the country will send the rejected babies to Atlanta. And she takes every single one of them. And that orangutan is a hero.  Simon. We had a conversation this morning about animal stories. This one's happy. I know. I mean, there's happy crying too. I feel like it's neutral because there's babies that I've never seen before. I feel like it's neutral because there's babies that got rejected. So it's neutral. That's kind of sad about those babies. Yeah, right. There's warp and orangutan. It's a great way to make me cry sometimes. Sorry. I've done a lot of, like, pretty brutal animal stories this week. Also, I hate this category too. It's the new one I'm trying out. It's the new one I'm trying out. Thumbs up. You guys like it? I like it. All right. Cooters, yeah.  All right. Joey, we're back to you. Question, category and value. Would you like? I'm going to do an odd man out for 200. An odd man out for 200. Here's your question. Which player had five or fewer rushing attempts inside the five yard line in 2021? Boston Scott, Miles Sanders or Michael Carter? Miles Sanders. Final answer? Which player had five or fewer? Yes. You are absolutely correct. It is. Miles Sanders had only five. Can I raise a point? Yeah. I think this category should have been called odd man in with the way these questions are worded. We're looking for the one that matches the category you've provided, not the one that doesn't match the category. Well, not always. It's the same thing. It's the same thing just inverse. That's something that got the question wrong, would say. Yeah, 100%. But I got the question right. There's some criteria and there's one person who separates themselves. Who meets it? Or doesn't meet it. Yeah. Either way. So you got 500. I'm sorry. You got 200. 500. That's correct. 500. That is not 500. You get to choose Simon's next category. I am going to send Simon to grab bag. Send him to grab bag. Simon's favorite. Well, we think Simon 100 or 200. Let's take the 100. Jay Wall said Carter.  And then days at Miles Sanders. Well done. You said 100. 100. 100. 100. As instructed, Kevin Costner built a baseball diamond in this 1989 film and Joe Jackson and others did come. I'm going to get absolutely massacred for knowing this. Like I am a field of dreams. Final answer. Final answer. That was close. That was like, I was like, I know it's in there somewhere and I don't know if it's going to come to the front. We literally just witnessed synapses firing. Like, I don't know. I know it. Yeah. That's a mid thought. Well done Simon. Things are so weird. Like it should be binary. You know it or you don't. Not like it just suddenly appears. Yeah. That is very funny. Dave knew it. Howard knew it. Everyone should have known it. Yeah. Well done Simon. Where are you sending Cooter on the next category? Let's try the, there's a lot of fill in the blanks left. Let's go to fill in the blank. Alright Cooter what question value would you like? I mean I keep feeling like I have to catch up but then I'm like am I getting too hard? I don't know. Let's just go. I said that wrong. But let's go 500. You said 500. Alright. 500 fill in the blank. 49ers selected SMU wide receiver blank with the number 105 overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft. I don't know this at all. I think the initials might be D and B. Like DB something. I don't know. I don't know. Somebody talked about this. I don't know rookie. So I'm going to have to just say sorry and take my L. Alright that's fair. Danny Gray you're kind of going to DG. DG. DG. The way my brain was working I was like there's four letters at the end and it's a D and I thought of B. Yeah I made this one 500. Because there's no way I would have gotten it if I hadn't been looking at the answer. No I didn't know this one. I'm sorry but we're going back to you Joey. You get to pick your own category. What'd you like to do here? I'm going to do it. Odd man in for 300 please. Odd man in for 300 is what you said to me. Alright. Which of the following QBs is not drafted in the first round of their NFL draft? Blaine Gabbard, Ryan Tannehill, Jalen Hertz or Matthew Stafford. Stafford was number one overall. I know that. I'm going to say Jalen Hertz. Final answer? Final answer. Jalen Hertz is correct. He was a second round pick. Second round pick. Oh God the Jaguars took Blaine Gabbard with the 10th pick. Yeah. Wait a minute Jacksonville. Not such a good history of picking quarterbacks. What do you mean? I had the goat Blake Wardles on their team. And then Gardner Minchu. How are you going to say they're bad at drafting quarterbacks when they had both of those guys? That's true. Depends what your criteria for bad are. Because you know what? I'd be pretty happy with those two guys as the quarterbacks for a little bit. If you have a losing team at least it's entertaining. Yeah. Blake Wardles was a number four quarterback one year. He was. That one year, yeah. And they named a streak after him in the community like the city next to mine. Really? Because he went to that high school and then he never did anything after that. Oh, that's disappointing. Imagine if you were to live on that street. It's true. Is it like full like Blake Bordel's Lane? Like full name? It's like, yeah. It's Bordel's like, it's a loop. It's Bordel's loop. Bordel's loop. Yeah. Or a circle. Bordel's loop or Bordel's circle? Because it's like a, you know. Bordel's hole. So I wanted to ask you guys about Jalen Hertz. I feel like he's a very already polarizing quarterback. But his team has been making a ton of offseason moves. How are you feeling about Jalen Hertz in 2022? Kudera, start with you. If I already have him, like in dynasty, I'm comfy with it. I'm okay. I don't know that I'm necessarily going hunt to get him, but I'm happy if I have him. What about you, Joey? Yeah, I actually moved him ahead of Aaron Rogers in my rankings for, for redraft. Just because I like Hertz is tart. The people's got around him now with A.J. Brown. I think, I think it's going to be a great season now if he doesn't have a good team. I mean, build up, you might address that in the draft next year. Yeah. But I like him a lot this year actually. Simon, you have anything else to add? I'm fairly even with Joey. I think he's good enough to be the starting quarterback for a run first offense. Like they showed they want to be a very run heavy offense. Jalen Hertz fits that scheme well. And I think he can be successful in that type of offense where he's not asked to throw the ball 30, 40 times a game. Right. So I'm, I'm, I'm cautiously optimistic because it's a, not a controversial, but there's very, varying opinions on, on his future with Philadelphia, but I tend to lean on the positive side for him instead of the negative. Let's play a little, let's play a little name game and dynasty formats. I'm going to run a few names. You guys tell me which side or which quarterback you'd rather