The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 1: The Maniacal Giggler (feat. Brian Stelter)

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

"I've talked to members of the Hungarian parliament." Brian Stelter has been reporting on the FCC, the Trump administration, and Jimmy Kimmel's return to ABC. He shares the latest on what it all ...means after Kimmel's on-air contrition last night. Plus, there's an NFL QB who sounds like a truly insane person. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:34 Before we get to Brian Stelter to talk about Jimmy Kimmel, these are obviously really turbulent times all over America, and there is danger and chaos and violence everywhere. Mike, what is the breaking news now on what's happening with ice and the state militia that we are weaponizing? Well, details are still going in, and we want to be responsible because I saw Christine Noem and J.D. Vance also went to Twitter
Starting point is 00:02:05 probably a little too soon to send out a certain message. But there was a shooting at a Dallas Ice facility. Two detainees at this facility are dead. One is injured. The suspect is dead. Still coming over the news cycle, but according to social media, these shots were fired from a nearby rooftop.
Starting point is 00:02:26 There are things being weaponized and political conversations immediately happening after violence and death because the content mill is something that is fed too quickly before we even have a chance to process, never mind getting to mourning. But with Jeffrey Epstein and with Jimmy Kimmel, we have found at least two issues. where it seems like most Americans are pretty close to United. And in the case of Kimmel, this feels like a situation where public outcry made Disney do something that Disney didn't want to do. So Brian Stelter is the former media correspondent for the New York Times and Vanity Fair.
Starting point is 00:03:12 He's got three bestselling books, Top of the Morning, hoax, and Network of Lies, and he's the current CNN media analyst. Brian, in your reporting, what is it that has happened over the last? four days? Was it simply that everyone started canceling Hulu and Disney subscriptions? It's more complicated, but I do believe people dropping those subscriptions did make a difference. Let's start from the premise that Disney always wanted to bring Kimmel back on the show. It's not as if the executives who run Disney, like Bob Iger, the CEO and his deputy didn't Walden, it's not like they're secret Trumpers who are big fans of MAGA media and want to turn a
Starting point is 00:03:53 into Fox News. That is far from the case. Bob Eiger donates to Democrats. He thought about running for president against Trump. Dana Walden is known for being best buds with Kamala Harris. These executives not only love Jimmy Kimmel personally, they are also politically in, I would say, some sort of sync with
Starting point is 00:04:12 Jimmy Kimmel. But they looked around, they react very quickly to pressure last week. And that, that's what they did, right? They reacted by pulling the show, and they wanted to find a path forward. It took them a few days, and I think the audience pressure, Dan, the consumer pressure, it did make a big difference, but they always wanted to bring the show back anyway. You're sure about that? Because
Starting point is 00:04:37 the original reporting I saw on that, it seemed like people were saying that indefinite was likely to become he wasn't coming back. You're sure about that. Well, look, I was skeptical. I thought it was unlikely his show was going to be back on broadcast TV. Because I was, was thinking to myself, these station owners were not going to let it go back. They were too fearful of the Trump administration. They were too concerned about pressure from Trump and Brendan Carr. I think it is important there was this groundswell of public concern, all these free speech groups, all these First Amendment experts, all of these random ordinary consumers, right? All these protesters outside Disneyland. It's never a good look for Disney when you have free speech
Starting point is 00:05:21 protesters outside Disneyland. So, yeah, I think this story was unique in some ways amid all the other Trump controversies because it did create so much outrage and backlash. And yes, I do think that made a difference. We don't know for sure, right, what Disney was thinking. We don't know what the bottom line impact of the cancellations were. But I think what we do know for sure is that these executives love Jimmy Kimmel. They wanted the show to be back.
Starting point is 00:05:46 And they decided by Monday the temperature had cooled down enough that they could do it. They could bring him back. And now, here's the thing, right? Kimball's more powerful than ever because he's been explicitly approved and backed up by ABC. Next Star Media and Sinclair, though, are still in a position as affiliate owners where Kimmel isn't airing everywhere. Can you please tell me what the consequences and what the cost of that is and if that's going to change? Normally, we would say, the next star in Sinclair, total, they represent about 20% of the markets across the U.S.
