The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 1: The Symptoms of Baseball Fever

Episode Date: October 10, 2024

Billy is feeling a little under the weather, but it seems like it may be because he caught baseball fever. Then, we go Behind The Bit on an all-time "Stugotz isn't paying attention" moment involving the movie Predator. Plus, the Padres have banned Ken Rosenthal from their dugout after an article criticizing their personalities, and Dan and the crew discuss if this is a change in media or the players. Also, Gerald McCoy is here to chat with the crew about Turkey Trots, QBs leading the league in "don't lose the game," weight loss, the face of the UFC, and providing relief in Tampa after Hurricane Milton. Help out Hurricane Milton victims with food on the frontlines: Give what you can to World Central Kitchen at Donate.WCK.org/LeBatard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. Nah, not quite. What's up? Sell my car in Carvana. It's just not quite the right time. Crazy coincidence. I just sold my car to Carvana. What? I told you about it two days ago. When you know, you know. You know? I'm even dropping it off at one of those sweet car vending machines

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Terms and conditions apply. Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. This is the Don Leventor Show with the StuGuts Podcast. Have you caught baseball fever like I have? Oh yeah. Do you know that October baseball just smacked better than any other form of baseball? Because I sure as heck do and I cannot wait to potentially watch this Padres Mets World Series, the one that Colin Coward told me is coming around the corner. Juicy. But if you want to see that in person, like I most certainly do,

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when they use a promo code Dan. Again, that is D-A-N. Download the Game Time app today. Terms apply. What time is it? Game Time! I want to get to a Padre story in a second. Billy, did you not like that singing by Chris Cody? Why are you making faces that are unsupportive of a teammate? No, I'm not unsupportive. I was just, you know, caught off guard. I'm here. I'm the foundation of this team, I think. I like to be the support column of the team. The rock.

That's what I try to be. Under the weather, because he's caught baseball fever. That's true, and the sniffles, bad time for the sniffles. Little flu season to get me started. You have the sniffles? Fleezen. I do, I powered through the first segment, I needed to blow my nose, I didn't.

And then last segment I had to, I'm sorry gang, but I had to go blow my nose. But I did it. Just started baseball fever. Yeah, I powered through it. In Chicago I thought, ooh, there's no way I'm gonna make it to this show, but I did. Little day quill.

The thing is though, after you take the day quill and you make it through the big obligation, you think I'm in the clear, but no, no, it's back front. What are the symptoms of baseball fever? Runny nose. Sniffles for sure. Teary eyes sometimes, depending on how big the home runs are in the moments.

Is it ever a good time to have the sniffles? Because you're saying it's a bad time to have the sniffles. Is it ever a good time? When you have to go to a funeral that you're not really that emotional about. That's a good answer. Wow, great job. Good sniffles.

Good family cues. Yeah, it's absolutely fine. Bad time to have the sniffles? when you're eating something spicy or eating soup. Oh, yeah the worst time to have No, but it's just I understand it's ultimately good for you, but you're just dripping and it's just like wasabi Yeah, this wasn't so bad another symptom of baseball fever goosebumps Do you get any does a rash come with baseball fever? Any kind of rash? No, rash, no.

You should get that checked out. It can be disoriented when you have baseball fever. Like I'm disoriented finding out that Salvador Perez is that much younger than I am. He's 34 years old. No he isn't. Liar. You're entitled to your opinions, I'm entitled to mine.

No he isn't. I wanna get to the Padres in a second, Stugatz, but before I do that, I want to relive a time with you here that I believe to be one of the greatest times in our show's history when one person or a group of people were doing one thing and Stugatz was doing an entirely different thing because he didn't realize what the rest of us were doing. If you remember the movie Predator I have told you before it's Arnold Schwarzenegger and he is fighting a an extraterrestrial that has nuclear capabilities and it was a groundbreaking movie at the time we obsessed over it at one point Stu Gotz

was going to have Billy, one of the characters in that movie, that produced I think three or four politicians, was gonna stay at Stugatz's house because we were going to convene a watching of the movie Predator with our fans. He was gonna sleep over for not one but two nights and I had to pick him up from the airport

