The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - David Samson Gives Advice On How To Hire... Someone | Hour 1

Episode Date: August 27, 2026

"I love you guys." David Samson is here to explain what it's like to be booed, then share his thoughts on Deshaun Watson, the Pro Bowl being given the boot, his new Oura ring, Kwanza Jones and the Padres, the elimination of pro scouting departments, and what Jed York did wrong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are listening to the Dan Levitar show in partnership with the Draft King Sports app. Now live in all 50 states. Back streets, back. All right. This episode of the Dan Lebertar show is presented by Draft King Sports. Draft Kings. The crown is yours. Oh, yeah.

Good job, Juju. There he is. Our pal is David Sampson, who has returned to joining us every week here. Of course, the host of Nothing Personal. David, good to see you, of course. You know, I see the question. So is it okay if I ask, you know, for folks out there who are wondering who can't wait for your full-time return to nothing personal? Is there an update there?

As soon as it means, says he'll start listening to the show. This is on you, I mean. Get it in your regular location. It's early. It's all very early in the morning. But it's released in podcast form. Come on, man. Then the day starts.

I got to catch out. I got to listen to this show. Then I'll listen to next show. I'll try. I'll get in there. I'll get in there. I'll squeeze it in a movie. I mean, I appreciate you.

We do so many fun things with Pablo that when I didn't hear your mention of nothing personal, it would be like me being asked about my fellow Pulitzer Prize winner. Do I pay attention to your shows? And the answer is, of course, I pay attention to everything you do because it has so much more weight these days than it used to prior to last September 3rd. That's right. We did Cyborg today. That's the movie. The Cinepho Movie the Week.

That's a good one. What movie is that again? Seiborg with J-CVD. Oh, okay. And nobody else. Is that the one where it kind of gets crucified, but like on a tow truck? No. That's the one where he does.

Which one am I thinking of? That's the one where he does the splits from above and drops down and kills the guy. The bad guy and cyborg looks cool. He's a little weird looking guy. He looks like a Brazilian Samuel L. Jackson. That's right. Well, we're all looking forward when it comes, David. We're all looking forward to the full-time return to nothing personal.

Thank you. I want to get your thoughts here on what we were just talking about. in the local hour, I expect to a Tongue of Iloa tomorrow to be heavily booed by the Dolphin fan as he starts for Atlanta. Does that bother you? No, it doesn't bother me. I just think it's misdirected. I don't understand if you really want to get to a player, just be silent, be indifferent, be disinterested. And I feel as though that's what the Dolphins fans need to do because they've got to move on only in that it was such a painful part of dolphins history and that they thought they had it. He leads the league in passing. They've got this new great Wonder Kid coach who's a little

off but may help them win. And then it ended up being nothing. I think the best way to deal with it is to totally ignore his presence and be totally focused on the reality of what this season means in terms of the future of the dolphins. Don't worry about the three games though. win, but go to like next year or the next year. Did you ever feel bad when you were president of the Marlins? Did you ever feel bad for any of your players who were getting booed? Not in their return as an opponent, but like the home crowd was booing them, their performance, they were struggling.

Did you ever feel bad for one of your players who was getting booed? And they were upset by it, you know? Oh, I've never met a player. Hold on. Let me think about this as. I don't think I've ever had a player come to the clubhouse after a game in tears. because they were booed or angry because they were booed or even focused on the fact that they were booed.

I don't think I've ever even had the conversation. I've been booed when I've been on the field as well in my career. And it just doesn't, it's funny. You don't, it doesn't mean anything because they don't exactly know why they're booing other than they feel as though they wanted something to happen that never happened like winning or like a better play or like a hit in a certain situation

or driving in a run or doing something better with your team. But I really don't think it hugely impacts it. But at the same time, I've never had a player walk into the clubhouse after a game and comment on a standing ovation or comment on the cheering. And it's not to say it's not relevant what fans do because it's for them and it makes them feel good about being active in a game. But I've never had a player come in and then talk about fan reaction. Mike, you know, I felt the one time that I feel,

felt bad that a player was getting booed by his home crowd. You know, for my team, like, I'm there. I'm, I, Antoine Walker. I, I, there, there were times where he was getting booed by our crowd. He missed another three. And, and, and the crowd was rough on him, you know, that second year here, Miami, and I, I felt bad. I, I think locally, there was a point of frustration when Tyler Van Dyke was going through a lot of struggles, we're in the zone defense, and he seemed to have a really difficult time with it. College kid. Yeah, I mean, it was a different era.

