The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 1: Stop Being a Poop

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

"We're not doing it because I decide that." Greg refuses to take a quiz before getting a haircut, Mike and Billy rope Dan in on sports talk, and Dan has returned, so it's time to talk about everyone's favorite topic: the sports media landscape. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stucats podcast. There are many reasons that Zaz is shooting up the radio airwaves at ESPN Radio, and it's because he knows what good radio is and goes back and harkens back to a time, at different time in content. And as he walked out of the studio, as Greg Cody said, absolutely not. I will not do that. Zaz just muttered under his breath, that's good radio. You should absolutely test and quiz his knowledge of how many people that he works with.

Is he willing to say, after just saying, I know all their names, he comes in here, more than ever, comes in every day, or twice a week, and is claiming he knows everyone's name out there. We are definitely doing that. No, we're not doing it. Because I decide that. Whoa. Oh, snap. Okay, and first of all, when I said I know everybody's name in there, I meant in there. Okay, now, I'm going to admit there might be one or two people in the back room.

Let's find out who they are. We go learn. No, no, no, no. It's not going to happen. It's a bar by Greg. I like that. He is in charge here of himself. It's my decision.

But we just mobilized all of metal art. Billy, on an anarchy Wednesday, was ready to go around the office as a game show host. What do you mean? No. Falsehoods. I would never betray Greg. Billy's on my side, and I appreciate that. A marshaling support right here. Grand marshaling.

Yes, thank you. I like how Greg was referring to just this side of the room. He knows that. Like, how ridiculous would it be if you don't know everyone's name in this room right now? Well, that's what I'm saying. You know, back at least 15 years. That's what you're saying? I don't brag.

I mean, you know, I only say the fact. When it's a fact, Jack. You know. All right, so let's do this. So forward and so on. Walk out there. Well, if we're. No, it's not happening.

If we were to do this, how should we do it? Should it, well, no, Greg, Greg, if we were to do this, should, I think that just grabbing someone and saying, Greg, what is their name? Might not be fair to you because of lighting, camera, stuff like that might be hard to tell and differentiate. There's two Fuentes, you know, it's confusing. So, should it be a thing where it's like multiple choice where we have three people and Dan says which one of these is Ethan and then you have to decide? I think that's the way. Does Dan say something like, okay, Ethan, and then Greg says, okay, Billy, move over to that person, this table stand next to the person, and then they reveal their name. No.

Oh. No. We're doing this. Stop being a poop. Whoa. Where was that going? That language didn't need to escalate until there. Guys, I have no idea what he was originally going to say.

I'm worried. I know. No, I meant what I meant. Don't be a poop. I want some help here as opposed to the lack of help, which is what I'm presently getting by all of them. I'm trying to help. Okay.

You're trying to help, but you're doing it in the worst way possible, which is speaking in language, your father does not understand, which is you are my boy, you are my son. Stop badgering me. I don't like it on our podcast when you do it. Thank you. In defense of Chris, it's not the worst way possible. The way that he corrected himself initially,

the original word would have been the worst way possible. You have no way. Starts with the P rhymes. You'll see. Okay. It's actually not. In a minute. I got people poops. All right.

All right. You know what? Hold on a second. Zazlo, what you just did there is totally unacceptable. We need subtlety in those moments. Like, that is not, you could have left something to the imagination, Zaslo. I mean, that's why I said rhymes with. Yeah.

Okay, not helpful. How did he skate on a penalty? Well, I can't figure out the board here. They said they gave me a whole bunch of new penalties, and I'm looking at, all I see is Billy Corbin's board, so I had to bail on the joke. The late call, so. page two yeah no i've hit all seven of the pages and they told me that it was all ready to work and none of it works okay dan hitting his microphone unprofessional regardless you have offended uh Greg Cody uh has has been offended by the way his son behaves because his son is disrespectful

more disrespectful than most right than most sons no i didn't say that then most people who think of your father in a more highly regarded comedic way than the way that you speak to him when you're undercutting him and trying to get him to do something that absolutely is the best thing for the show. That's what I'm doing. But the way that you approach him makes him stubbornly say, no, you can't do it without my help, kid. Dad, will you please do this for us?