and drop him back off. Sonny Landon. Sunny Landham. Complicated legacy. Not that complicated, really. Just kind of a legacy that was bad. And one of the things that happened, in our sort of reliving of the movie Predators, I was telling you guys, and this is a spoiler alert,

at one point Schwarzenegger is moving through the mud and we are given the vantage point of the predator who is looking through infrared vision and cannot see clearly can't see Arnold Schwarzenegger as he is covered in mud crawling away in in great fear from something that is about to kill him that That is indeed the movie Predator. I just want to make sure we're not being redundant. The only reason I'm bringing this up is I don't know if in this clip that we're about to play nostalgically as part of our 20 year anniversary, if I tell the story in this clip

that Arnold Schwarzenegger, while in fear for his life because he's being chased by an extraterrestrial thing, says out loud, he can't see me. It's a dangerous situation. You don't want to be heard by this thing that can kill you, but he says out loud, and that is for my father. He did that for only my father, who may not have understood that we were viewing this through the vision of the Predator. It would be unfortunate, but I'm kind of rooting

for this Behind the Bit to have that word for word. Same. I hope so too. Let's see what we have here. This is Behind the Bit. This is Behind the Bit. This is Behind the Bit. I take you back to a better time

when everyone on the show cared and we all tried to be entertaining. ["Between the Bit and the Predator"] when everyone on the show cared and we all tried to be entertaining. And I'll tell you who else wants to fight. Dwayne wants to fight. Alright. Dwayne. Well then let's fight man. Let's go. Let's go. No. Kill me. I'm here. If Wade wants it. Kill me now. We want it. Dwayne. I'm here. Let's go! Kill me! He ain't scared! Do it! Wait a minute. I'm right here! Kill me!

Listen, man. Will you shut up, Stugatz? I'm doing a thing! Stuv! I'm doing a thing! We were to play that. I'm predator! What happened to Stugatz here? Stugatz wasn't following the context of the segment before. We were talking about the hopelessness of the heat being

on the precipice of being eliminated in the NBA playoffs. And I had cited one of the final scenes in the movie Predator, where Arnold Schwarzenegger is daring the Predator to just end it already and just kill him. Come on, kill me, I'm here! Come on, do it now, kill me! So we had framed that and Sugots loves that movie, but then I started doing it as a bit.

I was in the background screaming like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Predator, like, argh! Sugots was just like tagging along, not paying attention. And that'll happen occasionally. You're too caught up in trying to get your own shot up that you're not realizing that there's a game going on and other people are getting their shots up. And he kept stepping on the comedy there.

But it actually made it funnier than it would have came out had he laid out. I don't get embarrassed by much, but that is, it's that ludicrous for the watch. It is rare, it is rare on our show that all of us are doing one show and somebody else is doing a different show. But forced to gods not to recognize

that Mike Ryan is shouting, kill me in Schwarzenegger's accent, and he is still trying to motivate like his group of athletes. Let's go! He's doing a motivational speech in the heat locker room and Mike's doing something from a jungle, from a nuclear extraterrestrial

that's trying to blow up Schwarzenegger. But at least it's not a movie we discussed for years on the show, a movie I haven't seen 17,000 times. So you got basically no seven movies, and that's a chunk of them right there. Predator, yeah, our show obsessed over Predator for a while, we did a Predator watch along

at a movie theater, we had it on a big projector, got people to come out there, so I thought up until that bit, he would know to lay out. He didn't. But like I said, the results were even better. People quote like I'm doing a thing still to me. He was not thinking in the moment at all. Despite knowing the movie, liking the movie,

probably was able to say quotes from the movie. But what are you going to do? It doesn't happen very often that we're doing a different show that obviously, but to pull back the curtain on it and to have Mike Ryan yell at him as Schwarzenegger that he's doing a thing, and then to see Stugats dissolve into his own shame, which as he said, you don't see very often.

