The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 2: ALL THE SMOKE!

Episode Date: December 6, 2023

Matt Barnes is here to celebrate our new partnership with All the Smoke and share some stories about his vibe check with Dan, role players who get in trouble, fights with Doc Rivers, and more. Then, Chris and Jeremy want to compete with an assistant, and Mike has an idea of where college football may be headed with a new football subdivision. Plus, broadcasting youth football, and Aaron Rodgers goes after the media on behalf of Zach Wilson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. This is the Dunlabel Tarshall with the Stugat's Podcast. Yeah! Let's look at this! A deal has been struck. Yeah A deal has been struck business has been done. We have new partners around here and we are very excited We don't want to be about all the smoke we want to be smoke adjacent. We're scared of all the smoke We know that and don't embarrass us We're scared of all the smoke we know that Don't embarrass us

We're The sports writers fear it we go near the cool guys and write the fun things that they do and then criticize them and yell at them when they misbehaved and we've got one of the original misbehaviors There he is, look at that, that car in the car. Those are great first words. $5 fine, Matt, that's gonna cost you $5. Anyone around here who coughs into the microphone, the business is already costing you. But what if they're smoking for me?

No, $5. Really? That's right. I guess with the new money I'm making, I'll be coughing a lot. Well, I will tell you on the front end, so I don't put this on you, and I already told our audience this, that I am thrilled to be in business with you guys,

and we are for a number of different reasons, but chief among them, because you're one of the most authentic things going anywhere in media, not just sports media, like people know that these two guys at the center of this thing and Rachel Nichols that they are about the they're about the smoke not just the basketball life but they come they come from the street life and they've

succeeded like they've they've conquered the basketball space and the media space so I am thrilled that I don't know what you guys are proudest about what you've built there but I am thrilled to have to be anywhere near what it is that you guys have built because I love that authenticity. Well, thank you, Dan. I appreciate it. You know, it's an honor to, you know, be who Jack and I work throughout our careers, role players, solid guys, sometimes getting trouble, sometimes linesteppers. But do you be able to cross over in this media space and first of all find our voice and more importantly found our flooding? You know, we took off with it and to think four years later, they would be signing a partnership

with you guys, signing another deal with draftings and kind of the world as our oyster, so to speak, in this content space, would it never thought it would be possible? Matt, Dan was telling me that when he was out in LA, you did some sort of vibe test on Levitard. And so I'm wondering, after that test, why you still agreed to partner with us? Captain Dan Sparrow, we went out to the office,

and I just needed one of the offices. We were running late with traffic, and we get in there, and he has his glasses and he's doing something. So we just kind of want to go in there and kick the tires and see what Dan was about. Obviously, you know, me working for ESPN in the past and Dan, I was a fan of the show. Got a chance to come on his, him and his father show a few times. We're just always a fan of the authenticity, the realness and really what you stood for.

You know, you stood for more than sports and that's definitely what stack and I are. And sometimes it's caused issues and sometimes, you know, we've been looked down upon, but to stand on what you believe has always been important to myself and to Jack. And knowing that about you already, once we met and kicked the tires around and saw what you guys were about, I was excited as soon as I left that meeting I called Brian Dayley and told him like we've found some great partners that I know we can create some special content with. I don't know how to do some business. I imagine that you and Steven Jackson have gotten very good at saying no to people cutting

through bullshit. You've spent your entire life. I imagine, with people seeing that you're money, that you have money, and that they want money. So when you come in here, can you explain to me how you did this? Because I found the whole thing very intimidating.

You come in, and it's just your guys, I don't know them, and you really are there just to look at me and be like, is this person someone that we want to, you know, do business with because we don't do business with everybody. We got to be careful about it. It really is a massive upset that you passed this five check. It's crazy. Now it was, again, it was really just to kind of fill it out. I mean, we don't claim

to be experts in this space. And, and track record speaks for itself you know what you've done and again what you stood for. I'm always a student of whatever game I'm in whether that's life basketball now this media space I want to learn I want to learn from the best I want to soak up I feel like I can add to any conversation through my life experiences so you know we can we sat you know the second we left we all three were you know just, you know, we can, we sat, you know, the second we left, we all three were, you know, just talking about this, like we can really do some good stuff because your guys' lens is different from our lens, but it's the same goal. So to be able to incorporate what you guys see and what you guys do and feel and then add a players point of view through a players eye in mind. I think bringing those two worlds together, there's not a, I don't know to meet people that are doing that. And, you know, to do it under your guys as umbrella as a partnership and along with draftings, you know, I can't wait to get to work.

