The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Big Game... OR NOT A BIG GAME! | Hour 2

Episode Date: September 17, 2026

"I think of Ron Mercer." It's time for our first sponsored installment of Big Game or Not a Big Game, but Dan has a few important topics he wants to get to first, including Brian Belichick, Texas vs. Ohio State, and Mark Walter. We also dive into the hypocrisy of the Protect College Sports Act. Plus, Macklemore has been dropped from Ed Sheeran's tour as an opening act after an in-concert speech about Palestine, as Robert Kraft and other stadium owners allegedly pressured Sheeran. The crew shares their thoughts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My favorite part of the football season is the confidence everybody has before it kickoff. Zaslow already knows how the game is going to end. Tony has studied every possible matchup and Chris Cody is convinced his fantasy team is unbeatable. Then the game starts, everything immediately goes off the rails, and suddenly nobody remembers making any of those predictions. That's why a legendary game day starts with an ice cold Miller light, whether I'm at a tailgate, watching with friends, or settling in for a full Saturday of college football.

Miller Light is the beer I can depend on. It's crisp, refreshing, and has a clean finish that hits perfectly during a hot South Florida game day. Miller Light is the original light beer with great taste, and beer lovers have trusted it for more than 50 years. Make game day legendary. Go to Miller Lite.com slash Dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. Game time is Miller Time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 caps.

calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. Let me give you a true story. I was at my favorite bar. Guy working behind the bar, a good friend of mine, huge Bills fan. I opened up the game time map and a spur in the moment decision, let's go to Bill's Lions,

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before I buy. The price shown includes all fees. What you see is what you pay, period. Game Time also has zone deals. You choose a section, they choose the seats, and you save money. Plus, every purchase is backed by the Game Time Guarantee, including on-time ticket delivery and their lowest price guarantee. Get your friends together, get your tickets, and tell them, it's Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code Dan for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and use code D-A-N for $20 off. This is the Dan Levitator show with the Stucats podcast. Dan, you know what time it is. Big Game or Not a Big Game is presented by the all-new lawnmower go from Manscaped.

That's right, Dan. So we are at Big Game, not a big game, and now we're going to find out whether or not. Welcome to Big Game or not a big game with Jonathan Zaslo. Yeah, baby. Oh, yeah, I told you. That's why we teased it. I didn't want to do it right now. There are other things that I wanted to talk about right now,

including you guys will never guess who's replacing Steve Belichick as North Carolina's defensive play caller moving forward. You'll never guess. Jonathan Zaslo. You will never. guess. Then why are you having us guess? Brian Belichick. No way! What?

I didn't even know there was another Belichick. Put it on the poll. Did you know there was another Belichick son? Because that's funny if everyone in his family resigns. If he just burns through, let's embarrass the entire family name literally by just burning through everybody with drugs and resignations

and Brian Belichick is now introduced to the audience when I had no idea there was a Brian Belichick. If Chris were awake, he'd say, he would talk. Are you ready for this, Dan? I'm not ready for big game, not a big game. I'm not quite ready to do it yet because I've got other news. Ohio State, Texas had 14 million viewers. It's not bullshit. It's 14 million viewers, the largest number for a regular season college game on ESPN, ABC,

in a decade, $14 million is higher than the NFL Sunday window for Fox at $10 million. The second biggest sport in America is college football. And one of the things that I wanted to talk about is the name of that Protect College Sports Act, because it is fraudulently, phony name for something that doesn't actually protect or rescue or save college sports. It's just that they all know that there's going to be more and more television money, and they want to keep it away from the players so the same people can control college football. All right.

Are you ready, Dan? The people are ready. Trista wanted to say something. What? I know. How could she? Do you think that was peak numbers, or do you think that was in the beginning?

Because it was a pretty big blowout early on in the game. It has to be the fourth quarter numbers. But regardless... Here we go. Aren't you guys surprised by the fact that they would do that big a number bigger than NFL games? No? That's how much.

we love to see Ohio State lose. It's time, Dan. Big game or not a big game? Come on, you know what I'm talking about? I'm not ready to do that yet. It's new from front office sports. Mark Walter and his companies have been sued in Florida federal court over the same issues.

