The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Big Suey: Did You See The 360 On 14?!

Episode Date: July 29, 2024

Olympic GoldZone host Andrew Siciliano joins the show to talk everything Olympics. Plus, Lebron has been under the microscope since he was 16 and deserves the praise he's getting. Wait, who is going to be casted as the new Dr. Doom in the revamped MCU? Also, Stugotz's birthday surprise shows up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. McRispy fans, there's a new jaw-dropping McRispy at McDonald's. It's called the Firecracker McRispy. It has the crispy, juicy, tender chicken you love, topped with crispy jalapenos and a super tasty sweet and spicy sauce. You'll wish this spectacle of flavor never ended. Try the new Firecracker McRisbee today

at Participating McDonald's restaurants. Make your nights unforgettable with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main event, skip to the good bit using the card member entrance. Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash y amex. Benefits vary by card, other conditions apply.

Welcome to the Big Sui, presented by DraftKings. Why are you listening to this show? The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan LeBattard podcast. I'm sorry, I'm not going to apologize for that. In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging. I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries that if they're just there, that hasn't happened to you guys.

I've done it. And now here's the marching man to nowhere, fat face and the habitual liar. Andrew Siciliano is with us and he's been one of the best for a long time. And he's joining us from Stanford, Connecticut, the Gold's own broadcast. These guys are raving about all the things

Siciliano is doing. He is very much not in Paris right now. This is really the outer fringes of the heights of sports media where he has existed most of my life. But Siciliano, thank you for being on with us. It looks like a lot of fun and the- Well, that room doesn't.

No, the room does not. The coverage- This is a beautiful dressing room. Hi guys, live from Sanford, Connecticut. We can keep the baseball talk going. I'm still a bitter Indians fan from 97. I can't believe Tony Fernandez booted that ball to lead off the ninth inning here and Jose Mesa should have closed it out. So I'm sorry about the Marlins. We can talk baseball with you if you'd prefer, but these guys are super excited about what

you're doing with the Gold Zone broadcast. You guys are trying to do something that's more ambitious than what's been done, right? Yeah, so I mean we've done this but not like this in 2014 2016 NBC tried this for Sochi and for Rio, but honestly nobody saw it It was on there's on something called NBC Olympics comm still a great site by the way But streaming wasn't a thing Peacock wasn't a thing like watching everything on your streaming wasn't a thing. Peacock wasn't a thing. Like watching everything on your phone wasn't a thing. And we had all these embargoes like we couldn't show the gymnastics or the figure skating because that was, you know,

that was had to keep that for prime time. Right. And so it was a much, much different show. This is real. This is big. They built this fantastic studio and everything is live. Drive it to live live live and Like on an NFL Sunday, we might have ten games at once maybe 11 week 18 when everyone's playing at 1 o'clock We could have for the events happening Simultaneously at some points during the two and a half weeks for this

So it's like red zone, but like your head explodes. It's awesome. What did the prep for this look like? Because for the NFL it's the true American pastime. You know all these players. Your prep year after year is pretty much the the previous year and you see some new faces and whatnot but I don't know like I don't know I don't want to doubt you but I don't know how much fencing you knew and and and Judo who you knew and followed. I imagine you had to cast a pretty wide net to, to prepare for all these things. Mike, it's terrifying. Um, full disclosure, I, I still don't know Judo. Like I'm watching

it and I can't figure out what the heck is going on necessarily. Um, I'm, I'm going to sound corny, but NBC has this amazing research staff that literally the day Tokyo ended in 21, they started working on this. And like, I have notes here on cycling, judo, um, canoe slalom. Oh man. What an event. The upper body strength is incredible. Just Fox should have seen just incredible. Jess Fox. You should have seen. Jess Fox for gold.

She was incredible. What a story, by the way. Come on. Did you see the 360 on 14? Mom is a legend. Moved to Australia, where her mom was coaching. Now back in France, winning yesterday, she had never won gold.

I still couldn't figure out what was going on there, because honestly, they just look like they're trying to prevent themselves from drowning. That looks like me in an undertow the entire time. But there's actually method to that. Water polo beach volleyball. What a polo. What a polo. Bro, did you see Ashley Johnson?

Twelve saves, two steals, brother. Plus seven point eight. Come on now. Come on, Andrew. Come on. I'm learning it. Surfing in Tahiti, where there's a 12 hour time difference. Badminton fencing, handball. Handball's awesome. We need more handball in the US.

Like can you imagine Tyree Kill playing handball? Table tennis, rugby, like all of that could be on the air today. So I can't know it all. There's 10,000 athletes and 39 sports. I'm leaning heavily on the research department. I'm gonna read something to you here because John Green, the bestselling author, is writing on Twitter after being on the Gold Zone on Peacock for a single weekend.

Quote, I've taken a lot of drugs in my life, but I've never taken a drug like Peacock's Olympic Gold Zone. What a rush. I'm deeply invested simultaneously in judo fencing, gymnastics and kayaking. Siciliano, have you gotten brief jet on breakdancing? It's Yes, I have. And by the way, we saw that tweet yesterday, we have a group text everyone on the crew that went around and somebody said we're better than meth and then the breaking bad

Gifts started flying Judah I'm sorry breakdancing. It's breaking technically and you should get to know Funny choice. She's a 35 year old s a Lauder Executive in her free time went to an Ivy League school ended up breakdancing When evidently out late one night as a freshman or something like after a few pops and now she could win a gold she is America's best shot to win a gold in breaking and I don't know have you guys seen how this is set up for breaking?