They do get paid. But, yeah, looking at him on the sidelines, he seemed to have a really difficult time with that kind of adversity. I'm trying to remember. I'll add another piece of flavor to that, guys, which is a sports psychologist, do you have on staff, whether it's one or a group of two or three sports psychologists. In all of my years, it was never even a topic that would come up where let's deal with booing or how do you feel about the booing? what does it do to your performance? So that's an even truer measure of the impact that it actually has. So David does it, hi, good morning.

Does it surprise you that the way that Deshawn Watson was talking about fans and his reception and booing because it seems like he might be the only player in history then that spoke about it so openly? Like David, how quick was the PR staff for Cleveland scattering on? Holy shit, what are we going to do now? I mean, listen, Deshaun Watson has been the cause of scattering for so many years now. I think that he's a case, Trista, where I can't begin to understand what's in his head or whatever he says has any truth at all. And whether or not he's going for angles or for sympathy or for reclamation, it's hard to understand what his plan is because I've never understood how he's dealt with any of the PR that's accompanied him throughout these years.

So I just, I view him like the East German judge. I just don't count it. Yeah, you know what, to your point the other day, Zaz, you know what helps with those booze? Two World Series championships, one by my boy, so you can boo all you want to, you dig it. It doesn't matter. You have a number 20, Juju.

That is outstanding. Miggy. That's a classic one. Yes, sir. Did David only get one? Yeah, I think that's what he said. one by my boy. Oh, one.

O and E by my boy. Two world championships. One by my boy. I was confused there too. Lingo. Might get the lingo. He gave himself an escape hatch. David, you started being defensive

about nothing personal and whether or not a mean listens to it. I'm happy to announce nothing personal has an opportunity to gain some bragging rights here. Because coming up next week, Draft Kings is going to have something called Draft Kings Game Day, where there will be incredible deals and more on that later.

But we are announcing a free-to-play contest where there will be a show Olympics next week where nothing personal will be represented, the Levitard show will be represented, and Mystery Crate will be represented. And we will have a series of challenges, and you get to play as to whether or not the Levitard show will come out on top, mystery crate will come out on top, or nothing personal will come out on top. It's mystery crate. They just change jerseys and then they play again? Tony will be representing Mystery. Got it. Okay.

Zaz. We'll be representing the Lebitard show. And Koka will be representing nothing personal. I got a call from Koka yesterday about this. And he wanted to know what preparation was required for the different events. And so I assumed as I'm right now training for a marathon, I thought maybe there'd be a half marathon or some sort of strong man contest. So I was ready to get right in there and say, well, listen, let's go out and run five today.

And then we can do a speed workout. and a hill workout, maybe do some lifting. It turns out I may have had the wrong idea of what the events were. This will test mind, body, and spirit, but most of the details are presently embargoed. Also, no strongman competition, but there is a... Strongman! So we will put that free-to-play contest on our social media at LeBotard Show, so you can get in on the action there, and more details will emerge,

as to what we got cooking next week. 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 Quervo effect. It's like that moment in a big game

where everyone in the crowd just starts. Start standing up, hooting and hollering. Keep it quervo. Keep it quervo, baby. Dan Levitar. There's sunglasses and boxes today. But it must be all the same. Jeremy Tache.

It's the final night. This is the Dan Levitar show. Did you see No More Pro Bowl? Yo, why can't we just play on? Why does everybody got pointed out and laugh? David, you see no more Pro Bowl. The NFL, they pulled the plug. That's it. We love the Pro Bowl and it's no more. Well, you didn't love the Pro Bowl. No.

Because if you loved the Pro Bowl, then the Pro Bowl would still be the Pro Bowl. The fact is, nobody loved the Pro Bowl, the players, the fans. They tried Hawaii. They tried Orlando. They tried to make it flag football. And they finally realized that they can't tinker with it anymore. The best thing to do is just eliminate it. And it's tough timing because there's a lot of talk about CTE. and it's hard to argue that the reason why there's no Pro Bowl is nobody wants to play an extra game of football that doesn't count. They just don't feel like taking the chance.