Enjoy this because you don't get it very often. He's shamed. Do it! I'm right here, kill me! Listen, man. Leaning into the nostalgia a little bit on our 20th anniversary. Lots of special things for you in the audience.

One of those special things drops every two Fridays and that's the oral history of the Dan Lebatard show. On Friday, we dropped episode two, being very well received, appreciate all that. At the end of every episode, you'll hear a supercut of clips from that era, and in episode two, I included, you mentioned in this behind the bit, that that's the second most embarrassing you've been

outside of asking Ludacris about his watch because you were drunk at Shaq's birthday party. And we had a remote broadcast from it. So in episode two, I had forgotten a clip that I wanted to put in episode one. It's kind of, you know, it fits enough the general timeline. So I decided in episode two, I was going to put this in because I had rediscovered a clip in which you sounded somehow more drunk than you did in that ludicrous Clip do you remember when you saw Michael dolyak at Shax birthday party? No, let's play for the audience

We had Michael dolyak day We had Michael dolyak day, oh my god hammered Yeah, Michael dolyak passes on an interview and you were so offended and you brought up which was the right thing, it's an accurate take. We had just come off of Michael Doliak Day. Why would anyone do that? We had Michael Doliak Day. That sounds like genuine hurt from Stugatz.

I was hurt. Why wouldn't Doliak do the show with us? We had Michael Doliak Day. Sounds like hurt and gin and tonics. Can you get the sound of Stugatz asking? Because he's never been there. Dolyak do the show with us. We had Michael Dolyak day. Sounds like Hurt and gin and tonics. Can you get the sound of Stugats asking? Because he's never been this drunk on air. This was seven gin and tonics in and a midnight appearance.

And this was talking to Ludacris. How much does the watch cost, Ludacris? How much? I don't know. I got it for free. That's a good question. That's an indelicate question, right? You don't ask a woman what she weighs and you don't ask a hip-hop star What his jewelry's worth do you why he let me ask?

Tony you had you know, I love this. I love this This is the best like that that first like cuz everybody's been there everybody's been too drunk where they go to ask a question like How much does the watch cost? That's an indelicate question right you don't ask a woman what you I wanted to ask you what was happening here with that Ken Rosen fall What was happening here with that trouble maker Ken Rosenthal In the Padres series Bowtied Ken Rosenthal is finding himself in trouble I don't know if the rest of you have heard of this story But Ken Rosenthal is being boycotted by the San Diego Padres who are now tied to two with the Dodgers

Do any of you know what it is that I'm talking about? Yeah he wrote an article that they were upset with him about an article so they've banned him. So this is what was in the article. He called Machado, he called him punkish for throwing, allegedly throwing a baseball at Dave Roberts even though the footage is grainy. Machado's got a great infield arm, one of the greatest in history of the sport it didn't seem like he was trying to throw it very hard but Rosen Rosenthal went after him as punkish he he went after Fernando Tatis and called him a peacock which I didn't think was very much of an insult it's pretty much of an

accurate appraisal one hell of a broadcast partner, I'll tell you that. And he did this though in an article for the Atlantic. So you've got Rosenthal as the sideline reporter who's supposed to be objective, but over here he's having opinions. And I didn't think in 2024 anybody got mad at articles anymore or that anybody was even reading articles anymore. Or writing them. I'm just happy that articles are still having an impact somewhere.

What is- You just need one person to read the article and then take a screenshot of it and then you put it out and then that's how you get everyone upset about it. He also went after Profar because Profar did that thing where he reached into the stands, stole a home run,

and then was playful with the Dodger crowd. But the Padres are showy and once again, we're finding ourselves in one of these situations where somebody is protecting old school baseball sensibilities from the young players and in this case, the young ethnic players who are now boycotting him because they like to play baseball in a way That's a little more fun. I don't understand why Fernando Tetis would get bothered by being called a peacock

