The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 1: Meadowlark Media Presents...

Episode Date: January 26, 2024

We have a ton to throw at you in this Hour 1! First, Dan and the crew chat with Florida Panthers superstar Matthew Tkachuck. Then, Lucy has a new co-host of GEN CFB for this week: Charlotte Wilder joins the proceedings! Plus, the ThomaHawk Show discusses Lamar Jackson's excellence and previews this weekend's Championship Games in the NFL. And finally, we have a segment from Pablo Torre Finds Out with Katie Nolan and Dan Soder recapping Katie's unreal experience in the Celebrity Jeopardy! Final. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe Kings Network. This is the Don Lebatore Show with the Stugatz Podcast. I am promising the audience, Stugatz, that I have rarely seen Roy and Mike so abulliant no matter what it is that's happening in their life because what does that mean? The Panthers are great, they're exciting, they have a lot of hope, and now Kachuk Chucky looks like Chucky. He looks healthy, he looks stronger, I think at the beginning of the season. I'm gonna ask him about this and hockey players are funny about this because they won't actually tell you

How hurt they are and they got to be careful about the code and everything else But the man was the best player a blessed American and hockey or the greatest trade in the history of the Panthers last year and then he goes through a total Obstacle course of insanity and at the end of last season against the Vegas night all that functions on his body is his belly button. He's scoring goals and in front of the net with only his belly button and everything else is broken and then he starts this season without enough rest and he doesn't look right. Why? Because only his belly button worked and he had to take the whole off season to get healthy and he still wasn't healthy. Matthew Kachuk, do I have anything wrong

in what I'm saying? Because you look like yourself again. And what you went through last season seems unfair, unholy, insane. And you're not going to tell me how injured you were. Are you? Because hockey players don't do that. No, there's no, no excuses. I'm healthy enough to play. I got to be a help there or doing my best, but definitely different, different type of off season with everything considering a long season and dealing with an injury. But, uh, yeah, I was able to, to get healthy right before the season and feel good. And, um, have been very happy with where our team's at right now and how everything is going so far.

Well, you only had five goals going into the new year, but once July 1st, January 1st happened 21 points since then you've led all skaters. It weren't healthy. Kachuk. You weren't healthy. You tried that already. No, no, I know. But you did try that approach. So if it wasn't the health, because that's how many Panther fans were trying to explain the production. And also the ascension of Sam Reinhardt,

who already was a good player, having the year that he has is obviously going to eat into other people's numbers a little bit. So what was the reason for why you're playing so much better right now if it's not health? Well, I think that if you ask any hockey player, it's impossible to play at 100% any game throughout the season. Like the way guys play in the pace of the game, the physicality, like it's nobody's at 100% any games. And if they are, they're probably lying to you. So I just think, you know, always at this time of the year, it's kind of like the dog days time in the NHL from that, you know, Christmas to, to bi week or that game, you know, 30 to 50 or whatever. And kind of that middle of the year, that awkward middle of the year part, but I've always felt throughout my career in the NHL, that's when I played my best is there in like the hard dog days and the, you know, the tough times and just try to grind it out. And yeah, these, these points are really important for us just like they are

at the beginning of the year, just like they're at the end of the year. So always got to be ready. I'm going to talk about Wednesday's game against Arizona. Now, the first time you guys played the coyotes, Jason Zucker had concussed Nick cousins. Now during pregame skate, you, Ryan Lomburg went up to some ice and you talked to Jason sucker and a couple of the other guys said, and apparently you guys got it on off the open and face off one fight off the second face off immediately. One fight. Now I'm not going to ask you what you said to them because obviously that you got to

leave that with the boys. Two fights, two fights and seven seconds. And then he has three points pretty quickly. I'll ask you what you say to them. Thank you. No, they, uh, you guys don't want to hear that stuff. That's not what I do. I love it. I'm sure you guys would, but, um, it was, uh, at the end of the day, it's us sticking up for, for our

teammate. And, um, that's what makes our team so special. And for the last year and a little bit has made me enjoy it so much, is really just the closeness of the team. So we see one of our teammates go down, like what happened in Arizona earlier this month. Like that did not sit well with anybody in the locker room. And we were really looking forward to yesterday's game for that reason.

So I think our team has a great mixture of great players, team toughness, just kind of a full package. And we had two guys really step up and basically I think won the game for us right before the game even started in Jonah and Longby yesterday and set that tone those first two seconds of the game. So they were awesome. And like I said, we're just there to support each other.

And we're such a close team. We used to happen to one person. It doesn't sit well. Did you guys go out to Palmer recent say, Hey, I want the fourth line started tonight. No, no, no, we would not have, we do not do that. They actually, the road team puts in their lineup first. So they started whoever they started. And then Paul decided to start who he started. So they started at Lomburg and you guys finished it. Lomburg's had incredible moments this season and you can really, you guys went on a great run of form during that Vegas home game where Ryan had the one punch knockout. The kicking coldest on the guy who injured.

punch knockout kicking cold as the guy who injured. Yeah. And who also during the, uh, the Stanley cup finals had questions had questions about how tough the Florida Panthers were. So that was an incredible message. And it propelled you guys to this incredible run where it seems like you guys have really mastered this pulmonary style in the second year. You guys are more comfortable. It seems, what is different though about this year's team as opposed to last I Think at the start of the year we had some key injuries with Bennett ecblad and Montor so we really had to win like

Playing as simple as possible winning that 2-1 You know grind type of game and I think when we found that made it successful like it did last year Like why get away from that game even when everybody comes back. So we're playing a simple brand right now where, you know, we've obviously have guys that can put the puck in the net and some, some great offensive players, but we know that when we get our chances that, you know, they're going to go in, but we don't need to force it to get the chances. We don't need to play, you know, give a chance to get a chance type of hockey.

And, you know, Bob's playing out of his mind. If you're so stoly, so as long as we're playing hard in front of them, we trust that they're going to make, you know, all those keys saves at the right time. And we know that when we get the chances and we're going to be able to put it in, but we don't need to be, you know, fishing for offense to give up on the defensive side. Matthew, if I preface all of this by saying, look, you're not going to make any excuses,

hockey players do not talk about all the stuff they have to overcome to get onto the ice. But I am sort of forcing you, and you don't wanna do it, to tell people how bad a shape your body was in, trying to get out of bed during the Stanley Cup final because your body was totally broken. Except the belly button. Except for your belly button. How can you explain to people what the worst physical day feels like when you're like, I have to play, I'm going to play. Even though I can tell by looking at you, you were just trying to give the rest

of what your body had and it had nothing left on the season. Can you please walk me through articulating that without doing the hockey stuff that hockey people do, which is like, we don't talk about that stuff. Yeah, I mean, I guess the best way to put it or the easiest way to put it is you just prepare and like obviously my preparation for the game

after I got hurt when I found out what the injury was was so much different than every other game because my preparation was more, you know, don't really get yourself warmed up to play. It's literally like do whatever you can to make sure you can play. So I was on the treatment table with trainers, doctors, Kairos, you name it, for about two hours before the game after I got to the rink. And just to try to get me through a few minutes of playing. And it's kind of a brutal feeling,