Prosecutors are currently looking into faulty life insurance disclosures and whether policyholder funds were used to fund investments like the Dodgers and Lakers. I feel like the whole thing's about to crash down with bubble bursting. I mean, where if it's a lot of, It's fraud money that makes these franchises worth $12 billion,

and the Dodgers and Lakers are not bought with legitimate means. Like, they're going to keep raising the prices of the franchise values while doing it with fraudulent money. The bubble's going to burst. But is that a big game or not a big game? Oh, brought to us by Manscape to the all-new lawnmower go. You know about that lawnmower go, Dan? You start with the groinel area.

That's what it's for. The lawnmower go. Why don't you ask Trista that question instead of me? I'm not going to be the one to do that. Maybe off air, not on air. Can't do it on air. Big game or not a big game? Everybody is ready for it.

You know what, Trist, I will start with you there. Big game or not a big game? What do you have for me? Oh, well, I just didn't, I'm just caught up in the groinel. What is a groinel? That's the groinel area. You know what I'm talking about. Come on, look, the lawnmower go.

That's right. It's going to help you that groin area. There you go. All right, I've got Florida at Auburn. Oh, yeah. Big game or not a big game. Florida at Auburn, big game and not a big game. John Sumroll, Florida Gator's head coach.

This is an SEC matchup. That's right. First SEC matchup for the new Gator head coach. They're scoring a ton of points. This is a little bit of a test here for John Sumrall in the early going. So you know what? Florida, Auburn, that's a big game. Big game.

John Summerall Is any relation to Pat? Nope, it's Sumerall. Not Summerall. Wait, say it again? Sumroll. Summerall? John, Somerall.

Summerall? Some roll. Jeremy, what do you got for me? Ooh, I think this one's a big game. UCF is hosting Georgia State this weekend. Now, why do we let him talk? I mean, UCF, Georgia State. This is.

is not a big game. No, no. Thank you. That's not big. I'm going to bounce back from a lost to pit. It feels like a big game. Your turn is over. Amin, what do you have?

Big game and hobby game. Well, next week, I'm going to Georgia Tech at Stanford. Going to go with my buddies. We're going to have a great time. But, you know what they say? The most dangerous game is the look-ahead game. Oh, yes. This week is the look-ahead game, and we're playing Mercer.

We're hosting Mercer at home. Huge game for Georgia Tech as they go into a conference rivalry game next week. Whenever somebody says. says Mercer to me, I think of Ron Mercer. Ron Mercer doesn't play for Mercer University. Georgia Tech, on the other hand. I mean, what a ridiculous start to their season. Come on. Colorado, that's embarrassing. They lose that game. Tennessee, they get their ass kicked. Georgia Tech, Mercer? Not a big game. Chris, big game or not a big game. What do you got? Oh.

All right, Roy, big game or not big game? What are you got? We got Florida State at number 10 Alabama. Florida State coming off a loss to SMU. Alabama's 2-0. Big game or not a big game. Nice. Florida State.

Look, there were movers trucks, it seemed, outside. Very ominous outside of Norville's home earlier this week. And that came just days after the athletic director was fired. Is FSU going to drop to 1 and 2? It's an Alabama team that lost in Talley last year. So it feels like they're going to put up a big number on the Seminals. Florida State, Alabama. That's a big game.

I'm going big game. It is because is it going to lead to Norville getting fired. 15 and a half point favor? That's a big game. This is why we do this, Dan. That's a big game. No, it's not why we do this. And finally, and finally, I got one more for you.

This is the one. Sexual. Ole Miss, LSU. That's right. You have a scorned lover. That's Ole Miss. Lane Kiffin. who's pulling shenanigans right now.

You saw Dan he listed Sam Levitt, their quarterback, as doubtful this weekend. Let me tell you something. I love this guy, shenanigans. This is my camera right here, this one? I'm going to look right into my camera right now. Sam Levitt's listed as doubtful for this game. There is zero percent chance that Sam Levitt does not start this game.

There is no chance that Sam Levitt is not playing this weekend. This is Lane Kiffin. This is shenanigans. Joey Freshwater. He's scripted. with Ole Miss. He's the ultimate bad guy. He just went up to Sam Levitt earlier this week and said,

listen, you're obviously playing. I know you're perfectly healthy. I'm going to list you as doubtful. Everyone's going to freak out. Ole Miss, LSU. That's a big game. That right there, Dan, is another edition. No.

