Nancy and Chris Benoit - Part 2

0:00 Hi, I'm Tina, and I'm rich And if there's one thing we've learned and over twenty years of marriage, it's. That some days you'll feel like killing your wife. And some days you'll feel like killing your husband. Welcome to love, Mary Kill. Good afternoon, Richard. Good afternoon, Tina. How are you. I'm doing good? How are you good? We're finally getting some snow out there, yeah, but not really well with like a winter weather advisory, we're supposed to get like between two and four inches. But I know I have a bad feeling we are gonna be disappointed.

0:42 Which it's funny that you're saying bad feeling because usually by this time at winter you're kind. Of like over it. I know, but I would like at least one good snowfall. And if we've had snow, but you haven't, we haven't had to shovel yet. No, that's how I count snowfalls as shoveling, Like how many times do you have to shovel? Right? Sure, so far zero, which. Is rare, and last winter it was only a couple Right now, you could. Count it on one hand. I have to ask why you called me Richard at the beginning, because usually when you call me Richard, I feel like I'm in trouble for something. That's your name. Oh okay, I like to I was going to call you Dick. It was like, I better not, because no, I don't. I believe no one with the name Richard goes by Dick anymore. I'm I could be wrong.

1:29 I think you're correct. I think I've mentioned it before, but I was named after my uncle who went by Dick. And I was just looking the other day. Dick's sporting goods is out there, so I'm surprised there's not. I don't know. It's not making a comeback the name Dick. I think there's a reason it's not making it come back. All right, Maybe I'm not surprised. You do an excellent job of matching the snack with the episode, and I'm a little more lackadaisical about that, but not today. But today, I was just going to bring you some anabolic steeroids, because but what are wrestlers they eat? After part one? My impression is that it's bad, So I don't know if I want those. I don't think I do.

2:09 So that was a really bad joke I did bring you. It's not a snack as much as a drink. Okay, do you know what it is? I heard the blender going. But yeah, so. When I wasn't feeling well, there's no alcohol. But you know what, I bet you could really put some alcohol in this when I wasn't feeling well. When I'm not feeling well, I want oranges, Like I eat a lot of oranges and clementines and things like that, and I don't know, I think they make me feel better. But I asked for an orange julius and you made me an orange julius. So I'm still not feeling amazing and to day, so, yeah, I made you an orange good that sounds really good. It's a different recipe than you tried before, and you made me, so you want to give it a try?

2:51 Of course? What do you think of the orange julius? I think it's really good. It's just really like foamy and yeah, very tasty. How does this compare to the other recipe that you made? I think it's better. The recipe that you made used a whole can of orange juice consentra. I think I don't want to gross you out, but this recipe was two cups orange juice, one half cup heavy cream, two large pasteurized egg yolks, oh, a quarter cup of powdered sugar, one teaspoon pure vanilla, and a cup of ice. So those egg yolks. If I would have told you that beforehand, I'm not sure if you would have.

3:33 Yeah, I mean, I know they use egg yolks and things like that, so it it doesn't gross me out too much. But no, I think it's really tasty. Actually, you know, I put a little more sugar in it, and I also did use probably about a quarter cup of orange juice concentrate because I didn't think it had a bunch of orange, like a good enough orange taste to it. Yeah, very good. Nine out of ten. Oh, I know that's such a bad rating. You told me last time I'm too easy, so I'm. Trying to feel a little I didn't mean, now you know what, I think. I'd give it a nine out of ten two excellent. Think you nailed it all right. Do you want to talk about Chris Benoit? I would love to, But before I do that, if you haven't listened to part one, you should go back and do that. WWE wrestler Chris Benoi, his wife Nancy, and their young son were found dead in their Georgia home on June twenty fifth, two thousand and seven, after Chris missed several wrestling shows. Wrestling consumed Chris's life, and he was deeply affected by the recent death of his best friend, fellow wrestler Eddie Guerrero. Chris's heavy steroid use and abusive behavior had previously prompted Nancy to file for divorce, though they later reconciled. In the weeks leading up to his death, Chris exhibited growing paranoia and depression.

4:51 After Eddie Guerrero's death, the WWE, in an attempt to clean up their image, instituted the Wellness Program. The WWE claimed they were going to crack down on drug use, institute organization wide drug test, and screen talent for developing cardiac issues. But they were instituting this wellness program without really analyzing why are our athletes abusing? Yeah, drug and steroids? No one looking at the root cause, Yeah, No drugs without a prescription were allowed, not even an aspirin. As will become clear, this was only another extension of k fabe. The wellness checks were just for show. Even chrispin Waugh passed the test. Days before his death. The WWE, like any other business put in charge of regulating itself, had no interest in changing anything they didn't have to, especially if it was going to cost them time or money.

5:45 Memorial benefit shows became a staple of WWE programming. As Chris's colleagues and friends all started dying left and right. Eddie was only one of many. In nineteen ninety nine, Owen Hart, brother of Rickhart and member of the Heart Dynasty. Remember we talked about the Heart Dynasty in the last episode and how Stuhart had trained so many dungeons. Yes, and his dungeon. Owen Hart, was tragically killed in an accident during a live taping. Heart was to be repelled into the ring from the catwalk when his harness broke, Vince made the decision to let the show continue. He rationalized this action by saying that the audience never saw what happened because the stadium had gone into darkness. Owen's blood remained in the ring while his devastated friends continued the show. His wife settled a lawsuit with the WWE for his wrongful death. Shinya Hashimoto, who Chris wrestled with in New Japan pro Wrestling died of a brain hemorrhage caused by high blood pressure on July eleventh, two thousand and five. He was only forty years old. Victor black Cat Mar, who trained Chris and the Dojo, died of a heart attack on June twenty eighth, two thousand and six.

7:00 He was fifty one. Allan Bad News Coash, a colleague from Stampede, died of a heart attack on March twenty six, two thousand and seven. He was sixty three. Michael Lin Durham, better known as Johnny Grunge, was the straw that broke the Camel's back. Grunge was the Benois neighbor and had helped Chris process the grief that stemmed from Eddie's death. He was also the friend Chris turned to when he and Nancy fought. He was found out on February sixteenth, two thousand and six, having suffered a coronary artery blockage. He was forty years old. Oh my goodness. Eventually, Chris had attended so many w w E memorials that he decided to swear off of them. He could no longer muster the real misery he had to endure for the cameras it was too hard. Chris did his best to keep the feelings at bay. He was a practitioner of the old school of masculinity. Just ignore the feelings and they'd go away. Don't talk about them, don't ever be vulnerable with anybody. The feelings did come out, of course, but in more subconscious ways. He behaved even more recklessly than usual. He dove off of the top rope to perform the diving headbut even after he'd already broken his neck once doing it, he took an absurd amount of chair shots in the back of the head, which is something most professional wrestlers do not do. Whether it was steroids or CTE, or grief, or a combination of all of the above, Ben Whi's behavior at home became even more erratic. He was often distant, both physically and emotionally. Daniel only seven, often dialed his absent father.