have. So Jalen Hertz or Tua? Tua. I would say Tua, yeah. Double Tua. What do you think Joey? Yeah, I'm really high on Tua. All right. Jalen Hertz or Justin Fields? I would go Hertz. Hertz. Just right now. I don't know. The Bears. Yeah. Man, I wish the Bears had done more to help Justin Fields this off season and that would give me a little bit more confidence. I know free agency isn't over. They could still get a Jarvis Land year or something like that. I'll go, I'll go Fields for the sheer upside of it, assuming they're going to really commit to building around him. But man, right now it's, it's a rough situation for him. Chicago looks like a, a rough team for next year. So, but I'm still going to go Fields, but it's close. What do you think Joey? Hertz or Fields? Yeah, if, if the, if the Bears would have gone and got, you know, Simon said Landry, I would pick Fields, but right now I'm going Hertz. Okay. All right. Landry to the Bears would be, that would make me so happy for, for Fields and Landry. I feel like that would be a great landing spot for him. I feel, Fields has two good targets to share. He just needs a third to throw the ball to. And once he gets that, he's going to throw the ball to the Bears. Cole Comet. Cole Comet. That's one of them. And then Darnell. Joey, did I already give you your points? No, you didn't. No, he was in 900 before. Yeah. I'm at 1200.   That's all right. There's plenty of time to come back. Joey, you got that one correct. So we're moving on to Simon, but Joey, where are you sending Simon? I'm sending Simon to odd man out. Odd man out. All right. brutal. That was a high risk, high reward strategy, Joey. I'm going to get it wrong. So I'll take the 500. I think you made fun of the category. So karma is going to make you have this question wrong. We'll see. Which of the following, which of the following NFL players has not scored more than 1500 PPR fantasy points in their career? Alvin Kamara, Brandon Cooks, Christian McCaffrey, Robert Woods or Zach Hertz? This is tough. This, CMC has been injured a lot. Is that the trick?  But you know what? We're going to go. This is already high risk, high reward. I'm going to say Christian McCaffrey. Final answer. Yes. Kooter, you have a guess before I reveal? I feel like Brandon Cooks has been here for so long and I'm comfy like that it's not him. Alvin Kamara has so many big games. Like yeah, I would be leaning more towards McCaffrey or Woods, probably. Yeah. Caffrey and Woods. Joe, you got a separate answer. Yeah. I think Simon got it right. Well, the answer, the NFL player, which has not scored more than 1500 PPR fantasy points in their career is CMC. Simon, you saw through the trick. Saw through the trick here. Zach Hertz, you really almost got me by putting it. I was like, I know he's been in the league forever, but tight end score way lower than these other positions. Like who? Got some Woods in the chat. It's on CMC. Dave says he'll commit. It's not even on there. And I stride Dave. The Maria said I want to know what Joey was playing me to do with his hands. I was wondering the same thing as the hands came up. I was clapping, I was clapping for you buddy. I thought you were measuring something. It's on the the unused available and that's right. Simon, you got that one correct. Where are you sending Kooter in this next one? How about The bottom of the leader board. How about who said it? You never know, Kooter, you never know. This is a game that can I know strategy is so terrible because I'm trying to catch up, but then I'm taking harder questions, but I have to. So let's go for 100. Which category did you say, Simon? Who said it? Who said it? 400. All right, Cooter, here is your prompt. Stats are for losers. And the one thing I'd like to point out while at Wyoming, we won games. And I definitely think that's how quarterbacks are judged in the NFL. Who said this? Was it Josh Rosen, Josh Allen, Mitchell Trubisky, or Ryan Fitzpatrick? See, there's a clue there. About Wyoming, but I know nothing about that. So that clue is lost right on me. So I'm just thinking, who would say that stats are for losers? I don't think Josh Allen would speak like that. I am going to go, God, I feel like it's such a Fitzpatrick thing. I don't know. I'm just going to go with Fitzpatrick. And I'm probably bad because I don't know anything about who was at Wyoming. So Fitzpatrick. Final answer, Chris. It's Patrick.  I think it is Josh Allen. I think it is Josh Allen. It's Daddy. It is Josh Allen. He has completely changed his image. He was like a punk in college. That's how he was viewed. I don't know any of that, if I would have known that. Because now I just picture him as this quiet little guy. Yeah. Does anybody know where Ryan Fitzpatrick went to college? Because they mention it every time he steps on the field. Harvard, yeah, they do mention that a lot. Yeah, and you were absolutely correct, Guter, the clue was, while at Wyoming, I thought about throwing another trick in here and having another player from Wyoming. While at Wyoming, it's Daddy. It's Daddy, yeah. I like this from Scott. Sounds like something Josh Rosen would say because of his stats. Stats, yeah, stats are for losers. All right, Joey, we're coming back to you. I just want to ask Joey real quick, how does it feel to be able to pick your category every time? I heard you were going to be on the show and I was so excited. And I didn't know this would be the reason why I'm even more excited because I get to keep picking my category. I was just happy to be on here with you. So I'm going to go easy as ADP for 300. All right, easy as ADP for 300. Here's a graph of positional dynasty ADP of the following players. Juju Smith-Schuster, Chris Godwin, Corey Davis and Kenny Galladay. Which series correctly represents Kenny Galladay's positional dynasty ADP? So which color? This is where I get way too close to the camera to try to see the graphs. Is this a good idea for everyone? The fourth name, Juju? OK, yeah, Juju's high. Godwin's high. So, oh, man, that thing, Corey Davis was never high as orange. Let me just double check on this. Double check you, Google? No, in my mind. In my mind. I'm going to say orange. Orange, final answer. Final answer. That's what I would have said. Orange, Scooter, did you have a different guess? No. No. The chat does not agree with us, Joey, though. They don't? But I see lots of pinks and purples in the chat. A lot of pinks. One orange. There's at least one orange from Albert. A lot of pinks and purples. Well, the real answer was pink. I'm sorry, Joey. What? It was pink. I said it was close between those two. Yeah, here's the full graph. You can see Chris Godwin's orange. Corey Davis. Orange is Corey Davis. Yeah. If that makes sense where he started. Yeah, the clue is where he started. I thought maybe the little resurgence with like maybe some hype on a new team might have made Orange the right answer. Yeah, Corey Davis dropped it early. Kenny Galladay kind of came out of nowhere. Who's what? Corey Davis was like a top five pick, wasn't he? Yeah. Yeah, I should have known that. OK, all right. I'll accept my loss on this category. All right, Simon. I don't like the color of the category. You now have a chance to take the lead here and you get to pick your own category and question value. Grab bag 200. Grab bag 200. Here's your question, my friend. Who is the Half-Blood Prince in Harry Potter universe? Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, Snape, or Voldemort?  I think it's Snape. Final answer? Yeah. It is Snape. I was hoping that just the instinct would get me there, but I haven't read or watched those movies in a very long time. We are past the like what's the statute of limitations for spoilers on Harry Potter? Yeah. Maria knew that one. She came in saying Snape. Mr. Scamper said Carl. From the Walking Dead? He's the worst. I don't know why I never even would have considered him thinking of the name Carl. Well, I like Carl, that name is ruined for me forever because that character is so awful. Like any time I hear Carl, my media thought it's just like a F Carl. Like I just get mad when I hear that name. All right, Simon. You get to pick Kooter's next category. Where are you, Senator? Let's go with Easy as ADP. Easy as ADP. All right, Kooter, would you like 100 or 400? You know what I'm going to do. Let's go 400. 400. All right, Easy as ADP 400. Oh, this is going to be. Which of the following players corresponds to the dynasty position, to this dynasty positional ADP chart? Is this Antonio Gibson, Zach Moss, Kishan Vaughn, or Clyde Edwards, E-Lair? Positional ADP. Positional ADP, I will point out yet. This is looking at positional ADP. Which of the following players corresponds to this series here? It took me until today, JL, to realize that there were numbers labeled on the axes. Like I was just looking at them relative to each other. Last time you did this category, I didn't even see the numbers on there. It's like you're saying he was like the 36th running back in 2020 or something like that. Okay. Oh my. I'm going to, I'm so bad at this. This is embarrassing. I'm going to go Zach Moss. I don't even know if that correlates with the year. Zach Moss, final answer? Yeah. That's right. That's what I would say as well. You are absolutely correct. It is Zach Moss. Good job. Nailed that one. I found that, Joey. What category do you hate? Which one do you dislike? Everybody's got really aggressive swords. I don't know why I could nail Simon's winning now. So I shouldn't even. I know. Simon's the bad guy. Simon's the bad guy. Said only nice things about people tonight and this is how it goes. And the guesses are from the chat. We're all over the place in the last one.  We got some Gibson. I feel like CEH was higher. He was. Yeah. He was way higher. It was between Moss and Vaughn for me because. Gibson has gone up. Hasn't gone down. We saw a dip in that chart. Yeah. So that was a kind of a dead giveaway. All right. Boom. All right. So you got that one correct. So you get to pick Joey's next category and where. I'll do. I want to limit him. So let's do easy as ADP. That's not nice. All right, Joey. Here's your question. Which of the following players corresponds to the dynasty positional ADP chart? Miles Sanders or Josh Jacobs? That's tricky. This is this is really tricky for a 100.  Yes. Miles Sanders. Miles Sanders. The answer is Miles Sanders. Well done. Thank you for letting me put a doodle. Yeah. The key the key being here that Josh Jacobs hasn't gone like hasn't dropped very much in the last year. Yeah. And he was and he was drafted higher coming out of school. Let's see where I want to send Simon. All right. We give you those points. You are tied up where you send a Simon two categories here.  So I'm going to think smart like Luigi and send him to who said it. Oh, my God, 100 or 200. Classic Luigi move. Thinking it was smart. But really it was the worst possible decision for me. I will take 200. 200 who said it. I didn't pull up all Pierce. I was cramping. Lamar Jackson. Final answer. Is this when he pooped his pants? Is that what you said? It is final answer. Final answer, yeah. It was Lamar Jackson. OK, just to make sure. I was like, I'm pretty sure. I read this quote every time in the most like like elementary school defensive voice like our tone. Like I didn't pull up all Pierce. I was cramping. But for me, I feel like it doesn't even do himself justice because it's like, well, yeah, your tummy was cramping. Yeah, yeah, cramping. I think I've never pooped my pants without also cramping. Yeah, like you didn't disagree with anything with that sentence. Like I feel like I would go buy a Lamar Jackson jersey if he would just admit that he pooped himself. I would I'd be like, dude, I would respect it. I respect it. I've been there. You know, Joey, you should have quite a few of my jerseys by this point then. I've got a whole locker room. All right, Simon, you got that one correct. So you get to pick Twitter's next category. We're going to run through one more round before getting on to Final Jeopardy. Where are you sending Cooter? Fill in the blank. Fill in the blank, Cooter. What question value would you like? Oh, I don't I got to go 400. 400. Here's your question. Oh, please. Bear selected Tennessee wide receiver blank with the number 71 overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft. We're all these rookie questions on this column. I'm starting to realize that. OK, yikes. And I shouldn't have gone 400. I am going to just come up with. I don't know, probably Justin Bieber, Justin Bieber. Final answer. Yeah, final answer. That's what I would have gone, though. Bayless Jones. Oh, so close. So it was kind of kind of close. I'm sorry, Cooter. We're moving on to you, Joey. Where would you like to go here? You got an option? Fill in the blank or who said it? Fill in the blank, 200. Fill in the blank, 200. Broncos selected tight end blank with the number 80 overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft. Greg Dullich. Final answer. Yes. Greg Dolchich. I will accept your answer. Thank you. You missed a whole letter. You did, but when Cooter did an extra letter, you did not count it. That's a good point. If you want to take away from him to spell it here. Well, I'm just saying that's not a spelling category. Yeah, the inconsistencies in this game. The inconsistencies. I am clearly biased. Oh, I did not give you your points to that. That's going to tie it up with Simon, Joey. And where are you going to send Simon this last one? So I'm going to pull another fantastic Luigi move. Simon, what category would you like? I'm not telling you because either you're going to give it. Like there's no there's no positive outcome here. Like absolutely as a positive outcome. Which one would you like? This is literally