knowing that eventually at some point in the game, your body's probably gonna give out, but you don't know if it's gonna be first shift or halfway through the game or at the end of the game. And I do, one thing I do remember with that game is first period, you know, I'm trying to play smart, but you're obviously trying to win the game. And I actually had some really good chances

that would have most likely gone in if I had a better body to play with that game. And it was just crazy. The puck was finding me at that point. And, you know, and then I think Paul made the executive decision where he knew that. Well, you know, once he realized that the body kind of gave up midway through that game, he's like, I'm going to save you for the end. So I didn't play like the whole third period and they threw me out there for

the end of the game of third and actually had some pretty good chances to try to tie it up. So it's not the best feeling knowing that your body is gonna give out at one point that game, but at that point I'm like, do whatever it can to get me through a few shifts because that could be the difference. So I was willing to do whatever it took. One of the reasons that they love you so much in this city

because it's obvious in your play how much you care, can you articulate to my audience, our audience, how much you care? Like why you care like that beyond body's pain thresholds. I just think that, you know, you go through so much from the start of training camp to the end of season, each and every season and, and you create the special bond with players, trainers, fans,

just people in your organization. And I don't think people realize the hours that you put in each and every day. So as hockey players, naturally tough, you know, athletes will play through a lot of things. But when it gets down to it and your seasons on the line and you're in the important games and, you know, you just you think about about I think what got me through those games was how much sacrifice my teammates put in throughout the season and and trainers in the hours. And I wasn't gonna gonna go down without trying absolutely everything that I had left. And yeah, I can definitely hold my head high knowing that I gave it everything I had last year.

And obviously made made it a little bit tougher summer than I would have liked recovering. But yeah, it was lucky enough to feel good going into the season and you know, took a lot of time and, and those last two months of the summer and training camp to get feeling good. And I was very happy that I was able to play in that first game. Sam Reinhardt and a Sergei Barbrowski are going to Toronto next week for the All-Star game. Now, Barcov is healthy. Alexander Barcov was healthy during the fan vote. And I kind of find it ridiculous that there are six conucks and five Maple Leafs in this game. It doesn't

make any sense to me. So do you believe that Alexander Barcov should be in the All-Star game? The, the future self-cute trophy winner here? I mean, obviously I do. And not only do I think he should be there. I think that him along with McKinnon are the two best players in the NHL this year, along with, along with McDavid and even Kutraw in there. So there's a lot. You pick one. I mean, that fits a lot. Those guys are having incredible years. One of them needs to be the best. They can't all be the best. Let me help them out. Reinhardt's in there too.

Yeah. Reinhardt's definitely in there too, for sure. I mean, he's, he's just got the most amazing touch around the net and everything goes in. But I just think that Barkie with, with every fast of the game that he hits, like it's crazy that I still don't think he gets the respect around the league that he should. I mean he just he plays against every team's best player and seems to play great against them each and every night. So if he was given the free reign to go out there and play offense like some of the rest of the guys in the league, he'd be right up there with leading the league in offense every year. But that's just not his DNA. He's defensive minded as well and hits it all. So we're super lucky to have him.

He takes a lot of pressure off me and some of the other guys and allows us to play more off friends. So, but I think it's ridiculous that he's not going to the All-Star game to answer your question. I don't know how one measures these things because everybody in hockey seems to be tough and have, you know, just be tougher than I am every single person in hockey.

But I'm assuming that Kachuk doesn't see toughness in every hockey team that he plays the Panthers. When, when, when Mike's talking about Paul Maurice and his style, they went from finesse and high scoring to they're going to be grittier than you. So I ask you this question, are there safe for check, Dan, are there times that you feel like this other team is not as tough as we are? Every team has tough players, but I think as a team, like one through 20, we're, we have a tough mindset that is it's hard to play the style of play that we're doing each and every night. It is. There's very few teams that do it. I know Carolina is pretty good at it. Um, you have some of the top teams like, like Boston and Vegas that are really good at it.

And I just think that it's once you can realize that that's the way you're going to be successful in playoffs, it isn't that hard to play it because that's where you want to have success. So, um, we've really bought into it. And I wouldn't say I look at other teams and say, you know, we're tougher than they are, but I think that we're more committed than, than a lot of teams in the way we play. Who's the toughest player in the league? Toughest player in the league, probably. Oh gosh, I mean,

I played with Luches for a while there and there in Calgary. He's, uh, he's the toughest I've seen. Matthew, congratulations on the success. It's nice to see you healthy again. It's not just nice to see you healthy. It's to see a superstar entering the prime of his career. Know that he's locked in here. He's fully embraced this weirdo hockey market and he got kids at Kendall, Issyrina chewing on their mouth guard

the way that Matthew Kitchuck is because they're idolizing him. It's so exciting because not since the days of Pavel Burry has this franchise had someone that it has this kind of stark quality about them. And I'm sure you see it when you're starting to go out there a little bit. The sustained success of this franchise is building generations of fans. So in your you're a big part of that, Matthew.

Thank you so much for that. Oh, no, I appreciate it. Hopefully, I'm not entering the prime just yet. Hopefully, I've got a few years of forehead. You insulted him. I insulted him by saying this is not even his prime. Incredible. Thank you, Matthew. We didn't even ask you. I didn't know that you were high school, you were high school teammates or friends with Jason Tatum. That's not something I was aware of. I didn't, did you see it back then? Did both of you look at each other and say, yeah, we'll dominate the pros. That's how that's going to go.

I don't think I, I don't think it was as obvious with me because I wasn't playing hockey every day in gym class or whatever, but we played basketball a lot. And it was pretty obvious that he was by far the best, not only in the school, but in the state. And then once we got to high school, I remember my freshman year going a couple of their games and he just dominated. You knew it was coming. And I'm very, very humble, awesome kid. So, um, he deserves it. I actually got to employ us last year. Um, when we played boss in the first round, uh, went to them when they played Atlanta, I think game one or two. Um, then it was funny. Then he came to our game seven, we wanted boss. And so

I'm sure he was, uh, and even though he's playing in boss and sneaky, uh, rooting for me. So it was really cool to see. Thank you, sir. Uh, it's nice to see all the success again. Uh, congratulations on everything. Yeah. Thank you guys as always for having me. Appreciate it.

But a wrecking. That's our guy. Don lebatard. All of us who were watching college football elevated everything the weekend was because we missed football in general so very much. who were watching college football, elevated everything the weekend was because we missed football in general so very much. You didn't watch the ending of U-Tep Jacksonville State. It was awesome.

A dizzy. Boom. Stugatz. It's such a lane for you. Just everything in college football is awesome. Any single thing that happens, she gets deliriously happy about. Don't you miss viewing sports through that let prism though

Like I'm envious of Lucy like I wish that I could still be happy This is the done levitar show with this two guys. So we're back with another edition of GenCFB so I don't really know because it's not an episode because it's not standalone but I think installment Yes, and if you're listening closely that was not Jessica I don't really know because it's not an episode because it's not standalone but I think installment yes And if you're listening closely that was not Jessica. No, it's Charlotte. It's Charlotte Jess is off writing Brian Kelly to Michigan rumors. She's quite busy right now dealing with very important things we brought in Charlotte Yeah, she's lighting up the message boards and I was like, you know what you do what you got to do

I will step in and talk to the lovely Lucy about college football. Well, thank you both for this. I just really wanna confuse everybody by having two women with brown hair and glasses in the same. I mean, it's asking a lot of people, but I think they'll get through it. This is a lot to process right here.