That doesn't work either. You'll really help the show. You got to go Billy's route. No, you don't know your father at all. You got to go Billy's route. I'm not taking a quiz. I'm not doing a multiple choice. Let's do a line-up. Let's do a criminal lineup. I'll get three people in here. Get three. I'm not you guys don't understand. Okay. I don't know how to... I am crystal clear, Greg.

Thank you. The tone in your voice is very serious. I'm not doing this. I get the feeling Greg doesn't want to do this. Okay, if there's one or two people in the next room whose name I'm not sure of, that's on me. It's okay. They shouldn't be a very much. No, we're going to tell you the name.

But it's okay. I'm not doing that. Okay. There has to be a way that we can persuade you, some angle that we can persuade you for the comedy and the content of this when we're telling you, Greg, it's no kind of crime that you wouldn't know the names. two of the people in there. Like, it's okay. Like, it's not... It's not okay with me. Greg, do you trust me? Yeah, you're right. All right. Okay. All right. I'm going to, I'm going to eat you two people. Hold on. No, no, no, no. Just trust me. Greg, you can sit it out while you're in it. You can sit it out? Just let us, like, please, Billy, let Billy. Just trust me.

Can you trust me? All right. I don't take that as a yes. I can take that no as a yes. You could bring my wife in. Oh, look at this. The lineup is here. We have three people in here. Greg. No, you can bring my. my wife in here right now and I would not play along with which one is Mike Fuentes of these three people obviously those three I know which one is Mike Fuentes they're trying to make it easy come on you can you got this game okay okay a B or C which one is Mike Fuentes okay okay Rose is Mike Fuentes that uh I'm not I'm not pointing Rose there so I'm not playing this game Okay.

Plus, I hate that music. Okay, don't start annoying me. I have the right not to go along with a bit. This is going to go poorly. Thank you, Mike. I tried to end this here. Mike is the only one who kind of understands the temperature right now. Mike Ryan, Ruiz.

Which one is Mike Flindez? I'm not playing this game. Okay, I don't know your name right now. Which one's Mike Ryan? I'm not playing the guy in the far right who keeps insulting me. But you are playing the game. That's me. You're just getting it.

I mean, is it possible he doesn't know which one's Mike Fuentes? Thank you. The guy on the far right is Tony. That's exactly right. Tony. Okay, Tony's the tall one. No, I'm not playing this game. Nope.

I'm digging the music, though. It's growing up. You said you hated the music. I'm like it now. It's growing on me. All right, hold on a second. Let me see which one of these. Playing no hand.

All right. Hold on a second. Let me see. Minor penalty, two minutes for tripping the entire show. That could be anybody's penalty. No, that's great. That's great. It's yours for trying to get me to do something I don't want to do.

Minor penalty, two minutes for tripping the entire show. Is this a five on three now? Get out. You've got to get out. You're not helping us do the show. We need your help to do the show. It's a clearly good bit to do no matter what your embarrassment is. and it's not like you're revealing to any of the Mike Fuentes who were in there

that you absolutely know their name by tricking us by trying to say, hey, Rose over there, I know Mike Fuentes, but they threw in a ringer. They threw in somebody in there I wasn't going to be able to name. I don't think he pointed at the right lady when saying Rose. We had him cornered, and Billy is never resorted, never resorted. Billy, every time he's dealing with Cody, he has never resorted to just trust me, this will be good. just do you trust me you were trying to help him so much

and he will not help us do the show as if now everyone in there thinks oh yeah he clearly knows my name now everyone knows that he didn't know some of the names but he didn't play a lot it's just so annoying well I have I have some reporting from the back over there because this is just kind of like a different environment you've sent Greg over to the penalty box