the scene where they have the drinks, the poison. Yeah. And this is the surprise. Yeah, you fall for my all of my all kinds of blunders. I want grab bag, but that's not an option. So whatever is left, pick one. Who said it or fill in the air? Lord, Joey, we have a time. OK, who said it? Who said it? 100. I tried to reverse. I don't think it's my job to mentor him. But if he learns from me along the way, then that's a great thing. That would be Mr. Ryan Tannehill. That was Mr. Ryan Tannehill. You got that one correct. We even alluded to it earlier on in the show and just for shits and gigs. The last one is some Falcons selected Cincinnati QB blank with the number 74 overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft. Desmond Redder, Shane Falco. I think on the draft day stream for Fando, we called Malik Willis for like four draft picks in a row for the Falcons before they finally took Redder. Yeah. All right, contestants, I we are getting into our final Jeopardy round. I have a question for you. But first, I need I need you all to have something to write down your wager and answer on after that.  I thought I was muted. Sorry. Can you give me a marker? Joey just screamed at the top of his lungs. I'm screaming when we first started the screen. So I didn't know you guys could hear it. I was dying. All of a sudden we cut to the music and I just said, we're going live. I do that every time. So I'm surprised the first time it's been caught. All right, contestants, you have something to write down your wagers on. I'm going to do it on my phone. OK, so Cooter, you got 500. Joey, you got 1500. Simon, you got 1600. Excuse me. These the category for final Jeopardy is NFL team stats 2021. OK, all right. So write down your wager. Write down how much you want to wager for final Jeopardy. OK. There's my pencil. OK, I'm ready. Oh, no. Wait, can I see what Cooter had again? How much money she has? 500, I think. 500. I have no, yeah, y'all. Well, yeah. What's good for you, though, Cooter, is that Joey and I are so close. No, what I mean, like, because we're so close, it incentivizes us to that stage. You might wager too much if you mess up. Maybe. Yeah, you're still in this. You're absolutely still in this. All right, contestants, you have your wagers? Yep. Yes. All right, go ahead and reveal them to me. 499. I have to type my password. Hold on. OK, Joey, you said 499. 500, but you can't see it. OK. 500 from Cooter and Simon, 1600. Simon, get this wrong, please. All right, here is your question for final Jeopardy contestants, and you're going to write this down. I'm going to give you a little bit of time. You can write it down and out of the chat, out of the chat, because our chat will most likely get the answer or we'll throw in a bunch of answers. Anyway, I hope. Go ahead, Joey. I was going to say, Cooter, I really hope you get this question right. I really don't think I will, but I appreciate it. Thank you so much for watching Warfare. Is he genuine? No, I do. I do. I hope she gets it right, so Simon does not. All right, here's your question. Luigi Askiman down there. I just don't trust him anymore. Askiman, which NFL team had the most fumbles in 2021? Colts, Raiders, Ravens, or Seahawks? Contestants, go ahead and think over, mull it over, write down your answers on your paper. While you do that, I'm just going to calculate your range of outcomes. I'm just going to go with my guess. What's 16? That's 3,200. Simon gets it right, he wins. So that would be $19.99 if you get it right, or $1,001. It's weird math you're making me do. OK, all right, contestants, do you have your answer? Yes. Answers, I guess. All right, go ahead and reveal them. Dang it, Seahawks from Simon, Seahawks from Joey. Please do Raiders. Raiders, I don't know. Raiders, and then double Seahawks. All right. Mine was a guess. The Seahawks just seemed kind of fumbly. Like, they just feel fumbly. The Raiders had such a messed up season, like, all that stuff going on, I just was like, I don't know, maybe. That's a great one too. Watch, it's going to be like the Colts, and we just completely bungled that. So what happens if it's a Colts, so we all lose money? Yeah, everyone. Everybody loses money, whoever has the most money. Despite losing it wins. And we got some guesses here in the chat. We got Raiders. We got Jay Walsh's Colts, because of Wens. Albert says Raiders. Scott says Raiders. Ria says Colts. Dame says Seahawks. And Mr. Scamper says Ravens. There's only one answer. So Raiders was the most popular answer in the chat. So even if I'm wrong, we're all wrong together. And I make it feel better. Yeah. Well, the actual answer, the team that had the most fumbles in 2021 was, it was the Colts. What? It's the Colts with 11 fumbles. 11 fumbles. How close were they? Oh, you don't have to look at it. I had it pulled up. Yeah, I don't think I had it pulled up. And I'm guessing that was fumbles lost, not just fumbles for the number to only be 11, right? Yeah, I believe so. I'm assuming so, yeah. Yeah, again, I had to pull it up with some other computer, but that means, Joey, I believe you win. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you win. That was in the one.  That was the most, like if we could review the tape, that was the most peaceful and kind of like stick it to you that Joey had. You were like, Joey, you win. And he just went, mm-hmm. It was like, I never doubted it. I knew it from the moment that it started. This was so easy. Yeah, the chip being lifted off his shoulder. That was what that sound was. I've gone through a lot today with Simon and it just felt really good. Not only beat him up, putting right down to zero, just, I know we're still friends, but, you know. We'll see. Maybe I'm not pulling for a Liverpool in a couple of weeks. You'll see, that's just rude. That's rude. I'm just kidding. Maybe I'll forgive you by then. And Dave coming in here just brutal, Joey won. Boom. Am I on the show with Dave next week too? And he's booing me now? That's a good question. Like now all week, all I'm gonna think about is how I'm gonna bury Dave next week. And Scott said a very Luigi style victory. Some of us take it an insult and some of us take that as a compliment. I guess that means many things to different people. Guys, Joey, congratulations on the W. And Kudor, congratulations on the tie for second place. We both absolutely killed it. Finishing the same spot. And Kudor, thank you so much for taking the time to come on with us today. I really appreciate it. I had fun and I'll never spell orangutan. You're gonna have new nightmares. Like jail replaced your childhood trauma with new orangutan based trauma. You know what? You're kind of red. You know what, orangutan based trauma. Guys, for those of you that do not already follow Kudor Doodle and you didn't do it at some point during the show, go and do that right now. You can find her on Twitter at Kudor Doodle. You