Are you okay, Taylor? Can you tell us apart? What's my name? I Think I've got this one figured out Lucy Charlotte. Okay. Good job. Okay. Good job great work Okay, so we're off to a phenomenal start Jim Harbaugh We really didn't talk about it enough on the main show leaving Michigan for the Chargers job Wow, I mean, I think we all saw it coming, but like this is so cool for college football

and for me, because I don't want to have to play Jim Harbaugh anymore. It's so fun. I also, when he hired Don Yee as his agent, who is Brady's agent, I was like, oh, this guy is serious about going to the NFL because as someone who covered the Patriots a lot when Brady was there, trying to get Don Yee's clients to talk to you

is like trying to break into a safe in like oceans, whatever. I don't know what number we're on now. And so I was like, oh, he's 1000% going to the NFL. And then he did. Chargers, they got him. He was their quarterback for two years. Yes.

Yeah, I'm a little nervous. I'm assuming he's like looking at houses in San Diego. No clue where the Chargers play now. My take is that he's gonna live in the OC because he's like OC, offensive coordinator. This right here, this is where I wanna live. Lucy. Good take, right?

That's it. The San Diego take and then the OC take. We could just stop now. That's so true. Oh my God, you know he's made that joke. You know he said that to every realtor. Like, well, you know, I know a thing or two about OCs. And they're like, there's one.

It's the OC, there's one. We're gonna spend a lot of time today memorializing Jim Harbaugh's time at Michigan. We didn't really talk about it enough of like what this means for college football specifically where there were four teams in the college football playoff and one of them is returning a head coach. One, and it's Steve Sarkesian out of all the four,

I wouldn't have guessed him. That would not have been my top choice. No, neither would I. Who'd we lose? Saban Harbaugh, Kailin DeBoer. DeBoer. But he hops, but it's still different. It's still different.

It's still different. And it's been wild to watch Alabama fans slowly just slip into delusion. It's actually been awesome for me personally where they're like learning how college football works. And they're like, what is this about? I thought things were fair. Things have never been fair.

Welcome to the other side. Lucy, that's how I felt being a Patriots fan my whole life. And then Tom Brady leaves and I was like, oh, being an NFL fan isn't fun. This isn't enjoyable. So Alabama fans, I, unfortunately, I can say that I feel your pain. I had like my first real interaction

with the grieving Alabama fan over the weekend. Caden Proctor, who was an offensive lineman there, transferred to Iowa, which is like, whoa! Wild step, he's from Iowa, he was homesick, it makes sense. But he was talking about how he wanted to go back to Iowa because of the way that Iowa handled the season and they didn't burn any bridges with him and that when he was playing really crappy,

the first month of the season, I will reach out and was like, hey, you got it, you still do your thing. Like we believe in you, whatever. And Alabama fans were like, they're tampering. These cheaters are tampering and they're stealing our players. And what kind of world can we live in where people can just transfer wherever they want?

It's a cruel one, Alabama. My question to you, Lucy, that wasn't tampering, was it? I mean, when you say I will reach out, it's a nebulous, like do we know who or how or what? I believe it was the director of recruiting, which gives a little, feels a little tampery. Also, little known fact, he is Kirk Farrance's son-in-law. Oh my God, stop. The nepotism

it keeps on going, it keeps going around. It was just more of like a, Keaton Proctor was not good his first month in Alabama. Like to the point where IO fans were like, dodge that boy. Welcome home now buddy, don't worry about it. But he said they just reached out and were like, you're okay. It's been kind of widely known that this player was really homesick and just like, wasn't really like vibing with being so far away from his family, which they live outside of Des Moines. And so now he's at Iowa and that's like a really big,

giant news, but it's been awesome to watch the downfall. Yeah, what have you seen? What have you seen? How does this, where has this played out? It's all been on Twitter with just like the people like you can You mean people can leave for more money and they can go to schools that are better like that's never been done before and you're like Pesty this is like Look, it's a very just like hey look in the mirror look in the mirror shorty. It's okay. Yeah, we're all here together

I feel like looking in the mirror is a difficult thing for Alabama fans to do in general. And now, I mean, they didn't have to. They never had to. That's the thing. Now they have to. And maybe they don't like what they're seeing. No, this has been such a trying time for Alabama fans and it's hilarious.

Just like, you mean there are no regulations on this transfer portal thing? And you're like yeah, dude It's been this way for a while like Like it honestly feels like a movie plot where they like woke up like ten years later and they're like what is it? This stupid thing that pops into my head is the dr. Pepper commercial where the guy's holding the guy's hand in the transfer Portal and he's like I'm not to let go of my Dr. Pepper. That like Alabama fans are just learning

that like that's an Alabama fan. And it's so delightful. And they're going to drop to like 10 wins next year. We're like, you losers, you losers with 10 wins. 10, oh my God. The Alabama fans, it's very that like James Franco meme where he's like first time like brother We are losing players every year in the portal

Our pets heads are falling off. It's like where do you think all those guys were coming from Bama? They were coming from us They were coming from us those corn fed boys. So yeah, Bama down bad This is a perfect transition to an even more down bad team right now. Probably Michigan. I saw Harbaugh coming. I knew that he was gonna leave. This Michigan team is not gonna be nearly as good next year. They're losing all their talent.

You won the national championship. It seemed like the perfect time for Jim Harbaugh to leave. Yes. And so we have a nice little top five to remember our time with Jim, what he did at Michigan, which was beat Ohio State a bunch of times and then do some real weird stuff.

So you wanna kick off our top five, or I'll kick off our top five. Yeah, you start us off, Lizzie. I'm gonna miss him, and no, no. All right, number five. When his pants caught on fire during a game. I believe it was against Penn State where he stood too close to a heater on the sideline and burned a hole in his pants and had no idea.

He had no idea that his literal ass was on fire. How big was the hole? It was pretty, it was like sizable. So did someone have to like slap his butt to get the fire out? I have questions, but... I don't really know how, I never saw like the actual like fire take place. I just saw photos of the hole in his,

like the seared hole in his pants later. He just sat in a Gatorade cooler. It was like, it was so cold, it probably like immediately went out. Absolutely insane from Jim. Oh, iconic, another iconic moment Lucy. At number four, when Jim Harbaugh was shirtless at football camp with khakis on.

Now I refresh my memory with these images before we started recording and it, I don't really have the words for it because it's just, you shouldn't be shirtless wearing khakis and Jim's just, you shouldn't be shirtless wearing khakis and Jim Harbaugh probably shouldn't be shirtless at all. And so it creates confusion in the mind, I would say. It's like my pant, or my brain is like his pants, seared with that image.

Like it's, and a belt. Yeah, oh God. The one photo of him like this, you can actually come see what's so excellent about it. Not do that. Yeah, I'm excited for those to stop circulating every time that Michigan's got a big game or anything like that. Like that's a positive of him going to the Chargers.