The other leagues have issues with their All-Star games and they deal with it through creative ways to change the competition. The NBA goes to World v. World or they have players who are drafting Major League Baseball figures out do we wear home uniforms, do we wear special uniforms? Do we have maybe a designated hitter who can hit anytime? So everyone's trying to figure out how to make it more compelling. The NFL realized this isn't about compelling. This is about the fact that our sport leads to brain injury and death. So therefore, we're not going to tinker with the Pro Bowl. We're just going to eliminate it.

I kind of, maybe I'm in a minority. I like what they did the last couple of years where we're just going to make it a bunch of crazy skills competitions. Right. Like just show me how incredible these athletes are in a way that doesn't put them at risk of getting clobbered. But they didn't have a broadcast partner who said that's sufficient. There has to be an anchor event for a Pro Bowl weekend. You can't just have an NBA All-Star weekend and make it just a three-point contest or NHL with the skills competition or majorly baseball with the derby. You have to have the game that comes with it.

And the NFL just couldn't provide it in the networks, including NFL. NFL network, which now obviously we know is not controlled by the NFL anymore, there were no takers. And so you combine that with the fact that the players weren't interested, fans, broadcasters. What is that result in? Cancellation. David, do you own an aura ring? Is there a chance that there's a camera that is watching me as I'm waiting for you to start four minutes late that I don't know about? And I'm asking, because, because life is weird, and I don't know if you can see this phone right here. Okay.

I don't know where to hold it. Yeah. Okay. So what I'll read to you is order placed thank you. Really? Shipping to David Samson tomorrow, August 28th, or a ring five. Well, I did it at 9.38 a.m. And I finished around 9.42 thinking I wouldn't be able to finish because we would have started on time.

Well, yeah, maybe we knew. Maybe we knew you needed another couple of minutes. But hold on a second. You're buying an aura ring now after Trista told us yesterday that aura ring is bull- So I have one that I've been wearing and it has become an addiction of mine because I track my sleep. I track my activity. I track my steps. I don't track the women's health part of it.

But that doesn't mean I shouldn't. I just don't. But there are all sorts of things. And I like also the concomitant tan line that results from wearing the aura ring on the middle finger because it makes when you give the middle finger that much more impactful. So Trista, I am all in on the aura ring, though I do understand why there would be people who would be hesitant. So you think that the sleep data is real and not Fugazi? I love where your heads at because I mapped it. So what does that mean?

During the night when I'm waking up all the time. You're a notoriously terrible sleeper, right? Terrible. So last night, I'll just so you guys are the, I love you guys. I really do. Thank you. So let me tell you about last night just because it's so good. So here's what it says.

Sleep, 57, pay attention, build on your efficiency. see total sleep three hours and five minutes now that's interesting only in that i want to see when it has me awake so it has a chart of when i was awake why does that matter because during the night when i open my eyes i have a pen and paper next to my bed and i would write down okay awake from 1245 to 1248 and so i'll write that down and then when i close my eyes i obviously don't write it again. And it also tells me about my oxygen, my heart rate, my breathing to see whether or not I have any apnea, which I don't. And then we'll go through every day about my readiness to run when I should run. How does a ring know this? How does a ring do all this? Oh, he's not breathing well.

Oh, it absolutely can look, here it is. Yeah. And if you look inside, there are these sensors that somehow attached to your nasal cavity. I haven't figured that one out yet, though. I just make it shut up. David, I kind of want to go back to the Deshaun thing because I'm interested your perspective here. He has an order ring? On what DeShan said, going at the fan base, this is now a public relations crisis with Deshawn Watson.

What else is new? This is the latest layer on that. But he actually just brought a bunch of old back into the spotlight here. Goes at the paying customer. The paying customers are now properly pissed because not only do you have this guy being bad, not only is he taking a shot at your fan base,

he opened the door to bring up all the old shit again. And if you're Jimmy Haslam, you're the one guy that believed in Deshaun Watson the most, and now he's going at your fan base. How do you handle it? I'd like to do a top five if you guys don't mind. Whoa. The top five times that it worked when an athlete or front office executive went after the fan base. Yeah, let's do it.