gotta fix it immediately. I have to do that. Another reminder, if you enjoyed this show, you had fun watching. Make sure you're subscribed to FanDuel on YouTube. You can subscribe to them on their YouTube page at FanDuel and follow them on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, what else was there? And Twitter. Make sure you can follow them across all of those platforms. And one last thing, if you had fun playing these games with us and you want to play some more, we are live every day Monday through Friday at 3 p.m. Eastern time over on our channel at Front Yard Fantasy. It's coming out with us in the afternoon for like the work days not over, but you're done working, kind of break it into the day. Yeah, listen in while you're at it and work. While you're scrolling Excel spreadsheets, we are the perfect background noise while you scroll that Google sheet as far as it can go. Everyone that has a job that isn't like directly known to me, they're just spreadsheets at a corporation. I'm almost positive that's like 80% of jobs that are in cubicles or just spreadsheets. Guys, that is gonna be it for us this Friday. Another big thanks to Kooter and thank you everybody who came in and watched and played along with us today. We'll be back on Monday afternoon at 3 p.m. over on the Front Yard Fantasy channel. Until then, adios everybody. Have a good weekend. Bye-bye.


This award means a lot to me, more because it's a recognition of my contribution to the industry and to the world of business. That's what this award means to me and I'm really grateful to impact for the great recognition. The industry certainly needs to nurture and encourage women to take on the challenges. What happens is early in the career of women, there is a large group of women when they enter the workforce, somehow at the middle levels because of other challenges of homemaking, bringing up children, people tend to step out, but one should welcome them back and give them the encouragement and confidence to bring them back in the workforce and recognize them to give them more responsibility. Fortunately, that is happening a lot more today. In fact, I have been a recipient of this. I took time off to bring up my young daughters, but the Taj as an organization is extremely evolved and progressive. They welcomed me back and then there was no looking back at all.


From The Conversation, this is Don't Call Me Resilient. I'm Vanita Srivastava. Folks don't understand how nuanced this phenomenon is. They don't understand how complex it is. And they don't understand the impending crisis if we don't get this right. We have to get this right and there is no margin for error. It was 15 years ago. Police officers flooded CW Jeffries Collegiate in Northwest Toronto. Outside, hundreds of anxious parents stood waiting for answers. The news that police delivered, as we now know, was tragic. 15-year-old Jordan Manners had been killed. It was the first time anyone had been shot inside a Toronto school. Jordan's death stunned his community and the nation. And for many, it punctured the illusion of safety in Canadian schools. Since then, we've seen a slew of reports and funds directed at anti-violence projects. But youth violence hasn't let up in Toronto, Canada's largest city. In fact, it's getting worse. In the Toronto District School Board, the number of physical assaults has risen by 174% in the last eight years. And the number of incidents involving the use of a weapon by a student has risen by 60%. On Valentine's Day, a student was fatally shot inside a Toronto high school. And last month, another shooting happened outside a school. Why is gun violence increasing? And can we slow it down? Devon Jones has spent the past 15 years tackling these questions. He's a teacher and a well-recognized youth worker in the Jane Finch community, where Jordan Manners was killed. It has been described as Toronto's most dangerous area to be a kid. Devon has seen many students who have lost their lives to violence over the years. But he has also saved many lives through programs like YACE, an organization he founded in 2007 that focuses on basketball and academics. One of the former volunteers of Devon's organization is Artavan Azadarad. Artavan is now the executive director of YACE. He is also an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education at Wilfrid Laurier University. And he's written about the root causes of gun violence. Thanks for coming on the pod, both of you. Thank you for having us. Thanks for having us. Artavan, how old were you when you met Devon and how did you meet? I was a teenager. I was about 16, 17 years old playing competitive basketball. I would see Devon in the gym when YACE played. And I think that's the time when I was really developing a passion for social justice and equity due to some of the things I was experiencing, some of the friends I was losing to death, the gun violence, the incarceration. And so I think it started as an informal conversation. I also got into officiating at a young age. And so I know Devon would ask me if I was available to officiate some games. And during those interactions, we would talk about community work, we would talk about issues impacting racialized communities. I was grown up in Scarborough, but traveling to Jane and Finch and the other neighborhoods to play competitive basketball. And I was looking for summer employment. I requested to work with Devon and be with YACE. And that was the spark of us becoming deeper friends. And that work has really just grown since, as I went on to Teachers College, I went to York University, and I remember being in the basement of Devon's house and he was writing me a reference letter to get into Teachers College. And so, you know, for me, he's become a, he was a mentor, he still is, and it's an honor to continue to work with him and to do the community work we really believe in together. And Devon, why is sports such an integral part of this program for you? Well, when we started, the objective was to use sports as a way to galvanize polarized community, meaning that there were, there were two factions in Jane and Finch, the kids North, North of Finch, the kids South of Finch, they almost never, ever coexisted. And there was a history of reprisal and reciprocal shootings between both communities. So I met a coach who had the ability to get the kids together. We felt that would be a good way to unify the community using sports. Also sports would allow for what we call expanded opportunities. A lot of the kids of this neighborhood didn't have access to structured recreation that was local, they're traveling hours to other communities. So we figured that it was a win-win, get the kids together, provide them with expanded opportunities, provide them with a positive outlet, and that way we could make meaningful change in a community with kids who almost never, believe it or not, the