8:33 He couldn't understand why Chris never answered. It's hard to know the exact reason behind Chris's self isolation, but it's likely that he understood something was going wrong in his head, and he may have been frightened of what he'd do to his family if he were near them. I feel so sad for Daniel, not just because of what is going to happen that we're going to talk about, but just he obviously idolized his dad so much, and just in this at this point in time, he must have felt confused and sad that his dad was, you know, not spending time with him or right. I think they did go to some of his matches, so maybe he saw them more than we think that he saw them. Text messages between Chris and Nancy from May two thousand and seven are telling of the state of their marriage. Here are some snippets which give a good sense of how the relationship had dissolved. May fifth, Daniel has called twice today. You can't bother with him either.

9:28 May ninth. Get off the crap you're on. It's making you passive aggressive, and I don't need the abuse. May tenth, you are a grown man with three kids. Set the example. Are you typing to say that is how you grew up watching your dad call your mom name and make her cry? No, then what gives you the right grow up? For mighty sakes, get off the stuff. It's obvious. I'm probably not the only one who can see and we both know the wellness program is a joke. On May twenty six, Nancy texted Chris about his two hundred and fifty thousand dollars life insurance policy. She was angry that he would refuse to make her the beneficiary. Quote, if you wanted your ex wife to have your retirement fund, you would have given it to her years ago with the divorce. If you wanted her to have more, you wouldn't have tried to hide your money. Now it's at the point where we are married. I come first.

10:21 Do you know if he left his ex wife just because he didn't get around to changing it, or was there a reason why his ex wife was the beneficiary. Well, he had two kids with her. I'm not sure if that's why. I don't know if he intended to get another policy. Chris made between depending on the year, between four hundred thousand and a million dollars a year. Anytime, you know, any of his merchandise sold, he got kickbacks from that, so he was making good money. So the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars were you know, it's it's a lot of money, but you know, for Chris, I'm not sure if maybe that's why he didn't change it because, I mean he made more than in a year. Yeah, that wouldn't replace a whole lot of his income. Yeah.

11:01 Nancy tried her best to hold it together, but Chris's behavior began to take a toll on her Psyche. He became controlling when he was actually around. He would throw fits if she didn't cook him exactly what he wanted to eat. He would hide her car so she couldn't leave the house. Nancy confided in her neighbor Holly, that she'd been hitting the bottle pretty hard too, and occasionally even took some of Chris's pain pills, and every effort she'd made to moderate Chris only pushed him further away. In late January two thousand and seven, unsure of what else to do, she threw Chris's stash of steroids away. When he found out, he was so angry that he didn't come home for two weeks, and more people began to notice Chris's paranoia. His driver, Jimmy Bassball, has spoken about how Chris used to make him take different routes to and from the airport. He was always checking out the back window, concerned that somebody might be following him.

11:55 He also talked a lot about the murder of Marissa Vasiri, the daughter of the famous Iron Cheek. Perhaps he was worried about the same thing happening to his children, though it's worth noting that Vizieri's death was not the result of stalking or security failure. She was murdered by her boyfriend. To make matters worse, Chris was moved from the WWE to the ECW or Extreme Championship Wrestling, even though he was promised a belt. It was seen as a emotion. It seems like a really bad idea because I remember we talked about last time, the Extreme Championship Wrestling is more violent, right, we would do things that were just even more risky and dangerous Gregory Hurricane.

12:37 Helms later told police about a text exchange he'd had with Benoir contained within We're disturbing jokes that give us a good idea about Benoir's attitude towards Nancy and women. More broadly, on June fourteenth, two thousand and seven, Chris texted Helms quote, how many men does it take to open a bottle of beer? None? It should already be open when the bitch brings Ugh that's bad, isn't it. On June sixteenth, two days after that text message, Nancy attended one of Chris's shows in Alabama. Everybody backstage was acting strange, like they were keeping something from her. Nancy suspected Chris may be having an affair. Nancy may have been correct. The gossip inside the WWE was that Michelle McCool, a twenty seven year old who had recently been added to the roster, was having a fling with Chris. While there's no concrete proof of this, it's certainly possible. Chris had at one point texted a colleague asking for her number.

13:36 They often coincidentally ended up in the same shows. Chris had a second cell phone, which he tried to hide from Nancy. She knew about it, of course, as Chris wasn't particularly crafty, even if he thought he was, he would often take phone calls outside away from Nancy, seeking privacy. These could have been phone calls with McCool. Others in the WWE. Claim that Chris was never unfaithful to his wife was also the question of whether Chris was even able to perform sexually. It was a constant complaint of Nancy's Michelle McCool and the Undertaker had been in a secret relationship for years and later married. Nancy at this point was herself also self medicating with alcohol and prescription drugs.

14:18 But Nancy was right about the WWE's wellness program. Chris even passed the test days before his death. His toxicology report revealed that he had hydrocodone and xanax, both at therapeutic levels in his system, and elevated levels of testosterone, but no alcohol. Chris's encounters with the wellness program had done nothing to curb his dependence on steroids. He had been abusing steroids since high school. The long term abuse had so badly damaged his endocrine system that Chris's body could no longer produce testosterone naturally. Chris's personal physician, doctor phil Astin, was able to prescribe testosterone replacement therapy as a necessary medical treatment. Chris also ordered steroids online. Low testosterone, also called hypogonadism, can result in fatigue, depression, lower cognitive function, low libido, reduced muscle mass, and mood changes. Testosterone is critical to both men and women, although women require less of the hormone toward the end, Nancy had a phone call with Pam Clark, the widow of the deceased WWE referee Brian Hildebrand. She laid it all out on the table.

15:30 Chris's mood swings were unbearable. He was outright abusive, and they constantly fought about money and sex. She was keeping evidence of his abuse hidden away in a safe place. She was plotting an escape. Soon she would take Daniel back to Florida, where her side of the family still lived. They ended the conversation with a particularly damning quote that is all too familiar to true crime listeners. If anything happens to me, make sure that people know that Chris did it. Early on some one day June twenty fourth, two thousand and seven, fellow wrestler Chavo Guerrero, ATI's nephew, and referee Scott Armstrong were sent the same cryptic message. Each received the message twice, once from Chris's phone and once from Nancy's phone. It read quote, my physical address is one three zero Green Meadow Lane, Fayetteville, Georgia three O two one five. The dogs are in the enclosed pool area. Garage side door is open end quote. Chavo and Scott were concerned by these text messages, especially in concert with Benoi's absence at multiple important shows in Texas over that weekend. Benoi had told WWE officials that he was unavailable as Nancy and Daniel were both sick. They had food poisoning, he claimed, and were vomiting blood. Chavo and Scott informed the WWE, who in turn instructed Dennis Fagan to call in a wellness check.