Starting point is 00:06:25 where Kimmel show airs. So normally we would say, wow, 20% of the viewers can't watch Kimmel. That's going to mean a ratings hit. That's going to mean the ratings are going to drop. It's going to be a big, big, bad problem for ABC. But not in this case, right? Because more than 20% of an additional audience
Starting point is 00:06:43 pour it in last night. I can say that without even seeing the ratings yet. Clearly, there's so much interest in this story that Kimmel and ABC are benefiting from a surge of viewer interest. So, yes, in Seattle and Washington and in some smaller markets, people were not able to watch the show
Starting point is 00:07:00 at 1135. But those viewers are just going to work a little harder. They're going to go to YouTube or Hulu or Disney Plus. They're going to watch the monologue this morning. And you know, that monologue is getting millions of views per hour on YouTube right now. It is already, by 8 a.m. Eastern, it was already Kimmel's most watched YouTube video
Starting point is 00:07:17 of the year. Not surprisingly. You know, everybody wanted to hear what he was going to say. So Nextar and Sinclair, they don't hold a lot of cards right now. They can continue to protest Kimmel's show. But ABC has contracts with these companies, and they're going to probably start to enforce those contracts. Here is some of what it is that Kimmel said last night. He was emotional when talking during his monologue, an unusual monologue that was probably
Starting point is 00:07:44 twice as long as it usually is. play some of that sound for Brian and get his reaction. It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don't think there's anything funny about it. I posted a message on Instagram on the day he was killed sending love to his family and asking for compassion. And I meant it. I still do.
Starting point is 00:08:10 Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what it was obviously a deeply disturbed individual, that was really the opposite of the point I was trying to make. But I understand that to some that felt either ill-timed or unclear or maybe both. And for those who think I did point a finger, I get why you're upset. If the situation was reversed, there was a good chance I'd have felt the same way. I have many friends and family members on the other side who I love and remain close to, even though we don't agree on politics at all. I don't think the murderer who shot Charlie Kirk represents anyone.
Starting point is 00:08:46 This was a sick person who believed violence was a solution, and it isn't, ever. Brian, what were your thoughts on his monologue last night? Number one, he's trying to say, I am not, he's trying to say, I, Jimmy Kimmel, am not anti-Republican. I am not against you, conservative in America. He is clearly against President Trump, but he was almost trying to split off Trump and Trump's aberrant behavior from the race. of the party and the rest of the movement. He was offering condolences to Erica Kirk.
Starting point is 00:09:18 He was complimenting and praising Erica Kirk's speech over the weekend, her tribute to her late husband. He was trying to offer a little bit of a bridge or an on-ramp to conservatives while at the same time making clear he's going to continue to satirize Donald Trump. He's going to continue to speak out against the administration. So I think he said exactly what ABC wanted him to say. you know he wanted to ABC wanted him to acknowledge the controversy wanted him to try to extend maybe an olive branch of some sort
Starting point is 00:09:47 and Kimball did just that and I think it was genuine it seemed genuine to me oh but when you say he said exactly what Disney wanted him to say I disagree when he went into his pocket and said I have only one condition on my return that Disney is forced on me and he just said here's how you stop canceling your Hulu subscription yes I don't what do you think that what do you think that Disney's relationship is with Jimmy today that it wasn't a week ago. That's probably the most interesting question.
Starting point is 00:10:17 Well, number one, his contract is coming due in May. So this may not be a long-term relationship. I have no reason to believe ABC wants to drop the show in May. I have no reason to believe Kimmel wants to leave. Yes, he's made noise about retiring, but, you know, lots of stars do that in advance of contract talks. It is possible.
Starting point is 00:10:35 I think we could imagine a world where next spring, Kimmel's show moves off broadcast. Maybe it's just going to go to streaming. Maybe it's going to become a pure subscription play. And maybe that's actually in the best interest for everybody involved. If the government is going to continue to wield its power to punish private companies, ABC might decide it is better to put the show onto streaming. But that was the decision they would make with Jimmy and not for Jimmy.