Yeah, well, it'll probably circulate when the Chargers lose in the past, sorry, continue. They've got like 12 fans, they're not gonna know that picture exists, they're not gonna find it, I think we're good. Number three, him going to attend the taping of Judge Judy. I have never seen anyone happier in my life than Jim Harbaugh, just watching Judge Judy with his father there. That was like the most,

he did not have nearly that level of joy winning the national championship. No, I didn't know this one. I didn't know this one and the image of him, he just went, he was just like in the audience at a Judge Judy taping. He's like a Judge Judy superfan, like that's his gal. We could say that Judge Judy is his Roman Empire for our Gen Z listeners out there, all four of us. There's a tweet from March 3rd, 2015 from Coach Har Harbaugh big congrats to judge Judy on signing her contract extension through 2020 from a devout fan He deserves it. Thank you for your oh my god. He's going to LA. He can go to more tapings Maybe that's why this baby. That's why he was like I will only go to Los Angeles

I need my girl Judy Judy's gonna be the defensive coordinator Get it I got I got it. That was good the defense press Okay, number two on this list is Jim Harbaugh sleepovers with recruits climb to tree with a recruit He washed dishes with recruits The sleepover one I remember the most. I was like, I don't know. Some about that, not right. Some about that, I was like, oh.

There's recruiting and then there's sleeping in. Yeah, it was a weird time. And he was like, so, heck yeah, whatever. I wonder if those same recruits he took to that, that breakfast place and ordered a hamburger and then got all those NCAA violations. Oh, yeah. I'm sad that didn't make the list.

I forgot about that. There was also a clarification with the climb to tree with the recruit. Somebody asked him about it. He was like, there was a ball stuck up there, so I had to go get it. Oh, classic. Yeah. Call the fire department, Jim. All right.

Number one, Jim Harbaugh's Many One Liners. And we have a separate top five from that. Charlotte, do you have any guesses of what is going to be on that list? I feel like if there isn't something about milk, I'll be shocked. There's got to be something about milk. There's definitely something about milk. It didn't make the list, but something that's very interesting, Harbaugh,

was he was really in the spreadsheets. I remember him being like, I only type stuff out on Excel. Like I'm not gonna ever use a Word doc. I'm just gonna go on Excel. When I was single, I used to ask guys who are annoying at bars what their favorite Excel function was.

If they were wearing like a finance vest, they'd just lit up. Never seen men so excited in my life, and they'd be like, oh, I love a pivot table. And they'd be like, what's yours? And I'm like, I don't know how to use Excel. So shout out to Jim Harbaugh. All right, when we come back,

top five Harbaugh one-liners. Talk about it, he's there. Wow, did I set that up really nicely? I'm on the edge of my seat. They teach you that at the university of Iowa Journalism School, let me tell you that. So Charlotte, that's our top five, Jim Harbaugh, one-liners.

All right, we're starting with an OLI. And this, to quote the great Mr. Harbaugh, I don't know why I said it like that. I don't take vacations, I don't get sick, I don't observe major holidays, I'm a jackhammer. Oh. I did, ah. Does his suspensions count as vacations?

No, because he was probably like in that tree that he climbed with a recruit watching over the roof of the big house. He's like, he's standing on top of the hospital being like, I just did binocular glasses. I'm sorry to the audio listeners. Okay, our next OLI. I don't know if this is going as well as I wanted to go.

Okay, it's going great, Lucy. Are you kidding me? You're crushing it. I need to dig for that. All right, next OLI, Jim Harbaugh said, I can work out my khakis, and I do, they're similar to sweatpants. I don't want to take his side here.

No. But they are like cotton in their pants. Sorry, no, I can't. No, no, they're not similar at all. Sweatpants don't have buttons. Also, khakis don't stretch. You ever try to like squat wearing khakis? Well, maybe he's like,

I see like jeans sweatpants on the TikTok shop all the time. Oh, yeah, same. They're hideous, but maybe that's like the brand he's like I see like Jean sweatpants on the TikTok shop all the time. Oh, yes, they're hideous But maybe that's like the brand he's doing Taylor thinks it's Lulu lemon the the khakis He's wearing definitely the blonde is a stretch But there's no way he knows what I'm not in my head for the audio Yeah, I don't write for the audio I don't think he knows that they're Lulu lemon, but I think someone who bought them for him knows they're Lululemon. Absolutely.

Maybe they're also, they have flame retardants on them so they won't catch on fire. Okay, the next one, number five. Woo! Number five is Weefence. We don't play defense, we play Weefence. Not an offense, not a defense, a We Fence. And then he left.

And he left. How was it? To take a different job. So, thanks Jimbo. All right, number four was Jim Harbaugh. Saying that the chicken is a nervous bird. Jim Harbaugh was very much afraid of chicken. He thought if you ate chicken it would make you anxious because it was a nervous bird.

He has since come around and said it's not and that he has learned that chicken is good for you and it's delicious and that you can eat it. So the one thing he's not wrong about it is I feel like chickens are nervous birds that does not translate to you being nervous if you eat chicken. Although I do eat chicken and I'm often nervous, so maybe he was onto something. Number three, Jim Harbaugh, anytime he talked about how much he loves milk, I was right, this is on this list. The best one was whole milk, not the candy ass 2%.

Which I 100% agree with. I'm a skim milk girlie, but I like oat or almond, but I know that Jim would be like, he is gonna hate LA. He's gonna hate all the almond milk. He's gonna hate all the almond milk. That is not gonna work for him. Wait till he figures out they have hemp milk.

Oh my God. Stashy milk, macadamia milk, oh my God, he's gonna flip. He is not gonna be okay. It seems odd that he's like, yeah, I'll definitely drink this cow milk, but I won't even touch a chicken. All right, it's cool, it's very chill. All right, number two, Jim Harbos quote,

if worms had machine guns, then birds wouldn't be scared of them. I don't know the context. The context was, he was talking about, like he doesn't deal with hypotheticals. Somebody asked him like, if something happens, what do you think? And he was like, he dropped that bar.

And I can't believe when you read this quote, your first thought is like, I'm happy this man is leaving our sport. Like we need more gym harbors. We need the content that comes from Jim Harba. And Taylor, he is still gonna be in the sports world. So it won't be as weird. College football is obviously the weirdest.

So he might not, no, he's still gonna be weird. There's no making Jim Harba not weird. I think it'll be worth it if Michigan beats Ohio State this year, despite losing everyone and losing their head coach, and I'm holding out hope for that. I think that will make Jim Harbaugh's exit worth it. Also, he beats the crap out of my team every time I play. That's a qualifier that I don't have, yeah.

Yeah, he does that. This he's ready for him to be gone. Although this is a side note, he could not win in Iowa City for a bit. He finally won. He got hit by a mail truck there when he was a kid, and City for a bit. He finally won. He got hit by a mail truck there when he was a kid and was just like, yep, it happens. And then he met the mail truck driver that hit him

and they took a picture together. Later in life? Yep. Oh my God. Yeah. Wild, right? We could have been robbed by, nevermind. Okay.

Number one, the locker room is like your mom's bathing suit. You want it to be in one piece. Bad one, Jim. Your mom should wear whatever bathing suit she wants. Bimanism, welcome to Gen CFB with two women. Although you do want your locker room to be in one piece, I guess. Yeah, that's fair enough. And that was like his last real weird one.

