Join Mike, Ken, Jake, and Scotty as we discuss Cigars and 2023 NFL Football Season Kickoff! Lot’s of fun, laughs, and good cigar lounge etiquette as we enter football season!
Cigars and 2023 NFL Football Season Kickoff
Mike: Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Toro Cigar Lounge podcast. I’m your host, Mike Glover. Don’t go anywhere. You are going to want to stay tuned today. Today we got a heck of a show. We’re going to talk about Cigars and 2023 NFL Football Season Kickoff, and cigar lounges, and what it means for you. Stay tuned.
Mike: All right, guys. Welcome back. Again, I’m Mike Glover, your host, AKA 757cigarmike on Instagram. And we’re just gonna go around the table real quick and make sure everybody gets introduced. We’ll do our normal order.
Jake: I’m Jake, AKA beardedcigarlover.
Scott: Scotty or Scott, smokingjazz.
Ken: And I’m Ken, kenbluesmoke on Instagram.
Scott: And if you want to, you can follow him.
Ken: You can follow me if you want.
Mike: He’s Instagram-famous though, so be careful. So, let’s talk about what we’re smoking before we get into our main topic today. I am smoking a Big Sky cigar, Blackfoot River series. And I love this stick. It’s a great stick.
Scott: That is a fantastic stick.
Jake: What do you got, Scotty?
Scott: I’m still smoking the Madison, and man, like you said, the whole River series, every one of them are spot on.
Jake: So, I’ve got a Ma Deuce down here from Hooten Young.
Ken: I got a Ma Deuce here too, and it’s shaped like a 50. cal shell, except for a bit longer.
Jake: It’s pretty good. Very quickly, probably my favorite stick, honestly, that Hooten Young makes. This thing has an amazing draw on it. I really love it. The problem is, today, all I got is a perfect cut. Can I cut it with this, Ken?
Ken: I don’t know. I got a pair of scissors, and I always give myself a nice angled cut on these torpedo-shaped ends, so I got a nice draw. I don’t know if you can get that with a perfect cut.
Jake: Well, we’re gonna find out. You know what I kind of feel like? Remember the old owl on the commercial, “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?
Ken: Start shaving it down.
Mike: Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are that old. We remember those.
Jake: So, there’s one cut. Scotty, is this a good idea to actually do this?
Scott: Actually, if it’s the only option you have, be very careful, because you can- by doing that, you have a tendency to have more stress on the wrapper, and it can crack on you, and then you will have — in the cap — and then you’ll have a whole other problem under your hand. So…
Jake: Well, it can be done. I took six cuts. So I guess that’s how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.
Mike: Six licks to the center. I had a Ma Deuce the other day, and I did a 45-angle cut with a perfect cut.
Scott: How many times did you have to… ?
Mike: Four cuts.
Scott: Four cuts. So, it’s not always six.
Jake: It’s not always six. I gues it’s the angle.
Mike: I guess it depends on the angle of the dangle.
Jake: Yeah, I guess it depends on the angle of the dangle.
Mike: There we go. All right. And before we go down a road that we’re gonna have to change the rating on this podcast…
Jake: Football season’s up.
Mike: Football.
Jake: So, how many people here care that football season’s starting?
Mike: Hell, yes. Come on. All right.
Ken: When you say football, do you mean soccer, or… ?
Mike: Oh, my gosh.
Jake: You’re talking about the real sport, where they don’t were pads and they kick a ball down the field for 90 minutes?
Mike: We had to take Ken’s man card back the other day. We gave it back to him because he earned it back, but I need it back again.
Ken: I’m at least 75, maybe 80% man, so I get to carry the card.
Mike: There you go, okay. 85%, all right. But yes,this is the beginning of football season. We’ll be airing this particular episode the first Monday night Football, so games will have happened Thursday and Sunday, Sunday night. And then we’re gonna air this episode on Monday.
Scott: I’m looking at Thursday September 7th, and we already have the Lions and the Chiefs up.
Jake: Is that the first game of the season?
Scott: That’s the first game.
Mike: First game, it’s Thursday night, yep.
Jake: I’ve got a good buddy of mine, he is a huge Chiefs fan. I gotta say he lives in Kansas City so I should, you know…
Mike: I like the Chiefs. You know why I like the Chiefs?