16:54 Thanks mencious eschew Hi. I just spoke to one of the other officers there. My name is Dennis Fagan, TI detective in New York City. I run the security for World Wrestling, and one of our wrestlers that lives down there is missing. And he told me to just to say we need a welfare check done. Okay, what's the address? One Green Metal Lane? The ziplot this three zero two one five? All right? Didn't special Wrestling? Fagan fa G A N. And what's his name? Chris Benoit it's spelled b E. N t.

17:35 Okay, and he's a wrestler, yes, he's what happened. He's her a religious gentleman. And yesterday he was supposed to show up at a pay per view and never got on the plane never showed up. They tried to reach his wife, Nancy. She doesn't answer. They tried to call his house. It's unlow. It's had a character for him. So at three o'clock this morning, there was a message left but one of the other wrestlers, and basically it says, the dogs are in the backyard, the back door is opened, goodbye, and that was it. Okay, what is height? Chris is about six to one, very muscular, very stock. He has a very wide neck. Looks like a rest of ut Okay, white male, black male, yes, male, white, white male. Okay, I got shot up.

18:15 Black hair. It's like he'd never seen Chris and wah before because Chris had like sandy brown hair. And he wasn't six to one, No, it was nowhere near six foot one. Yeah, it's very strange. The police showed up, couldn't get through the fence and recruited Holly, the Benoa's neighbor. She led the dogs inside, then ran out screaming. Moments later, quote, Daniel and Nancy have been murdered. They've killed the family. The police ran to her and tried to calm her down. They asked her where in the house the bodies were then instructed her to stay outside in the driveway. The police followed Holly's directions, they found the bodies, including Chris. His body was in the basement, which Chris used as a home gym. He was shirtless, slumped over in a sitting position, wearing jim shorts and sneakers. He had hung himself with the cable of his lap pulled down weight machine.

19:06 He had made sure to wrap a towel around his neck so the cable wouldn't cut through his throat. Evidently he didn't want to bleed out, he wanted to suffocate. Chris had modified the weight machine with dumbbells, ensuring that it would have enough force behind it to do the job. The death would have been very painful. If Chris had wanted to kill himself painlessly, he had the means to do so. He had plenty of drugs in his home, but he chose the weight machine. Nancy's cell phone and his own were on the floor beside him, next to an empty bottle of murlou. The house was very tidy and clean, but several beer cans and wine bottles were found throughout the house. The most likely scenario seems to be the following On Friday, Chris took Daniel to horseback riding camp at his neighbor's house before he headed to his doctor for a routine visit to refill his prescriptions.

19:56 The doctor later reported that Chris seemed normal, but he did complain about Nancy being moody and suggested that she was going through menopause. Chris reported that he was suffering from depression, and the doctor prescribed him with Zoloft. Later that evening, pool workers showed up to do some maintenance and reported that they had seen Chris grilling with Daniel by his side. Chris and Nancy fought on the evening of Friday, June twenty second, after dinner. Perhaps Nancy had some wine and was emboldened to say what was on her mind. Maybe she admitted that she was thinking about taking Daniel and leaving Chris. Whatever words were exchanged, they angered Chris. At the end, Nancy knew her life was in danger. At nine twenty five pm, she had made a four to one one request for the police department's phone number, but she never actually went through with it and called the police. Maybe she thought they wouldn't get there on time. At nine thirty two pm. She called Holly's cell phone three times. Holly didn't answer. Was she calling Holly because she knew she was in danger. Chris attacked Nancy in her office, then restrained her for some period of time using duct tape and electrical cords. The police found a gag a tube sock covered in blood in the trash, so we can assume that at some point Chris was trying to keep Nancy quiet, potentially trying to hide her from Daniel. Chris wrapped another electrical cord around Nancy's neck. He placed his knee on her back, then yanked the cord back, choking her until she stopped breathing.

21:26 Chris sedated Daniel to keep him asleep while he figured out what to do. Toxicology found xanax in Daniel's system, which means that Chris dosed him with the drug, a drug, by the way, that is not meant to be taken by children. The nature of Daniel's wounds, internal injuries to the throat with no bruising on the exterior skin, suggests that Daniel either had a bad reaction to the xanax and choked to death on his own saliva or that Chris had put Daniel in some sort of choke hold. Either way, he was likely unconscious at the time of his death. A large bush knife was found under his bed. It hadn't been used, but it was a jarring discovery. Chris spent most of Saturday, June twenty third, considering his options.

22:09 He kept up appearances, or at least tried to with a food poisoning excuse. Maybe the vomiting blood excuse was laying the groundwork for a way out. If Chris sat the stage right, maybe he could play their deaths off as the result of a freak illness. Chris also spent the day drinking. He left this voicemail for fellow wrestler Michael Parker, in which he is slurring his words. Backer, this has been an it's but five to two napping in so Basonally Man finally hadn't heard going want collection cruse Trudias on the play home into Atlantic. He kind of got shifted it over and that really fucking sucks.

22:54 But you know, if there's anything I can do, oh Man, please give me calm let me know, and you know, you know I'm not kind of Pat's not gonna changed his experience, like nothing should be better in experience, and you get that. It's like, uh, you know, I'm just talking about the talking here right now. I don't know what I'm details are on the top of my head, but it goes well. With you, man, And uh, I just missed you last couple of weeks. Upon a point of that, I hope you're here in a while, I became who eats the Champs? Give me call pick care man? What does well? Right? So did that call likely happen after he had already killed Nancy and Daniel?

23:38 Yeah? I think so. I mean, he definitely sounds intoxicated, but he sounds pretty. It's so weird, I know, because times he sounds lucid and then there's just gibberius. Yeah, that's really weird to hear that. Chris also spoke with Holly on the phone that afternoon. The conversation lasted nine minutes. Christ told Holly that Daniel couldn't make it to her horse riding camp. He and Nancy were both sick with food poisoning. Chris's Internet search history shows that at three forty nine pm, he googled Elijah. He was looking for the biblical story of the prophet Elijah from the Old Testament Book of Kings and the story Elijah is sent to a widow whose child dies. Elijah takes the boy's body and pleads to God, quote, please restore this boy's soul to his body. God grants Elijah's wish, and the widow's son is returned to her.

24:28 Chris also searched quickest and easiest way to break your neck. Chris killed himself on Sunday after he sent the text messages to Chabo and Scott. He removed the bar from his lap, pulled down machine, tied a noose out of the metal cord, wrapped it around his neck, and adjusted the weights to two hundred and forty pounds, then released it, hanging himself. Friend and fellow wrestler Chris Jericho, texted Chris that afternoon, quote, just heard that Biff Wellington died of a heart attack this weekend. Chris never received that text message. If Wellington was forty four years old. We'll be back after a break. Before we jump back into the case, I'm going to do something we've never done before. Oh boy, I feel like the snack was a little lame. It wasn't like a filling snack. Not that this is a filling snack, but I brought you some of these skittles mid.