kids are from across the street and they almost never, ever coexisted. So we figured that would be a great way to bridge the divide in Jane and Finch. That divide, was that like a, you know, don't cross the street kind of thing? Finch is not the dividing factor, but even deeper than the street, they're real, just theoretical, political, social divisions. You know, so there's a physical street, but there is the history of tragedy and life, loss of life and friends that were killed by the other faction across the street. So the street politics is deep as relates to that level of division and that level of, there's always an eminent reality that there could be, there could be some side, some sort of negative reciprocity around violence. So that's always undercurrent to this day that's very much so pervasive in this community. You mentioned that the children that you work with are vulnerable to violence. How vulnerable to gun violence are the kids and the teens that you work with? Yeah, so this is the way C violence, C violence is one, it's an infectious disease. You look at the way you treat an infectious disease, the way it spreads, the way it decimates, the way it permeates. So what concerns us most also is just at times, just the randomness of this violence, the culture of reprisal and reciprocal shootings. And at times these kids are all lumped into the same schools. So you could imagine how toxic that environment could be where you're in a building, an institution of learning where you have to pretty much, you're negotiating your mortality every single day. We have folks on the ground, we have folks monitoring social media so we can always get some sort of intelligence as it relates to what's taking place in community. And we're also vigilant in being proactive as opposed to being reactive to this phenomenon. And what makes it even more disturbing is the fact that after these homicides, folks will go on social media and they will troll. You know, they'll make fun of the disease. We see, for example, that the perpetrators of gun violence, particularly in Toronto, are getting younger. The number of daylight robberies and shootings have increased and it's creating this atmosphere of unease. We're starting to see more shootings on school properties. We've had multiple deaths of 15-year-olds. When we look at the report done by Dr. Tania Sharp, you know, 75% of Canadian homicide victims are African-Caribbean or from Black communities. And there's an overrepresentation. So I think what we need to do is really break it down. What are the risk factors that drive someone towards violence, whether that's gun violence or other forms of violence? And what are the protective factors? Access to quality programs, access to mentors, providing services in a social or reflective way that values and recognizes the traumas, racialized, Black, Indigenous people of color experience. These helps push people away from gravitating towards violence and then connecting them with social support services, helping them with employment, housing. Devan, I've heard you talk about this a lot and you get really passionate about it, which is, you know, we are talking about children. What is it that happens to children? They go from like 13 years old to turning into sort of these kind of almost adult-like people who are carrying weapons. How would you sort of characterize that gun problem that we're talking about? That's a great question, actually, because, you know, for folks like myself and Ardevan, the perpetrators of violence that we're looking at, there aren't kids that we're reading about in a book. Some of these individuals we taught, we quote, we've been around them since they were, you know, nine, 10, even younger, right? And then to end up to seeing the final product or seeing that level of moral decay, where the concept of life or death does not mean much to them. For me, it's the million-dollar question.  So a lot of time people are punitive. They are, they think they can lock these kids away, but I'm like, now let's try and make sense of it. Let's make sense of the 400 homicides since Jordan minus that in a TDSB school. There's been 400 homicides as school-age kids, 21 and under, right in the GTA. That's an astounding number, isn't it? You know, so let's try and make sense of who are these young people. Let's try and make sense of the demographic data. Let's try and make sense of, you know, what postal court are these young people from? What were their achievement levels in school? What did they have access to? And let's look at it, let's look at the qualitative or qualitative variables that would contribute, like I said earlier, to that level of moral decays. Artavan, you said something about good kids and bad kids. You wrote an article about this, too. Is it bad kids or bad places? Where is all the violence originating from? Why did you feel it was an important question to ask? Let me tell you the backstory of how I wrote that paper was, one day I picked up the newspaper in front of it in big bold letters. It said, why are all the good kids dying? And it was at a time when three 15-year-olds had died within the span of six weeks in Toronto. And I kind of really sat with that headline, like what if, quote unquote, they were bad kids? Would they make the fun page of the news? Would their story matter? Would their stories be heard? And whether we label them as good or bad kids, does anybody really deserve to die? So for me, it was this entry point of that question itself and that entry point of looking at gun violence or the level of violence impacting the community is actually detrimental because it actually perpetuates stereotypes. And so I think when it comes to gun violence, we need to work with communities. We need to value the lived experiences. We have to acknowledge the intergenerational trauma, the colonial history, the white supremacy that has impacted institutional policies and practices and particularly where they failed. I think, since George Floyd, we are in a bit of a more world culture, but change is still slow. It could still be performative and this checklist approach. And so we always have to measure, where were we 30 years ago? Where were we 15 years ago since Jordan Manners? And has a whole lot changed because this year alone, we've had three incidents of 15 year old shootings or deaths on school property, right? And so when I think about the 1982 race relations report by Stephen Lewis, which happened after the Young Street uprisings, there really a whole lot hasn't changed in 30 years. It's becoming like a broken record of cycles of up and down, a bit of quiet, then the violence happens and it's not simply about accessing a gun because I can tell you, it's very easy to access a gun for many people but many people choose not to do it because of the other protective factors like what they got too much to lose, they make good choices, they