Starting point is 00:11:00 You know what I mean? That would be a conversation. And that's a sad reflection of our times if companies are going to feel they have to take that kind of action because of the Trump administration. Ryan, through your reporting, what do you know about the dialogue from between Disney and Jimmy about exactly what he was going to say? What hard lines Jimmy had? What was the initial ask? And I'm sure what we saw on television last night was basically both sides kind of giving in a little bit to what they believe. Yeah, you know, nobody's really leaking, which is unusual in these situations.
Starting point is 00:11:29 Usually when there's a late night drama, we hear some pretty spicy information from sources. In this case, I think everybody is trying to play it cool. It was not in Kimmel's interest to go out there trying to burn ABC down, trying to leak against ABC. His camp, so to speak, has not been out there trying to push certain narratives. As far as I can tell, certainly my phone's not ringing. Neither are other media reporters. So it is telling that this is not exploded, you know, with background quotes and anonymous jabs back and forth. It is interesting, though, that ABC's statement, when they announced he was coming back, they referred to thoughtful conversations with Jimmy. And I think that's a euphemism for some pretty strong language that was used back and forth, right?
Starting point is 00:12:15 Kimmel was clear on the air last night. He did not agree with ABC's decision to suspend the show. He did not want to be sideline. So I am back there were expletives at first, right? I imagine this was pretty heated at first. And then as the days went by, they were able to reach a compromise and find common ground. But look, that's notable, right? Sometimes these late-night stories, they erupt.
Starting point is 00:12:40 Think about Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno. Sometimes this stuff does get aired in public, and this time it hasn't. Maybe that's, number one, these two camps really do like each other. But number two, Kimmel knows his power right now, doesn't he? He has this free speech platform, and he's making it about so much more than himself. He's telling his viewers, if they come for Jimmy Fallon next, you better speak out 10 times as loudly. He's telling his viewers, Trump's trying to destroy American journalism. He pointed to the Pentagon, implementing new restrictions on journalists of the Pentagon.
Starting point is 00:13:11 He is using his platform to make this about so much more than one late night show. You know what I mean? Howdy, folks, it's Mike Ryan, and I know it's early in the NFL season, but it has shown you exactly why the NFL is indeed King's Sport in the United States of America. Great games. Incredible matchups. In-demand tickets for these high-profile games, sometimes, oftentimes. These games are sold out, and you're left with the second.
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Starting point is 00:15:21 Uber Eats can definitely get you that. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. Product availability may vary by Regency app for details. Don Lebertard. What is the worst part of the life? Stugats.
Starting point is 00:15:35 the worst part of the life of what this is the Dan Levitar show with the Stugats do you have a lot do you have a lot of examples of anything that looks like Jimmy Kimmel's career from the Man Show to this where he has turned the monologue like he's consistently doing health care monologues like he has become he has done politics in a way that fallon can't do politics i agree with you and i went looking through his youtube views this morning trying to get a sense of what what viewers want right
Starting point is 00:16:23 at least online on streaming what do viewers want out of kimal and what i found was very clear the most popular clips the most shared clips they are not his celebrity interviews they are not his sketches. They are not his absurd segments. They are his anti-Trump commentaries. They are his political monologues. That is what people come to look for now from Jimmy Kimmel. So when we hear conservatives bemoan Kimmel and say he's not funny and say he should be canceled and all that stuff that's out there that's all across Fox News, it's not true in terms of what the audience that Kimmel has wants. Kimmel's audience wants him to take on Donald Trump. Kimmel's audience wants him to point out the Trump administration's conduct in some cases
Starting point is 00:17:05 misconduct. So yeah, it is amazing to go from the man show to where Kimmel is now, but he seems perfectly positioned to do it, at least between now and May. If you had to guess, would Jimmy Kimmel, instead of doing what he has done, which
Starting point is 00:17:21 is be a polite and good Disney employee throughout, if not in protection of the paychecks for his staff, does Jimmy Kimmel quit, become a martyr, and just get on with his life? Because it's better for Colbert right now at this point and for him to be on their own the way Conan O'Brien is instead of, you know, being, working in the mainstream, threat and mainstream media. I suppose there's a world where he does see benefits to being free from some parent company.