25:26 A midpoint snack. Yeah, okay, the skittles. I bought them for Christmas, the freeze dried skittles. Do you want to try a couple? Sure? Okay, I think they're really good. Well that was real interesting. Yeah, do you like them? Yeah? Well, I think they're really cool. Freeze dried skittles. What do they think of next? Freeze dried? Like freeze dried candy is all the rage right now, is it? Yeah? All sorts of different kinds. But yeah, if you's I think I got it at Target, I would definitely check it out. Yeah, it was good. That night, only hours after the discovery of the bodies, the WWE held a three hour tribute show in place of the regularly scheduled Monday Night Raw Good Evening.

26:09 Tonight, thisareinta here in Corpus Christi, Texas was to have been filled to capacity with enthusiastic WWE fans. Tonight's storyline was to have been the alleged demise of my character, mister McMahon. However, in reality, WW superstar Cris BINOI his wife Nancy, and their son Daniel are dead. Their bodies were discovered this afternoon in their new suburban Atlanta home. The authorities are undergoing an investigation. We here in the WW you can only offer our condolences to the extended family of Chrispin Waugh, and the only other thing we can do at this moment, it's to night paid tribute to Chrispin Waugh.

27:10 At that point, the investigation had not yet confirmed that Benoi's death to be murder slash suicide, but there was evidence pointing in that direction. By that time, a break in had been ruled out by the police or any other parties being present in the home during the time of the incident. The ww's e's decision was considered hasty and unwise. The clip we just played was Vince McMahon's talking straight to the camera in an empty arena, standing in the middle of the ring. It does seem like a really kind of a bad decision having you know, obviously they didn't know exactly what had happened, but it seemed like it was probably fairly obvious what had happened exactly. Just seemed like not not very not a very good idea.

27:54 And Vince referenced the death of his character mister McMahon. We talked about that in the first step, so Mince McMahon's character mister McMahon had been killed off. It was in a car explosion, so it was supposed to be his funeral of that night. Here's a tribute from Stone Cold Steve Austin to Crispin Wah. I want to tell the world that I think it Crispin wa was one of the most talented individuals I've ever known in my life. Anytime I've ever seen the guy work, it didn't matter if there was fifteen people in the building or if there's thirty thousand people in the building. Anytime Crispin Waugh went to the ring, he gave it one and twenty percent every single night of the week. And I didn't get a chance to wrestle Chris a whole lot of times. But one of my favorite matches my whole career was wrestling Crispin Waugh in his hometown of Edmonton, Canada. One of my favorite matches with the Guy, and the Guy is probably one of the most honest people I've ever met in my life, one of the most hardest working people I've ever known in my life, and I'm going to miss the guy.

29:00 He's one of those guys that you know everything could be falling down around him, but you never would know it by talking to Chris, just because he always held everything together. He was just always so polite and generous with everything, with his time, with his knowledge, and uh, I can just say that I'm gonna miss him very much, very much, and I wish he was still with us. And I have nothing but total respect for Chris bin Will, and I sure wish that he was still with us. I love you, Chris. And here's John Cena. H.

29:41 I firmly believe this is the most difficult thing that I've ever had to do. And I'm sure you'll hear from plenty of people tonight and you'll see some fantastic moments. This has just been a very, uh, a very sudden occurrence, and I don't necessarily know how to react to it, and that's what makes it difficult. My first instinct tells me that we should, uh, we should celebrate the life of Chris Benois.

30:24 And U. And I I think that's the right thing to do. And Christmas. Chris was a type of guy he'd wanna go to war with. He was just a just a hard note son of a bitch. But man he Uh if he knew he meant business, he would look out for you. And he took care of a lot of the people you gonna hear from tonight. Uh. Formed formed bonds with those people, very very very close bonds. Some we're going to talk to you like they were his brother. He was a good man.

31:07 Much of the tribute, as was usually the case with this type of show, was made up of wrestlers recalling their favorite memories and speaking straight into the camera in reality TV confessional manner about what the deceased meant to them. While filming this particular tribune, multiple wrestlers were suspicious about what had happened. While McMahon and the w w E plowed ahead with their tone deaf ceremony, John Layfield pulled aside William Regal and asked, you don't think he has anything to do with it, do you? The thought had crossed his mind. Regal's wife, Christina, had been good friends with Martina. Christina had never liked Crisp and Wah and made it clear to her husband he was to never let that man near their house. Perhaps Martina had shared some details about their marriage with Christina Regal covering his bases kept his segment short and vague. It was under a minute, and there was none of the teary eyed reminiscing that usually characterized these testimonials.

32:05 At a later day, I'll be quite happy to sit here and tell you all the things about Chris Benwarre that I'd like to tell you, But now all I'm willing to say is that Chris ben Warre was undoubtedly the hardest working man in professional wrestling, the most dedicated and totally absorbed in the business of professional wrestling about anybody I've ever met. And that's.

32:49 All I've really got to say. At the moment. He was the absolute best. Thanks. So you can see there how he's holding back. Yeah. Once it had been officially confirmed that he had killed his family, Crispin WI was scrubbed from the history books. His merchandise was pulled off of the shelves and destroyed. His name was taken off of the WWE website. He was never again mentioned by Vince McMahon of the WWE. He was edited out of all previous DVD releases. A market boomed on eBay for secondhand copies of the two thousand and four documentary The WWE released about ben Wia's life and career, Hard Knocks, The Crisp and Wis Story.

33:35 Investigators found steroids in the Benoi home, squirrelled away in secret stashes where Nancy wouldn't find them, hiding spots in the closet, or tucked away in a suitcase. On July seventeenth, two thousand and seven, the toxicology results were made public. The amount of testosterone in Benoa's system was off the charts. This is tested by measuring the testosterone to epitestosterone ratio. One to one is the normal level, four to one is high. Chris's levels were fifty nine to one. This means that he had injected himself with steroids hours before he died. Chris's autopsy stated that his heart was severely enlarged at six hundred and twenty grams. The weight of a normal, average healthy male heart is two hundred and eighty to three hundred and forty grams.

34:22 So almost twice the size. Yeah Chris's liver was a whopping twoy six hundred and twenty grams or almost six pounds. A healthy liver is between two and a half and three and a half pounds. His spleen was also enlarged at three hundred grams, the average being one hundred and fifty to two hundred grams. Chris's autopsy showed no fractured neck or hyoid bones, and no hemorrhage or trauma in the soft tissues or cartilage of the neck. If you look at a picture of Chris's neck, it's so thick, like, I just wonder if you know his hyoid bone would have been under so much russell that maybe you know, couldn't have been reached or impacted.

35:04 Chris's heart showed left ventricular hypertrophy and bilateral atrio ventricular dilation, a common finding in wrestlers who abused steroids and or human growth hormone. Nancy Benwi's sister said that a doctor told her that Chris would have been dead in a year due to his enlarged. Heart, and just for the record, the autopsy did state his height at five foot eleven and two hundred and twenty four pounds. In the days following the deaths of the Benoi family, Chris's personal doctor, doctor phil Aston was indicted on one hundred and seventy five counts, including charges of over prescribing controlled substances. A federal investigation found that he had written prescriptions without conducting physical examinations and sometimes gave patients as many as four simultaneous prescriptions for percocet, OxyContin, vicodin, and adderall Aston wrote prescriptions for about one million dozen of controlled substances over a two year period, including significant quantities of injectable testosterone scipionate, an anabolic steroid. Aston provided ben Wah with a ten month supply of anabolic steroids every three to four weeks. Between May two thousand and six and May two thousand and seven. Chris Benoit and one other patient died while under his care. He was sentenced to ten years in prison in two thousand and nine.