have access to a mentor. So we have to kind of focus on, what are the protective factors to actually get people away from the vulnerable circumstances or the risk factors they're exposed to? You said you looked at the headline and the way that it was, talked about these good kids. But race is such a big factor there where we can talk about the 2005 incident with Jane Creba, whose death was tragic, but media focused on that killing quite a bit and this idea of innocence, the innocent death. So I think what stands out is the level of commitment from the institutions to try to seek justice for Jane Creba. We see an extensive amount of policing, wiretapping the amount of police officers that were assigned to the case. And it's not to say the death of Jane Creba wasn't important, but from an equity lens, we ask are all cases treated with such priority, particularly when the victims are black and are coming from racialized communities? It's easy to say, oh, well, they were getting involved or they were a bad kid. So therefore, it was bound to happen. That's what we need to disrupt. And if we're not willing to support folks who are exposed to the most risk factors and are in vulnerable conditions, how can we then expect these cycles and in many cases, this intergenerational cycles of poverty and violence to be disrupted? If somebody whose mother or father is incarcerated, they're more likely to gravitate towards violence because of a lack of a mentor, a lack of a support system at home. How do we support the person, but also the family unit and also the community? Yeah, I guess you're talking about some of the reasons why some of the children and the young people that we're talking about are vulnerable to the effects of gun violence. Why are some children more vulnerable than others? Yeah, a 2018 report by People for Education found that province-wide, the average ratio for guidance counselors was 396 students for every counselor. How can that happen within a community who is impacted by violence, whose students may be grieving the death of a student they know? It's impossible to do it effectively. So this is where we mean we need to funnel and decide where do we put the resources to actually be preventative versus reactionary. Just because we have a few deaths, we'll say, well, let's invest more money in policing. But we know that has been historically and continues to be a failed strategy. We actually need to invest in creating access and affordability to those programs and social support services, which will reduce risk factors and increase protective factors. Tell me about this project. You both partnered with the City of Toronto and this Towards Peace and Anti-Violence Project. Maybe, Devon, you could start. What are you hoping to do with this project? It's a unique initiative because it seeks to target those who are at the centre of producing violence and ensuring that every step of the way we surround them with folks, with lived experiences that can somewhat mitigate what's taking place. So, you know, oftentimes, I find communities are reacting to what's taking place, but it's understanding what's taking place and ensuring that there are folks on the ground that can disrupt, that can interrupt, and that can walk folks off the ledge when they need to. Provide them with meaningful options to implement education, mentorship, and positive alternatives. So, Towards Peace, it's a great initiative. It's ran well in places like Sacramento, Chicago, and so on, and we've modified it in a sense to make sure the Toronto Virgin Acid works or it's engaging those or the core of producing violence. Hmm. We often hear about and focus our attention on gun violence when we're talking about it. It's in the U.S. over incidences in Canada. Can we even compare the two situations? We're worried about some of those trends from the U.S. setting a route if we don't put meaningful infrastructure in place to disrupt some of this earlier. With every shooting, the issue becomes more complex. The more we pretend this is not happening, it intensifies because you're talking about unresolved or unaddressed issues. So in a sense, yes, if there's a lot, we can learn from the U.S. about the mistakes they have made and we can act accordingly. And if we don't act accordingly, if we're not proactive, then we're going to deal with some of the highest escalation in places like Chicago and so on that we see taking place there. What happens a lot of times is we think the level of violence is so much worse in the United States, but we actually try to dismiss how racialized communities are impacted by violence here in Canada. And that's very detrimental and harmful. So we can compare to the United States around what are some best practices? What are some programs that work? And so there are some things we can take, but a copy and paste approach will not work for Canada because the diversity of people are different. You look at neighborhood histories and how violence has escalated, it's very different. So we can take some good things and also learn from mistakes such as investing in more policing. It doesn't solve the problem. How do we not just focus on the high profile situations? We kind of have to go back to once again, what are the basic risk factors? If we look at the review of the Roots of Violence that came out a year after the death of Jordan Manor, we look at the report, the TSP report that was done by external stakeholders around some of the recommendations. They've all been identified, but we are not moving on the actions fast enough where we're losing more lives, right? We need to start enacting it. We don't need another study to tell us what are the problems and what are the solutions. What we need is more resources, more funding, more synergy across the institutions and the sectors to actually do the work and involve community with it. So one of the great things about Two Words Peace and New Narrative, the Violence Prevention Interruption and Intervention Programs at YASES, community is with us at every step of the way, right? We value residents' voices. It is community driven and it uses that public health approach which is proactive. You said public health approach and I think that might be a little confusing. If you could take a few minutes just to describe what do you mean by public health approach? So let's say the Act here is an act of violence. Somebody checks into the hospital and they've been stabbed or shot, okay? Well, we're not just gonna focus on the wound. We're going to say where was this person before they arrived? Who did they interact with? What is their family situation like? What kind of support services did they have access to or they couldn't access? And how did all of these factors contribute to this tragic incident of a stabbing or a shooting, all right? And so that's kind of an example of the public health approach. It's very data driven in