He is obviously a peacock like he loves to prance and swagger He was in right field pelvic thrusting with the right field crowd What did you guys think though of the Padres uniting to say no, that guy from a different time in terms of what media is covering us has written something and we're not going to offer him access to our clubhouse because of what it is that he's written even though that prevents him

from doing his job. I'm okay with the team getting together and saying we don't like how this guy covers us, even though he's part of the team or part of their broadcast team, but he writes an opinion piece in a different magazine away from the team. I don't mind if the players get together

and say, hey, we don't want this guy, this old guy covering us, because it's never gonna be positive. We're gonna continue to celebrate the way we've been celebrating and play baseball the way we've been playing baseball and we're never going to win with a guy like that. I'm okay with it. I'm told and by the way, to tease is batting 500 in this series. I mean, he should be, what's wrong with being a peacock? He should act like a peacock.

The Padres are super confusing to me and that I thought they would be this last year with Blake Snell and Soto. Snell was was a Cy Young winner, Soto was on their team but they didn't have Tatisse and Tatisse is outside of Otani the best player in this series. Baseball is so weird Dan, it's weird from this day who cares how a player celebrates? Why does Ken Rosenthal care how a 23 year old celebrates some of the biggest moments athletically in his life? Who cares? Obviously, a lot of people do.

A lot of people in baseball care. A lot of people protecting what they believe to be baseball sportsmanship and sacred respecting of the opponent. I don't like the boycotting of a media member who is You've got a partnership with like this is a paid partnership It's not even a partnership like you got to be friendly and pretend to be partners You're working with a partner here the thing that makes it tricky about Rosenthal. He's not writing for a magazine He's writing for a website and it's outside of the job that he's doing Which he would never do any of that in the broadcast.

He would never do any of that as part of their partnership. He's doing it for the athletic in the written form. He's having a much stronger opinion and he's losing his access because these specifically, the thing that I noticed about it is, oh, it's the three Latin guys. Like it's not any of the other, there are other showy Padres, but it's the three Latin guys that he's going after.

And other people have noticed this, uh, as well. They've noticed that, uh, there are often old white sensibilities that, uh, pollute the coverage of this game. How about Ken Rosenthal hit a baseball one time, to T-Stars and see how he would celebrate? That's a funny visual. I mean, Jesus. With the bow tie, yeah. You have him in the bow ties raking.

Always in the bow tie. What do you got? You got him going opposite field in the bow tie? Yeah. Aren't the Padres being a little sensitive here? I think that's pretty sensitive. Yes. It's just, it's kind of snowflake behavior from Manny Maggiato. I don't's pretty sensitive. Yes. It's just kind of snowflake behavior from Manny Machado.

I don't really understand it. I think the problem with the pro for play, outside of the fact that the Dodgers do trash on the field, is nobody knew it was an out. There's a limit on this. You can hold the ball for like five seconds. And he's got to show me. He's really upset.

Throw the ball into the infield, man. Mookie hit a home run the other day, and he thought that he was robbed again and almost ran off the field before getting to second base because he thought that he was being tricked again, which would have been kind of like an interesting thing where the Padres pitcher was flat out telling him, hey, finish rounding the bases, which if I was him,

I wouldn't have, I would have let him just walk right back in the dugout, then step off the mound, toss down to second base, and then there's an out and a run off the board because he was tricked. By the way, guys, I don't know if we're aware of this, but tomorrow night we have the greatest two words in sports in the divisional round. Game five. Game five.

Yeah. A lot of caveats on the front of that, but game five. There really were. There really were. But why is Ken Rosenthal pointing out these guys? He's not pointing out Jesse Winker of the Mets who acts like a complete moron when he's playing baseball. He celebrates, over celebrates,

if that's what you want to call it. Why is he pointing out those guys? Moron, moron. I'm not gonna get Mets access to guts. I mean, I don't care, but I'm saying, why is he singling out these particular players and not the other players who, I guess, over celebrate for lack of better term?