36:27 He died in June twenty twenty two. Chris's friend and neighbor, Johnny Grunge, was also a patient of Aston's. So keep in mind this level of steroids that he was consuming some of them from we've prescribed, but he was also ordering some the mail too. Yeah, I'm glad that the doctor that there were some consequences because you hear about this way too often with like celebrities just doctors prescribing drugs, and Michael Jackson's another good example. So I'm glad that there were consequences. I guess Nancy's blood alcohol content was not able to be determined. Her body had begun to break down, and once that happens, it's impossible to determine a blood alcohol content level. The police and the media handled the situation poorly. The narrative was too compelling to ignore, and reporters were desperate to dig into everything, even before the police themselves quite knew what they were looking at. Stories about the ben Wase got good ratings, prompting more reporters to churn out stories quickly, sometimes at the expense of accuracy. A nationwide frenzy ensued.

37:30 The mainstream media did not understand wrestling at all. Most journalists weren't familiar with the nuanced world of wrestling, so when they had to report on the industry, they got stuff wrong, which in turn perpetuated false narratives. It didn't help that the district attorney in charge of the case, Scott Ballard, loved the spotlight. He kept using the word bizarre. The timing. The circumstances, the bibles beside the bodies all bizarre. Though most of the evidence was cut and dry, DA Ballard would often loudly publicly speculate. It was for this reason that the media reported that Daniel had a genetic disorder called fragile X syndrome. Fragile X causes developmental delays, including speech delays, social anxiety, and behavioral problems. It's estimated that thirty to fifty percent of individuals with fragile X syndrome also meet the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder.

38:26 The reporting led people to assume that the marriage between Nancy and Chris was strained in part because they were caring for a child with special needs. DA Ballard also perpetuated the lie that Daniel's arm had needle marks. Daniel was uncommonly small for his age, and the DA suggested that Chris had been injecting his own son with human growth hormone. These reports of needle marks were not corroborated by the coroner, but the WWE took this ball and ran with it. Their lawyer, Jerry McDevitt, eagerly spread the theory that Daniel had fragile XCS syndrome. Linda McMahon took to Good Morning America to proffer this same theory. Surely this is why Chris Benoi had been driven crazy. He had been dealing with the stress of his son's physical and mental condition. The WWE was gaslating the country in an attempt to evade any responsibility for the Benoi's deaths.

39:20 It was a fact that the wellness program was a sham and the bottom line was more important than the health of their wrestlers, who risked their lives and livelihood each and every time they chose to step into the ring. How disturbing is that that they were willing to bad mouth a child and they didn't even have his medical records. Yeah, that's really, really horrible. By July second, this story was countered by the Tofaloni family lawyer. They stated there was no reason to believe that Daniel had fragile X. Nancy's parents, who had been a very active part of Daniel's life, had never noticed anything akin to developmental disability. Neither had any of the parents at daniel Baptist School.

40:01 Daniel's teachers confirmed that he was an active, intelligent, happy child who was developing normally and was ready for first grade that upcoming fall. Investigators later obtained Daniel's official medical records and confirmed one hundred percent that there was no evidence of fragile x. Do you know where the rumor originated that he had fragile x syndrome. I'm not sure if it started in the WWE, but wrestler Chris Jericho. I heard an interview with him and he goes on Larry King Live, and he said, yeah, once I heard about the fragile x syndrome, it really did seem to fit Daniel. I think Daniel was He was a beautiful child. He was on the smaller side, and I think he might have been quiet and shy, and I don't know.

40:45 It's really sad. It is really sad. Alongside the DA's loose lipped rambling, he also released crime scene photos and other important evidence to the family within a day of discovering the bodies. The police had not been given enough time to document the inside of the house, and they missed important clues. Luckily, the Tofaloni family found these clues and handled them responsibly. They found Chris's diary in the trash, where the police had never bothered to look. It was full of long, rambling entries. They were often about the Bible or the letters he wrote to Eddie. I will be with you soon, he wrote to Eddie. Many pro wrestling fans believe that Chris is innocent, particularly in online wrestling forms where conspiracy theorists tend to thrive, but at least one theory is hard to ignore. Fourteen hours before Nancy was murdered, a computer with an IP address based in Stamford, Connecticut, altered Chris Benois's Wikipedia page.

41:44 Chris was scheduled to be in Texas that night. When he failed to show up, his Wikipedia page was altered. The new edition stated quote Benoit was not there due to personal issues stemming from the death of his wife. Nancy's death had been predicted by somebody in Stamford, which coincidentally is where the WWE is headquartered. Well, this is enough to raise an eyebrow. Further investigation gave way to the truth. The editor was a nineteen year old named Matthew Greenberg who had a record of vandalizing Wikipedia pages. He was hauled into the police station, interrogated by detectives, and had the fear of God put into him. He said it was all a major coincidence. The police let him off with a warning he hadn't actually committed a crime, and they moved on.

42:35 That's pretty crazy, though, isn't that bizarre? Yeah? The next one is also pretty wild. Holly Schrepfer, the Benois neighbor, saw a wrestler named Squire David Taylor and his wife Lisa carrying platters of food, like the sort of thing that you might have at a funeral reception around the Benoit house. She saw them before their deaths were officially announced to the public and before the WWE could have conceivably known what had happened. Perhaps this was more of a fact finding mission for the WWE to get ahead of the story, or maybe the tailors had independently heard that the family had food poisoning. The really suspicious bit is that David Taylor denies ever being in Georgia at the time. He claims that he was in Texas along with the rest of the WWE at the shows.

43:25 That's really odd. Yeah, And some people point to Chris's autopsy is very suspicious because there was no fracture of his neck or hywood bone, and no hemorrhage or trauma and the soft tissues or cartilage of the neck. The most prevalent conspiracy theory, however, involves Nancy's ex husband, Kevin Sullivan. Many alleged that he had the greatest motive revenge. If you remember back to episode one, Kevin's image was based around the occult. There is no evidence to support this theory. He addressed the theory on a podcast and he said, quote the speculation did bother me for a while until I talked to Nancy's mother and she said, I can't believe that people even think that, And she made me feel better. The sister made me feel better. This is how people are so sick and so much of idle worship. They were looking for and I don't mean this in any bad light, but they're looking for and out because he was a great, great, great, fabulous wrestler. Well never know what caused it, but for people to believe something like that means they believe that the earth is hollow or flat or whatever. WWE released official statements quote steroids were not and could not be related to the cause of death. WWE strongly suggests that it is entirely wrong for speculators to suggest that steroids had anything to do with these senseless acts.