Number five. Number four. Okay. Mike. Do you get it, Jeremy? It's a lose. You can't do it. What was number one?

Number one. Skip to number one. The number one time works. Jim Fosser, telling everybody to get in. This team is going to playoffs. Playoffs? That's Jim Moore. No, the answer is that I would go talk to Deshawn,

except I realized that I would never go talk to Deshaun because what's the use? You said the latest PR crisis. He's not a player who I would spend a minute on. I wouldn't have my PR guys go talk to him. I wouldn't have my team president, the owner. He's a lost cause. There's no, and there are players like that, not many, but they're just players. You just ignore.

Well, he could be a lost cause, David, but the things he's saying can hurt your bottom line if the fans are angry. So my view of that, Zaz, is I, and maybe Mike is an erstwhile Browns fan. Do you care anymore what Deshaun Watson says? Look, it definitely has cost them money. Now, they could replace a fan like me, no doubt. But over the last few years where I haven't been a Browns fan, they've lost thousands of dollars just from me. And there are many like me.

And I don't know if the current state of affairs means they're just getting new Browns fans. Generationally, you'll have some fans come of age. But I do think it's hurt their bottom line, no doubt. But were you going to reinvest this year? What do you mean? In the Browns, I'm done with the Browns. Like, the only way that I could have reinvested is if, like, they'd got Cam Ward. What he's saying is that they already lost you. So like the people they lost

right. Right. But when they lost me, they lost decades of revenue. But David's point is they're not losing more people right now because of Deshaun Watson. Well, no, that's not, that doesn't seem to be the case. They're like, it seems pretty hot. People are screaming at their training camp. People are putting signs on, on Jim Brown statues. It does seem like this is a tipping point for the few that stuck around that were uneasy about it that are just like, man, now he's going at me? Get out of here. Historically, my view is that the Deshaun Watson situation is we've already seen the financial

impact. And so anything he does going forward, I do not believe will add to the negative financial impact that he has wrought upon his team. But let's talk about the other side. Is there a scenario where you would go back to being a Browns fan if, they shove a 13 and 4 into your brain this year? No, like the scenario that would allow me to come back to the Browns is what I've said before, which is they get a Cam Ward, somebody with Miami ties, or if there's like a hypothetical

where one of my favorite players like Baker Mayfield ends up back with the Browns. What about ownership change? That would certainly help because I would still feel some type of way. I'm not saying I would be back if Cam Ward were there. I'd have a lot to think about, but I have a serious issue with Jimmy Haslam and how he's run the team. Yeah, and now you're somewhere on the in the pipeline of how do we, remember, it's way harder to keep a customer, to get it, to keep a customer is what you want to do versus getting a new customer. Getting back an old customer is the hardest part of the sales prism. And so what has to be done to get your money back, Mike, the juice just isn't worth that because you have to invest so much into getting you back.

And the reality is that what Deshaun Watson's doing now, people are screaming. and hanging stuff on the Jim Brown statue. I'm not sure that they're investors in the team in any way. And if there are season ticket holders who are calling now to cancel because of what Deshaun Watson did, it's much like the cable companies getting calls canceling when there's a blackout.

There is a tipping point. You ignore, you ignore, you ignore, and then you say, well, wait a minute, now I'm not going to ignore. I don't think the Browns are anywhere near that with Sean Watson. Given what they've already lived with with him and not simply jettisoned him away, which I would have done immediately, they've kept him. This certainly is not going to tip the scales.

And also there's a trend going on online where people are burning their Deshawn Watson jerseys. That's nonsense, though. And I would like to call out that that's kind of a self-owned because why the hell you got to brown Shoshan Watson Jersey, Brer? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, that's nonsense. I just slightly disagree with David because there is a new layer to this.