That's so weird. It was really odd, but like, I know he's thinking about these things ahead of time I know he's writing them down I know he's typing it up in a little Excel sheet and I will miss like the the gym harba isms at Michigan, but we're still gonna get them in the NFL. Yeah, and I always got a shot now not really, but all right Nothing's fine. Oh So some sad news in the college football world this week Not really, but all right. That's how we think it's fine. So some sad news in the college football world this week.

Uggah 10, I believe, X, passed away. This was the famous Uggah that almost got killed by Bevo at the Sugar Bowl. It's tough. He was my close personal friend, Lucy. I got to go to his house. I got to see where Uggah lives. I got to see his wardrobe. He has a closet full of little dog clothes had. I got to interview

him. I interviewed the dog himself. The Seiler family has been raising these dogs since the beginning, I think. Also, fun fact, I also met Bevo and the one thing that the people at UT say is like, don't ask about the ugly thing. Well, so yeah, so it's like, I don't know if I'm supposed to say that out loud, but it was years ago. Is there something there? Maybe.

Anyway, I'm really, he was such a good dog. He was so patient in his little hut with his little air conditioning unit. I'm really gonna miss him. He is the winningest mascot in Georgia football history. He was 91 and 18, two SEC titles, one national championship, seven New Year's six, bowl appearances.

He was the heart and soul of that Georgia team. That's crazy. He did more for Georgia than, that's been it. I feel pretty confident in saying that. All four of them too. All four sets of them. He did more than Georgia football.etson Bennett. I feel pretty confident in saying that. All four of them, too. All four sets of them. She did more for Georgia, football, then all. I always forget he's a fourth.

Well, I'll go as a tenth. Yeah, that's more special. It feels like a Georgia thing, like a very SEC, you know. Yeah, you have to be named after somebody who's named after somebody who's named after somebody. I know the new Uggen now, we went to a few Georgia games this year. It's, I don't want to say on a tight leash because that sounds, you know, kind of cliche.

Well, it is a dog. Not, they didn't really have, we went to the world's largest out there, out there cocktail party was not really there, didn't really see UGGah. They only brought him out for a little bit. It was also crazy hot that day. Yeah. Didn't really see him at the SEC championship either. So I'm hoping that this new UGGah can keep making the impact,

keep their tradition going. It's a big legacy to live up. Big pause to fill. I think they're easing him into it. But now, now he's gotta take over the mantle. Don Lebatard. I actually thought you looked kinda good. Stugatz.

Thank you. I had the beard's grown out a little bit. I got a little life in my face. I feel like little tan Colorado, San Francisco. Great time. You get life on your face. You got death on your face. I think you got 40 to life on your face.

This is the Don Lebatar show with the two guys. All right, we talked about the chiefs in the Buffalo Bills, which I think everyone would agree with the big matchups of the divisional round. The Ravens are also moving on with the chiefs in the AFC championship.

They beat the Texans pretty handedly. CJ Stroud had a great year, probably one of the better rookie quarterback years we've ever seen. And he went against the Ravens and he did not look the same. Joe, what were your takeaways from that game? Well, I think when you're a rookie in the NFL playoffs, you're going to look good at times, but experience always seems to shine through.

And that's what happened, right? When you start getting these looks that you haven't seen during the season, people are just trying to take one little defense that they saw work against you in the regular season from each game. And they're just going to throw it all at you. They're going to get the spam folder overflowing with defenses that you've had a hard time with or defenses that you haven't seen or maybe look like something you already saw. And it's a change at the last minute. And I think that's what happens. All it takes in the playoffs is a split second for that quarterback to hold on to the football or make the wrong decision. And it changes the course of the game. Bruce, what has been the biggest difference in the Marley game this year? Let's go to grad school. Need conversation. What's been the big difference?

Man, I mean, you know, what are you going to do against the guy? Are you going to blitz him? They got answers for that. You're going to play him in zone. He's just going to shred you. Hope find an open receiver. open receiver. So it's been super impressive what he has done. And just the thing about Lamar though, we see the abilities he has on the field, but I've always loved the intangible side of what he brings as a leader to that team. And I've seen it since day one and the trust Harbaugh has within him years ago,

going on fourth downs and they continue Harbaugh has within him. Years ago going on fourth downs and they continue to do that and play aggressive. He just, I don't know how you defend him when you match up against that football team. And then when I was, you know, what was most impressive though with the Ravens is how they played Straub because Straub, I've been impressed with Straub all season,

but to just really hold them to, you know, 10 points was insane in that matchup. So if you look at Baltimore's just being a total package, but Lamar Jackson, man, it's just hard for me to go against that guy. I agree. I think defensively the Ravens are the toughest defensive ballclub left.

So I'm curious to also see how my homes goes against them. When you're going to looking at that matchup, Bruce real quick. And I should give you a proper introduction. Bruce Krakowski in the building, ladies and gentlemen, he's a friend of the show, basically a part of the Tomahawk. He's also an offensive coordinator in the now UFL, formerly the XFL before the XFL and USFL merger for spring football. You can catch that on ESPN and Fox, little plug there. Bruce is the offensive coordinator for the St. You can catch that on ESPN and Fox little plug there. Bruce is the office of coordinator for the St. Louis Battle Hawks. And he is joining a show with the Office of Line coach from the Munich Ravens, Joe Thomas in Munich right now. And we should

put a poll up on social media. Which game do you think I'll get to first Munich Raven game to support Joe a St. Louis battle hot game to support Bruce or none of the above. With that on that. Well, that on the pole. Team is going to hail Friso. And we'll see. We'll see what the fans think that hawk is going to do. Chiefs Ravens.

Let's get into that matchup. I like the Ravens in this matchup. I think Patrick Mahomes has continually put the team on his back this season and he's been able to do that throughout the playoffs But right now he's going against probably the best offense and the best defense in the NFL In the playoffs they're as hot as they've been all season long and like Bruce said like with Lamar There's no good defense against him right now for a while. They were saying okay. We're gonna drop eight We're gonna drop seven. We're to put our dime package on the field. So we got a bunch of fast guys with our eyes on him.

But it's not working anymore because Todd Monk and the offensive coordinator who came in this season has done a great job. Lamar is extremely coachable. And he understands like, right, if a team's going to dodge, I can dip. If a team's going to weave, I'm going to throw a wrench at their face

and I'm going to run for 100 yards because that's the type of quarterback and the type of player that he is right now. He's so good with his decision making. He's so fast with his decisions. And then when he gets in the open field, it's it's over because his ability to make tacklers miss in the pocket and an open field is next level. And he's on the same page with his receivers right now, which is something that he always wasn't earlier on in his career, right?

Yeah. There's always Mark Andrews. It was like, when it happens, I'm going to find Mark Andrews and boom, we're good. But obviously teams are figuring that out. But now he's got the receiving core and an offense that's built for success down the field, intermediate, and then he can hit the short stuff or he can take off with the football. He's indefensible right now.

He's been playing at a different level. He's gonna win another MVP. Catch a ball, you can catch a wrench. And if you catch a damn ball, you can catch a wrench. But you got winning, Juju, Chiefs or the Ravens? I got the Ravens, man. That defense just looked too crazy, man. Like they down Marlin Humphrey.

They down pieces and still don't miss a beat. And so I think that they instill so much confidence in their offense that that's the late game boost you always need. That's the third quarter come out motivation you always need. This is going to be sparked by one or the other side. So I'm going to go with them Ravens. I'm not mad at that. And that is people don't talk about that enough.