I am always confused by the policing of the joy of others but this is a showy baseball team and I happen to like baseball teams that play with swagger and aren't afraid of Otani and the Dodgers. I was just interested in sort of the media story of this because it's it is very sensitive of the Padres I wouldn't like to be called a punk I don't punkish behavior I understand Machado but Peacock doesn't I mean or a moron yeah I guess there should be a conversation but you know banning someone's access especially Ken

Rosenthal's done this for quite a while sure he's not above having a conversation and clearing the air there. It just seems pretty sensitive. Yeah, but the media has changed, man. The athletes got together, and they're like, we don't like this guy. He's writing bad stuff about us. He's not saying it to our faces. He writes it somewhere where hopefully we don't see it.

And they're like, we don't want him here. I guess media has changed as a byproduct of all those things. But it's not really the media changing. It's a player empowerment changing. It's also how people view the media that's changing. Media is pretty common practice. Someone does something on the field and someone has an opinion about it

and puts out an opinion piece. That's sports, baby. Oh, but one of the things that has changed and it changed with the pandemic is, and you guys have read about this, I'm guessing, the NFLPA is now saying, we kind of don't want reporters in the locker room at all. This is our private space and it's a cramped

space often and there are a lot of giant people in a cramped space and once you allow the media in when a team has lost and is hissing and is naked they don't want people around anymore and I would ask you guys the question, given that we have more access to these human beings than we've ever had, given social media. We see more of their lives than we've ever had access to. When the NFLPA says the way that the media has covered us is outdated, it hurts me to say this, as somebody who wants the access has covered us is outdated.

It hurts me to say this as somebody who wants the access, but they're right. Like it is an invasive thing for us to be able to go in right after their emotional workday and stand by their locker when they're naked, as opposed to having them come out in press conference form after they've gotten the emotion of it out and can just do something that is more rigid. But who gets hurt there? Right? Because obviously the media gets hurt in its ability to do the job, but doesn't the customer also get hurt by limited access? And should we because of what happened during the pandemic where they all realize, oh, it's nice to not have all these people up in these private spaces anymore. Who's right here? I think it's outdated and times change and practices around it need to change. I'm totally

fine with their stance on that. I get why they're uncomfortable with it. There really aren't many professions where you go do your job you undress because of the physical exertion and someone puts a microphone in your face as that's happening, I feel like we can all wait a little bit. I think we should do that around here. I think we should start having, I think our show should end in the post game

with Stugatz with a towel around his shoulders in the locker room over there with someone interviewing him about how he thinks he did it today. Is he gonna be naked or no? Yeah, I think that's the way it should be, with a towel around his waist. How'd you feel about that bad joke in the third segment? How'd you feel about that behind the bit when we were just sort of addressing you

Billy before we get to Gerald McCoy before we get to pitch clock with Jeremy what's going on with your listener league? Ah, great question, Dan. So if you want to compete against not my listener league, our listener league, all of us compete in it every week, go to dkng.co slash Smirnoff. It's a $3 buy-in. It's presented by Smirnoff, the world's number one vodka please drink responsibly.

So you get your budget's about $50,000, and now you think, wow, I can do a lot with $50,000. You can, you can roster an entire fantasy football team for a day, for the one o'clock and the four o'clock games, and then you can kinda try to turn the $50,000 digital dollars that you obtained with your three real dollars into sometimes like 450 real dollars, depending on how you finish.

Do you go for the most expensive players first, or do you start cheap and then go for the expensive guys late, I never know how to play that. You gotta build your line up depending on rosters. Start expensive and then just pull in the rest. It's a tricky situation. I don't wanna tell people my strategy because I don't want them to beat me.

Even though I want you to win, I don't want you to win at my expense. I always spend a lot on the quarterback, the running back, because I know I have the defense special teams coming up and I have the kicker. Love that cheap defense. Yeah, yeah. Didn't you say though that you went one time

from being fourth in the league to like 643rd? Oh yeah. You seem very inconsistent, your results here. Well that's the great thing about it Dan, is that one week's failures don't carry over to the next week, but also one week's successes also don't carry over to the next week. but also one week's successes also don't carry over to the next week. So like, I was, at one point last week,

I was on the stage in Chicago, went to Chicago also, presented by the good people of Smirnoff, I was in seventh place, I was riding high on that stage, watching my Bears. And then I fell out to like 123rd place-ish, more or less, I wanna say. Only if you would've started Alec Pearce. Right before the show started, Tony had me remove

two different players that I had. He's like, trust me, trust me bro, you gotta get this guy instead. And I listened to him. Tony, you sabotaged him successfully. 100%, it cost me two touchdowns. The long call, Dan-o. 300 yards of absurdity.