He's going directly at the paying customer in ways that he hasn't before. That's bad news for someone who does not have the baggage or the poor performance that Deshaun Watson has. You've had it. Look, Ozzy Gien, he went at your customer base and it was a huge crisis for your organization, at least in public relations. Now, we've had the conversation that you don't actually think it affected your bottom line at all, but it is an all hands-on-deck situation for the franchise. It was definitely all hands-on-deck,

and he was coming from a place of being loved. And the issue is how far, when there's a PR crisis, one of the first things you think about in the PR crisis is, how far are we away from where we were? And for Deshaun Watson, I don't view him as being very far away from where he was, which is directly correlated with how big the crisis is. someone who's as beloved as Ozzy Gian

when he starts talking about Castro in Miami you are so far from where you were that that leads to all hands on deck for a crisis. Tony, you know that moment at a party or at 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. Down lebatar. If Daniel Day Lewis did it, you'd be jerking off all over yourself. Oh, come on. Yeah, I would be.

Aggressive description. I mean, what is it? What is that? I'm just saying. You know what? That's me. You're just saying what? That's me. Daniel DeLuis does something.

I see that photo of Daniel Day Lewis looking like Lincoln before he's about to start filming Lincoln. And you know what I do? I mean, Mike Ryan. I jerk off all over myself. That's what I do. Lincoln, who you outed the other day? Don't make this a rejoin. This is the Dan Levitator show. David, what did you make of the press conference with the new ownership in San Diego?

I think her name is Kwanza Jones, where she was very excitable. I found it very likable. What did you make that? You don't see that normally with owners. So I don't want to be accused of not being fun because it looked really cool, didn't it? She was super excited and she comes in, not buttoned up, and she wrote a song that she had an intro song

for her and her husband and talked about the excitement and how cool it is to own a team. So I want to feel really good about that. And I don't. And the reason I don't is because the minute that press conference is done and Mason Miller gives up a game losing home run or you realize the reality that what you paid for the franchise you have to generate so much more revenue and figure out a way to be a part of a salary cap league in order to make that investment worthwhile

and when you realize that you can't be the savior that everyone wants you to be which is what every new owner has that idas of I'm going to be the savior that exuberance that she shows is now going to be measured against the reality of what owning a team is, and that creates a huge divide versus just walking into a press conference and doing it straight up. It's a smaller fall when reality hits. So for those who did not see it, let's give you the video here of the new ownership. You all may be wondering, how does this work? Like, not the mic, this work, this work.

And when we are all in, and you all heard the song as we walked in, We are all in. It's not lip service. If you heard it, we're going to win. We're going to win. We're going to win and win it all. We hope it sooner rather than later. Can I ask you all to smile and say cheese, please?

You're super excited. We'd like to. David, Mr. Loria took a selfie of the media when he was introduced to the city of Miami, right? No? I can't say that I've ever seen that before. for. And again, I don't want to criticize the exuberance. She's just setting herself up for quite a fall when reality sets in because generally reality bites. And so my question would be when that press conference is being discussed with the PR staff and with her own PR staff and the team's PR staff, I would love to hear the conversation that went on because it's a risky strategy. You're going to get a high approval rating early. You're going to get people to get all excited, but the question is, what's next? And when you look at the Padres and how they're built and what their contractual obligations are and the performance they have, they're in a position

where they will not be able to deliver on that exuberance. And if you know that, then I think you need to temper it upon your introduction. I wanted to ask, David, you know, on the heels of that, you look and juxtapose Mark Walter and how little we knew about him and how little we knew about him and how little we heard from him when he bought the Dodgers and the Lakers. And now there's all of this investigation about him. How do you think ownership is going to change in terms of who buys teams, how much scrutiny there is around new ownership and the future of that in sports? It's a lot like politics where you may not get the best people to run for office

because they simply don't want to be scrutinized in a way that people scrutinize politicians. and sports owners used to be scrutinized only by the league through the application process. And that's changed significantly in the last 15 years, where the scrutiny is now extraordinarily public with the amazing balloon of sports business and the interest in sports business. So that's one issue where people may say, again, I'm not sure I want that level of attention. The second thing is that as the numbers continue to go up in franchise valuations,

the number of people who are qualified to, who have the money to be a controlling owner, that number goes down. And the question is, dudes, is that subset of people have an interest in the level of scrutiny and how did they get their money? So think picture Mark Zuckerberg. If he came in and tried to own a team and had to go through the ownership process, that would pale in comparison to the public scrutiny in that particular market of having him as a controlling owner.