but we have a barber there who thinks Greg is there for a haircut today so it may be a while before Greg gets back. He needs a haircut, actually. So he gets rewarded. There they are. There's Lucio. Ah, good to see Lucio. Yes, Lucio is in doing haircuts today. So now Greg Cody gets rewarded for that behavior. That's

okay, great. That sort of backfire. His hair got darker, huh? Oh, come on. Oh, come on, man. What is that? That's typically not how it works. How long has it been since you've seen Lucio? How long has it been? Clearly. A couple

shades ago. That can't be a greeting. You cannot see somebody for the first time since the pandemic and salute them with your hair got darker. I don't think Greg knows he's about to get a haircut. Oh, my God, he knows. Luce is just going to put it around his neck. He needs a haircut, and yeah, Lucio's here giving out haircuts. Now, yeah, he should get a haircut.

He's a mess. Chris, that video, can you get for me the video of your father falling into the bushes, please? Because not since, I can't believe we're giving away this video for free. If you watch your hand, his hands during the video of him trying to get to his phone, his hands show you that he's as drunk as he's ever been. That's not age. That's the three old fashions after whatever day drinking he had to do to get through that dinner. Can you give me the video that how many, how many? This was 2017 Notre Dame Miami

week, like the best week in Miami history. We went out with Marty Smith to where'd we go? Like We went to Coconut Grove. Yeah, we hit the grove. And, yeah, my dad. Don't we need to do something around the Miami Notre Dame game this year that feels a little bit like that to bring back the old vibes of whatever? This is your dad drinking what that ended up with him in the bushes that ended up with you charging people? How much money did you make the evening? Not enough because I didn't buy enough shirts.

I bought like 100 shirts thinking like, oh man, I might not sell all these. And we sold out in like 15 minutes. I could have bought like 500 shirts. All right. So there was a video of your dad. drunk and falling into the bushes. Forgive me. What are you doing? Forgive me for Andrew Schultzing this. Did you fall? Here it is. Oh my dad. Greg! You're gonna hurt yourself. What are you doing? I can hear my concern. You also sound pretty

sauced up. Give me your hand. Give me your hand. Give me your other hand. Hold that other phone. My God. All you What he did was drink beer. I know. No. Oh, he's actually getting a haircut. Those are the moments, man. That's my first time seeing that.

There's like an element of that where you could hear it's a son who really doesn't like what they see from their father. Oh, no, no, wait a minute. I hear me being like a concerned son. No, Zaslo. I'm taking a video. I hear the same thing. Oh, I hear the same thing Billy does. I hear the same thing Billy does, which is, oh my God, what a golden opportunity.

A drunken, rambling, rampaging Cody in the wild. Let me present my best side to the audience, as I know I'm embarrassing my father, who drunkenly is now crawling through mud while giggling. All you do is drink beer. No, no, he, no. It was me saying all you did tonight, even though I think I'm wrong about that, because I remember people were, like, buying him shots. He ripped a few shots.

Yeah, I don't know why I said that. Your father should be a much better drinker than he is because he has had so much practice. like he's got the requisite Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 expert hours he should know the order so that that doesn't happen to him and when you shout in that video and this this part was shocking this is just beer we've seen worse we we have seen Greg Cody like how many beers is that you think no well first of all it it's a day of it's 14 beers whatever 16 beers he didn't adhere to the old adage beer before liquor never been sicker of course The best part is that all often when he's drinking like this, like, Dad, do you eat before? Like, that's, you had a good, you know, foundation. He's like, yeah, I had a lunch. Like, he just thinks eating lunch will get him through a night of drinking. Liquor before beer?

You're in the clear. Yeah. All right, so Greg Cody is in the other room. Greg Cody is refusing to play our game, but Greg Cody is rewarded instead of a penalty. This is infuriating. That's such bullshit. We had a great radio bit here. It was so obvious, all right?

Can you name everyone in the office? Instead, no. I'm going to get a haircut. You get it, man. You get it. Look, every football game is a grind. And if you're like Dan and the crew, you know there's no such thing as one size fits all.