Anyway, dkng.co slash Samirnoff, if you want to compete against us this week. I associate Gerald McCoy with Tampa. He's also a very good talker, so we will discuss everything going on in Tampa and football with Gerald McCoy next. Hey, it's Mike. I'm talking to you from the road right now because I am literally traveling to watch my favorite team play a football game.

It's something that is pretty routine for me this time of year. Thankfully I don't have to do it alone. I've got Game Time to help me get the best tickets on the secondary marketplace. Someone that's been in this game as long as I have, I'm constantly scouring the web for the best deal. Thankfully, Game Time guarantees me the best deal with their low price guarantee. What I love so much about Game Time is their all-in pricing. Game Time has a new feature called Game Time Picks that makes getting tickets to see your

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expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.co.ftball. Don LeBretard. Go ahead, Billy. ask him your question. Is gymnastics possibly good? Oh wow. Stugats. I got some phlegm in my mouth, yeah. It's okay. Yeah. Is gymnastics possibly corrupt?

This is the Down Lebatard Show with the Stugats. ["Dawn Lebatard Show Theme Song"] Thank you for being on with us, Gerald. You are impeccably beard-groomed there. What were you using there? I need some of this equipment. You seem to be cleaning up in a way that I need some help with. My wife today was just picking things out of my beard. Well Gerald is younger. Yes, Gerald is younger, so.

Yes, that is one of the reasons, but also. And I got a fresh off running, so I went for a run this morning. I had to get the energy flowing for this interview. Gerald, you are much thinner than you were during your playing days. Oh, he's jogging. Oh, yeah, for sure.

How does it feel to run now with a body that is how much lighter than when it is that you had to be a menacing defensive lineman? Oh, it's so much better. Knees don't hurt, ankles don't hurt. I've never been a runner, like a sprinter, but I've never been a runner, like distance running. So I don't run less than two miles now, so it feels great.

How much weight have you lost? Because it's always interesting to me to watch the retired guys who used to be the strong men get their bodies back after their careers end. Right, well, my weight was fluctuating, so I shot up a little bit. But from when I started losing weight to now, in between, I fluctuated in between 30 and 40 pounds

that I've lost. The most I lost I got to was 39 pounds. Gerald, are you annoying about the running? Like, do you put like the 26.2 on the back of your car? Like tell everybody like, oh, I got this 5K coming up. Oh, I just computed the 10K. You walk around with that. No, I'm not that guy.

Yeah, don't get there. I know, I know how this starts. I'll never be that guy. Yeah, no, that's what you say now, but make us, look, make us a promise right now. You're never gonna change. You're never gonna be that guy. Yeah, no, that's what you say now, but make us a promise right now, you're never gonna change, you're never gonna be that guy that starts telling all your friends and family, start signing them up for the Turkey Trot at Thanksgiving.

That's not what you wanna be. That's not what you wanna be. No, I promise you I'll never be that guy. Yeah, thank you. I'm gonna write that down. All right, it's been written down. The promise is now in the record book of Billy. Thank you for badgering poor Gerald McCoy

about Turkey Trot. It's important though, Billy's right. It is important. Thank you for badgering poor Gerald McCoy about turkey trucks. It's important though. It is. It is important. It's for his own good. I mean, it sounds like I'm being annoying, but I'm telling you, people are gonna hate if you become that guy, Gerald. Yeah, people keep pushing me to run 5Ks and all that.

I'm like, bro, I'm doing this to stay in shape. I'm not doing this to, no. I ran my first three plus miles the other day. And it's because I got challenged by one of my boys. We're doing like a 31 mile challenge right now for the month of October. This is how it's and he was a wide receiver and he was like, I ran three miles in this distance. So I beat his time by 11 minutes because he he tried me.