I'm honored to be your mentor. I got you, I got you. I got you. Whenever you need that, I got you, man. Okay. What are you, for the uninitiated, what are you trying to do in the media space? Why is this exciting to you? To create a platform for my brothers and sisters to tell their truth. Dan, you've been in the media for a long time. I was an athlete.

There you go. Get it in. Breathe it in. It's coming. It's coming to South Beach. Yeah. I've been a player for a long time. I was an athlete. There you go. Get it in. Breathe it in. It's coming. I got you. It's coming to South Beach. Yeah. You know, I've been a player for a long time and sometimes there's a riff between the media and the players. So, you know, when we started this space, we wanted to have, you know, players speak for themselves, people speak for themselves and have a safe place to do it. Fast-forwarding now, seeing how well that worked, we wanted to be able to create content now for our brothers and sisters in this

space and help them create and build, you know, what we've been building for the last four years. So really excited about the slate we're building. Obviously can't announce it yet, but when I can't announce, I need a Dan and someone you're close to is Rachel Nichols, who has been a huge blessing to myself and stack really kind of took us under her arm and kind of broke down the game when we got the ESPN. So blessed to have her in our circle in our circle. But you know, all the other people were bringing as well. What are you, I want to talk to you about your crew, but what are you allowed to say? I have done some reporting on this, and Rachel doesn't want to talk about some of this stuff publicly, but what happened to her feels like it was super dirty,

like conspired, not just people involved, but the New York Times and ESPN not protecting her on something that may have been illegal like what do you allowed to yeah to say about what happened to Rachel Nichols uh... i could say what's unfortunate i can say that you know we wanted to give because she was so special to us you know at the time then uh... i was working for his pn so i had to you know, at the time then, I was working for ESPN. So I had to, you know, strategically place this and play it and ask the right questions without kind of poking the bear. And oddly

enough, after the interview, it went viral. Everyone started talking about it and kind of, you know, hearing what happened. And I got a call from the bosses at ESPN, kind of wanting to know my angle and why I did it. And I explained to her, Rachel has been a dear friend of mine. And she gave us a tremendous opportunity to learn underneath her. And she was always there for any questions or anything we had along this space. When she told me what happened, I couldn't believe it.

And I couldn't believe that ESPN and these other companies were just going to kind of let her catch fire and not speak the truth. And that's what hurt me. So we wanted to give her a chance to speak her truth and to the extent she could. But I think she got her point across. And now to see her back doing CNN, us getting a chance to work with her, her coming with us on this new deal, it's, I couldn't be happier because she is, you know, you know, or as well as I do, she's a great person and she got a bad rap. And only one side of the story was really told and that's the story that the side that was telling that story was a huge machine.

So regardless of what she had to say, it wasn't going to be really digested like it should be. Oh, but Matt, here's the trickier part for you. Like the part one of the like one of the reasons that I admire you guys so much is because you can almost say whatever you want in the face of whatever it is, but you got stuck between your friend Rachel Nichol, someone you care about and what ended up happening after that is that two black women got better jobs out of that and you're in the middle of that as black men trying not to be anti black woman as the entire machine falls on a journalist who worked for 30 years and I mean it looks like she just got railroaded and couldn't say

anything about it because it had just happened after George Floyd. It was unfortunate because in the position I was in and the time I was in, I wish I could have got those three women together and sat down and really got to hear what happened, not what the machine told you happened, but what really happened. What was promised to Rachel? What was in Rachel's contract? How Rachel was feeling regardless of the color. This is an opportunity of a lifetime, particularly for a woman to be on the sidelines.

It's not about color, it's about you gave my job to someone else because of the political climate the world was in. I wasn't okay with that. I'm kind of paraphrasing. What we spoke about. So it's just, it's a lot, it's tough, it's unfortunate. I hope one day that those women can talk and really hear both sides and for Rachel to hear

how they felt, because obviously how it was taken, everyone is entitled to the way they digest something, but without knowing the whole story from the outside looking in, I understand how those women took it, but at the same time, I also found out the truth, or what really happened in the situation. So I'm happy that all of the people involved, all these women involved were able to land on their feet. Rachel being the last, but the truth will always set you free, and now she's been able