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Dan Lebertard. Baker Mayfield tearing up Tampa Bay, 38 for 45. Stugats. Shred him! This is the Dan LeBatar show with the Stugats. So now he's in the other room and Lucio's great at this and Lucio is going to clean him up and he's going to come in here looking spectacular. But this is not a punishment. This is a reward.

It's obvious a reward. We were just done talking about, we were just done talking about Greg Cody. He's been told all his life, Loria or Boppy, who do you look most like? Greg Cody, what's the answer to that question? We're going to get some pictures together so that people can see the resemblance. What's the answer to that question? Do you get more people saying you look like Loria or Poppy? Pretty equal, actually.

I would say those are the big two. Lyndon Baines Johnson, probably a distant third. Only Mike. Who is the person, the name of the person, cutting your hair? Lucille. Oh, he's willing to play the game when he knows the names. There it is. Oh, we've got him.

We've got him corners. So now he's willing to play the game. We're closer. Billy, good work. Good effort by you. Dad, you used to get Tom Cruise, right? What? Didn't people used to tell you you look like Tom Cruise?

Oh, yeah, back in the day, yeah, very much so. Yeah, like when I was in college or whenever it was. Put this on the screen now, please. Here's a young poppy. Here is a disheveled Greg Cody, and here is former Marlins owner, Jeffrey Loria. We see the resemblance is Roy. Look at Roy, nodding his head vigorously. Yeah, when they're smooched together, yeah.

Okay, so they look similar. Look similar. That's correct. That shirt I'm wearing used to fit me at one time. Well, the way that we're talking about Greg Cody's drinking, again, his son did profit, but not enough, because he could have sold many more t-shirts with the promise of a video that before had to be paid for to be seen.

And only those people saw that video to embarrass Greg Cody. This video I'm maintaining of the birthday dinner in his hands is the drunkest Greg Cody I've ever seen. Just the wobbling sausage hands that come with the old fashions after you've had eight beers. And the question I have, and I don't mean this to be an interrogation,

what kind of day drinking did you do to get through the awkward socializations you didn't wanna partake in of a bunch of office work who work for your wife that you didn't particularly want to have a party with for seven hours while also celebrating her. I don't keep track, you know, I don't count beers. My wife might, I don't, you know, could have been a couple, I don't know, a couple or three.

Thank you for everything you're giving. Yeah, it's, you want to penalize it more. You want to take a nap, mid-sentence, maybe? He's going to come out of there looking beautiful. I'm getting my haircut. Yeah, okay. That's my priority right now. I'm multitasking.

I rarely keep track. That kind of thing, you know. I'm getting a haircut. Professional haircut. Just turn his microphone off. Fine. Thank you. We have some exciting breaking football news for you, Dan, if you want it.

I do want it after asking you some hard knocks questions. But do you think the news? Well, it's your day. So which way do you want to go here? Let's go with the news first if you want. Yep. Oh, wow. NFL news, it never stops.

Dan. What happened to roll? Roy, were you distracted? He's got Billy Corbyn's hot buttons. There's a lot going on here. I actually have to look for the thing. Let me see if I could play one of those Billy Corbin things randomly. I love this town!

The dolphins are activating Darren Waller off the Pup list. Darren Waller is officially out of retirement now. Why, oh, come on. I mean, it's just... Play a practice. Well, he's got to make the team. He's on the Pup list. Now he's not on the Pup list and let the dog out, you know?

He's got a couple of days to make a... make an impression to earn a roster spot here. There's no chance he's not going to make the roster out of this show. I think there's plenty of a chance that he doesn't make the roster. Yeah. He hasn't played in several years. He hasn't even been available during the preseason. I think there's a big chance he doesn't make the roster.