I am supposed to be our show's expert on this I have not yet done. You didn't give us anything Dan. Oh jeez. I know I haven't gotten a brief yet. So Dan you didn't tell me about the S. Water CEO. It's a fire pick. I mean, yeah, B boys and B girls. That's like the official name of the athlete.

Like it's not a fence or it's a, it's a B boy and a B girl. And they're going to be like dance battles. It's a DJ. They don't know what music's coming. It's a 60 second track. And then they're just like dance battles. I go, you go, you go, I go and they're judged. Again, no idea what the music is. And even if you love it and I know you're going to love it, it's not allegedly coming back in 2028. It's

a one year thing here in 2024 in LA. I'm told we're not going to have breaking like flag football comes in and other stuff in 28. So enjoy it while it's here. They don't know the music. That's really unfair. Like, from what I understand, they don't know the music. Like what if somebody gets sailing by Christopher cross dance? That would be awesome. By the way, That would be fantastic if they did that. I think at one point you were in front of 16 boxes. I think I saw you and Hanson in front of 16 boxes with video in them yesterday.

We are just snorting sports right now. What is that box called? What is that box called? I don't know that. So Jack Collinsworth called it the Wonderwall. Little Oasis callback. We're not in London, but why not? I Don't know if it has an official name Deca what is 16 though because the biggest I changed her famous life on red zone. I saw

Octo box the biggest I've ever seen Scott loved that he had one of those yesterday I don't know what the 16 is can Can somebody help me with the Latin prefixes? Somebody? I'm gonna say Hexadeca. I don't know. I got it for you. It's beautiful though. Weird being in the same room as Scott Hanson.

We'll get that information for you, but weird being in the same room with him? It's different. Look, Scott and I worked together for what? 13, 14 years at NFL Network, but we never did the same show together. Maybe, like he and I were talking about it. Maybe there was like a handoff from two different locations for training camp.

Like I like I'm in Denver. Let's go to Scott and Tampa, that kind of thing. But this was the first time I think we were actually on the same set at the same time. I know like sports Twitter lost their mind and it like, it was like the red zone multiverse. Anyone watching Dark Matter on Apple TV? Absolutely. Good show, Joel Edgerton, by the way. Yeah, so it's like that, like Red Zone 1, Red Zone 2.

There were going to be like 10 other Red Zone guys running it at the same time in the multiverse, all trying to kill each other to get back to what's-her-name at the Brownstone in Chicago. Maybe I'm getting too deep here. It was weird. Olympic competition between the both of you. Andrew versus Scott. I would pay to watch that.

It was weird, but we do it every day. So I do the two to five. I'm sorry, I do the 11 to two. He does the two to five. So we do a handoff every day. No one's died. It's not like, it's not like Anchorman. No one has a trident in the back alley in Stanford. And

there's no fighting yet. I think we're okay. You're both exceptional at what you do. Nobody except for you two might know exactly how hard that is because it's a really unique job. I remember the people at ESPN used to say that the doing of highlights on baseball tonight that that was the hardest show to do on ESPN because it's live highlights all day. Nobody but you two, you and Hanson know more than anybody how hard that job is or isn't. So let me ask you a question that is I guess a bit delicate, but I don't mean it this way. You're both craftsmen. You're both exceptional at what you do.

Is there anything that you look at and say he does better than you and that he would look at and grant you that you do better than him? Okay, so that's a great question. I'm gonna, this is gonna sound like I'm avoiding the question. I've never seen his red zone because for 18 years I was doing mine and it's not like I could record it because I had direct TV so I didn't get his and so I would come home and the NBC game was already on Sunday and the football was already on and I know you're going to say well why didn't you watch last year well a lot of times I was at Rams games I did a bunch of Browns games filling in for Jim Donovan when he stepped away for a little bit the number of Sundays where I was actually home on my couch, I can count on like one hand.

Though I've never actually seen it. I can say this, Scott's really good at what he does. Like as a NFL network anchor, he's awesome. And I always thought he did a great job with everything he did there. But again, it's gonna sound like I'm avoiding it. I've never seen it. No, no, no, understood.

That makes sense. You had four chances to watch it. You're avoiding watching the show. I mean, you had four, no, no. Understood. That makes sense. You had four chances to watch and you're avoiding watching the show. You had four opportunities to do so. Four chances and you declined each of the four times to do so. I think that is statement enough and obvious in how loudly it speaks. I'll say this. He's doing a really good job on Goldzone. I am watching that. He's doing a great job. He's setting up all the swimming well. He's getting all the gold medal swimming. And so that's amazing.

He's killing it with that. I will say that a lot of people miss you. And if you're a Siciliano person, you are not a Hanson person and perhaps vice versa, because you've learned to be like your Sunday experience is unique to you. And this is the voice that you've written with for a long time. NFL Network laid you off in April after 13 years. Did that hurt? Were you expecting it?

You're a huge professional and you will have no shortage of opportunities obviously after that. Without getting into the contractual side and whether I expected it, that's a different issue. Yeah, it did hurt. I mean, look, you're there 13, 14 years. It was something when you knew what happened14 years, it was something we knew what happened one day, maybe not that day. I was not the only person

that day. However, that's been well publicized. So, you know, I kind of felt for everybody. There are a lot of us in that same boat. The business is tough these days. I totally totally get it. I'm going to miss the friends. I made a lot of friends there. Thankfully, a lot of us still live in the same neighborhood. I see them all the time. Yeah, I mean that that you know, was what it was. But I'm not the first I'm not the only one. And it probably won't be the last time. You know, a lot of us have been told go elsewhere in this business. So I'll do that. I still love football. I'm still, you know,

knee deep in it, still doing the Rams. I believe here in Stanford two weeks from now and then get on a plane and got Rams Cowboys the next day. On ABC seven in LA. So still keep it involved there. And ready for the next chapter, whatever that is. Any blessings or learning in it? And ready for the next chapter, whatever that is. Any blessings or learning in it? Blessings or learnings?

