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Learn more at vertexinck.com. Welcome to the Total Soccer Show and our Thanksgiving special episode. It's here, everybody. It's a time of year where we ask the big questions. What are we thankful for in our daily lives? Why is Jello salad a thing? Does Graham Ruffman really brush his teeth and shower three times daily? I'm not letting that one go.

We'll be tackling one of those questions specifically today as we talk about the things we are thankful for in the beautiful game.

My name's Ryan Bailey joining me today, our pilgrim who cooks a mean family feast.

Taylor Rockwell, hello, Taylor.

Hello, but no jello involved, and that is a steadfast rule.

Jello and salad should not be intertwined. I'm going to need an explanation than that. That's an alien concept to me. What is that? Ryan?

A salad with Jello in it, essentially. Have you experienced that, though? Has someone, has someone ever tried to serve you that at Thanksgiving?

Yeah, and also, I've had it on Thanksgiving and also the potatoes with marshmallows in them. I'm more familiar with that. Taylor made that last year for us, but the Jello salad thing, that can't be real. It be a thing, Greg. It be a thing. Yeah. Yeah. Joining us to discuss that and much more, a man whose home state is home to three subspecies of turkeys, Merriams, Goulds, and Rio Grande's.

Joe Lowry, Which is your favorite?

I'm learning the second one. The second one, I've definitely heard of all those before. I'm learning all sorts of things about Arizona. Apparently, Arizona's in the pretzel belt, according to David Goss. That's a conversation that he and I had yesterday based off of production facilities for dots pretzels. So one of the big three states, it has one of those, apparently, and we're swimming in Turkey. So Thanksgiving's on me, folks. Let's get this thing done. I don't think Turkey's swim, Joe, but thank you for the insight there anyway. The pretzel belt. What a wonderful name. By the way, I'm sorry. Do I call you Gibrizio Romano now?

I've been watching Cooligans, and I think that's your handle now.

Is that right?

You know what? I think we can workshop it a little bit more. I think there's a little more room, and I think even Alexis and Christian would probably admit that. It was a ton of fun going on their show the other day. They make it easy. Obviously, they're funny dudes. That was a good time,

but we're still finalizing the nickname. Okay. We'll work on that. Maybe we'll workshop it later in the episode. But joining us, a man you've heard his voice already. He lives outside the rebel colonies. He doesn't get a day off on Thursday. His name is Graham Rutherford. Hello, Ryan Bailey. Yeah, I don't get a day off on Thursday. It's just Thursday for me this week. Although I've always liked the idea

of Thanksgiving and I wish that we had it in the UK for two reasons. One, a second turkey dinner

every year. One turkey dinner is not enough in my opinion. So I'm in favour of that. And two, the

second reason, it holds back Christmas until the end of November. Whereas over here, it's Christmas crazy. Well, I think it does. It's Christmas crazy once Halloween is out of the way in the UK. It's too much. It's too much of a build-up. So maybe I'll just start having my own Thanksgiving. I guess there's nothing stopping me from doing that. I can do it. I want. I'm an adult. There will be no yellow salad dough at my Thanksgiving. I'm reeling from that revelation. The thing is, Graham, Thanksgiving, you traditionally go around the table and say what you're thankful for. For British people, that's far too embarrassing. Yes, it totally is. Yeah, notice that the reasons that I want Thanksgiving in the UK is not actually to give thanks. It's just for the food and to hold back the Christmas decorations for a few more weeks. Yeah. Although I did go to two different tree lightings this past week, Graham. Sounds like you're part of the problem, Ryan. That's what I'm hearing. That's true. Very true. I'm assuming we have a julia. Oh, like the lights on the tree. Sorry. I thought he meant like someone setting the trees on fire.

So that's a very hard line stance to take in Christmas decorations in November.

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