I was really excited about this as an opportunity because it's the only kind of talent that would be available to the dolphins at that position that would be a game-changing grunk type. You guys do. The story of Darren Waller, if we're examining it, wherever it runs through addiction and depression and things he's talked about with things that he's struggled with both the mental illness part of football that ends up with New York having, you know,

the worst shooting we've seen in 25 years because somebody comes out and says, I'm going to shoot myself and not kill myself this way. I need my brain check. There's something wrong with my head. This game's danger. You saw the ESPN report about how many people are playing in pain and, you know, limping toward an earlier death

than the rest of us. because obviously our most popular game is like chewing up its bodies. It's what we celebrate every Sunday. Missed you, pal. It's great. This is you being excited about Darren Waller being activated from the public list. It's great fun. I want to believe...

Who got in the AFC South? Look, I want to believe that Darren Waller can overcome just the public shaming of his breakup being celebrated by him in a music video and everyone tearing up his insides on vulnerability because he dared to make something artistic around a relationship that seemed like it had a ton of volatility in it that everyone seemed to be fascinated by, and he showed us. This is a reclamation project who, with the Giants, with Daniel Jones, football became so hard, it looks so easy to him as a raider.

He's a game-changing tight end. He is a majestic physical talent. But I don't know where his head is, and I want to believe that somebody who wants to be great, can be that kind of great again in an offense that, you know, if you get Tyreek Hill speed, you'll get another Gaseki. Like, he'll be better than Gaseki if his body's right. Ross Dwellie is available, and he's familiar with this offense, though.

I can't believe you guys suck me into this. That was such a good trick you played on me. Us. Breaking news. Yeah, the Darren Waller. You just knew it would suck me into talk sports and mental health because this is a total reclamation project. I mean, he is a top.

the depth chart provided on ESPN.com, but that is because I have literally never heard of anybody else at that position on this team. Okay, so let me ask you between, in the discrepancy between where it is that Mike and Billy land on, is he going to make the roster? Okay. Because the dolphins looked for a discounted scrap heap thing. This is the only game changing thing like this is available. I don't know, Noah fan. You're talking about a tight end who in a bad, who in a bad offense with the Raiders was an easy thousand yards because he can't be he cannot be guarded by linebackers he cannot be defended but it was years ago so he goes to new york and i expect him to be great but the day ball daniel jones thing runs everything there right into the ground so what does

he become physically is he spent at 32 well how old is he he's not that old is that is that physically and mentally spent in that sport where you can't get it back he looked pretty spent the last we saw him which was years ago. And it was in New York, which I would argue could ground anyone to dust, and Daniel Jones has now survived. He's 32. If you saw how they were playing offense with the Giants under Dayball, they didn't have anything else.

It's some of the worst receivers in the league. I really believe you when it comes to this Darren Waller thing. It is an interesting story, but I think he's got to prove to the team that he can be healthy. The book on him was that his body was always broken, and then out the gates his body is not in football shape, which I guess could be understandable, unless he'd been plotting a football comeback, and teams knew about that, which clearly the Dolphins did, and then he got to wonder, was he held out to get into football shape?

It feels like, and I know he's not going up against a lot of great competition, it feels like he's got to prove to the franchising of football watchers everywhere, football Americans, that he can go still. Okay, so walk me through this part of what it is I just saw happen this offseason, which I thought was actually interesting, the financial and business interests at play. don't know the difference between requesting a trade and demanding a trade, okay, but that's now something that's in the NFL, and I'm not used to seeing that, whether it's Michael Parsons or anybody else. I'm not, what's the distinction between the requesting? McLaren is being discussed as requesting a trade, right? But Michael Parsons is demanding a trade. And with the Rams, Stafford, that situation is still fluid, right? So what's he, he's neither requested nor demanded a trade, but he's in play for every team in the league? Well, I think other teams, He was almost straight at this off season before the Rams decided to settle on him. And Rams are actually, you know, if you look at the NFC favorites, they're up there.