to land on her feet And I'm happy for happy to call her a friend happy to call her mentor and happy. She's gonna continue this journey with us That's awesome. You into this IST the in season tournament you into it? I am I am you know, I can't I'm turning the work for the King so I was out there Monday when Just sometimes the team has your number the Pelicans were just too tough for Sacramento They beat them three times this season pretty handily. But I have been, I'm going out there tomorrow because all the smoke is gonna be out there

talking to people and I'm hosting an event for the NBA. So, excited, anytime you can get excited about the NBA in early December, that's always a plus. We know how long the season is and it goes through its ebbs and flows and sometimes are a lot more exciting than others, but we had people tuning in, at the beginning of December to kind of check this thing out

and bring some enthusiasm before the Christmas holiday. So I'm excited I'll be out there and looking forward to checking out some games. Matt, tell the people because I don't think they understand what a burgeoning empire you guys are overseeing there that tell the people the army that comes with you and Obviously they have credibility all over the place, but in basketball especially they can get whoever they want who's your army? My army is a tight knit group You know myself

Jalani McCoy I went to UCLA with a You know myself, Gianlani McCoy, I went to UCLA with a a guy named Dylan Drifus who I found on Instagram who was just putting out great content all by itself And I found it one day scrolling and he's been one of the biggest blessings ever young kid really hungry But also has his street to current current culture and what's going on But it also was intelligent enough to speak in any kind of room. So he's kind of been like my young prodigy

that I've brought along and really excited about. And then a few other people that we can't announce yet due to rules. That's fine, that's fine. That's fine, hold on. But yeah, it's a tight team, a small flexible nimble team that is eager, that has experience in different backgrounds.

I remember one thing Doc Rivers told me as a Los Angeles clippers, because we always struggled kind of jelling and getting over the hump. I felt like we were our own worst enemies, but Doc used to preach us to be a star in your role. And that's what we feel like we have with our team at all the smoke productions. Everyone stars in their roles, you know, some roles overlap, but we're coming. We're hungry. We're prepared.

We've done our research. And we're ready for this opportunity that I've wanted for a long time. We're on worst enemy. It's not a great doc river. It's a what happened. It was better off here. Yeah. It's Jones.

Did you get scared? It sounds like Alex Jones. It doesn't sound like Doc Rivers. Joseph. I wish you mean we're here. Yeah. When you get scared, it sounds like Alex Jones. It doesn't sound like Doc Rivers. I wish her mean we're here. His Doc Rivers is exceptional. Do you, it's not Blake's fault. Do you, you don't do a Doc Rivers as well, correct?

No, I don't do a doc, but I had a good time with Doc. Some ups and downs with Docs, some grown men's stuff, almost got into a fight with Doc when he was coaching the Clippers. And then he traded me at the very beginning of the trade deadline, literally 1201, I was gone. But we were able to talk through that, get past that, he's been on all the smoke,

I've always been a fan of Doc and excited he's landed doing some commentating and get a chance to commentate with the sun Austin as well so always sending love out to Doc. Fight details please if you don't mind I mean I knew I couldn't just skip over that. So we were this is what years and this is 15-16 team against Houston I think we had just beat a tough young golden state, or maybe it's 14, 15 anyway, it was one of the years. I think it's 15, 16.

It's all that, it's all that talking. It's all that smoking. Like, and it does things to it. It's time. No. You can't divide it. We were asking me, you guys passed it. We were heading it, so we're heading into the playoffs.

Didn't have a very good game. I felt Doc took a lot of stuff out on me that he didn't want to say to the stars. And I'm all good with being coached. Yo, that screened that. I grew up in that kind of environment. I'm comfortable in chaos, so to speak. But I really felt like he took it too far

during the film session and did some stuff and said some stuff I don't think he should have, but maybe you know he was just in a different place at that time and I was definitely in a different place So, you know, I jumped up out of my seat and film and Deandre Jordan tried to grab me Everyone kind of went like like they do in the movies and Doc feet was over by the door and I was in the other corner So I walked right past looked at them and just went out the film room and went to lock them and I was pissed.

I was like, and f***ing excuse my language. I'm leaving. But then I was like, no, I can't let him get to me and I can't let my team down. So I ended up going back out there, ended up going back out there for practice. He splits me from the starting team to the second team and put Jamal Crawford in the starting line

I've been trying to tell me to flip my jersey. I tell him I'm not flipping nothing. These guys know where I'm at. And I just went out as a pit bull. The whole entire practice with dog and everybody mean to everybody, failing everybody, but had a good practice. Next day we have an early game

and I was still so pissed. Like I didn't sleep the night before I was so mad And I think I could tell the story now because I'm not in the NBA. I had Hadn't really been smoking up to that point that much in the season because I was in trouble I've got caught previous to that and That day after practice. I you know, I found I Found my cannabis I started medicating smoke the entire day, night, did not sleep. We had like a 12 o'clock game, I want to say against the Portland Trailbladers.