Jake: Somebody has to lose.
Mike: Andy Reed. Andy Reed was fired from the Eagles for no fucking good reason. And that’s right, I said it first. Tweet it out, but make sure to give me the credit. At the end of the day, Andy Reid was hosed by the Eagles and the ownership, and he has done a phenomenal job taking a mediocre team in the Kansas City Chiefs and turning them into a championship-caliber team.
Scott: I would agree with that.
Jake: You know, I don’t know, man. I’ll tell you, there’s only one good part about the Chiefs, and I don’t know if I should say this on the air.
Scott: Go for it, make some enemies.
Jake: Make some enemies? Have you ever seen the owner’s 25-year-old daughter?
Mike: No.
Jake: She is the best part about the Chiefs.
Mike: I’m gonna throw you a big fat “No, I have not.” And if my wife is watching, I don’t want to.
Scott: And I’m going to call you out on that, because you have two daughters…
Jake: I do.
Scott: I have two daughters, and I don’t want anybody thinking about my daughters that way.
Mike: Ken and I have three daughters. Ken has daughters, three daughters.
Ken: I have numerous daughters.
Mike: We all have numerous daughters, Jake.
Jake: I’m aware. But I’m just saying, the best part about the Chiefs is definitely the owner’s daughter.
Ken: The question is: what does that have to do with cigars?
Scott: Yes.
Mike: Or football.
Jake: Well, she actually smokes cigars. She actually posts cigar photos on her Instagram.
Scott: Well, that’s okay now. That part I can appreciate.
Mike: Does that qualify as stalking, Ken?
Ken: Yes, absolutely.
Jake: Well, actually, I didn’t actually go find the photos. It was actually shared in a cigar community.
Mike: Okay, there we go. That’s not stalking.
Jake: Yeah, let me clarify that.
Scott: So, who shared it with you?
Jake: It actually came through the hashtag ‘cigars’ on my Instagram feed.
Mike: Well, there you go. Fair enough.
Scott: So, it wasn’t you actually stalking…
Jake: No, no, no.
Scott: It actually came up.
Ken: We can address the jurors that this is going to be used in evidence for the court case right now…
Jake: Okay, let’s get back. What’s everybody’s favorite football team? Ken’s is Manchester United.
Ken: My home team is the Washington Gentlemen, or something like that. I don’t know what they’re called anymore. are they really even called that anymore?
Mike: I don’t know. Did they change their name?
Ken: I enjoyed watching…
Scott: They’re the Commanders now.
Ken: I enjoyed watching the Redskins, I have never enjoyed watching the Commanders, so I don’t know.
Scott: I am a staunch Denver Broncos fan. And no, they haven’t been doing very well, but I stick with it.
Mike: You know, kudos for being a real fan. Real fans stick through thick and thin, baby. That’s the deal. Jake, football team?
Jake: Vikings.
Mike: Go figure, with that fucking beard.
Jake: Well my dad lives up there, so I’ve been to Minnesota a lot during my life. But, actually, the Vikings used to have a real mascot — you might have to bleep that one — actually, Ragnar, when he used to ride in on his motorcycle, he actually lives right down the road from my dad. And so, I got to become good friends with Ragnar growing up.
Mike: They really haven’t done anything since the Fran Tarkenton days.
Jake: No. It’s been a while.
Mike: But still, a solid franchise. They’ve done some stuff in the past, so no shame in the Vikings.
Jake: But I will say, they were way better when they had Ragnar.
Mike: Well, now we can talk about the real NFL football team…
Jake: If you say the Dallas Cowboys, I’m leaving.
Mike: The Pittsburgh Steelers. Because that’s a real football team. That’s as close to a dynasty in this league as you can get.
Scott: I’ll tell you, I have a real respect for them though. And it’s because of their coach.
Mike: Mike Tomlin is a badass.
Scott: And he is a top-notch guy.
Mike: He’s a gentleman.
Scott: He is a gentleman.
Mike: He doesn’t lose his cool, he’s a professional through and through.
Scott: And I can appreciate that. And as long as they’re not playing the Denver Broncos, I’m all for the Steelers.
Jake: So here’s a question: what is the oldest football team that’s still in their original city?