They got Super Bowl buzz. I think the thing with Stafford, too, is the same stuff that's kind of surrounding Waller. Well, physically, this is a guy that has just gone through a lot to get himself ready for football. But when you say physically ready for football, okay, because Stafford is one of the toughest human beings there's ever been. Like that for him to play that way through whatever it is that he has played through, there is nothing. I mean, guys, the Detroit machine was ready to be that when Stafford was there, but he was the only one ready to be that. And because they lost so much, they built everything they have now

so that we could laugh at Man Campbell when he's here and he's some kind of genius because he's over there with Jared Gough, of all people. Stafford built all that. That was all left for him. And then when he gets traded to the Rams, we still are, he's a top 10 quarterback, still a top 10 quarterback. It's amazing. His body still works.

He should be a torso. If he had legs, he'd kick you. He also still built it because they got a return for him, including their starting quarterback. Which is crazy. None of us saw any of what was happening in Detroit. But imagine, they reclaimed all things Jared Gough because of the pile of things that they got that made them great at every position. So the Detroit Lions would no longer be a laughing stock. Don Lebertard.

Greg, how's your birthday going so far? I invented it. It's going fantastic. My wife and I are staying home tonight. We're watching the debate on TV. we're going to do something special for dinner. It's a nice day for me so far. Stugats.

That sounds like not a super nice night. The debate. Old people love that shit. Yeah. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Old people do love that shit. And I'm old now.

I can't deny it anymore. Now, this is the Dan Levitar show with the Stugats. You guys said earlier in the show, who's the face of the league? Is Jerry Jones the face of the league? Hard Knox is doing the bills, and I ask you this for the future of the league. That show is a bore. Well, but this is why I ask you this for the future of the league. It should not be.

Like, you say that show's a bore. The Buffalo Bills need to be one of your storylines. They've got a unicorn and a quarterback, but he's kind of interesting, and that's all they've got. He's dating a Hollywood starlet. That's correct. But whatever the bill's got, it ain't it. It ain't what makes them. Like, the bills should be you are going to see in this Netflix documentary about the Cowboys

how far personalities can carry you in that league. The Cowboys have lived off this so long that they've eaten up even the broadcasting stream. Romo gets the jobs. Aikman gets the job. Jason Whitten gets the jobs because they know how to play media. Buffalo Bills, your quarterback's going to date a Starlet and he's not, and he's going to be the MVP, but he's not going to be here for face of the league? He's still talking about Jerry Jones.

Like, what is your Buffalo team doing on personality that's not making people buy in when you've always been a loser, people should be rooting for you. Oh, I don't know that it's necessarily that they don't have personality. I think it's that we've seen in recent years, and most specifically last year with the off-season hard knocks at the New York Giants and how that blew up with the Saquan-Barkley stuff and the general manager where teams are not allowing stuff to get out anymore. Like, this hard knocks, it's a bore.

And in the past, they were showing you the electric personalities. They were showing you interesting stuff. I don't think teams are interested in doing it. It's a struggle every year to get a team to a team to a ball. agree, and then the NFL just forces the show on you. And you want Josh Allen be doing a bunch of Coke, like the Cowboys in the 90s? Like, what do we want from him here? Yeah, and that Cowboys documentary, like, it's, yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

It's probably really, really good. Those guys aren't in the league anymore. Like, they're not in the league. So, hey, we'll talk about whatever you want. Yeah, but Jerry is. We already have the revelation that he conquered stage four. Jerry's already said that he loves it, that he wants the controversy and he wants the spot. Like, Jerry admits to you in one of the previews for this documentary.

Like, he's the odd one in this game. I think times have changed too and we know that they're probably not letting a lot of the stuff out. So after the first episode, one of the things that we all took away from it was we found out one guy goes drifting and he takes his young kids

and he puts them shotgun while he's there drifting and another guy in the off season going hunting 11 foot pythons and everyone in here was like, how'd the bills let that get out? Why do they let that on TV? That looks really dangerous and things they shouldn't be doing.

