- [Will] Joe do you startle easily?
- [Joe] Well, it depends, man.
Like I enjoy scary movies, but like if it's one of those
like villain comes around the corner, I don't get scared.
But if someone like comes
around the corner at my own home,
then I'm like very startled.
- I gotcha.
So like if I were to be standing behind you
and you didn't really know I was there and I blew a whistle
let's just say so loud that every player in a stadium
that is full of fans would be able to hear that whistle.
Do you think you would react in some kind of way
- The fuck?
(Will laughing)
I mean, that's probably the best way I could react.
I feel like that would be so piercing the ear drum that like
either I would react in that way
or just like fall over into the ground.
- I think that's a very reasonable response.
I think it is important that I say, Joe
you have no clue what's coming next.
Correct?
- I do not.
- No spoilers but you're gonna relate to
somebody in this story very much.
But before we get there, it's, it's important to
to run through a certain part
of the rule book that governs football in Europe.
- Let's hear it.
- There's a specific area of both the yellow card
and the red card offenses that I want to key in
on. And, and it's about the use of language during a match.
So for a yellow card, it states that a player is cautioned
and shown the yellow card
if they commit dissent by word or action.
And on the red card side
it says that a player will be sent off
if they use offensive, insulting
or abusive language and/or gestures.
- My thing is with, with the gestures, I feel
like the Italian teams have to get like screwed
over so many times with all these
right? Like
- There's some things that just look offensive.
- Right?
- Unfortunately for gestures and language
there's no list of examples included.
Cause if there was, I think that would become
like immediately the greatest part
of any rule book we've ever come across.
I feel like it just comes down
to the discretion of referees,
but here's where we get back to the question
of how one would reasonably respond
if a very loud whistle went off right behind him.
Because based on how a referee feels about language
it can completely change a player's day.
And that directly ties
into what would become the
earliest red card
ever given.
- I have a feeling of where this is going.
- [Will] Yeah, we won't drag it out.
There's this guy, Lee Todd.
- Hi.
- [Will] He was playing in the Somerset County League.
This was in October of 2000.
So his team has a match.
They're all set up.
They're ready to go.
The referee blows his whistle to start the match
and he is standing directly behind this guy, Lee Todd.
Lee Todd, startled by the whistle, says "fuck me.
That was loud."
(Joe giggles)
And the ref immediately pulls
out his red card and sends him off.
- Me and Lee Todd are the same, man.
(Will giggles)
That was earlier,
that was damn near my exact same reaction.
I like this Lee dude.
- I was like, holy shit has Joe been in my Google doc?
Like,
(laughter)
like that was all it took.
Apparently he wasn't facing the ref.
He had the whistle blow and he like bent down and he
he just said "fuck me.
That was loud."
And everyone thought it was a joke.
He described himself as gobsmacked, which is great.
All of his teammates were laughing as he walked off
and the ref was just like, yeah man, that's how we do it.
- I feel like there's gotta be some sort of like
room to wiggle within that rule.
Cause like, if a dude is standing right next to
me and blows a whistle directly into my ear
I'm gonna have the exact same reaction as
Mr. Todd had that's
that's ridiculous.
- 100%. And, and he even said that after the match
he was like, "anyone would've done that in my situation."
Like I'm not trying to give the referee benefit
of the doubt.
But like if I was in his shoes
the only reason I would have that response is
if I was just really trying to cover up the dick move
I just pulled blasting a whistle into some dude's ear.
- Right. Maybe.
Hmm. Maybe the ref like tried to do one
of those things where maybe he pulled
off a fart right before he blew the whistle.
You know?
(Will laughing)
So no one could, no one could hear him ripping ass
and like, didn't realize how close he was.
I think that was that ref playing for sure.
Absolutely.
- Lee Todd, you are banished
from my match and man, you sure smell bad.
(Joe laughs)
Definitely you.
- Right
- Definitely not me.
The referee
- Not me, not me.
- So yeah, his team had to play down a man for all
but two seconds of the match.
- That's absurd.
I understand why he was gobsmacked as he said
- yeah, right.
- Also he had to be sitting on that all day
until after the pressor to be like, I was gobsmacked guys.
Like I could, I can't believe it.
- I wonder also if he had a much stronger
word to describe it
but was like, shit man, I already got kicked out
for swearing.
I better stick with something a little more
PG. And like gobsmacked
- Just hit thesaurus immediately and
found every single wording against
- [Will] synonyms for pissed off. Yeah
- [Joe] Right.
- His manager after the game was like, yeah
players should be sent off for like swearing at the ref
But also referees should use a bit of common sense.
- I really don't understand the positioning
of the ref directly next
to a player and be like, you know what?
Let's start the game.
This is a great idea.
I wanna stand as close as possible
to this dude and just blow this thing right in this ear.
- Now it is, it is worth noting
that his team still won 11 to two. So
- So whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on.
Wait a second.
So they were down a man
- Yep
- within two seconds of the game and
they still went on to win 11 to 2?
- Maybe it is like getting some in-game bulletin
board material from the referee.
- [Joe] They're like do this for Lee,
the refs fucked up his ear drum
do do it for Lee.
He's just on the sideline holding his ear the whole time.
Like
(Will laughing)
like, come on guys, please.
We need this win
- He also got fined 27 pounds, which is the equivalent in
in 2022 to like 60 bucks
which is an amount of money that is like, it's
it's not much.
- [Joe] It's annoying though.
- It's an annoying amount of money.
He also was suspended for 35 days, which
- Okay, come on now. That is
- Yeah.
It feels like such a just
basic statement that fits the moment.
That also is hard to have any response
to other than like that's funny
- Right? Yeah.
Like it's
it's just the most absurd thing that could possibly happen.
Literally within the first two seconds
- Yeah
- of a match.
- I went into this, knowing that I felt
like Lee Todd had a perfectly reasonable response.
Never was I expecting to get such confirmation, as
you saying nearly verbatim what his response actually was.
- I mean, dude, I don't know how anyone else could respond
in that situation.
Like I said, I, I stand with Lee
- Justice for Lee
(gentle music)
- If you also would like justice for Lee and by Lee
I mean me and by me, I mean Secret Base.
And I guess I don't really mean justice.
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