Big game. No, no, no, no, no. Brought to my man's game. We started the show talking about SMU and Louisville. Yeah. And whether you were going to be bought for. No one asked me. and we still need to get to that game.

We teased it. We have to pay it off. Both teams open the year as ACC's top contenders behind Miami, not as good as LSU Ole Missum would say, big game or not a big game. LSU, Chris, what do you think? Huh. LSU, Ole Miss, might be the big game,

but I'm going to SMU, Lowe. All right. I'm going to be drinking bourbon, Dan. I'm going to be sitting first class on my flight there tomorrow. I'm likely going to have a suite in my hotel because that's how they do it for me. We're going to begin after it this weekend. Might even get myself some barbecue.

Louisville SMU, a battle for who's going to get their ass kicked by the hurricanes in the A.C. Championship game. That's a big game. That's a big game. That's a big surprise. And that's Big Game and I big game brought to by Manscaped. Why did you sing that? He's Ethel Merman.

Well, what did he do this? with his Mercer bridge where he's like, I think of Ron Mercer. I do. Can't help it. What was the point of that? Unnecessary. I can't help it. If someone says Mercer, I think of Ron Mercer. I think of Mercer. I didn't think there could be worse commentary than I think of Mercer, Ron Mercer. But she did it. I congratulate her. She managed to find the way to make it even worse than Zaz adding nothing.

In fact, the both of you can just leave the room. Both of them. you. Minor penalty, two minutes for adding nothing. Chris did better than both of you that segment by just sleeping in the corner. And once again, Jeremy is the third worst. Third worst. Third worst. Third worst. Chris is drooling.

He's got a puddle of drool like on his shoulder right now. I want to look up, please, for the audience because I don't know how many people remember this. And I don't think enough people are sort of mad about what is happening, I mean, with the lobbying being done by the TV networks and Nick Sabin and the powers in college sports to make sure that the adults keep the power and the money. Can you give me, Jeremy, the official name of this act because I think it's either the Protect College Sports Act or whatever it is that they're naming. it because they don't think the public is going to pay any attention to anything that's

happening here beyond the name. And what I wanted to ask you is if any of you here remember when the Miami Heat had some sort of issue that had to go before the voters and it was an issue that was so complicated that they wanted you to vote yes, but they did so by confusing you with an ad that was no. And so what it ended up being was a confusing thing that was as simple as yes or no, they tricked us into voting for something that wouldn't have been voted for because nobody's paying attention to anything other than what's the name of this thing. And the Protect College Sports Act is

actively and deliberately named that way so you don't get mad when they bleep the kids again. Like it's just, it's so bogus, it's such nonsense what it is that they're doing. Led by Nick Sabin, led by Ted Cruz, led by ESPN, led by ESPN, end-turgening college game day into how do we make more money off of these kids that we can keep so that they get less of it because we're not comfortable with how there are no rules in college sports and we have to pay the college athlete, you know, $5 million to play football because the TV money is crazy. It is the Protect College Sports Act of 2026. And like you mentioned, Dan, it's funny the way that

they position it because what they're trying to do is limit the ability for these highly paid athletes, the ones who actually bring in revenue to create revenue for themselves, where the athletes that they're sort of parading out there are like the people who row crew at Ivy League schools, the people who already come from wealth in a lot of situations. Not everyone in those situations is someone who comes from wealth, but it's these like Olympic type athletes, the Olympic sports. And it's not to say that some of these sports that matter aren't facing issues because of the way the revenue's changed, but it's totally manipulating the public.

David talks about manipulating the public on the collective bargaining agreement calling it the Protect College Sports Act does that more than anything. Oh, but it's just such a good piece of propaganda to sneak it past people who don't pay attention to the details. Look up for me, please, what the heat did because I'm forgetting, maybe Zaz remembers because...

I do remember. So what was it that they were trying to do where they confused voters, what seemed like a yes or no question, they tricked us into answering incorrectly because they wanted us to answer one way, and they thought a sports team asking the question. They knew we wouldn't give them money the way that they asked the question legitimately, so they asked the question to confuse us.