Scott: I don’t know. Somebody might know…
Mike: I’m gonna say…
Jake: Should we Google this and take some bets?
Mike: Can I have two guesses?
Jake: Sure, let’s find out.
Mike: I’m gonna say it’s the New York Giants or the Green Bay Packers.
Ken: I’m thinking the Dolphins.
Scott: No. You’re still over in Manchester, come on now.
Jake: Okay, here we go. There was originally six NFL teams that began the league in 1920. Can you take any guess at who they are? And there’s only one of them still around, but they’re not the original city.
Ken: The New York Knickenbockers[sic].
Mike: Good guess.
Scott: I want to say the Giants would be one of them. no?
Jake: Nope.
Scott: All right…
Mike: I can’t even begin to guess.
Jake: So, originally, it was the Akron Pros — Akron, Ohio — Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Tigers, Columbus Panhandlers, Dayton Triangles. And those were the five teams that started in Illinois- Sorry, in Ohio. And then they had the Chicago Tigers, [10:40 inaudible] Stanleys, the Racine Cardinals out of Illinois. And of those two, there’s only two of them still playing.
Mike: So, this explains why the NFL Hall of Fame is in Ohio. That’s where football started.
Jake: So, Chicago Bears were the original Decatur Staleys. And the Chicago Cardinals are now the Arizona Cardinals.
Scott: And they will forever more stick in my head as St Louis Cardinals, because I just can’t…
Jake: Since you’re a Steelers fan, what years did the Steelers start?
Mike: That’s a good question.
Jake: ‘93.
Mike: ‘93? No, sir.
Jake: 1993. Sorry, 1933, not ‘93. I’m having a little dyslexia moment. Sorry, guys.
Mike: I was gonna say, wait a minute. I was gonna say, Terry Bradshaw…
Jake: Okay. His team is actually older than your team.
Mike: Than Manchester United?
Jake: Yeah, Manchester United. The Red- Well, now it’s the Commanders, but the Redskins were in ‘32.
Mike: Wow. Look at that. So, there we go. I think we’re gonna wrap up our NFL history lesson.
Scott: Yeah, and you can tell we’re…
Mike: We’re woefully uneducated in our NFL history. However, something we do know a little bit about is watching football in a cigar lounge.
Jake: Watching football with your buddies.
Mike: Watching football with your buddies. That that’s what this podcast is about, cigars and community, and tying different aspects of the cigar community into our conversations. So, obviously, football season is getting ready to start. Lounges all over the country will have their TVs showing NFL games. So, let’s talk about it.
Ken: All right. So, first, let’s start with a pro tip, and that is: if your team’s doing badly, make sure you’ve got a lot of backup before you pick a fight with someone who’s kicking your team’s ass, so you don’t get beat in your home lounge, and you can’t go back there. Pro tip.
Scott: I have a story about that, in a lounge, and talking about community, and just how much community there is. Let’s see. He’s not a Denver Broncos fan, but one of the guys in the shop, I made him- actually it wasn’t even- excuse me, I’ll take this back. It wasn’t NFL. We were talking about college football, and it was University of North Carolina.
Ken: This is shaping up to be a really long story.
Scott: Well, anyways…
Mike: It’s like one of mine.
Jake: It’s like two of yours, Mike.
Scott: I bet him a special cigar — and I’m not gonna call out what the cigar was — if he could make it through the entire game and cheer for UNC. And he- this is how much he has love for this cigar. He actually pulled it off. And it was the best time ever, watching him sweat through all of that.
Jake: So, how would you pick the right cigar lounge to go to to watch your favorite football team?
Ken: Well, number one, they gotta have a decent way to view the thing. You know, you can’t go to that place that has the TV from 20 years ago and two chairs. You can’t go there.
Jake: No. But, the flipside of that, I’d argue, some of these lounges have six, eight, 10 TVs, and they’re all trying to watch differentstuff. So, that’s not really enjoyable either.
Mike: So, this is where it gets tricky. Because I think, fundamentally, the four of us would agree the best cigar lounge to visit is one without a TV.
Jake: 100%.