Starting point is 00:17:49 But working for Disney also conveys a lot of benefits, you know, including the fact that he was on almost 200 stations last night, even though a few dozen of them refused the air of the show. You know, working for Disney does bring him some even more high-profile visibility. You know, there are some benefits to his platform as well as certainly some drawbacks. And I think now we're in this moment where, you know, Kimmel is a cause, right? For better or worse, whatever you think of it, Kimmel's a cause, what he went through and the public pressure from the administration is part of the cause. If anything, this, I don't know, maybe I'm wrong to, maybe this weds him more to ABC and Disney in the short term, at least.
Starting point is 00:18:26 Probably gets free three-part tickets. Oh, yeah, he does. Those are the best. Have you done more reporting on Colbert and gotten to the bottom? more of what it is that happened there because they avoided this by making it, quote, unquote, a strictly financial decision when I don't believe it was a strictly financial decision. I don't think you do either. The way I like to think about Colbert, the way I frame it is, if Kamala Harris were president, Colbert's show would still be on the air. It wouldn't be,
Starting point is 00:18:53 it wouldn't be facing this May cancellation. That's the way I think about it. Yes, the financial story is real. Yes, the show, you know, was losing money, depending on how you, depending on how you do the math. of ways to do TV math. But the bottom line is in a Harris administration, this would not be happening. That being said, Colbert is no slouch. Colbert is using every day he has left on CBS to speak out. And at some point, CBS is going to have to put on a new show.
Starting point is 00:19:20 They're going to have to do something at 1135. What are they going to do? Here's what I keep thinking about this week. The approval ratings for Trump are very clear. Pretty much every poll has him around 40% approval. This is a country where 6 and 10 Americans disapprove of the president. disapprove of the president, they certainly don't want
Starting point is 00:19:35 their own free speech rights impaired. So if you are a major media company, if you are thinking about consumer demand and consumer attention, aren't you going to try to appeal to the six out of ten? Just from a pure cynical, I'm not talking about newsrooms now,
Starting point is 00:19:50 okay? I'm not talking about journalists. I'm talking about major media company CEOs, the ones who have been caving, the ones who have been bending the knee, if they keep doing that, isn't that going to create even more market demand
Starting point is 00:20:02 for alternatives. Isn't that going to create even more opportunity for other companies to appeal to the 6 and 10? Do you see what I'm saying here? Yeah. I mean, a lot of this business stuff is interesting to me and I just wonder if any of this is actually going to go
Starting point is 00:20:18 away or if Trump and the FCC just learned, oh, next time let's not make the threat and do it that way. Let's not do it out in public so that the public, let's do it quieter, let's cloud it, let's confuse it, let's not do it, brazenly and honestly, drunk on arrogance?
Starting point is 00:20:34 That is exactly what my gut says. I've been covering Brendan Carr all year. I've been texting with him all year. I've seen him write letter after letter, make statement after statement where he pressures these media companies in more thoughtful, nuanced, legalistic ways. You know, it's clear that Carr hears Trump's threats. He hears what the president wants from true social
Starting point is 00:20:58 and presumably from private conversations. and then Carr tries to translate that in a legal regulatory way. Last week, Carr went a big step further, right? And as Ted Cruz said, Carr sounded more like a mob boss. I don't know if Carr is going to make that mistake again. I don't know if he thinks it was a mistake, but a lot of people think it was a mistake. I don't know if Carr will go that way again.