Instead of saying I remember, I should have said I vaguely remember, but can't explain in detail. All right, well, that's not useful either, so you can just go ahead and leave again, because that's not helpful in any way whatsoever. Somehow worse than Chris Cody, but you did give us big game or not a big game, and then gave us a predictably bought and totally not surprising answer that the game you're going to is a big game. Please show yourself out. Jeremy, maybe I can push back on you

and say that this act is named appropriately because they want to protect college sports, not protect student athletes. It's to protect college sports. They're being literal here when they tell you they're trying to protect college sports. My favorite part of the football season is the confidence everybody has, before it kickoff. Zazzo already knows how the game is going to end. Tony has studied every possible matchup and Chris Cody is convinced his fantasy team is unbeatable.

Then the game starts, everything immediately goes off the rails and suddenly nobody remembers making any of those predictions. That's why a legendary game day starts with an ice cold Miller light, whether I'm at a tailgate, watching with friends, or settling in for a full Saturday of college football. Miller Light is the beer I can depend on. It's crisp, refreshing, and has a clean finish that hits perfectly during a hot South Florida game day. Miller Light is the original light beer with great taste, and beer lovers have trusted it for more than 50 years. Make game day legendary.

Go to Miller Lite.com slash day and to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. Game time is Miller Time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. Dan Levatar. I mean, Trot and Madonna out there, I don't know what the hell she was doing.

And then what's this, this boy band KPS? KBS. What's their name? I have no idea who that is. There's BTS. Jonathan Sasselow. Isn't this the biggest band in the world? That's right. Get out of here.

Not big of Pearl Jam. This is the Dan Levitare show. Chris Murphy, the senator from Connecticut, we're trying to get him on because he says, quote, what this bill does at its core is protect a system of exploitation. This bill seeks to give an unprecedented antitrust exemption to an industry that is violating the law every single day. Protect college sports, ladies and gentlemen. It's just so many kinds of asinine what it is that the people with money are doing to keep the money and steal the money and make sure that other people don't get the money. I have an article here from Sports Business Journal from exactly 30 years ago today.

Wow! Regarding the Miami Heat. So it says in Miami, the Metro Commission voted 6.3 on Tuesday to rewrite the ballot referendum determining whether Dade County builds a new $165 million arena for the heat. Wow. This was according to the Miami Herald. But under the new language, those who support the arena will vote no, showing opposition to the initiative, while those who oppose the arena have to vote yes to support the referendum. So it was completely flipped on its head the way it was written. And I don't know if that's by the government or by the heat, but either way, it was all sorts of confusing. And we have that to thank for that building across the street, basically. Because when you say the Miami Heat, I'm like, what could they have possibly had? I said, other than the referendum to get that thing built with county money.

And apparently it was 30 years ago today. Wow. It says that Mickey Erison, quote, urged the commission to reverse itself and adopt language originally recommended by county attorney Bob Ginsburg. So apparently it was like, yes, for arena, no for no. arena, but the government flipped those things, assumingly, because they didn't want to fund it. Yeah, no, you do that because people who don't want to say it, they'll say, oh, yeah, no, absolutely. I'm voting no on this, when in reality what they were doing was voting yes for this. Mickey had them flip it exactly.

Or had them flip it? Well, I mean, you just said it. You just read the thing. Oh, shit. I wanted to get back to this story from front office sports because I don't want people to miss. the way that these rich people are bleeping with you. We're going to laugh today about, oh, look, Kauai Leonard, he got off and he got an extension in Toronto.

He paid $700,000 to get an extension with Toronto. What did Mark Walter do? Oh, look, he got the Lakers for $10 billion and then sold them for $12 billion with money that doesn't appear to be real or his. So front office sports, and this is crazy to me, that this is happening all over sports. Maybe it shouldn't be because corruption is so rampant.