Mike: I think all four of us would agree that the cigar lounges that we’ve been in, some of our most enjoyable experiences have been ones without a TV. So, it’s kind of an oxymoron to talk about going to a cigar lounge to watch TV, and specifically a sporting event, because people get rowdy when their teams are playing. Losing, winning, they get loud. If you get a group of people in there rooting for a team that’s getting beat, they get vocal… It’s not a typical, everyday cigar lounge experience, right? So, if you go in there on a Sunday afternoon, or a Sunday evening, or Monday night, or Thursday evening, just be prepared. If your normal cigar lounge is nice and quiet, and subdued, and there’s good conversation that happens, on NFL days it’s probably gonna be a different atmosphere.
Jake: Unless you do what I did last year at one of the lounges I frequent.
Mike: I think I know this story.
Scott: This one’s a good story.
Jake: So, we knew it was gonna get hyper and loud, and I didn’t wanna deal with it, and I was tere before everybody showed up. There were only about three people in the lounge. Here’s what you do: you hide all the remotes, and then you don’t say crap when everybody is looking for them. And they spend 90 minutes looking for them. I would not recommend doing that, though. It does piss off quite a number of people.
Ken: That’s pro tip number two.
Scott: Yeah, don’t do that. But it was funny.
Mike: Well, let’s talk about this is a good point. Let’s talk about cigar lounge etiquette, right? Already, there’s an unspoken rule about cigar lounge etiquette: allow your other fellow cigar smokers and community members to enjoy their experience as well, right? So, you don’t get loud, generally speaking, in a cigar lounge. If there is a TV, you don’t crank it up to max level because you’re sitting 30-40 feet away in your seat. You have the remote, you wanna watch a space aliens movie. That happened to us one day in Virginia Beach. And the whole lounge can’t hear themselves think, nevertheless have a conversation with someone sitting right beside them. So, keep that in mind. If you’re in a lounge, and you’re watching your favorite sports team — don’t get me wrong, Sunday afternoons and watching the Steelers play in my home lounge is one of my all-time favorite things to do, but I am gonna make sure I’m not bothering anybody else with my TV volume, the TV I’m watching. I’m gonna make sure I’m sitting close enough to hear it, volume’s at a comfortable level, and I’m not impeding anybody else’s enjoyment during that.
Scott: And I’d like to see them have closed captions. Because then it’s even easier. Because then you can have that conversation still, and you can still watch and enjoy the game, and shout, if you want, once in a while.
Jake: You know what they should do? They should invest in Bluetooth for that TV, and then the lounge could rent you a pair of headphones for the event.
Mike: Well, that isolation from all the other community in the lounge, though.
Jake: Yeah, but the rest of us don’t have to deal with it then.
Mike: So, is that… Okay. Devil’s advocate here. If there’s 30 people in a lounge, which is not unreasonable on a good game day, and 28 of them are football fans, and two are not…
Ken: Yeah. That’s an audio-visual nightmare, in my opinion, to get the Bluetooth to work for just a couple of people, or whatever.
Mike: I think there’s probably a system out there you could buy for that, but the question is: should those 28 people have to put on headphones and not be able to have conversations with their friends, versus the two that aren’t there for football?
Jake: So, what you’re saying is that when football season happens, cigar lounges then become cigar sports bars. Minus the booze.
Mike: No, I’m saying, in that particular instance, who would be better served by headphones?
Scott: Right. It would be the two that… Probably.
Mike: Probably. Because, the part of enjoyment I have when I go to the lounge to watch a football game is talking smack with my fellow cigar smokers. Now, let’s face it: if you go to a cigar lounge, you gotta have a little bit of thick skin anyway, right?
Jake: Well, when the Cowboys are playing, I think everybody should get to talk smack, because you know what that star rating on the side of their helmet is, right? It’s a one-star rating.
Mike: It’s a one-star rating.
Jake: There’s a reason the Cowboys have only one star.
Mike: It’s a one-star rating, Chris. One star. That’s why your name is One Star Chris.
Ken: It might be one star, but it’s a really big star. I mean, that’s gotta count for something, right.
Scott: And we’re not- I’m not against Dallas Cowboy fans, but they do tend to be very clear about it. And that’s the fun part.
Mike: It is a big start, but they’re compensating.
Scott: Yes. For something.
Mike: For something.
Ken: What if they’re wearing a cheerleader outfit?