44:48 That's that that makes no sense on their part, Like they're saying you shouldn't speculate, but they're saying steroids were not absolutely not related to the cause of death. Yes, okay. Wrestlers and spokesmen were sent out on the media rounds, morning news and shows like Larry King, Live on the Record, et cetera. The message was always the same and the message bears had their talking points well rehearsed. John Cena and Chris Jericho were rolled out to call any reporters placing this tragedy at the feet of steroid abuse lazy. This was a tragedy. This was an unexplainable tragedy that lasted for nearly two and a half days. I don't see an out of control rage being responsible for that, But then again, I don't think we'll ever find out what exactly caused this. I really I take great offense to not only people of the media pointing to this as being a case of roid rage when there hasn't been any proof of that, but also also pointing a finger at the ww in hoole saying that we're all just a bunch of steroid monsters.

45:48 If it was roid rage, why would there be a space of time between the death that's the wife and the sun and yourself. I think that's something that's misconception that if you take a shot of steroids, it's like it's PCP or Angeles, you just go crazy and do this. That's not the case. I spoke at links with the psychiatrist here in Los Angeles who specializes in murdered suicides, and she told me it's never one thing. It's always a combination of many things. And I think it's lazy reporting and lazy investigation that a lot of people are just tying this up in the nice steroid bow and putting under the corner and moving along and just saying that's the case. I did some research. If you are a massive caffeine user and abuser, it can lead to hallucinations, depression, anxiety, violent behavior, and sometimes psychotic behavior. Now, if I came on here and said caffeine causes, you would think I was a lunatic.

46:31 If I take out caffeine and put in steroids with the exact same list of symptoms, you say, bingo, that's it. It's a combination. This is not about steroids rest. This is about a man with had some severe mental damaging, horrible issues in his head that he kept bobble up inside and it exploded into this horrible, violent act. And I'm sure there's many factors for it. Well, the initial act against Nancy could have been an episode of rage, and then the rest of the weekend was panic, like how do I fix this? Right? They just come off sounding really defensive and like they're just trying to cover, which is what they were doing essentially. Right, Oh yeah, exactly. These clips were filmed prior to the official toxicology report being released. Looking back at these PR blasts, they've aged terribly. National conversations popped up about unionization and the rough conditions of wrestling, and how the action figure physique demanded by the WWE encourages steroid use.

47:28 A union would likely be to the benefit of all pro wrestlers, and yet when the issue was brought up on Larry King Live, John Cena shot it down immediately. At what point are pro wrestler is going to say enough is enough? Band together for a union that would protect their contracts and get proper benefits. John I believe that professional wrestlers WW specific and across, they all know what they're getting into. Nobody is forcing them to get in the ring. It's a job that they all want to do, hopefully the job that they all love to do. I certainly do. I enjoy what I do for work, and I love what I do for work. That is, that's just a that's a question that don't want to be answered because I don't think they'll be asked.

48:09 I don't know much about John Cena out there than I've seen him in a couple of movies. I had a pretty positive impression, but this really makes me think less. Of him same. I guess I didn't realize that he used to always wrestle in George's too. I didn't know that either. At this point in the interview, WWE lawyer Jerry McDevitt had joined the wrestlers in the studio and Brett Hart was calling in from Canada. Much to mcdevick's chagrin, Brett Hart disagreed with John Cena's assessment of the situation. What about a union, Brett Hodge, Should they have one? I think definitely wrestlers need a union. I think that probably the Janitor sweeping at sweeping up at WWE has benefits, more benefits than than any wrestler. And unfortunately, too many wrestlers are ending their their lives because they're they're at a point in their life where there used to be stars, they used to be famous, and they used to be important, and they have nothing left and they're broke and they're depressed about who they are. And there's too far, too many wrestlers that are killing themselves left and right. And I definitely think that the same problem is it's going to keep occurring and occurring and occurring. I don't know why the wrestlers don't have a union. There's no protection, there's no benefits for them. They really are any circus animals.

49:22 How many other sports have unions. I don't know for sure, but I believe like every major sport has a union. And out of all the sports, I mean, wrestling is I don't know if it's the most aggressive and dangerous, but you know it's right up there, right right up there. Yeah, red heart would be proven right in the coming weeks months and years. Seven weeks after the Benwat incident, Ryan Crush Adams was found dead by his wife and their home in Tampa. He had a cocktail of drugs in his system, including painkillers and sedatives and muscle relaxers that I can't pronounce other than xanax, but it was enough to stop his respiratories system and to stop his breathing. He was only forty three years old. Here's a partial list of all the wrestlers under the age of sixty five who passed away in two thousand and seven. Scott Bam Bam Bigelow passed away at forty five from a heart attack. Mike Awesome Alfonso passed away at the age of forty two from suicide. Sensational Sherry Russell died at age forty nine of a drug overdose. Nathan Moondog Randolph died at thirty seven of a heart attack. George Chiazzo aka John Cronus died at thirty eight of a drug overdose.

50:34 Juan Manuel Zuniga aka angel As Teika died at forty three of a heart attack. John Michael Meek ak Iron Mike Steele died at age fifty two of vehicular homicide. Harry Cowboy Lang died at age fifty six of heart disease. James Patrick Fawcett, also known as Devil Budcan, died at age thirty two of suicide and Greg Giles died at four four of a heart attack. And that's not even if that's not all of the people, that it's just in one year shocking. Every single one of those heart attacks is likely attributable to steroids, and CTE likely played a part in every violent death or suicide. Drug overdoses can be traced back to the painful injuries these men and women suffered in the ring. Professional wrestlers are twenty times more likely to die before the age of forty five than professional football players. Oh Sports journalist muckraker and sworn enemy of Vince McMahon, Irvin Muchnik, has written entire books about the sorry state of pro wrestling. He said, quote a lot of deaths against the backdrop of a common workplace. This is a cluster that surely would set off alarms at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Occupational Safety and Health Administration if the victims weren't cartoon characters. Too few people regard as actual human beings.

51:58 The WWE has changed much in the seventeen years since the Benoit murder suicide, which isn't surprising. It's a large and powerful organization with lots of lawyers, money, and influence. A few congressional hearings resulted from the Benoa incident, but there was little government pressure on the company to change. People cared more about the serried use and real sports than in pro wrestling, which no longer put much effort into pretending to be anything other than staged. Wrestlers are still classified as independent contractors and the company does not provide them with health insurance. Asked whether he bears responsibility for the poor health of his wrestlers, Vince McMahon had this to say, If.

52:39 You can't cut it, get out, what's wrong with that? No different than any other business. By the way, you know, if for some reason you have to rely on drugs, illegal drug usage to make it, or you're going to self destruct. Do you have a reason why these people would be dying under the age of forty five? Why don't you ask yourself that question? I mean, why why are you indicating that's my responsibility? These people are dead? Because I'm asking you if it's in any way, shape or form falls on your shoulders. I would accept no responsibility whatsoever for their untimely deaths, none whatsoever as far as and you've got to look on your face. Left, yeah, jeez, none none, well, but none whatsoever. I mean, they wrestled for you. They was part of your organization.