Mark Walter and his companies have been sued in Florida, federal court over the same issues prosecutors are currently looking into. Faulty life insurance disclosures and whether policyholder funds were used to fund investments like the Dodgers and Lakers. The Dodgers are the champions, the reigning champions. This guy in his tenure with the Lakers got rid of LeBron, made it an all-white. basketball team and then cashed in for two billion dollars. His money doesn't appear to be real. And I mean, you and Pablo Torre are chasing around billionaires all over the place. A guy with money

who's not his, the franchise of the Lakers and the Dodgers, really great franchises in the history of American sports. How is he at the center of this and what's going to happen to him and what's going to happen to the idea as he's over there giving Trump a World Series ring that these people are bogus and they just have friendships in high places and the most corrupt government in history is going to come to sports and do what Trump does which is just shit on everything and grab as much

money as he can. So last week on basketball Illamani we actually had Joe Pompeillon on and he was awesome and he explained this. The idea of why are we allowing these sovereign wealth funds and these private equity to get in and the reason is because sports have become so expensive

these franchise values are so big there literally aren't enough rich enough people. to outright buy these teams. The only way that any of them are able to buy teams is by securing financing and investment from one of these other areas. But obviously through this allows for all the machinations of some funny business.

In the case of Mark Walter, he was, because his money was like insurance companies and insurance companies basically take your premiums and then invest them in other things. He was doing the like Rob Peter, Pay Paul basically paid money from one pocket, put in the other, to create money from one pocket, put it in the other, to create them.

create the image of this wealth that would then make these other sovereign wealth funds from Abu Dhabi to say, okay, we'll invest in you because you'll look like you have a lot of money when, in fact, he did not have a lot of money. And so these are the games you have to play, Dan, in order to create the amount of wealth in order to qualify to even purchase one of these places. The grand irony of all this, as earlier you were trying to conflate Magic Johnson with Steve Ballmer is, Steve Balmer is actually the kind of guy that we pine for. Like the old school, you just bought a team with your own money cash, and you're going to pay for it all. And you care about the community and all the things that we want our owners to be.

Steve Balmer is, except for the fact where he just, you know, cheats. Why are you laughing? I don't know because it's just a funny situation. You guys know front office sports has a guy named Ben Horny? Good morning. Whoever's Horny. How do you spell it? H-O-R-N-E-Y.

That's horny, man. God damn it. The audio audience, just YouTube. Shh. I want to discuss the idea when you're telling me, I mean, you're telling me that I'm conflating Magic Johnson with Steve Ballmer. I am doing the question asking in that form purposefully, because I don't. don't think people will care about this stuff if they don't know the people involved. And so when I'm giving you the opportunity, and I'm asking you the question, is Magic Johnson going to end up in prison?

The hyperbole is purposeful because of how Magic Johnson benefited from some of this stuff, like the idea that we are in 2026, talking about the way LeBron James uses his power to get more money and ownership and control over what he's doing. That's a fine. That's amazing. Oh my God. How is Chris Coding like my best employee today? Hey, hey, hey, what? What? How is this possible?

Trista, what is happening? Are you a computer? What is it repeating what I'm saying? Why is your phone repeating what I'm saying? She's wearing a wire. I don't know. It just, I guess Siri heard you. Siri doesn't even listen to me, but Siri heard your voice.

I haven't spoke in five minutes. Siri heard your voice, and apparently you've taken over my Siri, and it's responding now to you and not me. The question I'm asking you, Amin, is how do I get people's attention on what is happening here combined with? I don't know how much trouble Magic Johnson is actually in here if we're not going to give consequences to anybody, and we're going to allow everyone to settle,

and not everyone's going to be bummer. stubborn and ego, but the guy who basically made the Lakers as valuable as they are in the early 80s when the sport was on tape delay and they had to put Magic Johnson and Larry Bird saving the league because their championship was played on tape delay. That guy is now a billionaire at the center of the Lakers that are being valued at worth more than they possibly can be because of what looks like fraud at the center of it and fraud that involves Magic Johnson. to know how much trouble is possible here for Magic Johnson being adjacent to this based on the very thorough reporting that you and Pablo and David are doing on the Pulitzer Prize

winning podcast Pablo Tori finds out. And Edward R. Murrow winning. The proximity to coolness, Dan, is what this is about, right? The idea that like, hey, I'm Mark Walter. How can I be cool? Well, I'll get in and I'll buy the Dodgers, but that's not enough to be cool. I gotta be seen with cool people. cool people and who's cooler than Magic Johnson in Los Angeles and in the sports world.