Always always download everything you need on your computer because you never know what's blessings or learnings. No, it's not like I took anything. It's just, you know, you got to get ready for those things. Blessings or learnings. Hey, don't be afraid to do your own thing. I think you guys, and I mean this, it's a brave new world out there and it could be scary but you guys have built something.

Don't be afraid to go out on business on your own because sometimes it can be wonderful. I know it's not easy but but, uh, wouldn't recommend it. Oh, yeah. Well, but at the same time, do it, own it, be proud of it. And if it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't. Um, you know, there's, uh, there's some pride in, in ownership. I'd have to believe, right? Uh, yes, absolutely. There's no, no, it's just, it's just very hard. It's much easier. I mean, it's just it's just very hard. It's much easier. Unlimited PTO. I mean, it's amazing. Much easier to have a safety net without, uh, with an employer.

Much easier. Self-employment. No, no, totally. And not to get too inside baseball here. Everyone said, oh, do your own thing. Well, there's a million people doing their own show in their own basement, right? I mean, everybody has a show in their basement these days. Not that you guys are in your basement. This is a beautiful studio, but you get my point. You're in the basement, sir. Look, it's a great new world.

You call it the Gold Zone, but you're in the basement, sir. We're in Miami on the Bay. You're pretending to be in Paris when you're in a dressing room in Stanford. As you said, it is very nice to be wearing a suit that somebody else bought and paid for. It is very nice to be in a studio that somebody else bought and paid for. I enjoy that part of the business as well.

Andrew, we like to play a little game around here called Shopput for Your Life, okay? Okay, Ryan Crouser for Your Life. Really, it was Joe Kovacs or Ryan Crouser. You're going Crouser, huh? There you go. Wow. I think, yeah, why not? You're prepared. You're good. Siciliano, we're going to check in with you again, all right? I want to check in with

this dressing room occasionally during this. I know you're very busy, but if you have a time here and there to sneak in with us and do some laughing, we'd love to have you around. I'm here. I'm on at 11 every day. So perfect time. Whenever you need. All right. Thank you, sir. You got it boys see it. It was Colin Farrell playing the penguin. What? Folks the Dan LeBittard show is sponsored by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? Maybe you never skip leg day or therapy day. When your schedule is packed with kids activities,

big work projects and more it's easy to let your priorities slip. Even when we know what makes us happy, it's hard to make time for it. But when you feel like you have no time for yourself, non-negotiables like therapy are more important than ever. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule.

Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. Self-care and therapy work hand-in-hand to support mental health. While therapy provides professional guidance and support, self-care empowers individuals to take active steps towards their well-being outside of therapy sessions. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash DLB to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp.com slash DLB to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp

help dot com slash DLB Don LeBattard, I got somebody here making fun of me. How old do you have to be to reference Shecky Green man? I went comedically there with the funny name of a comedian That's on you for not knowing who Shecky Green is. You don't have to know who Shecky Green is But I'm your ally. No, no. Yeah, I don't like my allies here. The king of the borscht belt. Stugatz. I have the soul of a borscht belt comedian. I should be in the Catskills in 1945 opening for sheki green. That's who I was destined to be. This is the Don Leventhal Show with the Stugatz. When we talk Stug God about the mental strength of some of these human beings who are competing for four years to have, you know, in some cases, ten seconds. You've

got ten seconds to be great. The mental strength that requires is fairly amazing. It'll test even someone like Simone Biles who is clearly the best gymnast anyone's ever seen. You have all this preparation for this one moment and you've got no idea what song they're playing. It's like I've got I think I got a couple moves I know where I'm gonna go with it and then boom you can call me Al. I'm guessing that that's probably not I'm gonna say that there are restrictions on what the music is. There's going to be a genre involved. I don't think it's going to be.

They've got to have an idea of the BPMs. Because you're like ready for like 115 and then ba-da-ba-ba-ba. Although that would be a pretty fire routine. Yeah, it might be. The thing that I'm talking about, those two gods, when I talk about the mental strength this requires, when I open the show talking about whatever it is that Michael Jordan had to overcome, and when I say that Tiger Woods tripped over something at the end, Tiger Woods, the rules changed on him.

We weren't reporting about that stuff before tiger woods around michael jordan we weren't talking about surekins restaurants and stuff and so what lebron has done in it slalom coursing through the twenty years he has makes it so that a lot of people react to how i open the show with yelling at me why do you keep filleting this guy? It's always some version of this. It is amazing when you think about, you know, 20 years he has survived the social media era

without, you know, without a bad story, without a bad off the court thing. It's not just pretty amazing. Right. It's unbelievable. It really is. It's not something that makes any sense. And we've been so busy. You're saying well Danny gets plenty of praise Yeah, but we've covered him unlike anyone since he was 16

but as Amazing as that story is it was not even the most amazing story in American celebrity And it's not even the most amazing story in American black celebrity. Snoop Dogg are you kidding me? How do you go from murder trial to you are an American mascot over 50 representing hip-hop still? Like how is that possible that Snoop Dogg is beloved cultural icon in every living room and he outlasted marijuana stigma. Like he just outlasted it. Just like, just like LeBron outlasted Bayless, Snoop Dogg did something better. He outlasted our repressions on marijuana. I'm genuinely curious. I want to look it up. Like who's in charge of making

these broadcast decisions for NBC because they've knocked it out of the park. And I imagine maybe they had a lot of plans for the last Olympics that got impacted by COVID and maybe they couldn't do it. But I don't know if you've seen the ratings increase. Yeah, they've been great. It's up 83%. This is an astronomical number to have 32.4 million people watching your Saturday coverage, your day one coverage of the Olympics is astronomical. It's bonkers.