So nobody likes that guy. Just don't be him, okay? You can catch Gerald regularly on NFL Game Day morning, Sundays at 9 a.m. Eastern on the NFL Network. We do appreciate you joining us here. I was saying before you came on, we've talked to you a lot before. I basically associate you with Tampa,

with those colors, with that city. What has the last couple of days been like for you as someone who gets at least a little bit of his regional identity from a place that has been battered here today? Yeah, it's tough. I mean, you call in, I've talked to all the team. The team left early, they evacuated and they already in New Orleans. Talked to all the owners, talked to the GM players, et cetera. All the team is out and their family, so they're safe.

But then I checked on some of my other family members who are still in Tampa. Some evacuated from their areas and came to my house that I live, I have my house in Tampa. And I called them this morning, they said it was a lot of wind and rain, but no damage to the house, that they are fine. Anybody else I spoke to this morning. They said it was a lot of wind and rain, but no damage to the house that they are fine. Anybody else I spoke to is fine.

So as far as the people I know and I associate with, they're doing fine right now, but it's a lot of people who are not. So that sucks to hear and think about. Let's bounce awkwardly transitionally around the league a little bit with Gerald. What did you make? What was your assessment of the Jets firing Robert Salah and Aaron Rodgers' objection that he has anything to do with that saying, you guys have given me too much power. That's

not something that I had anything to do with. Yeah. I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't say that he don't have power. You know, four time MVP, a team who's been known for the defense over the last four or five years that were quarterback away and then they bring you in, I would assume you have a little power. Now, did he have anything to do with the firing?

I don't know. But as far as the assessment of the firing, I've been on teams where coaches have been fired, coordinators and head coaches. When I was in Carolina and Ron Rivera got fired, it was a shock to all of us. Because we felt like if anybody's the problem, it ain't him.

You know, it's not Ron Rivera. He was not the issue with our team that year. You know, Cam Newton that got hurt. We had a lot of injuries and we were just scrambling at the quarterback position. Just really trying to figure out who our team was, you know, but then in Tampa in 2018, Mike Smith, who was the head coach for Atlanta, he got let go mid-season. And a big part of that, I believe, is that we were not responding anymore.

And when you look at how that correlates to the Jets, is you see one week Robert Sala says, maybe we need to scale back on the snap count. And you know, a little bit of Aaron Rodgers said, well, that's one way to look at it. Or you can hold these guys accountable, make them grow up and do the right thing. And then one week later,

they go over the pond and their lead on defense, Quincy Williams says something to the extent of of I'm tired of hearing the same message. I'm tired of hearing the same thing. And when you hear that coming from your lead on offense and your lead on defense, that right there lets you know they're not responding well. And when the team stops responding or listening, then a change has to be made.

So I don't know what's going on internally or what was taking place, but it didn't look good. I dare you, Gerald, to tell me that you think Sam Darnold can be a Super Bowl champion. I dare you. I would never say that because he hasn't shown me enough to do that. And then his pass game, you know,

could have been a lot due to his injury or whatever he dealt with. It looked like it was a rib, could have been a shoulder. He didn't play well. The defense played incredible. They did enough to win, but the offense didn't look great and he didn't look good. So we've seen Sam Darnold play really good for three,

four weeks before. We've seen it more than once. So to say he can be a Super Bowl champion, he hasn't shown me enough to where he can lead these guys, but can he not lose the game enough to get there? Yeah, this defense is playing lights out. They have Justin Jeffs on the offense. Now, Aaron Jones' situation will always be

on any team he's on a big deal. When Aaron Jones is not in your lineup, it significantly changes what your offense is. And we seen it on Sunday, when he went down, the offense got really stagnant. And when the weight got put on Sam Darnold's arm, we seen what that offense is. So, I wouldn't say that he can be a Super Bowl champion,

not just yet. Gerald, I love that as new analysis for the new media age. Ken Sam Darnold, lead the league, and can he not lose the game enough? Enough, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, right? You like that? He can't win enough either, though.