So that proximity to coolness is what affords magic, the ability to basically become a billionaire. In essence, like, hey, I will give you these companies, Magic, that will make you worth a billion dollars in return. You can be my avatar of cool. That gets me into rooms, that allows me to buy into the Dodgers, allows me to buy into the Lakers, and eventually buy the Lakers. and eventually buy the Lakers outright,

and that's the stuff that I think makes it, like, capable. You know, the more I think about it, horny's not a terrible last name. No. I just think of all the last... What are some of the positives? I think it's a vibe. If you're not horny,

women will be like, wow, I really had you wrong. What do you make a mean of Dwayne Wade saying of LeBron James joining the 76ers, quote, I don't think we've seen the end of what this move is. I think it's more... There's more to this move, and so I'll just leave it at that. More to his part of it or the Sixers part of it?

That's a very cryptic statement there by Dwayne Wade. Yeah. When we talk about the player empowerment stuff that is always associated with LeBron James, are you guys not interested in the fact that we go from Magic Johnson to LeBron James on what it is to have ownership of some of the things that you're doing

when you're the reason a franchise is so valuable as Magic is when it comes to the Lakers and he owns part of the Dodgers and some of the money appears to be not real. I think the big thing is, eight years ago, LeBron made a move to L.A. that was in part due to his interest

in growing his entertainment business empire, right? Being the proximity to L.A., having an office on the lot, I believe at Paramount, I want to say, or it was a Warner Bros. On the Warner Brothers lot for Spring Hill and the ability to start creating shows and creating content

and all that stuff, that all started there. And I'm very curious to think about, now his move to Philadelphia, which rumored to be he's going to be living in New York and either choppering down or, you know, taking a sprinter band or whatever, what that means for his business interest there. One of the things Rich Paul said on his podcast was, if the Knicks had been not a championship team this past year, that would have vaulted them to easily number one on.

the list. Them winning the title in essence took them off the board. But then what that ends up doing is it says it opens a door for Philadelphia to be that team by way of proximity. What a word, what a day for the word proximity today. I just look at the way that things have changed. You talk about magic to LeBron. I look through the course of LeBron's career. LeBron made the move down here and wouldn't just sign in terms of an outright free agency. It had to be a sign and trade. Why? Because he needed to get the maximum amount of money in his salary. But now we look 15 years later, and LeBron is making moves that really have nothing to do with his actual NBA salary. They have everything to do with what he can do in terms of his businesses.

And what I'm fascinated to see is, is he a trendsetter in the same respect? Will players start artificially suppressing their own salaries against the wishes of the players' union in order to be able to just individually increase their businesses by whichever place that they go? They've already have. Who is one of the first players that we were like, wow, what a great teammate. Jalen Brunson takes two team-friendly contracts, is able to figure out a way to maneuver his teammates from Villanova to all be with him. They win a championship. He's now the king of New York.

He's probably has other things that are coming his way from either James Dolan or James Dolan's other billionaire friends. You've got the sphere, you've got his ability and interest in the WWE. I first and foremost think of Jailen Brunson. Tony, you know that moment at a party or at a tailgate where everything just sort of clicks. I know it well. It's usually when I show up. Everybody goes crazy. Yeah, you usually take all the credit for it, but it's because Tony usually walks in with Quervo. I'm walking like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Quervo is a thing that turns hanging out into this is the night. It has that effect on people.

It does. You usually take the credit for it. But again, it's the Cuervo effect. It's like that moment in a big game where everyone in the crowd just starts standing up, hooting and hollering. Keep it, quervo. Keep it, quervo, baby. Dan Levitar.

Let's throw to my boy Jeremy Tache, who's sideline right now. Tash money. What she got for me? Jeremy Tache. Thanks, Jacks. This is the Danlevatar show. It's interesting when you say the billionaire owners,

the places where they can team up to make it feel a little bit oligarch-like. If they keep, you know, if Elon Musk keeps putting data centers here and Zuckerberg is putting a bunker over here and the earth is on fire, the, you know, these people getting together to do things. I mean, I'm curious what you believe about something that just happened, where it's fascinating as a pop culture story. It makes me sad to see it appear as a pop culture story that gets everybody talking about Israel and Palestine