It's one and a half times, it's two and a half times Caitlin Clark in here in this country. It's crazy numbers. Mike, how about meeting the moment because you just heard me lament and joke Gallo's humor with Siciliano about the difficulties in building a business. Stugat, this is really an amazing time in broadcasting

where the streaming services have to match our need for stimuli. They have to advance and evolve the product. It can't be the way that they used to cover the Olympics. They have to give you more, they have to put it on your phone, and it has to be impeccable from another country. That shit's really hard to do without rampant mistakes.

Yeah, but even beyond the technological advancements and just the massive undertaking that this entire broadcast is, decisions like putting Peyton Manning, Snoop Dogg, and Kelly Clarkson on the broadcast, like, nobody has a problem with those people, right? Nobody. An Olympic broadcast. Despite Snoop Dogg's past, like there's a reason why he's on everything.

Everyone finds him funny. Everyone likes him. Peyton Manning, everyone likes him. Kelly Clarkson, nobody has a problem with Kelly Clarkson. These are all decisions that they're making. But can I, yes, and also, murder trial. Yeah, but it's people like, a lot of people are learning about that when you say it.

It was like pre-internet, like no one knows. He's dancing with the torch and all of us were expecting him to light up with it. And he respects our country too much and what it has given him to use that torch to light up with it and he respects he respects our country too much and what it is given him To use that torch. You don't think he has lit a single joint using that torch. You're crazy I bet you was in his contract put it on the pole Please do you at LeBatard show has Snoop Dogg used the torch to light a joint? Yeah, they have Colin Jost covering surfing if you've read Colin Jost book

Which we were all supposed to read for the book club and I was the only person that listened read it and he had a surfing accident which Jimmy Buffett saved his life so it makes sense that Colin Jost is on it but these are all pretty inoffensive people I saw like a I read like a totally overthought article on like the Twisters success and now Hollywood's like here's a movie that everyone will like including the South nothing political about this everyone's got a high Q rating. This is something for everybody. And NBC's really done that with their coverage.

They really focus on getting likeable people that are totally inoffensive. I enjoy watching how all of these entities in the modern age of competition are going to fight to get our dollars uh... deadpool and wolverine talks about four called quadrants of demos are rated movie never reaches that many groups it's just not this is the biggest are rated movie in the history of already movies and the last one was deadpool at a hundred thirty three million in two thousand and sixteen because it's a it's uh... it's unusual to be able to get everybody inside of the tent.

Did any of you guys watch Deadpool and Wolverine over the weekend? I was really high for it. I got an opportunity. I'm not going to give any spoilers away, but it surpassed pretty high expectations, I thought, entering in it. And for an R-rated movie that breaks a fourth wall and I thought it had a surprising amount of heart towards the end of it and I really enjoyed it.

And then my experience got a little diluted afterwards by the news of Robert Downey Jr. rejoining the Marvel Cinematic Universe because this was kind of posited as like perhaps a reset to the very confusing multiverse thing and it didn't quite do that but maybe it's a sort of fixing it but I love the movie. Great action, great soundtrack, great acting and chemistry between the two leads. It was really fun. My point being that there are more and more ways for the system to get rigged by the people who know how to rig it to get

us and manipulate us into the tent because they know the things to feed us and the Olympics. The streaming bet that Peacock has made, they have poured a ton of dollars into getting into a game that Apple now has to do. I just finished presumed innocent uh... it it was great anger right uh... yeah it was great and i did think the ending it fell apart a little bit but uh... at apple is uh... has only had ted lasso they've had blackbird are they are making big giant things and having difficulty for whatever the reason is

having things that cross over on the matter, severance, things that cross over, and a lot of people, you keep talking about the sixth episode of Sugar, but Peacock- I'm not waiting six episodes. That's the thing, nobody's got time for that. Mike is shocked by whatever happens in the sixth episode of Sugar. Guys, we're getting really close to me saying, all right, I'm going to spoil this shit for you, because because I need to talk about this I saw it so you don't have

just hold on to it for a second it's no he's an investigator he's swath episodes it's too much and something happens it's not it's Colin Farrell as not the penguin and and I just I haven't done this in a while right hollywood kind of close down obviously and the content dried up a little bit i haven't watched something the way that i watch presumed innocent in a while where i watched the way that i watch those are which is like six and i six and a weekend seven in a weekend you just uh... you you just don't stop watching but

apple is now cutting back on some stuff even with all of the money in the world. Yeah, they've spent a lot of seed money and I've kind of been astonished. I've only watched a handful of Apple shows myself and my wife, for whatever reason, Apple, like it works for her. If Apple's got a new show, she will watch it

and she likes pretty much all of them. And I'm just astonished at the budget and how well made these things are, but I'm also astonished at like, does anyone know this is existing? Because- It's weird, it's weird. The amount of money behind that wall,

it's weird that it can be a secret. And the reason why I know like, not everybody's watching the art that they're making is like, if you saw this sixth episode of sugar you'd be talking about it this would not be a secret that could be kept it is so absurd it's the craziest left turn the show has ever taken and it's a well guarded secret because nobody's out I'm the only one that knows Mike just told me what me what it was. I think I'm in now. OK. I think I might have to watch a sixth episode together. Hold on.