Jake: Ken, if you wanna wear a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader outfit, we will take a poll and buy one just for you to go to the lounge and wear it.
Ken: It doesn’t fit anymore, so…
Mike: In fact, I would go so far as to say this: if we get more than 20 comments on this podcast and YouTube asking Ken to wear it, I will buy the costume and we will have Ken on the show in a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader costume.
Ken: That is definitely not happening.
Scott: I think we can make that happen.
Mike: 20 comments? Come on now, that would be worth it.
Jake: I’ll make a deal with you, Mike. if we get 50 comments, I’ll wear the outfit.
Ken: There we go.
Mike: Done.
Jake: But you gotta find one my size.
Mike: And it can’t be one guy commenting 50 times.
Jake: I want 50 clean comments.
Mike: 50 individual comments. You heard it first. Jake has offered to wear a Dallas Cowboys cheerleading outfit on this podcast.
Jake: But I’m gonna wear it like a kilt.
Scott: No, no.
Mike: And cross your legs when you sit, sir.
Scott: And cross your legs, yeah. Because that part is definitely something that…
Mike: Because that confidence monitor is right there.
Ken: And YouTube has standards, and wherever you’re listening to this, I’m sure, has standards also.
Mike: You can blur it out, though, right? On the edit? You can blur that out?
Ken: Yeah…
Jake: Did you guys hear that? So, yeah, there you go. 50 comments. Mike will get the uniform. We gotta find one that’ll fit my ass.
Mike: I’ll find one. Mary Ann will make him one.
Ken: This conversation has taken a turn for the worst. Can we get back onto something…
Jake: Hey, we can make it better. 500 comments, I’ll wear it to The Burning Leaf. Now I’ll support football season in a lounge.
Mike: Okay, but then we’ll have to go live on Instagram while you’re doing it.
Jake: Done.
Mike: Hey, I love it. That’s a great challenge to our viewership. 50 comments, guys. 50 different comments. Just make it a positive comment, cheer Jake on. Let’s see if we can make this happen. But overall, to Ken’s point, let’s get back to the topic. So, how do you pick your lounge? Obviously, if you have a home lounge, you’re probably already familiar with football season. But if you’re new to cigars, and you’re going to be going to a lounge for the first time any time during football season, you’d probably wanna go in on an off-football night and just get a feel for the lounge anyway. Don’t make Sunday afternoon your first visit, because it’s not gonna be representative of the lounge atmosphere the other six days of the week.
Jake: The other thing is: get there early. Because you’re gonna want a seat.
Mike: Get there early. That’s a pro tip right there.
Jake: Get there, get comfortable, get your drink, support your lounge, buy cigars from the lounge. You’re gonna be sitting there for a couple of hours enjoying a football game. Make sure you support them. Honestly, my personal opinion is, if you’re gonna go in there and watch a full game, you’re gonna smoke more than one cigar. You should be smoking either cigars from that lounge, or you should have purchased as many cigars as it would take for you to get through that game from that lounge…
Scott: And bring them with you.
Jake: Yeah. And then, if you wanna smoke something else, support the lounge for the whole time. Don’t be that cheapskate that goes and buys one eight-dollar cigar, and then smokes all of his own stuff, and you tie up that seat for that lounge. They’re there to make money, they’re a business.
Scott: And that is just a common courtesy and etiquette. And that’s something- whenever I go to a lounge, I always try to take- if I’m not gonna- if I have some already from them, then those are the ones that I take to that lounge. Here, in our private lounge here, where we do the podcast, I smoke the cigars that we have online.
Jake: Yeah, support your lounge, support what they have. Other people are gonna see you smoking it. “Hey, is that good?” Yeah. And they can go buy it.
Ken: Here’s a question: you get to your lounge, there’s a game you want to see, and it’s not on right now. Now what?
Mike: Okay, that’s a great question. So, it could be for a variety of reasons. Because I run into this often with my Steelers. Because the Washington Commanders fucking end up blocking out the Steelers games in this area.
Ken: And nobody, locally, wants to see any Steelers games. Go ahead.