Why was that on television? So even us while we're saying like, this is boring. We're like the interesting things that they put out there. They're like, ooh, they shouldn't put that out there. That seems dangerous. I want to examine the idea that the Buffalo Bills didn't make the playoffs for 17 years. And wherever

it is that America's team should reside nowadays, it doesn't have to be coke off a taggle, but MVP dates, starlets, maybe not Taylor Swift, but in terms of whatever fame is supposed to be there, but is in the championship hunt and can go the next step to stardom if you just

want to be fun and interesting, and everyone would say they love Josh Allen's personality, but carry a team through the storyline of knocking off the Eagles and the Chiefs. They should be someone America's rooting for. I think they are. Remember, the narrative when we looked, we were looking like for a few months there, it could be Lions' Bills, and everyone got excited about that storyline outside of maybe division rivals. Okay, but where storylines reside in the future of sports,

It's when the NBA is going to take you to 11 o'clock at night. And where it is, this league has to sell its properties. The bills are one of its shiniest items. They should be one of the big tickets on, let's sell this thing to you as interesting so that you follow the storylines of this season. And I think in their defense, they have effectively. He's the MVP of the league.

I should correct myself, he's married to a Hollywood starlit. He is one of the faces of the league. He plays a really exciting style. he's often in the dialogue. And yes, on top of everything else, hugely fun to watch as a team. The thing that I wanted to bring up with you guys, though, when it comes to interesting and truth-telling and how hard knocks would become a diluted property

that can't even sell you one of America's shiniest things. While I was away, I don't know how much you guys talked about, the idea that the NFL bought 10% of ESPN. And so what was Disney's biggest moneymaker at the time that John Skipper was there, ESPN, and was in the journalism business back then because Skipper insisted that it be so, that change for that dollar amount and that ownership changes content forever through the life of that contract. the NFL will not be a silent partner with ESPN.

They are now more in business with ESPN they ever have been. They've been a stockholder. They're a shareholder. And what happens as soon as they get through the door? And I don't know if these things are coincidence or not. But, oh, the documentary on Colin Kaepernick that Spike Lee was doing. Yeah, we're not doing that anymore. And so I don't actually know what the facts of that are.

Spike Lee can't even speak. And I don't know what it would cost to buy that man silent. Well, TMZ reported they canceled the project a year ago. Like last summer. don't know any of the backstory here. I will say it's well chronicled how long ESPN and the NFL have been talking to one another trying to orchestrate this deal. It's been literally years. So I'm sure that was a talking point. So what is about to happen now? And it's been like it's been fun to watch and interesting to watch. And I don't know how well it's been covered. But basically ESPN before this

was basically a marketing arm for the NFL with also journalism coverage. But the deal was we'll pay you a lot more than the big network so that we can run your programming all day long, all your highlights. It's not even the Monday night game that's that valuable, though it's valuable. It's that all week long, we can run all your footage, and it'll do it in the offseason, and we can just be an infomercial for football at all times. America will love it. It'll make it bigger than ever.

You guys have seen what's happened to baseball and hockey when they weren't on ESPN. Partnership, this partnership, a giant one. And it was amazing, interesting, and sad. for me to see, oh, wow, the NFL network now gets to create its own thing that they already had. Sell it to ESPN. We all love Red Zone and this thing will become bigger and bigger than it's ever been, but far less interesting in how we're going to cover it and where it is we're going to get on the insides of how things get made so that hard knocks can continue to be hard knocks and so that we could get an honest actual version of the Colin Kaepernick story told through Spike Lee's

eyes because I really would have liked to have seen that without it being bought. I think that's a straw man, far less interesting. What's the most interesting thing about NFL coverage, an NFL ESPN studio show that features Mina Kimes? It is vanilla on purpose. Everyone minds their corporate partnerships. And you may be right in saying that, well, now that they own 10% of ESPN, that's just only going to increase. Well, that's not partnership anymore. That's ownership. Yeah. That's not partnership anymore. Yeah. Well, they were owning them remember like the whole like concussion investigative report thing this was before the ownership's taken ESPN took a step back in the name of their partnership what's the straw man

that I don't think that there is really interesting NFL coverage to begin with it's not what what's what's interesting about the NFL coverage so you don't believe that just this Netflix documentary keep my mind this is Jerry Jones who's comfortable with it he's the one who's comfortable with it 30 years have passed no but they're not going to they are not going I don't imagine that they will explore in any real way how it is that Michael Irvin almost killed a teammate with a pair of scissors to his neck. 30 years ago. You're not going to get that as it's happening.