The amount of injuries the Ravens have had this year, they always have injuries, but they've had a lot this year, significant injuries, and they have not missed a beat. They lost two running backs. They lost Mark Andrews, Marlon, these are like top level- Pro bowlers. Pieces, pro bowlers in their offense,

and they're just next man up. All right, you get the final word, Bruce. Who wins? Ravens. You know, you got two great head coaches going at it though. So it's gonna be such a great showdown. You know, Patrick Mahomes, we talk about his hard to go.

Bruce trying to get a job, ladies and gentlemen. He's not gonna go too hard to one side. He's gonna show love to the coaches. If you're looking for a quarterback coach, I mean, I would take the call, but... I mean, I really think I could help both teams. But anyways, we're going to do that. We're going to campaign on the Tomahawk show.

We're going to get Bruce Gragkowski and NFL coaching job on this show. We've done it before, Bruce. Mike McDaniel, he's a product of the Tomahawk show. There would be no Mike McDaniel if it wasn't for this podcast and I stand on that. So don't worry Bruce, you're next in line. If you're listening, the coaches that listen

to this podcast and I know all of them do, John Harbaugh is sitting right now, getting caught up on the Tomahawk show before he heads out to practice. John, don't miss this boat brother. You wanna see Lamar take it to the next level? I got somebody in mind for you. I was going to say, you think Lamar is he's going to win an MVP this year?

They're in the AFC championship game, but Gregg Kowski can wait till Bruce gets in that mother where he could take Lamar. He might he might make an NBA All-Star game. That's those are the accolades we're going for. We never seen before. Who is the game Bruce? I'm going Ravens. I'm good that defense man is too tough But I'll tell you what have you guys talked about with the ref Sean Smith that got put on this game? No

So the ref they put on this game because you know they're saying we can't leave out all the Swifties So they're like they're doing everything they can to help Kansas City out. And Sean Smith, when he covers a game, the home teams are only 17 and 29 in the last three years when this guy refs a game. Oh shit. And they're saying they're helping the Swifties out because they need to get Taylor Swift to the Super Bowl.

But I'm still going to say, I thought you about to say the referee was caught at the Taylor Swift concert. Last concert with the teacher. I said I love Taylor Swift and he going to be referring the game. Basically. I mean, look, it doesn't matter, though, because Martin Luther King with the last Ravens game. So it was, you know, I think I think Martin Luther King understands

what Lamar Jackson winning means to his I have a dream speech. So we got we got forces on both sides is what I'm saying Bruce question for you guys. What is the best story left in the NFL playoffs. We haven't talked to Niners yet. We'll make it we'll make it quick. Niners beat the Packers Jordan Love look good except one play. The Lions beat the Bucks Baker Mayfield had a couple Baker Mayfield moments but overall he played decent and he played a great year.

So shout out to him. That's a great story. Jordan Love was a great story. Brock Purdy Mr. Revellevitt seems like a great story. What is the greatest story in the in the playoffs right now in the NFL? There are so many cool storylines coming into the playoffs. Like I was happy for Mayfield. How well he played but how they finished down the NFL. There was so many cool storylines coming into the playoffs. Like I was happy for Mayfield. How well he played, but how they finished down the stretch. I was happy for golf, you know, facing his former team, um, you know, Brock, Purdue, you talking about mystery relevant.

So so many cool storylines within the playoffs. And then now you get to this game, a game before the Super Bowl. Um, I just can't help but overlook the Lions like what they have done. I saw it. Dan Campbell. I just love what they're doing in Detroit and to think the Lions. We're talking about the Lions are in the NFC championship game. And you know, so to me, I think that's really cool.

And it's going to be a good match up. But I think it's cool for not only Dan Campbell, Detroit and all that, but you think of Jared Gough, what he's been through. Yes, he was the number one overall pick, but he he got pushed out the door for peanuts, you know, and now look what he's doing and he's back in a championship game, which is pretty cool to see. That is a really dope story. Joe, what's your favorite story? I've loved the Lions, man.

Lions fans and Browns fans. Lions fans. We're like just too level with others. We're like me and Hawk on Ibiza right now. Like we're having a great time. We're cheering for each other. Life is gold and life is grand, even though the Browns got eliminated because we're close to your geographically like both from the Rust Belt.

But the idea that Dan Campbell, this like rough, scruff, biting kneecaps, head coach who's got like this lovable side to him. He is so easy to cheer for because he's he can appease like the old school tough mentality of the NFL, but he's got this new approach that he's got empathy and he shows his emotions and he loves his players and he demands a lot out of them. Like he's exactly the type of coach that the NFL needs right now

and that an NFL team would love to have. And it's the same thing that people talked about why Belichick was not able to win once Brady left, right? Because he hasn't been able to kind of transition a side of him into being that empathetic force, that person that you can cheer for that it loves his players. That's hard on him, but he'll put his arm around you. And I think with him and got they've got an entire staff, an entire team and entire city that everybody really wants to see have a lot

of success and win that Super Bowl and bring this franchise that's never been to a Super Bowl never won a Super Bowl to the highest peak. And you got two teams in the AFC that I think everybody wants them both to lose. And then you got two NFC teams in my opinion, especially with our love for Kyle Shanahan drink that you're like, man, this is awesome to be able to watch these guys. Hopefully, they both get to play in the Super Bowl and some weird Roger Goodell rules allows it to be an NFC versus NFC

Super Bowl exciting anyways, and we'll let Taylor Swift dump Travis Kelsey and start dating And then everyone will be really happy everyone will be so excited about it I will say my son the biggest Browns fan. I know and that is a fact. He does not want the Lions to win. He doesn't want them to come up before the Browns come up. And he is adamant about that. Like, of all the teams left, that's the team he least wants to win is the Detroit Lions for that reason. He doesn't want them to have the storyline

that the Browns deserve. He said he wants that storyline. So, Juju, what is your favorite story left in the NFL playoffs? I cannot overlook Jared golf and what that is. Hey, Lions again, three Lions votes. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's only estimated the mental health

that's required to go through that, brother, they said you weren't good enough. So go to Detroit. Like some brothers never make it out of that hole, bro. He could, his performance could have taken a dip. He could have given up on himself, taken a dip. He couldn't give it up on himself. Just been a less positive person all around. And he persevered through that.

Of course, Nick Caldain, Campbell, come on, man. But the best story to me is, brother, the Atlanta Falcons send out a tweet. They tweeted this, they own down frames. What is the best story? The championship weekend is the Atlanta Falcons. Yes, exactly. We are not interested in pursuing Lamar Jackson.

We heard all these teams say we are not interested in pursuing Lamar Jackson. We saw how he don't deserve the money. He don't deserve to check he getting. We've never seen, we've rarely seen a guy get the money and win. Yeah. A guy gets the money and gets an injury or takes a dip or doesn't come up. Lamar has a chance to, and he's the hood hero on top of this.

No matter what team you root for, if you are from the hood in the United States of America, you, the Ravens are your third or 14 because you always mess with Lamar. The hood Lamar, that's the story. O.B.J. redemption. Come on, brother. Hardbrowers, can they actually go from brother to brother when the national championship and the Super Bowl

in one year? Who has it better than them? No damn body. Man, we gotta put music all behind that because that is, I'm with you, Juju. You flip me. I was gonna say the little lions and you're right. My favorite story is Lamar Jackson and here's why.