So we go in early for shoot around and I just get into a yelling argument with Doc. I just couldn't let it slide, it pissed me off so much that he was wrong, didn't apologize, I couldn't let it slide. I went in on him, spoke my piece. We went to shoot around, we did shoot around. Then in the locker room, Mike Woodson tried to say some, so I got it, Mike Woodson. I was ready to go at Doc and Mike Woodson both. The players held us back. But it ended up being that that kind of fire remotivation that teams need to kind of put their foot on the gas pedal. And then again, fast forward, something else happened with in Houston with James Harnes

mom, and we got into another back and forth about it. So it was just kind of a tough little month window for us to where things almost happened. Glad they didn't, but I was straight from the glippers. Sorry about that. And you left out the detail. The detail I wanted because I think if I were doing the journalistic vibe check on you, if I was trying to figure out how to do that,

I would be asking you, what is the disrespect that makes Matt Barnes go from there to there when it's his boss, it's his employer, like there's a detail. He crossed some personal, you are professional. You can be coached. You're's a detail. He crossed some personal line. You are a professional. You can, you can be coached. Like you're leaving a detail out there. Yeah, I mean, I'm a father, the way he was talking to me.

I like, I like, I'm not supposed to look at my kids when I let another man talk to me like that, no matter what his position is. And it was really just again, it was two of our guys in our team that weren't doing what they should have did. And we got embarrassed by going to the state, and he wanted to criticize the two shots I took all day. As much as I bust my ass on that floor,

guard anybody, run through a wall, fight for anyone, do what I want, I should never be questioned about my shots or how many shots I took or even my shot selection, because I'm just not that kind of player. If I'm open, I'll shoot it. If I have a rhythm, if not, I'm gonna make the right play. Took two shots at the game.

He criticized both of them and combat that with what he was saying on just nitpicking. I wasn't having it. It wasn't having. So I hope we have nothing that really escalated. I hope we have no such disagreement here in this part. In this part, in this part, in this partnership, it's my chance again. They know. Okay. Uh, Matt, we are thrilled. Uh, it is exciting. And they're going to be, they're going to be traveling all over the place. They're already

doing that. And they get all the biggest names. Uh, everybody loves them. Thank you, Matt. It is a thrill to have you on board. Dan, real quick. Just want to thank you and John Skipper. Obviously for taking the chance on myself and stack and and our team and Promise we won't let you guys down look aboard of this partnership. You are welcome Don't love a card amino acid stoo gots. Yeah, I mean it was this is the Don't love our show with the stoo gots This is the Dalabata show with the Stugats! Chris and Jeremy both, I don't know what were you guys talking to Elise about out there? Elise is my, uh, is my assistant and she is around here on Wednesdays. She's great. She really is.

We just overheard you talking to her and we just looked at each other and we were like, man, I gotta get me one of those. I could get so much done in my life if I had an assistant and I think about the amount of responsibilities thrown at each of us in the ship in container All the different things that we're doing all the different plates that we're spinning and so Chris and I were sort of Workshopping an idea we want to borrow her yeah that maybe Similar to the decaathlon that you and Stu plan to have eventually athletically, maybe, we could put on some sort of,

whether it's an academic or athletic to Cathlon amongst the shipping container, to compete, to earn one week of time with an assistant. So, you know, just catch up on life a little bit. Before we get to that, Tony, you are convinced that you would crush everyone here and everything. No, it's just funny how Jeremy said academic as like the thing that he was gonna win.

Just made me laugh. Well, I didn't say that. I just threw academic out there. I did think. Now, if it was a musical theater competition, I'd smoke all of you. It would be fun. I was in SAG.

I think Michael beat you. Oh, he wouldn't, Jeremy. I had a number one selling album You could not beat me in a music off a Music off I'm off I'm already better at this than you are What do you got? I got nothing great content and we are talking on mics

What a great day. We've had over to Jeremy now. He really wants the assistant. That's all it is. He's really desperate. He's got nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nice vibrato buddy. Beautiful. Buddy beautiful The second stage is Doc Rivers impression So much better without that part here We need to have the we have your assistant. No, we'll get back to that in a second. No is a short answer I can't Assess then It's unbelievable. I mean what's funny is that you used to be my assistant. You were so terrible at it. So very bad at it. Yeah, the higher one. We had to leave ESPN.