You know what it is. Just hold on. Yeah, but now I'm in. But Mike's the only one willing to go to a sixth episode. It's like from dusk till dawn, if you didn't watch a trailer for it, and you're like, OK, this is cool. Wait, vampire movie?

What the hell? That's kind of the turn that it takes. Also, Invasion, Foundation, bro, they got so many good shows on Apple+. Please give them a try today. Can I criticize the Olympic coverage for just a second though? Because we're all sitting here praising it. I don't know what NBC is doing.

Like show me the games during the day, okay? I don't need to see a replay at night because I was glued to my TV at night, 400 free, one of my favorite events every summer games, okay? Because I wanted to see Katie Ledecky and right before The you know right before they swam my wife says to me she won the bronze and I'm like, what are you doing? And what is NBC doing? Are you just giving the games during the day? Give me Bob causes at night running through the highlights I mean you're complaining about what they're literally doing He they like it wasn't causes but they were giving you the highlights and are you just grasping time zones?

I am, yes, but Ledecky, I wanted to see that 400 free. Really what I'm doing here is lashing out at NBC when I should be lashing out at Abbey for telling me the results. Or lashing out at yourself for not watching as it's happening. Listen, I want Costas, run through the highlights, give me the day's events, that's what I want at 8 p.m.

Okay, in out one hour, I'm covered on the games. It's two guys' defense. They could put in the corner of the screen. This is a replay. Thank you somewhere People who go to the club well, they're kind of doing that the live graphic is missing So that's how I've pieced things together, but the Rears do allow you to catch up on something There's a million things going on. Isn't it called I'm trying to follow all of it It's hard isn't it called the primetime Olympics recap? Like isn't that like? Yeah, they're not trying to fool anybody. Well they're recapping. Don't show me the event again. I think I'm watching a fresh 400 free a month. Dude, you think Katie Ledecky is going to be entering the pool at 3 30

a.m. local? What is this the UFC? I never know. When you're hiring for your small business, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn jobs. LinkedIn jobs has the tools to help find the right professionals for your team, faster and for free. As MetalArk Media continues to grow as a content studio, we strive to hire only the best and most qualified candidates. Thankfully with LinkedIn, they've made it easy for us to find them.

LinkedIn isn't just a job board. LinkedIn helps you hire professionals you can't find anywhere else. Even those who aren't actively searching for new jobs might be open to the perfect role. In a given month over 70% of LinkedIn users don't visit other job-leading sites. So if you're not looking on LinkedIn you're looking in the wrong place. On LinkedIn, 86% of small businesses get a qualified candidate within 24 hours. Hire professionals like a professional. On LinkedIn, post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash prep. That's LinkedIn.com slash P-R-E-P to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Don LeBretard. Many of you, by the way, are writing in and you're saying, Dan, quit being so mean to

co-hosts that you always deem incompetent. That's the formula, man. Me being mean to the co-host is what allows Stugatz to take a very wealthy vacation right now. Stugatz. It's a winning position for everyone but me. Have you guys not figured this out yet? That's the whole thing is me being rotten straight man as everyone else gets to be incompetent

and I yell at them for being incompetent and here's the miracle of it, it's the magic elixir. Bad, which is the only thing Greg Cody can be, becomes good and lovable. And it's because standing next to obnoxious strident me makes everyone look that way. And the brush with death helped. Yeah, that was planned by me. The whole thing was contrived. This is the Don LeBathar Show with the StuGots. So we mentioned earlier that today is StuGots' birthday.

Happy birthday to him! I don't care! Good luck! And now we believe that we give Stugatz the greatest gift that can be given to him on his birthday. What could it be, Stugatz? Do you have any guesses on where if we were able to successfully surprise you it would be very exciting to you? Gummy. Okay but that's a physical gift. How about a person? If we were to give you the gift of a person, a guest on our show,

a gummy is the best gift anybody can give you. I mean a gummy and a Monday, what is better than that? Are you kidding me? I would say in terms of people perhaps, I don't know, maybe my dad? I have no idea who you're bringing on, right? Oh my god, I see him! Better than your dad. I see him! Oh my god, I might be your dad!

There it is, it could be your dad. What a gift! I'll get him on day! He is your doggy daddy on a Monday. Your idol. I don't know how he would have felt. Has the word gotten back to you on Stugat's ransacking WFAN last week? You have received word. Mad Dog, does Mad Dog come with great praise and great pride for his protege dominating the FAN airwaves good morning good morning

we're happy to see you good morning hello doggy hello there and happy birthday dan how are you happy birthday and i did hear some of his scenarios last week with talking about long baseball games and nonsense that he was spooing out with I believe Greg GM Well, happy birthday. Thank you. How do you feel? Old, dog. What do you mean old? I feel old. You're 52. I know, but you sit around, doggy. You know how it is. You do these things for 20 years, four hours a day.

Your brain starts to melt away. My body is evaporating. I feel old. I feel like an old 52. I certainly don't feel young. I mean, I just don't, dog. I'm sorry. But your mind is young.