There's a reason why Jeff Bezos is not a controlling owner, and it has nothing to do with writing a check. There's a reason why you're seeing the whole Steve Balmer situation and why Amin and Pablo and I have been able to have so many episodes about this, because he's someone who wrote a big check. He's someone who was beloved. He's still liked by fellow owners, but there's a level of scrutiny that is so beyond what he would have expected that people are doing. digging into everything. And when he puts his head on the pillow at night, at some point he looks at his losing seasons,

the level of scrutiny, and says, wow, this is not nearly the fun I thought it would be. Speaking of scrutiny, how about Jed York? How does that happen? Boy, and... What I mean? How to... The only thing you have to say with Jed York is two words. Hugh Grant.

You never have to ask why something happens. Just say Hugh Grant. Jed York is obviously has a problem, And the problem he has is will he be treated like Robert Kraft? Or is he at risk because he doesn't have the goodwill of Robert Kraft or the power of Robert Kraft? Will he be made an example of by the moral police? And the question is what, first of all, what's a criminal tool? I've been waiting for someone to tell me that.

I texted Pablo to ask him to find out because I've got my thoughts on what a criminal tool is. What could I don't exactly know? What could it possibly be? I assumed it was a penis. What? A criminal tool. I mean, I'm in criminal. You know about that criminal tool?

Da-da-da-dan-da-d-da-d-a-da-da-a-d-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a. Hey, baby, you want to come over and get a little of this criminal tool? And David sends it on like early in advance. Send for tomorrow at 9 a.m. I think it's cashed. He's never done that. So listen, Jed York, what do you do if you're Roger Goodell? Number one, you have to investigate.

You have to. You have to say you're investigating. But the legal process has already played out. He already pled and he paid the $1,000 fine and the $150 fine. He got a day in prison in jail that he already served. So the NFL can't hide behind. We're waiting for the legal process to play out. And so now the question is they're going to figure out really what happened because the information we have is not exactly we don't know.

Was the woman in the mobile home park? They claim not. Was he just skulking around there waiting until his time? Did he go to an ATM machine to get the cash? Unclear. And then the NFL is to decide, do they suspend him? What do they do? And I think what they'll have to do is some sort of fine.

I don't think that they, he's not going to sell a team. He's not going to lose his job. I wouldn't think over this. But it certainly was you just don't want to be told to turn to the left when you are in public. I just want to know this because it would be obvious that really rich people in sports would have some sort of concierge for this type of thing. Does that happen? Yes. Yeah, there are ways.

Here's the thing, Trista. Of course it happens. Of course. Yeah, there are people who are trying to entrap athletes, and I'm not blaming the women or the men at all who do this. I blame the athletes every time, and I blame the executives every time, because we openly. talked about the fact that these things are happening. So therefore what can we do to be helpful? We're happy to screen anybody who you want to spend a night or an hour with. We are happy to make sure that there is some sort of privacy associated with it. Like a white label. Like hey, this is

like this is an approve list. Listen. And also the other thing that we would say, and I apologize, Trista, but you get what you pay for. When Hugh Grant goes to the street corner, That's something. When you are paying $5,000 for an hour, that's something else. Roy, I apologize. You can cut this if you want. He's apologizing, Roy. That's the reality of how this works in terms of privacy, in terms, and I don't want to talk

about quality or any physical attributes. You pay for the discretion. It's discretion. You pay for discretion. You pay for not having to worry about signing a document that is a non-disclosure agreement in NDA. You talk about all the different ways that you can do it that absolutely works every time. What doesn't work is going to a mobile home park from a back page ad.

What doesn't work is driving your car into a back alley and finding someone on the street. Those are proven to not work. That's horny. But then you have to admit to your team or to your organization that you're doing it. I'm sorry to tell you that no one cares. David, we haven't had the opportunity to talk to you while all this craziness has happened. Now that these conferences have ruled on this, no NFL players are allowed to go back to college. At least that's the line from the SEC and the Big Ten.