terms of identifying those trends and then how do you mitigate it and how do you track that over time? So for example, With Two Words Peace and New Narrative on the case management we provide to clients, we track them through this idea of a life map of what are their goals in employment and housing? How are we supporting them? Where are they three months from now? Where are they six months from now? Where are they one year from now? How do we support them if they now are incarcerated a while we were supporting them? How do we support them while they get incarcerated? And we're working with the MCCS Youth Justice Division and Ministry of Solicitor General to talk about how do we help people transition back into community? Because we know the first 48 hours where they give you a bus ticket and say, okay, they're released, that's when folks are the most vulnerable to committing acts of violence or having health issues, depression, suicidal. So how do we make sure we more effectively reintegrate folks back into community? And this is why it just can't be a policing, a media or an education solution. All the stakeholders have to work together. Both of you are committed to the work that you do. And I know that Devon, you mentioned Jordan Manners and I've heard you mention that you used to teach him when he was probably in elementary school. How do you deal with the daily challenge of the work that you do? I know for me, the therapy is in the prevention. It's like you're trying to put a puzzle together of the 1,000 pieces.  For me, the therapy is in the solving this equation. It's getting people to understand, it's getting government to understand, getting school board and stakeholders to understand. So the work is quite daunting. I told my team on Monday morning, if we can fix this problem and if we can provide Canada as a whole with meaningful alternative to this phenomenon, we are in so much trouble. Folks don't understand how nuanced this phenomenon is. They don't understand how complex it is and they don't understand the impending crisis if we don't get this right. We have to get this right and there is no margins for error. That's just the reality of it. I never thought when I started teaching school in 1999 as a 24 year old young man that I would eulogize a student or I would sit in a courtroom when a young person is convicted to a life sentence or I would see countless mothers mourn in the lot where my father's buried up the road at Beachwood. I got four students in that same lot who have lost their life under 18 years old. It's dealing with those personal situations and understanding that if we can't prevent this from occurring, if we can't prevent meaningful alternative or alternatives, then who can? And that's what, that's a driving force and that's the therapy for myself personally is ensuring that we solve this puzzle. We've heard a lot of people calling for defunding of the police or a reallocation of police budget. So based on what you've seen, where do you want that money to go? As I said, I've lost scores of young people and I have scores of young people who are institutionalized based on what is taking place in the communities around violence and it has nothing to do with policing. That's to do with the fact that for the most part, there were issues around access. There was issues around social infrastructures. There was issues around parenting. There were issues around a very violent subculture, a very violent ecosystem that was left unaddressed for too long. Jane Finch has the highest concentration of gangs, youth gangs. They have the lowest achieving schools in this province. They have some of the lowest income levels in this province. So obviously we need to look at that. I think if you ask five different people who use the phrase defund the police, there may be five different entry points and it's okay to not be on the same page. And my perspective, I don't think police are a non-factor, but I don't think they are the solution. If you ask me, defund the police, my take would be that I'm not saying to have zero policing, but we need to have policing that works with community and where possible some of those services that are offloaded to the police right now be provided by other professionals who have relationships with the community, such as healthcare services, mental health checks that can not only free up the police to perhaps invest their time and energy in alternative approaches that helps communities thrive. So I think for me, the policing is one aspect of, as Devan said, this thousand piece puzzle, it definitely policing as an institution in association with the justice system habits inequities and it does need to revamp in many ways because we know racialized communities are impacted from racial profiling to sentencing to the conditions within jails, but policing alone in the justice system is not gonna solve the issue if they don't work with the healthcare system, the education system, with folks with lived experiences in community, with post-secondary institutions and subject experts. I guess that's your violence disruptors that you're talking about are people with lived experience in the communities. Yes. Guys, it's been amazing to speak with you. Thank you guys so much. That's it for this episode of Don't Call Me Resilient. I hope you learned something. I know I did. Are you doing something in your community for youth? Do you want to get involved? If you're still there, write to us on Twitter. I'm at writevenita, that's W-R-I-T-E-V-I-N-I-T-A, and tag our producers at ConversationCA so they can join in. Use the hashtag, don't call me resilient. You can also find us on Instagram or Facebook, search for the Conversation Canada. If you'd like to read more about gun violence, go to theconversation.com. We have an article by today's guest, Artavan Izadarad, with links to additional stories and research. Finally, if you like what you heard today, please help spread the word about the pod, tell a friend about us, or leave a review on whatever podcast app you're using. Don't Call Me Resilient is a production of The Conversation Canada. This podcast was produced in partnership with the Journalism Innovation Lab. The lab is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the series is produced and hosted by me, Benita Srivastava. The lead producers on this episode are myself and Danielle Piper. The consulting producer is Jennifer Morose. Our associate producer is Rithika Shanoi. Our assistant producer is journalism student Oli Nicholas. Remitula Sheikh is our audio editor. Ataka Kaki is our marketing and visual innovation consultant, and Scott White is the CEO of The Conversation Canada. And if you're wondering who wrote and performed the music we use on the pod, that's the amazing Zaki Ibrahim. The track is called Something in the Water. Maybe they buy something in the water. Maybe they buy something in the water.