You got Danny with you. Yeah, your show is hot Yeah, you got podcasts all over the place Yeah, you still you know You have other big radio stations wanting a piece of you on a holiday week as last week was you yes? I mean you've done you got Christopher Russo not that I'm not a big a deal, right? But you got Christopher Russo checking in yeah You got Stephen a showing up at Super Bowls to do your podcast for Clown Out Loud like you did last year in Vegas. Yeah. I mean things are going well for you. You know what? You know what, doggy?

I needed this. Thank you. And that's why you are the greatest gift that I could receive today. I needed perspective. You are right. Life is great, doggy. I now feel energized again. How about that? Here's the problem though the problem though mad dog i'm gonna knock him down here just a little bit as he feels better because he was just lamenting after doing four full days of morning radio stuff that on the fourth day he was trying to hobble through a hotel lobby and somebody saw him walking the doggy data said forever that nothing will age you not being the president of the united states will age you as much as hosting a morning show and he's right oh it's

terrible so on the next time what time Jeff they get up every day I was like I don't know 415 in the morning 345 some days I couldn't sleep I'm watching the clock the clock is always chasing you but I did it for four days perhaps I should have only done two days but on the fourth day i had to drive back up to rochester afterwards i get to the hotel the sun's coming down to the dark out and a lady is walking out of the hotel and i'm hobbling into the hotel and she looks at me she says papa she thought i was a grandfather doggy that's not like i had that so much i aged at four days into a morning drive with Gio.

I mean, papaw. With your baseball cap on and sunglasses and you hunched over. That is rough. And you have to be careful on those drives after you work, because you could fall asleep at the wheel. That's a long drive to rock, Justin, for crying out loud.

You gotta be careful with those kind of drives. Danny's right. No. Nothing ages you more than getting up and watching the clock if you can't sleep is an unmitigated disaster. I sense that sometimes on the Wednesdays when I get up earlier to do run into Manhattan you are 1000% correct but you were successful a big hit as usual and now you're back in your normal domain here. But here's here's the thing though mad dog

This is why people don't understand what a beast you are you were doing six and a half hours Yeah, he's doing he's doing afternoons though It is afternoon. It is afternoons and it's different, but you guys at the height of sports radio We're doing six and a half hours a day. I think it was five and a half. Your stamina is absurd. It's asinine. Well, five and a half, thank you for the extra hour, but it was five and a half, but that was still long enough. I'll tell you what was the hardest thing I ever did

was five hours on Sirius when I first got there in 2008 because there was no commercials and I didn't realize how much content that required. So that took a lot out of me those first five years. But Stu Gartz is right. Not doing it in the morning, Dan, you know, getting up at four o'clock to do five hours, that is freaking hard.

Your day feels good at 11 a.m., especially on Fridays when you know you got basically a two and a half day weekend, but it is very tricky morning radio, that length of time. Afternoons, you can manage it a little better. You can, you know, if you can sleep to eight o'clock, it's a little different. But the grind of daily radio in EAM is a very, very difficult assignment. But Mad Dog, but this is a place where Stugatz needs some of your effervescent forever youth. He got caught with his pants down last week

because he doesn't care about Mets Yankees the way that you will forever care about Mets Yankees. That you're fundamentally incapable of not caring about the second inning of a Mets Yankees game. And Stugats didn't care about it the way you care about it. Why, Doug, you're kidding. Obviously Mets and Yankees played the two games last week and the Yankees got swamped, so that's a bigger story

and Stugats is breaking down seven-hour baseball games without his phone on. Yes, that is a tricky scenario. There are things that you have to create content if you're on the air. If you're doing local radio and the baseball teams are good, you gotta concentrate on games in July, you know, when they still got 50, 60 games to go. Anybody can do the football in the football season

because that's a gift that never stops giving on Mondays. With all the recaps, Tuesday with the Monday night, Friday with the preview and a Thursday recap. You got the college football. Those days are easy. Sports Talk, you know Danny, sports talk now has become a six or a seven month deal with NFL. Once you get to say middle of February into say August 1st, sports talk becomes a lot harder. There's no question about it. Doggie, my issue with what was going on in New York last week is I'm not going to sit here like sitting next to Dan has, I've learned some lessons and I've been armed with some perspective and so years ago I would have blasted the Yankees for having a bad stretch but what are we doing? They've

won like 30 World Series the team is a game out in the world they're a playoff team and a game out in the AL East and I have Gio sitting next to me firing everybody. I know, I know. I mean, baseball in the New York area with the Yankees and Mets is sort of a game by game deal and baseball is not a game by game sport. So you are 1000% correct. And the Yankees just win two games against the Red Sox. They make the trade to get Chisholm there, which will help a little bit. Give him a little personality. Yes. I mean, I completely agree. Baseball is a tricky sport to go through on a game-by-game basis

because no one game is that significant. So as a result of that, it's hard to get a read sometimes when you, like, when we do what we do, when we want to react to games, it's hard to get a read. I have been... You know, I heard you guys discussing a read. I have been, you know, I heard you guys discussing the Olympics. I've been surprised.