Mike: There’s more Steelers fans in this area than Redskins, be careful. You were talking about backup earlier. But at the end of the day… I can only talk about my lounge experience with this. So, the local lounge that I call home lounge, that Ken and I call home lounge, is the Burning Leaf. Great lounge, great atmosphere, good humidor. Two TVs. 30 guys in there, two TVs, he’s got the NFL ticket… Chances are…
Jake: You’re okay.
Mike: You’re gonna… Here’s the thing: at this lounge, these guys are some of the most awesome people and cigar smokers I met. They will ask you, “What game are you here to see?” They know me, because I usually walk in with a Steelers jersey on. And usually, it’s first come, first basis, right? First come, first serve. If you’re there first, and you change the channel to set up for your game, that’s the game that’s on. That’s the house rule. But I can tell you this: I’ve had that remote in my hand many times. If somebody sits down beside me, and they’re a Denver Broncos fan, and the Broncos are playing at the same time as the Steelers, I flip back and forth. I will absolutely flip back and forth. I wait for a commercial break on one, and I’ll switch, watch it to a commercial break, and I’ll switch it back. And that’s just my common courtesy to my fellow cigar smoker, who’s a Denver Broncos fan, who wants to watch his game.
Scott: And I see that pretty much across the board with most of the lounges around here.
Jake: That’s pretty common if they only have a couple TVs.
Scott: We will switch back and forth so that everybody gets a little bit of the…
Mike: But there are people that will grab that remote- if they get there early, they’ll put it on their game, and they’re not changing it. If you showed up late, you just gotta deal with it. You can choose to watch that game, move over to the TV, watch that game, maybe those guys will switch back and forth with it. But, you know, bottom line is, generally speaking, it’s first come first served, gets to pick the game. Even the owner at Burning Leaf. He’s a huge Eagles fan. Love you, Kamal. He will actually sit down, and he and I will go back and forth between Eagles and Steelers. But even he knows, and he follows this rule: first come, first served. And if somebody else wants to watch a Dallas Cowboys football game, and they got there first, and that’s the channel that is on, he is okay with that, and he’s the owner. So, if the owner is willing to not watch his game at his lounge, because he’s following the etiquette, then so should you.
Jake: You know, I’ve actually seen too, a lot of guys, they get there, they can’t watch the game they wanted to watch, you’ll see them put AirPods in or headphones, and watch it on their phone, and they’re still there talking, and cheering, and paying attention to their games, but they’re watching whatever they wanted another way. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Mike: Nothing.
Jake: Nothing wrong with that at all. I will say this – this is the one that irritates me during football season. This is a pet peeve. And I know you guys love football, and it’s actually in your favor, I think. You go to a lounge — and I’ve seen this happen repeatedly at the closest lounge to my house — during football season, one TV has a game on, and somebody is controlling the other TV, and they’re watching old reruns of CSI, or MASH, or whatever. Guys, here’s the deal: I don’t care if you’re a football fan or not, but during that time, this time of year, if you’re in a lounge, and they have the TVs, that’s what they need to be- you know, people wanna watch the games, let them watch the games. Don’t occupy that TV watching something else. And honestly, I think that’s where a lounge owner should step in and say, “Hey, look, here’s the situation.” But it’s one of those- I watch a handful of football games a year. I don’t sit down that long to watch TV. For me, that’s a long time to sit and just watch the TV. I’m on a computer all day long, I’m very happy to get away from a screen. So, if I watch- Like, even Vikings games – I’ll watch part of it, I’ll go do something else. I used to watch the beginning and the end. Whatever happens in the middle, I’m not that worried about. But don’t go to a lounge and tie a TV up, watching some show that you could watch any time, when there’s people that wanna watch a football game. Be courteous, be respectful, and let them watch the game. And if you don’t like that atmosphere at that lounge,go to a different lounge. Go find a different place. But give the people the chance to watch the football game.
Scott: Or, like you said, put your AirPods in, or whatever it is that you have, and do something else.
Jake: The other thing I’ll say is, on the flipside of that, the reason I hate football season in a lounge is stupid people. These are the ones that, when somebody scores a touchdown, they run like a freaking airplane up and down the aisles all excited. Not the time and place. It’s not a sports bar, don’t be doing that. You don’t need to be jumping, chest bumping – that’s not the place for it.
Ken: Well, if you’ve got your entire month’s rent or mortgage bet on the game, then I would say it is appropriate.