53:25 They had worked a couple of hundred nights a year for you. They live this life, stub. Oh my god, you can't you can't believe. What can you see that look? I mean, oh, how could you possibly say that? Vince? How can you look that way? And you're giving me the old sipotade. I'm not. I'm honestly curious. Because I told you these individuals work for organization at one time, they also worked for other organizations. I'm not responsible for the way the business was then. Was it responsible for the way the business? How they grow up and grew up in the business, and whatever personal bad habits they developed? Why am I respondful that I gave them the opportunity? Well, you, rant, I. Ran one organization.

54:05 You controlled the biggest organization. I don't think we were the biggest at that time. Quite frankly, okay, we're the sole surviving organization now. But as far as looking back on all of this. These individuals developed a lot of bad habits. That's not my responsibility. Wow, isn't that a horror step up? Vince, Yeah, talk about passing the buck. That wrestling sound that you heard was Vince McMahon slapping the interviewers papers out of his hands. That clip was from two thousand and three, but Vince's attitude didn't change much after then. Christ Nowinsky, a former college football player, former professional wrestler, and Harvard graduate, is a co founder and CEO of Concussion Legacy Foundation. After he suffered from post concussion syndrome, he left the world of wrestling and has made it his life's work to prevent and treat concussions.

54:58 Being an athlete gives him a nique perspective. He is a neuroscientist who studies CTE and its effects on professional athletes. After Chris Benoaugh's death, he remembered a conversation that he'd had with him about concussions. Chris told him that he'd had more concussions than he could count. He expressed interest in being part of the study. Nowinsky reached out to the Benoit family and asked to study Chris's brain. Michael Benoit was more than happy to cooperate to get some answers. He'd been in great pain since losing Chris, Nancy, and Daniel, and the results were shocking. Chris's brain was compared to that of an eighty five year old Alzheimer's patient. Newinsky said that Chris's brain was actually the worst that he'd ever seen. CTE continues to spread progress and deteriorate the brain even after the trigger in this case wrestling is removed.

55:49 There is no cure. It changes who you are, how you behave, and what you become. Yeah, I mean, I've seen the slides on Chris Benoi's brain like he had ct Like there's no question about that. CTE is a disease you can see very clearly under a microscope. But everybody has fought us on this. The NFL's fought us on this, the NHL is still fighting us on this. Fifus fightings. Everybody is trying to fight us. So I was actually surprised when I got a call from vincick Man say he wanted to help. Then that was. The beginning of a wholesale change in their approach to this.

56:30 They invited me in to come start teaching the wrestlers about what I knew about concussions and CTE. During Chris Newinsky's TED Talk, he talked about the first one hundred eleven brains of x NFL players that were studied. One hundred and ten out of one hundred and eleven had CTE and forty eight out of fifty five ex college football players had it. But even with verifiable scientific evidence, some wrestlers still don't believe CTE is real. Here's stone cold Steve Austin. I worked for a long time. I got dropped on my head one time, I got concussion there, but other than that, I can't remember having too many concussions. And the business of pro wrestling, and my take on that has always been, if you were just wrestling and you got a bunch of concussions, you're probably doing something wrong.

57:19 I'm not a CTE guy. Just don't believe in it. Just don't believe in it. Must not be there, can't see it. I guess what you have there is some good old fashioned toxic masculinity. I mean, just because he didn't have concussions doesn't mean no one else had them. It's that kind of logic or lack of logic. Is Madden, Yes, it is. There have been a few positive changes to the WWE. Chairs to the head, for example, are no longer allowed. Blading isn't a common practice anymore due to the WWE's transition to a TVPG rating. Blating is thecice of like taking a razor blade and cutting your forehead to get blood.

58:04 The new leadership is less controversial and hopefully more supportive of the wrestlers. Vince retired after he was accused of sex trafficking and the company's sponsorship deals were put at risk. Just today, actually Friday, January tenth, Vince was fined one point seven million dollars for his whole scandal. Oh really yeah. Chris, Nancy, and Daniel are survived by their families. Martina did her best to stay out of the spotlight after the incident. Chris warmed her, but she didn't give them much to work with. All she said in the aftermath was that Chris was the most loving person anyone could imagine. She did not answer any more questions after that. Her two children, David and Meghan, are alive, and while David is in his early thirties and Megan is in her late twenties, Megan has opted out of a public life, but David is going in a different direction. A few years ago, he agreed to do an interview with YouTuber and TV personality who specialized in interviewing pro wrestlers. It's a difficult video to watch, and David still clearly has a lot of unresolved emotional trauma surrounding the fates of his father and his half brother. David is the spinning image of his father, and he still idolizes him. One of the most tragic details of this entire story is that even after all of this, David still wants to follow in his dad's footsteps and become a professional wrestler. Wow, he just kind of hangs out in the wrestling circles and I think people like, I think the wrestlers. He's a good kid and people like to have him around.

59:33 And Yeah, that's still surprising though, that you'd want to do that. Well. Rest in peace to Chris, Nancy and Daniel. Nancy Benois's contributions to wrestling remain significant, though her life and career are often overshadowed by the tragic circumstances of her death. She has remembered for her charisma, talent and influence in shaping the roles of women in professional wrestling. Fans and industry insiders have called for her to be recognized in the WWE Hall of Fame, but so far she has not been admitted. Daniel Benoit was a loved little boy who idolized his father. He deserved so much more time on this earth. It's really hard to talk about the death of Chris because I am an overly empathetic person, and that can be problematic in situations like this, because yeah, I mean, it's it's really conflicting because I do believe that he had CTE and that affected him in ways that I don't think we can really understand.

1:00:30 Yeah, it is really tricky because he obviously did a horrible, horrible thing. But at the same time, I think his behavior was definitely influenced by his problems in his brain, and that was But you know, it's hard because the problems in his brain was also caused by some of the choices he made. But he, you know, he didn't know what wrestling was going to do to him, and I'm sure he didn't when he was taking the steroids. He you know, wasn't thinking about the effect that would have on him. So we read a couple of phrases that really, I think summed up pretty well. He is unforgettable as a wrestler, but unforgivable as a human being. He shouldn't be remembered, but he can't be forgotten. So Chris. Every wrestler has walkout music, and Chris was a song called whatever by Canadian rockers Our Lady of Peace. Do you want to read it for us?

1:01:22 Sure? There's no holding me back. I'm not driven by fear. I'm just driven by anger and you're under attack. I'm just climbing up slowly. I'm the one and only and the teas, the ways, the lies stumble in your mind, the fear of the hope inside. They hit here, hit here. After the murder suicide, Our Lady Peace removed the song from their catalog and have never performed the music again. Oh wow, Chris's son, David wants him to be in the Hall of Fame. What do you think about that? I don't don't think. I don't think it can ever happen. Do you think that Chris's behavior was attributable to steroids? I mean, I'm not a doctor, but I my guess is that it's a combination of steroids and you know, the physical punishment he took in the ring and the concussions and the you know, beatings to his head and things like that. I think it's probably the combination of those things. But who knows.