The first three days I've watched more of the Olympics than I thought I would. And I actually watched the Djokovic Nadal thing this morning on Peacock, that Olympic second round match. So I have been focused more on it than I thought I would. You know, and I know the time difference and I know what they do at night is sort of a review of the whole day, but I did watch the basketball game

yesterday too. So maybe that will carry us the next 10, 12 days of your talk shows. This interview is presented by LinkedIn jobs. All right, doggy, you brought up Nadal. Mike and I were talking before you came on. Nadal Federer-Jokovic, it feels like we're seeing the very end of Nadal's career. It's been a great career. I think

it's been 22 majors. Is he the worst of those three? Which is incredible. The fact that we can have that conversation is absolutely amazing. But is he? 100%. You know, that's a very good question. You know, Nidal looked old today, didn't have the punch with his shots. He had the cloud behind him too, you know, lost relatively easily at 6-1, 6-4. He has not been a factor for a couple of years now. He's got 22, Joker's got 24, and obviously Federer's got 20. It depends where you want to go. The thing about Nadal that is a negative is Nadal's got 14 of his 22 majors in one place and that's in

Paris. Yeah. So he doesn't have the distribution of majors as well as say Djokovic does and Federer does. His dominance on clay is unparalleled but he's only won two Wimbledons which is amazing when you think about it. He's only won two Wimbledons. He's won two Wimbledons, two Australians, and he's won four U.S. Open. That's seven, 14. I think I might be missing one, but the distribution,

14 of his 22 is in one spot. So that is a little bit of a problem. I'm with you 100% on that. I would probably put him, it's tricky, Djokovic won. I'd probably put Ned Federer to Nadal three, but it's tricky. It's very, very tricky. They're almost all grouped together, but you gotta put Djokovic one because he's got three more majors than the other two guys have.

So he's gotta be one. It's curious because if they were all healthy and didn't have to deal with the injuries, Nadal at his peak was, probably would lay claim to number one, but you can't separate the injuries. What did you make of Djokovic, uh, chirping back at the crowd? He is so excellent that he doesn't really allow for the crowd to get behind

other tennis players when they play. But occasionally when it happens, we see Djokovic lean into his natural heal self and he taunted the crowd playing the sad violin after he eliminated, after he after he eliminated their boy, Rafa Nadal. What'd you make of that? Well, you know, I don't have a problem with it. I mean, that's Djokovic's game set. He gets fired up when the crowd is against him, which is in most places it is.

You know, he's not beloved like the other two are and I do think that bugs him. He's a very good loser though. When he loses he always gives credit to the opponent. You know, he looked at it where he did it, wimbled him with his speech. He's a good loser. He can be a little bit of an annoying guy as a winner. Crowd today wanted Nadal badly.

You had to expect that. And he took somewhat offense to it. You know, I'm not gonna go crazy there. You know, they're gonna root for Alcares too when he plays him here in Paris. But Djokovic, you know, it's interesting with him. He's in a tricky spot right now because he got ambushed by Alcares at Wimbledon.

He's 37. He hasn't, he's only played in one final this year. He has not won a tournament. He's only got this and he's got the US Open. I don't know where he's gonna go in his career. Looks like Sinner's better. Obviously Alcares right now is better. So he's on his swan song too.

Not like Nadal is. He's got some tennis left in him, but he's on his swan song too. But that's what motivates him when he gets annoyed at the folk he always does at the US Open because he's always been, you know, not the hated enemy, but he's always been the villain. And I think that does bother him. He's sensitive. And I do think that does bother him a little bit. And you saw it here today. You know, he's got a good record against Nadal. You know, he's beaten him now three

times on clay. Very few people can, you know, three times at Roland-Garros on clay, very few people can say that he's done well against him in other tournaments outside of clay in majors. You got to give him credit for that. He's got a winning record against Nadal. I think he's 31 and 29. And I think Nadal is a nine and three at the French Open. So I mean, you know, he is number one all time. Now, Harker has is going to be. All right. Enough. Enough. Enough. It's my gift. It's my gift. It is your gift. I'm talking tennis with Doggie.

Enough tennis talk. Happy birthday. We're done with the tennis talk. Mad Dog, I've got a question for you. You've had three portions of your career and I want to know which was the most enjoyable and which was the most fulfilling because those might be different but uh... doing creating sports radio in new york uh... starting ownership of your own serious channel that now results in another three year deal or the present renaissance of being on first take with more notoriety this late in your career nationally than you've ever had uh... which one of those three was the most enjoyable?

Which is the most fulfilling? I would say the number three. First off, it's current, so I'm more focused in on it. I probably didn't handle those 19 years at Mike as well as I could have as far as the dynamic is concerned to relationship, leaving. I probably didn't do as good a job, you know, saying goodbye as I should have.

The radio was hard when I started at Sirius, so I got wrapped up in doing again those aforementioned five hours. I think now, I'm 64 years of age, you know, making the adjustment to going on there once a week for a couple of hours and sort of moving the needle, still doing the radio and being relatively successful with that. I would say, and you know, just the overall last, you know, all the shows that you do and the fact that people have kind of discovered you this late in your life, I'd have to say now, you know, plus throwing high heat with the baseball, still doing that, I would

say this aspect of it, I didn't really quite know what I was doing with the 19 years in the starting Mad Dog Radio. There was a lot of other people who had a lot more success with it, had a lot to do with it as much as I did. Plus I was focused on the radio every day. Now I kind of can spread my wings a little bit, do two or three different scenarios. You know, seeing yourself written about in a Boston Globe, your boyhood paper.

See yourself talked about on Dan Lebertard's show. You know, having fun with Stephen A, having, you know, a lot of the current athletes. So who is this guy? And then realize, you know what, he's better than I thought he was. I think today, the Mad About segments, which, you know, get some juice. I have to say this part of the career here, probably that's more surprising.

So that helps. But I would think that'd be a little more rewarding. Well, you've seen the industry change so much. You're almost responsible for how much sports debate television has become a thing. What is your perspective on everything happening between at first take and undisputed as you watch Stephen A and Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharp fight at the top of sports media?