Jake: Okay. If you’re that, then maybe. But if you go to somebody’s lounge, and somebody scores, and you see everybody jumping up and down, hooting and hollering, chest bumping, and people doing the stupid airplane thing through the lounge, none of us wanna deal with that. We’re there to enjoy the game and smoke cigars, not deal with your stupidity.
Ken: You sound like a sore loser to me.
Mike: Dude, I cheer for the Vikings. How many times do they win? I mean, let’s just be honest.
Scott: So, he knows that feeling.
Jake: But what I’m getting at is, you’re still in a lounge. Follow lounge etiquette. It’s not a sports bar, it’s not your house. It’s a lounge. There’s 30-40 other people in there. You don’t need to be that guy. Or that gal.
Scott: Or that gal. Because I’ve seen that too.
Mike: Absolutely.
Scott: So, definitely be respectful of the other…
Jake: The other thing I wanna say is — and I’ve watched this happen in the lounge in the area — they go to the lounge they have, quote unquote, ‘water’, or ‘tea’, that they’re pouring out of an unmarked bottle, and they get sloshed. And now you have a drunk stupid person watching a football game. I don’t know if any of you guys ever been in a bar and you’ve witnessed this. It’s the guy you want to throw out back and leave there for the birds to peck his eyes out. Don’t be that person in the lounge either. Again: follow lounge etiquette. Be respectful to their patrons, be respectful of their people, enjoy the game. I’m not saying don’t enjoy it. I’m not even saying ‘don’t have fun doing it.’ But be respectful of the people around you.
Mike: Absolutely.
Scott: But, you know, being respectful, also, as you were pointing out, is that the fun part of being in a lounge sometimes is the digs.
Jake: Oh, I’m not saying ‘don’t take digs.’ It’s the guys that get there, and something happens, and they’re jumping, and they’re throwing their arms up, and all of a sudden shit’s flying — pardon my language — but shit’s flying everywhere, their drink- I watched a guy one time jump up, through his hands up, had a cigar – his cigar landed in somebody else’s lap, lit. That’s uncalled for in a lounge. That’s a problem. I’m not saying don’t have a good time, I’m not saying don’t take jabs at each other. That’s the fun part, right? Especially in our communities, because a lot of these guys in lounges are military, are veterans, or have ties with the military. So, you know, you can have some of the greatest digs and fun and laugh with each other over it, but it’s the actions that I’ve seen people take that I have a problem with.
Mike: Absolutely.
Jake: But I am excited for football season this year. I’m going to come up and go and watch a Steelers game. I think the first one’s this Sunday, first Steelers game is Sunday. I can’t make the first one with Mike because I have other obligations, but I’m gonna make probably the second Steelers game with Mike at Burning Leaf, and have a great time.
Ken: Dressed in a in a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader outfit.
Jake: 500 original comments…
Scott: 50.
Jake: No. 50 gets me in this chair. 500 gets me in Burning Leaf. That was the deal.
Mike: It was 50 on the podcast…
Jake: 500 gets me to Burning Leaf.
Mike: I have a feeling that’s going to be one of Kamal’s busiest days ever, if we actually hit that. I just have a gut feeling.
Jake: I’ll even up it. We get 500 comments, I’ll let my wife braid my beard for it. Only because she can’t braid my hair.
Mike: Well, we hope you enjoyed this episode guys. It’s great that football season is starting for us football fans. We just asked… We’ve talked about several different points here. Use your lounge etiquette, make sure it’s not only enjoyable for you but the other patrons in the lounge. No one wants to go up there and have a bad experience. Not you, and certainly not the other patrons up there, especially if they’re not there to watch a football game. Be courteous, be friendly, that’s what this cigar community is about.
Scott: And have fun.
Mike: Get to know somebody.
Scott: Get to know somebody, and have fun having a dig once in a while. And it’s always in jest, and it’s always in fun.
Mike: Number one rule: always pick on the Dallas Cowboys fans. And with that, have a great day, have a cigar, and enjoy the football season, guys. Until next time, see you later.
We hope you enjoyed this podcast discussing the Cigars and 2023 NFL Football Season Kickoff! Be sure to check back weekly for more cigar content.