when the impetus for it is not just Robert Kraft, but Robert Kraft and a bunch of other football owners decided Ed Sheeran, a political musician who just avoids politics at every turn and makes money at every turn has for him as an opener, the cartoonish act of McLemore, who is now out in front of people on these concert tours saying, Free Palestine, he's also got some other stuff in his past that has some anti-Semitic undercurrents that are worse than the language that he's getting in trouble for with Robert Kraft right now. And these owners have now banned him in a way that has made MacLamore,

a public martyr on behalf of free expression and on behalf of art as Ed Shearren gets swallowed by everyone who is around Ed Shearren, including his band, is evacuating because of the threat of these billionaires and their cabal raining down on Ed Shearin and now causing him a problem that feels like real cancellation because these billionaires have gotten together because Kraft has called hate speech what McLemore was doing.

So to clarify, basically Ed Sheeran's on tour. Maclemore is one of his opening acts. They've been friends for a long time. The first couple of stops on the tour, McElmore would say, Free Palestine. And he would make a statement, and they talked about this little girl that was killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza, right?

And so after the second one, when they're heading to play at Gillette, Ed Sheeran sits him down and says, look, I just got off the phone with Robert Kraft, and he doesn't want you to do this anymore. And Malcolm Moore's like, well, I don't, I feel compelled to speak out about this. This is something I feel very strongly about. And Ed Sheeran says, yeah, and I love you for that and all that. But here's the deal.

They're saying if you perform and do that, or if you're going to do that, then we can't perform at all. And so now the concert is canceled. And I've got, you know, roadies and all these people who work on the concert, my band, and all the other acts, and it wouldn't be fair to them to do that. I mean, how about all the people who paid money to go see Ed Shearant? Right. So then it goes on. It's like, well, I can't compromise myself.

And Ed's like, well, here's the deal. Apparently, Robert Kraft has contacted other venue operators. Now, some of them then are NFL owners, but some of them aren't. Like, for instance, Tampa Bay, Raymond James Stadium. That is a municipal-owned facility. So, which, by the way, had had a Kanye West concert not too long ago. And obviously Kanye West, if you want to talk about actual anti-Semitism. Right.

It was a symbol of that, glorifying it and promoting it, especially kind of in some corners of the internet. Literally had a song called Heil Hitler. Yeah. So versus someone talking about the genocide of children, right? So when it came to that, McElmore's like, you know what? It's all right. I'll step off the tour. and Ed Shearren was like, yeah, okay.

And he, by the way, in McElmore's statement, he says all this, and he says, I don't want this to be anti-Ed. Ed's a great guy, he's a friend, and I respect his kind of his desire to have a business that takes care of a bunch of people. Now here's the crazy part. Ed Shearin's band says, F this, we're out of here.

And then some of the other opening acts are like, at this, we're out of here. And so all of this now, instead of like kind of focusing on what it should, be focused on, I think, which is Robert Kraft using his power and influence to silence people, right? Instead, it's like, Ed Sheeran, you're a coward, which maybe is, maybe is it. I feel like you guys are missing the point. If you're staring at Ed Sheeran and pointing a finger, you're missing the point.

The point is the people in power upstairs. What is so damaging? What is so damning about the idea of saying, hey, maybe we shouldn't kill children that makes them so threatened that they have to silence that. And this puts me in a weird place because I never liked McElmore. I thought he was corny. I thought his music could suck. But now I'm like, damn,

now I have to like, now I got to like you, man. I got to respect you because he has to go massive stand here. You know, it's no small amount of money to be on tour with Ed Shear and doing stadium tours in North America. To say no to all of that because of your belief. I mean, that's a pretty

bold thing. Especially he's not Muslim. He's not from the Middle East. He's He doesn't have any, like, on the surface level connection to that cause, but he put himself out there. I'm just made profoundly sad by the idea, and I get what you're saying, that is a big risk that he's taking, that we in 2026 are saying, because of all of our divisions that include a plague of anti-Semitism and sensitivities in the Jewish community that have been earned, that McLemore is bringing to us subject. matter that is controversial when he says, let's not kill children. Yeah, I mean, and I think like the conflating of that with anti-Semitism. When again, that's the hypocrisy, right? The hypocrisy is you had an artist who was outwardly anti-Semitic, right?