Starting point is 00:21:20 It seems to me he'll be more careful next time. He wasn't careful with you, right? You're the one that he tweeted the office gif to celebrate that Kimmel had been taken off of the air. right? Yes, he sent me the Michael Scott, whatever this is called thing. Raised the roof. Raising the roof, yeah. Raising the roof, yes. He sent
Starting point is 00:21:38 me that gift. He did that in the heat of the moment, and then he didn't send any gifts again. You know, he hasn't sent me any memes in the week since. I think there's probably a part of him, because he's a savvy guy. He knows how this world works. He knows the limits of the FCC's power. He
Starting point is 00:21:54 knows that his bully pulpit is one of the most powerful tools he has. I suspect that he is thinking about how to use his bulletin pulpit in ways that will not draw so much backlash next time. But do you sense that he's chastened at all? Because this was a really public hit that he took. I don't believe that most people before this knew who the FCC chairman was. And it's his arrogance that we now know. And sending a reporter that shows a general tone deafness that you didn't think America was going to turn on you this way. Because the public outcry on this one,
Starting point is 00:22:30 has been something to see the people move this way, move something as powerful as Disney and moved a weaponized federal institution has been something not only emboldening, inspiring, because I was worried that that's not the America we lived in anymore. I've got to play devil's advocate with you, though, and point out that I think some MAGA media influencers
Starting point is 00:22:51 loved seeing what Carr did last week. I think some Trump voters loved seeing him use his power in a clenched fist against those liberal elites, in the media. You know, for every reaction, there's a counterreaction. So Carr's pressure caused this dramatic counterreaction, these Disney Plus cancellations, this free speech movement. What I wonder now is, what do Trump loyalists do next, right?
Starting point is 00:23:16 Trump pressured ABC again overnight, threatened action against ABC, kind of hinted at a new lawsuit. I doubt he'll file it, but maybe he will. He sued the New York Times last week and got thrown out, but he might try again. So, you know, Trump's going to continue to try this pressure campaign. Kimmel said last night. He said, Trump's not stopping. And many Trump voters still want to see this happen. They want revenge. They want retribution. They want to punish their perceived enemies. So I want
Starting point is 00:23:41 to recognize for all that's happened in the past week, there's also this energy out there to try to stick it to Jimmy Kimmel, right, to try to get him canceled. And that's not going away either, right, Dan? In other words, this is, this tug of war is still very much, it's still ongoing. Best guess on what's next beyond what you just said. What do you think? going to happen next? I think every time a major media company appears to be caving, a new substack is born, a new podcast is born, a new YouTube stream is born.
Starting point is 00:24:11 And right now, Kimmel is racking up millions of views for his ABC monologue, but if this goes south, if Disney comes under more government pressure, if the DOJ starts blocking Disney's deals, if Kimmel's show ends next May, he'll probably be bigger than ever on podcasts. Brian, is there any way that these media companies can fight fire
Starting point is 00:24:29 can fight fire with fire? Can they counter sue when they receive any frivolous lawsuits that Trump might file? Yes, in some cases they can. And some First Amendment scholars wish ABC had gone that route last week. They wish ABC had gone to court. I think the reason that didn't happen was because this happened so quickly. Like literally from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday afternoon, all of this went down, all this erupted. And ABC did what was maybe what they believed was smartest in the moment. If this had happened with a little bit more time, less time constraints, fewer time pressures, that legal route may have been the one. And, you know, it's important to keep an eye on the courts here because the New York Times throwing out Trump's defamation suit
Starting point is 00:25:15 last week, sorry, the New York, not a Florida judge throwing out Trump's suit against the New York Times last week is an example of how the courts are the ultimate backstop here. You've covered the media for a long time. Give me the closest thing you've seen to something that looks or feels like any of this? Yeah, I don't want to sound hyperbolic because America's a whole hell of a lot bigger and stronger than an Eastern European landlocked country like Hungary. We're very different than Hungary. President Trump is different than Victor Orban in some ways, but the parallels between
Starting point is 00:25:46 the U.S. and Hungary are really striking right now. Orban's control of the media, his consolidation in power, his attempts to weaken public broadcasting and break the backs of independent media and privatize. media companies with the control of the state. All of that is very eerily similar to what Trump is attempting and some of what's happened in the past nine months. I've talked to former Hungarian members of parliament
Starting point is 00:26:10 and other experts who have studied Hungary's democratic backsliding and more authoritarian moves. They say that what they're seen in the U.S. is very similar. So, you know, if you want to nerd out this weekend, go read about Hungary, read about the model there. The autocratic carrots and sticks because I think that's what we're seeing here in some ways.