I believe the Big 12 is putting a statement out, even though Castellanos signed with Texas Tech, that's a different deal. The ACC, not yet, so maybe for Miami fans out there. But yesterday came a news item that was funny that all. this was actually instigated by LSU. They were the ones reaching out to these players that already moved on trying to get them back into college, while also voting along with the rest of the SEC 60 for this resolution. What's your take on this? You need to draw a line in the sand. If you're going to take money from winning your prize winnings in a golf tournament or a tennis tournament, you're no longer getting the A next to your name. That's just it. In the Olympics, the way it used to

be back in the day was very simple. If you, if you, you're going to, you. You are a professional. You cannot be an Olympic athlete. Different now, of course. I have a very simple view. If you have a W-2 income and you have filled out a W-9 at any point for the activity that you're doing, you don't get to go back to doing it as an amateur, no matter what that activity is. If you have been a professional football player and have gotten paid any amount of money,

you are no longer eligible to not be professional. The other way around it, Mike, do what you and I have talked about on and off the air. We've made college professional. They want to be employees, not students. They want to be unionized. Fantastic. Let's pay them. Let's actually have them not NIL.

Let's make it a paid job based on your ability to do your job. And then we'll go down to high school and make those the NIL and then eventually make those professionals too. make college players professional, and then we don't have the issue. You can go back and forth all you want because college becomes the equivalent in baseball of your minor league system. David, one of the things that happened recently with the Marlins, they got rid of their pro scouting department. They're just doing video scouting apparently.

I don't know. Obviously, I don't come from a baseball background. I know at basketball, the scouting department is less about, oh, wow, he's really good going to his left. and more about finding out things about guys that aren't apparent on screen or on video. How shocked were you that they did this? And what is your stance on that strategy? I wasn't shocked, but there's no more BCPs.

BCPs are batting cage profiles. Batting cage profiles come during batting practice when scouts, you're behind, you're standing on the field, you're behind the batting cage, you're talking to people, you're looking at the place. you're talking to the player. The Marlins don't operate that way, and many teams don't. It's all based on computers and algorithms, and you don't need to pay a person.

It's just another job being replaced by AI, except the AI in this case is baseball analytics. And so why would I pay for the salary, plus benefits, plus travel, plus have HR nightmares from time to time with scouts, and all the other things that come. come with someone being on the road for 290 days a year. I can get rid of that and just have exactly the information that I want for my staff. The answer is I'm going to do it every day,

except I just don't agree with the bottom line foundational principle. I need eyes on players in person. I want scouts talking to scouts getting scoop so I can have it in the room when I'm doing trades or signings. And you're losing that by getting rid of actual people. That's my whole thing. Like in the NBA, that's the whole point of your pro scouting department. It has nothing to do with like, oh man, make sure you guard them this way. That's everything to do with, let me know all the intel on these guys so that we're

talking about acquiring them, signing them, whatever. We have a full picture rather than just a sheet off of basketball reference. David, before we let you go here, you have a movie you could. review for us on your way out? Yeah, I watched one of the nights when the aura ring told me I wasn't sleeping. I watched the bombing of Pan Am 103. And I don't know if you guys are aware of that when it happened. Lockerbie back in 1988. And I never realized the impact it had on the town of Lockerbie. I didn't realize it was a lot like come fly away with 9-11 with what they did up in Canada. And I found it to be a compelling six episode series on

Netflix. It is a nightmare to think about how that happened, why it happened, and it gives you a good idea of why the security that we go through at airports, why you should feel safer today than you did back in 88. And it was crushing to see the impact on families who lost children, who lost spouses and family members in that bombing. And the reality that we are now, it's been 38 years since that happened. And for those families, it doesn't go away. So as disconsolate as that made me feel in every other way, it was a compelling watch.

It goes quickly, six episodes, well-acted, an important story. David, excellent job is always. Good to see you. Thank you, guys. See you soon. I mean, I don't think I remember that story. I absolutely remember it. It killed Pan Am.

That's how Pan Am ended. That one accident basically, or one terrorist act, kind of just put them under. But no, that was a big deal. And then the Libyans were harboring the terrorists that did it and all that. That's a big story back in the day. I think I'm into checking that series out. Yeah. All right.