But I'm saying you can get all of that information if you have documentarians and information sources that aren't in bed for ownership on how the things are getting made. I think the stuff you're referring to there is, for instance, the stuff that Pablo is uncovered in recent weeks. ESPN wasn't doing that anyway. They're not going to do that anyways.

I'm sure if an Aaron Hernandez thing happens again, heaven forbid, they will cover it. I mean has done a couple of interviews on this in terms of we you're mindful like the NFL was own an ESPN well before they owned ESPN. Okay, no, but Mike, that's not, you're doing, I get it. I get what you're saying there. But it wasn't in writing. It wasn't ownership.

Here's a 10% stake. You believe that you believe the NFL is going to, you believe Don Van Nata is still going to be able to do what he's been doing over there? I mean, I think what has he been doing? He's done a great profile. piece on Jerry Jones that seems to like Don Van Nata. And if Jerry Jones didn't like Don Van Nader and want to welcome him in, there is no story. Jerry Jones showed Don Van Nata what Jerry Jones wanted to. You don't believe the coverage of the NFL is going to change on ESPN

because the NFL has a 10% stake as a stockholder and is the, I'm assuming, the greatest minority stockholder there is on the world's strongest sports network. I certainly don't think anything on the day-to-day changes. I think there may be a story off in the future that may be embarrassing to the NFL that ESPN may not shine a light, but this is a, this is a league when it's covered on cable television, it's Dax contract and Tim Tebow and Michael Parsons. I think you're being naive, though, about how it is that these power deals are made on information going into the America we're about to go into. These are not dumb people in Jerry Jones and Bob Kraft who got the power of this league. And now the power of this league

includes a 10% stake in something that makes the NFL network and ESPN not part they're not just business partnerships that the NFL owns 10% of you I think Zaz is on the money ESPN just wasn't doing that stuff for a decade plus maybe even longer when we worked for ESPN we knew that the influence and power the league had we'd hear about it from our bosses when we were talking about a topic too much it would be feedback it wasn't don't don't talk about this, but you were aware. Does anyone care? I ask you this question sincerely. I don't think so. I don't think so. I'm good.

I have red zone still here. I get what you're doing and signaling the alarm bells as to what could happen, but it doesn't affect the content machine on the day-to-day because of the day-to-day content machine already carries water for the NFL. So you say it doesn't affect it day-to-day, and you'd be right, but a shrug of the shoulders on Spike Lee was making a Colin Kaepernick documentary that had Colin Kaepernick participation in it and would have been something that would have been deeper than most things made on the subject, that that was killed and non-disclosure agreements were signed on that to buy Spike Lee's silence. You shrug your shoulders on the entirety of what I'm presenting.

Societal shift. It may have happened either way. Look what's happening with the Smithsonian. A museum that doesn't do enough about the future. The boldest take of the week is here. Are the calls any better than they've been? Yeah, Chris previewed them before the show. I don't believe you guys. It's a good batch. I like them. I don't believe you guys.

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it's pickled herring, there's pickled beans, is pickled peppers. Why is a pickled cucumber called a pickle? I'll hold for your response so we can do wagons when lost for the season after. Hey, this is Pete on the toilet. My boldest take of the week is that anyone ordering tacos from Chipotle needs to grow up and order a burrito. Hey, the teachers. Hello, it's me, Mario, Christi Ball, looking forward to another season of Connets football. Wah-hoo! What's going on, guys? This is Paul calling from Texas. My bold take is there are no really good Christmas songs. I'll hang up at this one.

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