Like got a diamond study swastika. And as Jeremy said, made a song called Heil Hitler. But that, that's not controversial enough or that's not threatening enough to the operators of Raymond James Stadium. But McElmore is, or McElmore saying Free Palestine is, it draws a much brighter line between, is this about anti-Semitism, or is this about the powers that be,

are tolerant of one kind of content and intolerant of another? I am curious, I mean, given that Robert Kraft over, the last, I don't know, decade or so, has contributed money and cares about, and has said and been vocal about Palestinian causes why he would do this given that. Like, I can't square that part. He's now donating $2 million more dollars and other, and matching that. That delivers relief to, you know, Gaza. Right. But I, see, my question is, like, do you believe that Robert Kraft would have started this if it was an artist that didn't have the history,

that McLemore does. And there's no way to answer that question, but that does make this a little bit complicated. The history for McLemore, contextually, is that in 2014, he dressed up in a costume during a show that was supposed to be sort of a secret show. That costume looked like a basically Nazi propaganda version of a Jew,

like it was a hook nose and dark hair. and afterward, for what it is worth, McLemore did immediately issue an apology and even spoke with folks at the Anti-Defamation League about all of that, said that he was just grabbing random stuff to make a costume, didn't even think about the concept that this looked like a Jew. We can all roll our eyes at that. Yeah, I don't know what McLemore was thinking at that time. That's 12 years ago. There was an apology made if we are to accept that Kanye can tour because of, an apology made. I'm going to have to look back at this one instance 12 years ago and accept that apology and move on from it. That's me personally. And I think what's important here is that

like Jewish people and their feelings on all of this, we are not a monolith, particularly Jewish Americans in terms of how we feel regarding the discourse that takes place around Israel and Gaza, the Palestinian people, the Israeli people. There are, are a variety of different feelings within the Jewish community, particularly the Jewish American community. And I personally am not someone who always wants to center just the opinion of Jewish people in this conversation, regardless of the amount of anti-Semitism that may be out there. But Robert Kraft has forced me and us to do that because Robert Kraft has decided that the only thing that matters in this conversation, the thing that he views,

as something that will stop anti-Semitism is to center all of this around the feelings of one Jewish billionaire. And my problem with that is all that does, in my view, is it doesn't slow anti-Semitism. It stokes anti-Semitism to have a Jewish billionaire stifling voices that are trying to say, hey, let's stop a genocide against, you know, Palestinian people, women, children, all of all of the like when you have a a Jewish a rich Jewish voice then stifling those voices from what technically would be free speech right performing in public at a venue like that for people who paid tickets to to see it and may not have paid to hear that there's a variety of

people there too this is a lot a wide variety of people who are involved in in witnessing and seeing all of this it it's sends to me the wrong message. It doesn't send the message that you want. It only stokes the flames of whatever anti-Semitism may rise from anti-Israel nature. And I think when we conflate those two things, that's a major issue. That's a big thing right there, right? That Jewish is not equal sign with Israel.

And when I say Israel, I don't mean the Israeli government. The Israeli government, right? Netanyahu. That's a big thing. And there's a lot of that cross, you know, pollination, and it's not an accident, right? They want you, those who support the Israeli government, both materially, financially, politically, they want you to get confused between that and the Israeli people and the

Israeli people and then Jews here in America and all over the world. These are all different, different demographics. And by the way, I will also point out that the bad faith anti-Semitic actors, mostly on the right will absolutely do the same thing and murky those waters to make you also feel like all Jewish people are Israel in the other way to try to sort of stoke the flames of anti-Semitism to build it up. So you have it on both ends of the spectrum there where you have folks who are stoking the comparison of Israel and anti-Semitism to purposefully make you anti-Semitic and you have folks that are doing it as a means to sort of quell anti-Semitism. And it becomes that much more murky and complicated on something that shouldn't be that complicated of an issue. It becomes a conversation about censorship, artistic expression. It becomes a conversation about billionaires using their money wrong. And I'll just keep saying, again, it is not hate speech to say that we need to stop killing children.

I just want it known, though, that from everything that we've talked about here, it's upsetting to me. me that like there are a number of things that are upsetting to me here but included in it is what an idiot macklemore is for wearing a costume for sure i'm gonna pop some tags i got $20 in my pocket we don't have to pretend that's good music that was great music