1:02:16 I mean, he had been on steroids. He was forty years old when he passed away, so he'd been on steroids at least for twenty two years. He started really young, yeah, when he was in high school, probably when he was sixteen, but I'm not sure exactly when he started. So do you think that as time goes on, do you need more steroids? Again, I don't know. I'm not a doctor, but I think with most drugs, you develop a tolerance over time and you need more and more to get We know, the same fact. Didn't produce testosterone naturally anymore, so I guess he would probably have had to have increased his uptake of steroids. Yeah. Probably. Hearing this case makes me think about like the responsibility of people fans of sports, like do you know, because I'm a big football fan, right, but I know that there are issues in football as well, with CTE and stuff like that. So it makes me feel a little bad about watching the sport. And I don't do you think fans like because we're the ones who are paying ultimately for these athletes to do what they do. So it just makes me wonder if we should bear some responsibility.

1:03:20 Well, I don't want to act like I'm morally superior, but I kind of did stop watching football a few years ago because I just it did bother me every time I saw a hard hit. Knowing about ct CT is still, you know, pretty new discovery. Right, But just the fact that you can look at somebody's brain and say, you know that it is comparable to an eighty five year old Alzheimer's patient when somebody is forty years old or something like that. It's just so the only way you can diagnose CTE is also post mortal, right. Yeah. I listen to a lot of Chris Nowinsky's talks, and I would encourage any parents of young athletes to go listen to him talk. The more games you play, the more hits you take to your head, the greater your chance of developing CTE.

1:04:06 Is. If you just play high school football, you know you probably would be okay unless you take a ton of hits to the head. But you know, if you are playing in the NFL or you're playing in college football, that's when your odds are increased. And I mentioned early on in episode one that Chris had been in a bad car accident when he was six years old. It's like, you don't know with the brain, like you know, whin those injuries might come back again. He used to work with a guy who played college football, and he played. He actually played one year in the NFL. And after his first year in the NFL, he actually he was with his daughter and he slipped and fell on the ice and hit his head and he got a concussion. And he had had other concussions in his football career as well, and the doctor told him, like, if you get another concussion, you might die or you may not ever be the same again. And so he quit because of that.

1:04:57 And it's I mean, it's hard to quit. Oh yeah, it's why. Yeah, you're you know, on the on the track to make millions of dollars. So well, do you. Remember when our sons started playing tackle football when he was in third grade and they started a program that was like the kids weren't supposed to tackle head first. Yeah, they taught him very much the technique, the right technique for tackling. Yeah, so hopefully, you know, kids are learning that more. And it's just hard though, Like when you're in a professional football you're flying around so fast on the field that you know you can all you want, You can try to tackle the right way, but there are gonna be situations where you collide with other players or hit each other in an unnatural way. So I don't I don't feel like there's a way to completely eliminate this.

1:05:42 From so many sports, and wrestling is is was pretty unregulated. I think it's gotten a little better, but you've got soccer and and rugby and there's a lot of contact sports. Yeah for sure, like soccer with all the head you know, heading the ball with your head. That can't be good for your brain. And well again, I think it was Kristawinsky that was talking about like like they try to limit to like twenty headers a week or something like that, but you know. It seems like a lot. Yeah, before we go, I just wanted to talk about Andre the Giant for a second. You know, I'm like weirdly obsessed with like big things and men that can lift lots of weight, like what's the thing of the strong man? Yeah, yeah, I love those. So Andre the giant.

1:06:35 If you don't know, like I remember watching him as a kid, it's just crazy to think, like, if you see him next to almost anyone, he looks he's really really large. His true height is measured somewhere between seven feet two inches and seven feet four inches, and his weight fluctuated between I think five and six hundred pounds. It's a big guy. And I saw videos of like Whull Coogan taking him down, but I guess it was probably wrestlers, like we talked about this, used their own momentum kind of so I think Andre kind of helped him up, helped him a little bit. But just a really interesting guy. He could drink. Guess how many beers he could drink.

1:07:16 I've read this once before and I can't remember the number, but it was it was kind of shocking. I do remember that. Just take a guess thirty. I don't know the exact number, but I think it was at least one hundred and fifteen. Oh my god, one hundred and fifteen. That's insane. I watched a clip of him on Letterman like this was year, like long, like when Letterman was first starting and he was talking about how you know, he was drinking too much, and he kind of stopped drinking the beer, but it was kind of like a party trick where he was just like, you know, keep drinking and mirror mortals couldn't keep. Up with him. Oh, no, for sure. And then there was The Princess Bride, which oddly you hate that movie, which you're going to get in that.

1:07:58 Yeah he was Yeah, he played the Giant, and he was in The six Million Dollar Man and he played Sasquatch. He could walk into a restaurant and consume guess how many steaks he could consume. Oh I'm sure I'm going to be short, but twenty five. Twelve steaks and fifteen lobsters in a single sitting. I was to posed a picture of him, but like he with his hand in it with a can of beer in it. It just looks so funny. He liked to play cards, and I saw a picture of him playing cards, and it's just like the cards just look like, you know, like little baby cards. Anyway, just a really interesting guy, and I think he had a lot of pain and discomfort because he was so big and he traveled all the time and he couldn't like go into an airplane bathroom because he was just too big. And yeah, yeah, I think his life was pretty challenging. But before we go, the very last thing, I'm going to give you thirty seconds to talk about the Lions.

1:08:59 Oh yeah, yeah, the Lions. That's there. Well wait, it's your podcast. You can take as much time as you want. I should, I shouldn't have limited time. You take two hours if you want to, right, leave the room. All right, well, let's go. Let's get started. We are a week like, we are recording this a week ahead. So yeah, so we are. So the regular season has ended. The Lions finished the best season in their entire history of like I don't know, one hundred plus years they've been around. So they finished fifteen into number one seed in the NFC, which means that they have a bye week, they don't play this weekend, they'll have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. So I would say they are definitely the top pick to make the Super Bowl this year.

1:09:39 But wow, do you think they'll play. The Kansas City Chiefs? Is probably going to be the Lions and the Chiefs, or could be the Buffalo Bills, but you know, who knows anything can happen in the playoffs. But it's exciting for all of us Lions fans who have just been like suffering through many many years. Yeah, you and you did suffer well as. Always, Thank you all for listening. Appreciate it so much. Please find us on social media or reach out to us at lovemarykillat gmail dot com. We always love to hear from you, and consider supporting us on Patreon dot com slash love Marykill. We have one tier five dollars a month for early ad free access plus a monthly bonus episode. And until next. Time, don't kill your husband and don't kill your wife.

1:10:55 Inside damn, let's take back again. It's hard to know the exact reason behind Chris is self. If that's the blip, I need my battery charged.