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Starting point is 00:27:14 Don Lebertard. In terms of heat fans, you're the most irrational of us right now. What's the pivot? Oh, irrational. Stugats. Did you not hear your voice there? Your voice, if I were making a cartoon thing that was meant to symbolize
Starting point is 00:27:30 irrational. That's the voice I would give it. This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stugats. Put it on the poll, please, at Levitard show. Did you think that you were going to hear someone say on today's show, I've talked to
Starting point is 00:27:48 members of Hungarian Parliament? What do you think was the most interesting thing from the last week? Ooh, spicy. The most interesting thing about the past week. I think the most interesting thing about the past week is that, um, what's the, can you answer first?
Starting point is 00:28:07 I'm trying to, I'm going to try to stall for time. No, the reason, okay, I'll allow you to filibuster, but, uh, when you, that Eagles come back. I wasn't talking. No, no, wait a minute. I'm asking him about the Kimmel situation. I'm not asking. This isn't Jake Taylor.
Starting point is 00:28:19 Randolph, though. Right, Brian, Ramtuff. I'm asking him as it relates to this situation because I believe in your media career you will have never covered anything like this when you're mentioning hungarian parliament you're talking about these things that are so macro but a talk show host created a frenzy in this country yeah i think i know what it is i think i know what it is every day there's a new scandal every day there's a new come trump controversy every day he's trying to use his power in ways that are unseen and unprecedented and different CNN beat reporters cover this in different ways every
Starting point is 00:28:55 day. You know, one day it's some obscure federal agency. The next day it's Harvard. You know, one day it's a Smithsonian. The next day it's some private company you've never heard of. Every day we're seeing this happen. But the Kimmel story broke through unlike most of those controversies. Like the Kimmel story has resonated. I can feel it in the TV ratings. I can feel it in the protests that we've covered in New York and L.A. We can feel it. I think all of us. That's why we're here talking about it right now. I think the big surprise, maybe it's not, shouldn't be surprising. The big statement here is that there is an interest in the American public, that people are paying attention.
Starting point is 00:29:36 These stories can break through. Maybe the point, Dan, is Americans are not numb to it all yet. Thank you, Brian. Excellent. Appreciate the time. I appreciate the work, sir. Thank you. Thanks, y'all. Go bird.
Starting point is 00:29:49 Yeah. So you mentioned the Eagles, and I did want to talk for a. second about a couple of the bad gambling beats this weekend one of them was the eagles if you had the rams plus three or plus three and a half that's kick a hole in the tv oh my god if you had you're sitting there kicking for the game and the only thing that beat you is the unprecedented act of a 340 pound guy not just blocking the kick but having the athleticism to then grab the ball and instead of just taking a knee and ending the football game, doing the dangerous thing of running down the field with your money.
Starting point is 00:30:28 Well, I think and when you see the guy who picks up the football, all right, it's a disaster right now, but okay, somebody's going to catch that guy. He's really fat. Nope. You're missing the-19 miles an hour. You're missing the S from the word you tried to say he's really fat. He's really fast is what he was. That was a bad beat, but I'm going to go back for a second, and it was the worst.
Starting point is 00:30:47 I don't think there was a worse one this weekend if you had the Rams. plus three, Rams on the money line, Rams plus three and a half, because they were winning the whole game. Auburn was bad. Well, that's the one I want to get to. So listen to this, so I'm going to set it up for you if you were not watching the Auburn, Oklahoma game, okay? Oklahoma
Starting point is 00:31:04 is favored by six and a half. They score a touchdown to go up five, go for the two-point conversion, and miss the two-point conversion on a wide open pass because it appears their quarterback's hand was broken at some point during the game.
Starting point is 00:31:21 So he throws a bad pass at the end of the game. It would have been an easy completion, wide open in the end zone. You would have been up by seven instead of five. You would have covered if you had Oklahoma. But now you're down five and a half. And it's not just that Auburn has the ball. Auburn has the ball at the 30-yard line. You're not thinking safety there.
Starting point is 00:31:41 Like you're thinking, in any case, interception return for a touchdown, fumble return for a touchdown, but they start getting penalties. And you're like, oh, my God. If you have Auburn plus six and a half with the ball, and the game is five points, I know people don't like math here, what you are not expecting is a safety when you're on the 30-yard line. But in this game, you had to be expecting a safety because all Oklahoma was doing was getting more sacks than they had at any game Oklahoma's ever played. Do you know how many football games Oklahoma has played?