It's so good as analysis. What do the Vikings, they go in, they rally around, they hug each other in the huddle, and they're like, Sam, listen, all we need from you is to not lose the game enough can you not lose the game enough that's all you need don't lose the game right like dole for enough though yes enough though that's right don't lose the game can you tell me whether or not you miss something about football not at all and whether you miss something about football a great deal? What are the

things that you just can do without and and can't do without? Certain periods of training camp. There are certain periods in training camp like the meetings and sitting meetings will an issue for me because that's where I can break down what I'm doing right, what I'm doing wrong, where I can actually learn and prepare more for the game, learn coverages, learn what other people's positions are supposed to be, kind of help talk to the young guys

and really get ready for a season. Certain periods in training camp, like nine on seven and all the grueling periods when your body's beat up and your body's hurting. Those are the parts I don't miss. But the parts I miss dearly is just game day, traveling with the team, you know, the locker room banter. But game day for sure. The ultimate competitor, like my boy just said, my boy text me on Saturday morning about running three miles, 3.4 miles or something like that. 46 minutes.

Here we go with the turkey trucks. I'm just saying like I'm the ultimate competitor. And when you play at the highest level, like you're where the most fierce competitors in the world. So the competition, my boy, he messaged me talking about he ran 3.4 miles at 46 minutes. I had to be on air live at 4 a.m. And I still landed in LA and went straight to the gym

just to prove him wrong, that he couldn't outdo me because I'm the ultimate competitor. And that's what I miss about game day, man. You playing and competing at the highest level. And that's what I love doing the most. You know who else is the ultimate competitor, Alex Bahena. Is he the face of the UFC right now, Gerald? Yeah, he is.

He has to be. I mean, he's growing his fan base. He's starting to speak a lot more English. And I think this last fight, he showed that first Khalil Roundtree, he showed that he's not just one punch. You know, he can he can pick you apart. He's cerebral, but he's funny. He does some funny videos.

He connects with the fans. And right now he is the face of the UFC for sure. I should tell people that Gerald is wearing a UFC jumpsuit. That's where that question came from. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I just got through running in here. We have less than a minute left. You're a former-

He's also the number one contender for the UFC Heavyweight Championship. You are a former Oklahoma Sooner. Tell us your most honest feelings as you have Oklahoma, Texas this week about how you feel about Texas. Yeah, this is true. A lot of people think I'm a homer by saying this, but I truly wholeheartedly believe is Texas hasn't been tested yet. We've seen Michigan, as much as I love Sharrone Moore,

and I played with him at OU, Michigan is not who we thought they were. The team they were last year, the dynamic school that they've been, that's not who they are this year. So when has Texas been tested? They've been beaten up on chumps at home. And we haven't seen them really get,

we don't know what they can do in adversity. We know what we can do. We was getting beat up on, on the road, whether you think Auburn team is good or not, it's still a SEC school, the child crown, and it's supposed to be the best conference and the best competition. We went on the road with a true freshman quarterback

and we came out there, fought through adversity, and got a win. Texas hasn't had that chin tested. We gonna test that chin on Saturday. You heard him. You can catch- Definitely doesn't sound like a homer. You can catch Gerald regularly

on NFL game day morning Sunday, 9 a.m. Eastern on the NFL Network. Thank you, sir. Appreciate the time. All right, one last thing. One last thing. you, sir. Appreciate the time. As always. All right, one last thing. One last thing. McCoy and Van Oyl on Yahoo Sports.

McCoy and Van Oyl on Yahoo Sports. And then also follow me on all these platforms. I will be posting different things. I will be posting different things where you can help relief for Tampa and the hurricane. So follow me, like, subscribe to McCoy and Van Nuys and Yahoo Sports. I love you guys.

I appreciate y'all having me. Thank you. Love you too. Likewise, Turkey Trot information available to you. Upcoming, yeah. Wherever it is you find your McCoy. Decisions, decisions. Wait a minute.

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