And this is what we're in doing because I think we're way past our time in this in this block. But the hard boss incredible story. OBJ redemption. Could you imagine if OBJ wins another Super Bowl after like all the conversation around OBJ? That's crazy. But Lamar Jackson specifically Lamar Jackson is my favorite player in the NFL. He might be my favorite player ever. I've been around Lamar Jackson. I don't think there is a more humble superstar.

Joe is the humblest. He was always the humblest in my book. And then I met Lamar and I'm like, well, I didn't know it can get more humble than Joe Hayden Thomas. But Lamar Jackson is that if you look at every interview who's ever done, he says the right things. When they lose, he takes all the blame.

When he wins, he give all of his players and his coaches the praise to your point, Juju. It is typical. And that was the reason why they held off paid. I'm like, oh, we don't know if he's a long-term answer. We don't know if once he gets paid, he's gonna flip the script. And all he's done is get paid and gotten better.

And even beyond that, and here's my favorite part. Yes, they tried to move him to receiver. Yes, they tried to move him to running back. Yes, everyone's like, Oh, he can't be a pastor. He can't go deep in the playoffs. He can't win a Super Bowl. More than that, every media outlet. And I was on ESPN five years ago before even came out. He needs an agent. He can't do this without an agent. He's not smart enough. There's too many nuances to this business that he can't handle. And it was for six years, that was the problem.

He didn't have an agent. That's why he's not combating some of these things. That's why he can't get a contract. That's why they won't want to do business with him. He doesn't communicate. Lamar Jackson, and since Lamar Jackson has signed his contract, Justin Herbert has signed the contract, Joe Burrow has signed the contract, Patrick Mahomes has signed the contract, and do you know none of those contracts are as big as Lamar Jackson?

And ever since he signed his deal, nobody says anything about him wanting an agent, but nobody goes back and says, oh, he to this day, him and his his mom, who was his manager, have negotiated the best contract in NFL history to this day. And no one has gone back and said, does that make him the best agent in NFL history? If he has still negotiated the best contract on a per-money year basis? That is an incredible story. And you're right. With Lamar wins, my son hates the fact that I root for Lamar because he is a Browns fan. That is a fact. He loves Lamar too, but he's like,

yo dad, you're a little too excited to see him do well. But it is my favorite story left in the playoffs. All right, let's take a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk NFC and we'll get to some pretty spicy headlines from some former teammates and coaches of a few of us on this pod. We won't make Bruce get in it, but we'll explain later.

Ha ha ha. This is the Dunlopatar Show with the Stugas. Okay, this is a taste of public Tory finds out the full thing with Katie Nolan and Dan Soder the third episode in our celebrity Jeopardy trilogy with this power couple. My friends is over there. But for now, enjoy this. I don't know if it'll translate on audio. I thought it was a laser sound that is so convincing. Can you just leave me the mic? I'm going to close my eyes.

Ready? Yeah. It's the reverb. It's the reverb. Get a little closer and do it one more time. How do you do that? I don't want to know. I told him not to show the natural. It's like throat singing.

It's f***ing laser all day. Crazy. And then you want to back up a little and do your machine gun? Jesus, let me go. Do you know White Wackle One's love? Come get some. Come get some. The voice for metalist never left me.

You've never done Sam. Sam Elliott. Yeah. Oh God. That's well, there's a time and there's a place. Sometimes there's a time and a place. If you're ever up in the hills of Colorado and your dad is left, well, there's time to learn voices. Rod to learn voices.

Rodney Dangerfield? Rodney's my favorite. Yeah. Gotta find more stuff to do as woke Rodney. Wait, what is woke Rodney? I'm telling you, you don't have to get any respect to women of color. Yeah, far too long, never been getting women of color.

I'm telling you, if gender's fluid, then I'm in love with a puddle. Yeah. Of course black lives matter. I'll tell you what doesn't matter all lives. I got an ex-wife. I got a doctor. I thought go Vinnie boom box Yeah, first the other one that we like we do right wing Bruce Springsteen He's like, you know, there's a lot of immigrants taking jobs out here No, Bruce. Whoa, Bruce.

Brucey Bruce. Hey, my daddy used to work at the factory and then a Guatemalan man took that away from me. Whoa, time out. Time out, Bruce. Hey, I'm telling you, Citizens United, it ruined democracy. There's all the voices. Thanks for letting me get to my voice. Hey, I'm telling you, Citizens United, it ruined democracy. There's all the voices.

Thanks for letting me get my voices out. You gotta de-venin' me like a snake. There were other topics that I want to talk to you guys about today. Topics that would have just set up Dan Sutter to do various wrestling voices. That's my whole life, baby. I was hoping you would... Unfortunately, I'm going to ruin it and just talk about my thing. Sorry, honey. No, I love it. Sorry, honey. I'm your miss, Elizabeth, today.

Oh. Wow. That hits different now. It does, doesn't it? Now pick me up on your shoulder. So Katie has to do her macho man. Now pick me up on your shoulder. So Katie has to do her macho man. Yeah. Alright. That's like if he was horse.

Every impression I do is an impression of Dan's impression. I love it. Yeah. That's good. Yeah, there it is. Yeah, it's pretty good for limited fakes. But yeah, let's talk about Jeopardy. I know. Do we have to? I thought these were only if I won.

I admire that you showed up. I didn't know I had to do this if I lost. In some ways, this is the episode I'm looking forward to the most good Because I want to know I Can now know everything. Yeah How did you guys watch this? Oh, we just watched it at home. Yeah, is that dinner? We just had dinner and watched it You know a lovely meal. We had both seen it before we were both there So Katie had a good point while watching it last night. She goes athletes You know, we had both seen it before. We were both there. So, um...

Katie had a good point while watching it last night. She goes, um, athletes don't have to watch the game replayed back to them. I bet some guys do. I bet some guys do. For the first time. No, I'm just saying like, sports are live for a reason. This is what I was tickled by while also being very bummed spoiler alert. Sure, you don't have to pretend.

The closest I've ever came to being a boxer's wife the next day. I think I've made that analogy with this before, but it truly felt like I was in a gown and I had a diamond necklace on. And the love of my life was bleeding out of every whore. It just felt like I was just sitting there with like velvet gloves on. I'm being like, are you okay baby? But it was fun watching it. I was in the audience for it and I didn't remember a lot of it.

I was so locked in. I remember the least about. So we, we should, as we always do, recap for people who missed. Okay. I didn't win. I lost the whole, I came in third. I full lost the final. But this isn't something she's gonna say

because this isn't something that Katie does. What? Katie was very sick, very sick when she recorded that. And that's not an excuse, I'm just letting you know. But it's like when a hockey player reveals I've had a broken rib cage. I had a punctured lung. She, I got her sick.

I was very sick. I had a really bad head cold. And then I went back on the road and Katie was like, I think the day I went to Phoenix, you were like, I'm starting to feel like, and I was like, we knew the finals were Sunday. And the first taping day of Jeopardy, so the quarterfinals and the semifinals,

I had COVID that I got rid of just in time to fly. I was afraid that COVID was gonna keep me from doing Jeopardy. And I used that pexlovid and got rid of it in like four days and then had an extra day to get healthy and then flew. So this time I was sick again and I was like, no. And it did not clear up quick. It was no, and it did not clear up quick. It was not COVID and it did not clear up quick.