Starting point is 00:32:14 Not just that, the benefit of the whistle. because the SEC's come out and said that a touchdown that they scored shouldn't have stood anyways because they tried some hijinks, some dark arts, fake a sub. By the way, I was on Auburn and the Rams. I know, you mentioned early. I was on Oklahoma minus six and a half. You don't deserve to win that. You shouldn't be breakdancing back there.
Starting point is 00:32:35 Mike had those in parlays as well that got crushed. SGP with Kyron Williams anytime touchdown Nakua, Pooka Nakua over six and a half catches. And to close it, everything else was one. was Rams plus three and a half. So when Zaslo says it's kick a hole in your television time, just take me into your face, Mike, as it's not just that Auburn gets a safety there and it becomes a seven point loss. It's that whoever was rushing the quarterback there, he's a university, he could have been at the University of Miami, but he runs over the right tackle, just steamrolls the right tackle. And the reason Auburn's quarterback was not expecting
Starting point is 00:33:15 that is at least in part because there's a human being on right tackle who's 300 pounds that he was not expecting to just get bold over that way and then he's engulfed in the end zone and you lose your bed. I laugh. You know, there was a great Al Pacino that
Starting point is 00:33:31 said in the iconic film, too, for the money. You never feel more alive than when they're pulling the chips away. Yeah, I love, I love those things. Great movie. I'd rather there is... I want to be John Anthony! There's a strange part of me that would rather lose those bets than win them just because it's a great war story.
Starting point is 00:33:53 But everything kind of just pales in comparison, Cameron Dicker missing the kick against Jacksonville. Come to find out, now he's just nailing big kick after big kick and is one of the most accurate kickers ever. And it's just, it's weird. He's the most accurate kicker in history, 94% for his career. I love how in two for the money, McConaughey's process is just I'm going to walk into my office and I'm going to look at this sheet with the lines on it. And I'm going to circle one side. No.
Starting point is 00:34:20 What if that doesn't do it for him? Then he has to take off his shirt, oil up, and lift some weight. That's when he's, you know, I'm in a rough stretch here. And the whole room is just wants this paper because they're going to sell the shit out of this paper. He promised Armand Asante a 13-0 weekend. You guys have heard me say over the years that I feel like quarterback measure. that we in the media are pretty bad at it. I feel like we're pretty bad at the kicker measurements, too.
Starting point is 00:34:52 Do any of you, or did any of you have any inkling that Young Way Koo was going to lose his job this season? Is that something that you guys knew was coming? I thought of that guy as wildly, wildly consistent, and also when he missed a kick earlier this season, I was surprised by it. He missed a game-winning kick. Do you guys, did you guys have an inkling that Young-Way-Coo was about to lose this? job in Atlanta. You would have thought that he would have had more of a runway to mess up, but they didn't. He's missed a lot of kicks, Mike. The last couple of years he missed a lot of kicks, and it's
Starting point is 00:35:25 like, oh, yeah, he's good, but yeah, he shouldn't have missed that 42-yarder when the game is, you know, in hand. It was weird, and I felt like it was kind of coming. Zaslo, did you have any opinions on Young Way-Coo? I didn't think we ended up. I was very strong on Nguyen. I just didn't think that here. Aslo, you're pretty dialed in. I was surprised. Diled in on the Falcons, as you know. We went from Hungarian Parliament to Young-Way-Coo. I think that when you name part of the stadium Cooville, it's a little bit of a surprise that they cut the court on him. Not the coup I thought we'd be
Starting point is 00:35:53 talking about off of that Kimmel's story. Let's talk useless sound here, shall we? Let's do some useless sound montage here where we go throughout the sport and get two minutes, two minute mainfield of just useless sound. Man, it's great to win in the national football league. Great to play at home. In front of our fans, they're just, they're unique,
Starting point is 00:36:22 and we love them. Good win to get, in particular, when you haven't had one. I'll always remember this win. And we don't need to learn a football game and know that turnovers are very hard to overcome. It feels like we lost the game. I got through it right to the guy, so it wasn't like he made a good play. I mean, good for him. He caught it, like, awesome. Can't let the Eagles beat us twice. You know, we spent a lot of time on our ball search culture. You had to have a drive there, so the guys made some plays. For our group, we talk about we don't care how we get on the field. We don't care of the situation.