Well, I mean, I try not to look too deeply into the reasons why sports debate is taking off. I know Mike and me, from a five and a half hour scenario for 19 years, kind of gave people the idea, let's try this on TV, let's fill the airtime. We did it on Yes, so that kind of, we did sports talk on TV, that kind of gave people the idea. Stephen A is a, he's a huge celebrity.

And he is omnipresent, He's all over the place. He's a huge figure. He can branch out into other sports, other things. I don't do that per se. I'm going to stick with the sports. You know, ESPN is where you should be with this because that's where most people get their sports still from. And I, and I just go in there for the two hours once a week and I try to have a little fun make his job a little easier. So I try not to take it too seriously. I think that then he is the key with a guy like me. I think if you go in there after you've been doing this for so long and you sit there and you start taking yourself too seriously, you start thinking

that you may be a little more important than you really are, that you're a little bit more indispensable with the, you know, when you're talking to people who are 30, 40 years younger, who are getting an idea who you are for the first time. Remember, I haven't been on FAN now for a long time. It's been 15, 16 years. Yeah, that's a long time ago. So I think from that standpoint, I think that, you know, I'm sort of a breath of fresh air in a lot of ways. And I, again, I try not

to take it too seriously. I get up in the morning on the Wednesdays, I go in there, I make sure that everybody else gets a chance to shine. I know I got those 10 minutes at 1130 to do the mad abouts. My wife kills me all the time for yelling at the camera, but they seem to like that. I come up with things that are not that are apolitical because the last thing you want to do is being a situation where you get people ticked off and in the wrong way. It's supposed to be fun. And that's how I try to approach it. And now I'll do it as long as the wave lasts. Danny, you and I both know, Stu gots knows, sooner or later the ride's gonna end. So your miles are righted out as

long as you can. And that's kind of my philosophy right now. At 64 years of age, 65 in October, how many people are still doing this? You're not 65, Danny. How many people are still doing this at 65 years of age? Not many, doggy. Listen, this was a great birthday gift. I appreciate you doing it. And I was thinking the entire time while you were talking there, how are we gonna do better next year?

How can we kind of go above and beyond what we did this year for my birthday? And I was thinking, co-host with doggy, what do you think? How about we do that? Yes. How about we do that? I love you, doggy. Is your birthday actually July 29th? It is July 29th, yes. All right. Why don't we try to figure out a way next year? Danny,

you're okay with it if we have Stooguts? Of course, that would be delightful. Very respectful. That would be great. I'll make a promise to you right now. Yes. How about if you and I host, your birthday next year would be on a Tuesday, right? I think so. Now, again, holidays, things could change. Say again, Stooguts? You're on a Tuesday, right? I think so. I just looked it up. Holidays, things could change. Say again, Stu Gutz? You're right, Tuesday, yes. Tuesday. Why don't we plan, now it might be the trading deadline,

which you can't stand anyway with the baseball. Oh, nothing. But why don't we try to plan next year on a Tuesday, you come up and co-host the three hours with me on Serious Man Dog Radio. How about that? Done. Another trip.

I thought it was going to be here. I thought that that? Done. Another trip. I thought it was gonna be here. I thought that that was gonna be here. I didn't think that you guys were doing it there. I thought I- Danny! We have a studio at Siri down in Miami. How about if I go down there and do it? That one, that's what I thought. I wanted to go up there though.

I mean, it's hot down here, Don. That is a beautiful studio. I've seen that Conan O'Brien did some stuff out of there. Howard Stern does some stuff out of there uh... before you get out of here real quick though you say you're a political i want to hear a politics show with mad dog at least in part because of how he pronounces uh... the names of politicians the recall terrible that all the way back at the barack obama was a bad one what about this one which one's worse beric obama or this one

uh... can tell us a rice yeah the right spot is where i think you're fighting in the front of the right one is where i think the right place do you want to try your name here again or without us giving you a hint on how to pronounce it? Or does that put you in a bad spot? Condoleza? Condi doggy. That's an expander from him. Condi. Condi. Part of the committee. In sports now. You don't want to try Kamala, do you? Are you scared of that one? Oh no, Kamala. Yeah, I got that wrong last week too. I get Donald Trump pronounced right. Kamala, Kamala Harris. Yes. I actually did some politics last week. I did a guy, an historian for the Lyndon Johnson Museum down there in Austin, Texas to compare those

speeches with Johnson resigning in 68 with a nomination. So I try to dabble in it a little bit. But again, as I said to you, Dan, this is a lesson for your little buddy right next to you there on his birthday. Stay in your lane. That's the key to one's game. A lesson for me. Mad Dog, good seeing you.

Thank you, sir. Good job, boys. Always nice seeing you. Thank you, doggy. Another happy birthday. See you, buddy. Another happy birthday to him. I don't care.

Good luck. When you're hiring for your small business, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn jobs. LinkedIn jobs has the tools to help find the right professionals for your team faster and for free. As MetalArk Media continues to grow as a content studio, we strive to hire only the best and most qualified candidates. Thankfully with LinkedIn, they've made it easy for us to find them. LinkedIn isn't just a job board. LinkedIn helps you hire professionals you can't find anywhere else. Even those who aren't actively searching for new jobs might be

open to the perfect role. In a given month, over 70% of LinkedIn users don't visit other job-leading sites. So if you're not looking on LinkedIn, you're looking in the wrong place. On LinkedIn, 86% of small businesses get a qualified candidate within 24 hours. Hire professionals like a professional. On LinkedIn, post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash prep. That's LinkedIn.com slash P-R-E-P to post your job for free.

Terms and conditions apply.