There was a nasty cold going around. When was this? November. After Spider-Man came, right after Spider-Man. You guys have been sitting on this for that long. Yeah, she, and by the way, they did cut the Spider-Man thing, which made me mad. Yeah.

Cause it was great. And it was just, they make you, you do a lot of the interview stuff in between, you know, the like, Katie, you're playing for this charity. But you legitimately had to think this, because not only was she sick, but her thumb was hurt. She had hurt. So, this is kind of out of order, but Spider-Ow,

Spider-Man 2 had come out. Katie, battling technology will be a theme of today's episode. Spider-Man 2 had come out on PlayStation, and I played it too. So they had asked me about how I prepped and I was like, look, I've been spending my weekends prepping, like memorizing the capitals and countries and stuff. But this last weekend,

I let myself take the weekend off and relax. And I just played a video game I'd been really waiting to play for way too long. I played it for like a day straight. And to the, and what's funny is I was, I was very excited for Spider-Man 2 to come out. Same. Preordered it.

Obviously. And I told Katie, she didn't play the, she played the first Spider-Man, she was like, it's all right. I didn't play the first Spider-Man. You hadn't played it yet. So she was like, I was trying to tell her in a down period of her not having a game,

I was like, you should try Spider-Man, it's awesome. And we live in Manhattan now, you can try to find her. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you can find yourself. Who doesn't look for the, Grand Theft Auto IV, I immediately went to the beer garden in Astoria and found where my apartment is. By the way, these are my two favorite games of all time. Number three is Red Dead Redemption 2,

as Katie and I have. I just started replaying it, love it. Love the Arthur Morgan story. Okay, but so I played the game too much. But she got into it in a way where like, I was on the road and the game came through and she was like, I need a video game. And then she texted me and she wrote,

I got Spider-Man 2. I don't want to play it though because you were so excited to play it. And I go, no, you should play it. And when I say that she started playing it, she dove in and by the time I got home from the road, this was like a couple of weeks before she was already 50% of the way through the game.

Which is insane. She played the shit out of this game. But so I realized that I played it so much that I injured myself. My thumb was red and swollen and throbbing. And I realized that I was potentially had injured myself before my Jeopardy! Final. So like my buzzer thumb was not working.

The only appendage that mattered. It was like in a sitcom where... Katie... For the podcast audience, you can go see YouTube and DraftKings Network. Katie Nolan's objectively not an excuse, actually swollen stuff. What's so funny is it really was like a sitcom, you know, when someone wakes up and there's like a big event in the episode and they go like,

oh no, my eyebrows are blonde. And like the whole point of the episodes that I'm hiding that, that was Katie when she woke up. She was like, my thumb. And then I brought back the nastiest head cold either one of us has had in 10 years. Gave it to her because I love her. So sweet, so sweet so sweet and

The Friday before Jeopardy She was like I'm feeling like shit and I was like no no no no no you're all right you are now you're now you're a cut man Yeah, you're good. Everything's fine. You're not just come on champ. You still got a champ Get some sleep and she's we she flew out to LA Which I do not recommend flying across the country at this time, culturally, with a cough. I just want everybody to know that what is the most real version of Katie Nolan

is the version that you can sense who really wanted to f***ing win this. Yeah, of course I did. And that's why when I was watching, I was fucking nervous. I know. I didn't know what was gonna happen. Yeah.

I knew, I felt how much knowing you, you wanted and I would dare say deserve. Well she put in the work. Thank you, Pablo. Learned every country. The fact that you- Learned every capital? Yeah.

Katie would come by and I'd be like, so like what are you doing? And she was like, memorizing all of geography. I know where things are now. That's pretty cool to me. Bulgaria. With the capital, Sofia. Jesus, she's good.

The original main goal was I don't want to look stupid. And I don't think I did, so I'm proud of that. So for people who miss the first two parts of this trilogy One of the great trilogies and in fight history, of course Ali Frazier Katie Nolan versus Christopher Maloney in which she makes an arch nemesis out of detective stapler a life enemy truly And then follows it up by getting into another blood feud and defeating Steven Weber from wings

Who turned into a fan? Yeah has been in our Instagram comments Yeah, he sent me a message and asked me if I won but he sent it on on Monday or like Tuesday morning and I was like I can't say So I didn't answer but now I got I have to remember to respond to him I do now think though of Steven Weber maybe watching this episode and seeing the photo of Katie Nolan's thumb and thinking to himself, turn about really is fair play. It really is. It was like when Frazier used to say mean stuff about Ollie getting Parkinson's where he's like, I did that. And you're like, damn, that really is a rivalry. When someone's injured later, and he goes,

I'm the cause of that pain. Katie Nolan had grabbed Steven Weber's thumb and held it like a hunting trophy in front of all of America. Like a predator, like predator. Truly. Said it was a god thumb, so I just wanted it to get the deserved. Ha, ha, ha, the spine of Steven Weber above her in a tree. So no one will ever take that away from you.

That's right. But I want to set the scene because you guys are at home. You guys know what happens. You guys are watching this stone cold sober. You guys are... Yeah, sure. Yeah, stoned cold sober. There you go. I didn't realize the word play was there. And so you press play and you guys are... Press play? Where's your life? What are you guys watching for as Katie Nolan's face appears right next to Lisa and Walter from the parent trap and Abad elementary and mo raka from CBS this morning and the daily show and yeah other things that involve guys wearing bow ties um bow tie enthusiast your mentality is what

watching it yeah um i mainly wanted to remember, because I didn't remember anything. I remembered there was one block, so between a commercial and a commercial, where I got like nothing. Where all the questions I remember going, what are these? I don't know any of these,

where I just felt like they were speaking a different language, and then I think I got one right before the commercial, like right at the end, and then I was I got one right at the before the commercial like right at the end and I was like Jesus. But what's crazy is watching, obviously we're all witnesses you know that's what that's where you but when she was taping it was it's interesting to watch somebody rewatch it and kind of know what happened but not in what order because we were like she's saying she knew there was a block and there was a block, but she was watching and she was like,

I think this is the block where I don't get anything right. And then it cuts to the primary coverage. Like, two questions in, David Mers up in our. Good evening, we're coming back on the air because ABC News is now projecting that Donald Trump will win the New Hampshire Republican primary based on our analysis. I remember watching this. What do we say his name? David Muir.

He's been around for so long and I still am like Muir. I remember taking my remote control because they cut in with breaking news coverage of the New Hampshire primaries. Katie got a notification that up in Boston They had cut a little earlier. So she was like, oh, they cut to primaries And I was like, no, no, they haven't cut here. So maybe we're safe. And then two minutes later They cut and we're like, is this it is the episode done? Is this the Heidi game of celebrity Jeopardy? Yeah, it was about to go

It was it was during commercial break. So we knew when it came back It was gonna go to Katie who she's playing for kind of little you know banter with Ken But before that in that block where she thought she missed anything she actually did an awesome in the first block I don't remember her doing as well and she doesn't remember either doing And at one point I'm like at the couch like I'd never seen it. I was like, look at that. Look at you, scientist.