Starting point is 00:36:57 We got to find a way to get off the field. They had a good plan today. The grid, the mental toughness of our football team was on display. You know, I'd rather be two in one than one or two. The Bears are the Bears. You know, we have played three out of 17. But there's no flinch really out of that group. Our guys didn't blank.
Starting point is 00:37:14 Again, saying it doesn't make it suck. Frustration that turns to focus, I would say that I'm very focused and motivated to continue eliminating things that cost us games. It was a screen that I hadn't really run before, and I was like, Christian, what is this again? So he reminded me, and he's like, oh, I was like, oh, yeah, I got you. So that was bad by me. I got to know exactly what it is. Offensively, he's got some good things going. He's got Wilson there, which is a plus.
Starting point is 00:37:44 The flea flicker, we're right there, you know, and it's like, you know, whatever. It's a tough job to do when there's someone in your face. We need everybody needs to do better. This game is the margin between winning and losing is so small. If you don't take care of business, you don't play well, then you're not going to win. Guys were connected against a high-strain team, which leads to some extra yardage. You get Brian an opportunity, man. He's got a great personality for this sport and for you people here.
Starting point is 00:38:17 There's a lot of things that took part in that game. We lost that game as a team. We took the lead as a team. And we're going to, you know, these are the chances to be able to lean in and see what you're really about. Well, I like Michael and enjoy his family. Like I said, I've set at ball games with them apart from the Cowboys. So as a matter of fact, I watched the whole first half of our last preseason game with his mom.
Starting point is 00:38:41 And we sat there and watched the whole up in the suite together. Listen, he's an emotional guy. He's Irish. Who was the maniacal giggler? The one and only. Keeping San Francisco afloat, Dano. With a ripped jersey. That was Mack Jones.
Starting point is 00:38:59 That was 3 and 0 Mac Jones. He also didn't know the play. He had to ask Christian. Roy, find for me isolated, please, what I believe. if I played secret audio from somebody who had been administered into a facility where they had lost their sanity and what they would sound like if I just had secret audio of somebody who had officially lost their mind. He's laughing at the fact that he's laughing at the fact that he threw an interception to a defender who didn't have to do much of anything to intercept the ball. You can't win with that. That's a bit.
Starting point is 00:39:42 Undefeated. But big picture, you can't win with that. What does the bears or the bears mean? What does that mean? I don't know what he means by that. Of course, the bears are the bears, but I know what it used to mean in the 80s. I don't know what it means today. Also, Cam Hayward has learned from his coach, talking about getting off the field.
Starting point is 00:40:01 I'm trying to know what ball search culture is. What is a high-strain team? Yeah. The dolphins. I like some of the terminology used throughout this sport. I was listening to a game on satellite radio this weekend when I was just driving, and a running back broke out into the open field, and the announcer just yelled. He's a flight risk.
Starting point is 00:40:27 It's a good call. It was a good call. Who was on the call there, Dan? Who was it? I know. We got to find that guy. That guy knows what he's doing. Why were you driving?
Starting point is 00:40:36 during football. Farmers market, Dan? Ah, you're married, dude. You're so married. My favorite part of the show so far today was it just dawning on you that you're married. Let's go to the pumpkin patch, Dan. Oh. It's fall.
Starting point is 00:40:49 You guys don't drive during college football at any point on a Saturday. You guys don't leave the television at any point on a Saturday? I did. If I do, I'm not happy. We know Roydos. Where does I watch football? I mean, no, I'm locked in on the game. Unless I got a kids party I got to go to or something.
Starting point is 00:41:06 That's what I had to do. This couch right here. This is where I live all day. Please keep playing Mac Jones. Again, this is him talking about throwing an interception where a defender didn't have to do anything because Mac Jones just realized that he threw the ball to a defender who didn't have to do anything to intercept it. That's me if the Marlins make the playoffs. Howdy, folks, it's Mike Ryan, and I know it's early in the NFL season,
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