And you created a job for another one that I can't get metal-lark to pay. That one comes out of my pocket. It's your company. Yeah, I know. Funny how that happens, isn't it? You think, you think, yeah, you think I could get an assistant? Nah, gonna have to funny how that happens, isn't it? You think, you think, you think, you think, I could get an assistant? Nah, gonna have to pay for that when yourself. Ah, good. You're paying for yours, I mean, for Elise, you pay, out of your own pocket?

Yeah, that's a big mistake. I feel like December is the month where I needed most. I got a lot of shit to do. I got a Christmas shop. I got a, you know, a lot of odds and ends, a lot of teas I need to cross, a lot of eyes I need to dot. Maybe just for one month. How much does it cost a month?

Pfft. Is that gonna tell you whatever that is? Don't answer it. As your advisor, please don't answer. Oh, I'll do it. Forget I asked that question, man. You know, I was giving it to you at one point. Like, what, you know what it pays to be my assistant.

Where was the segment going prior to? I wanted to talk college football I wanted to talk about college football and not even just what's happening in the transfer portal Not even just the insanity which I assume most people are most interested in that the quarterbacks like you can just buy quarterbacks now Quarterbacks you've seen play somewhere else. They're all uh... they cheap but they're all available there also twenty seven years old i mean well there's a there's a lot of musical chairs i think we got to let the dust settle a little bit there because right now it is crazy

for these schools for these nil collectives it is all very second to second but i want to talk a little bit about uh... what the new nc double a president mentioned yesterday about how he's trying to build a new bull subdivision. And I guess it makes sense, yeah, it doesn't really make a lot of sense that some schools can directly fund NIL, and this would be a total relinquishing of the notion of student athletes. This is the pros.

It already is. It's very veiled right now, and there are still dying embers of that notion. It's crowd- this is the pros. It already is. It's very veiled right now, and there are still dying embers of that notion. It's crowdsourced pros. It's pros financed by the community around pros. And as someone that takes part, active part in crowdsourcing, I think the injustice still stands.

The bigger injustice was that these student athletes weren't getting paid, That has been corrected. But the administrations and universities and television entities making all the money on their backs, they're actually not pony up the del. It is just crowds, it is the best type of capitalism when it's socially funded. Oh, this is incredible.

What? It's amazing. It really is the best in the worst. But it's art. What has happened to college for so? Socialist principles in free market capital is amazing. It's the best thing in the worst. But it's art. What has happened to college football? Socialist principles in free market capital is amazing. It's great. It's incredible. It is. It's the most amazing business.

Football is the most amazing business. Yes, and I doubt that any incarnate, future incarnation of college football would see as we tease yesterday, perhaps administrators and coaches come back down a little bit in rates. I don't necessarily see that happening. Kudos to somebody that left a comment in our college football discussion on our Instagram page that cited an example. My mom was kind of going there and went off like a light. He cited Pumas. Now, not the

merchandiser, not the athletic wear company. Yeah, not what Chris Wittingham would call Puma. Puma is for those that are unfamiliar to soccer club down in Mexico and Liga, and Mekis. It plays on a school campus. It is owned by a university. It is a professional team fully funded by a university. And that might be the model here in the United States. This bull subdivision may be institutions franchising their football programs. And we get one step closer to the pros that way. They have their football programs.

And we get one step closer to the pros that way. They have their salary cap, they have their budgets, they actually own this pro sport. And you could see the NFL maybe get it involved. I'd, you'd like any franchise, you take on investors, maybe collectives have a bit of equity there. But I do think that something in his habitat in South of the border might indeed be the future of this sport

and hopefully get us to a better place. Cause right now, this is not sustainable. You see what's happening to the quarterback positions. They're the more key. A lot of kids are getting bad advice. There's not a lot of transparency. Kids that thought they were getting a certain number are getting the rugs pulled out, that's not fair.

And also not fair for these collectives, is you think you have a deal, and all of a sudden the games change, and we're leveraging family members now, and we're leveraging playing time. It's the, to make this business dirtier than it already was by just throwing all the money up in the sky and trusting any of these,

any of the people involved to be following morals or rules on this? I'm holding hope against hope that somehow college football will be a little less shameless than American politics in that if you have full transparency of what kids are being offered, what kids are being owed, what kids have agreed to,

there is sort of a shame governing that'll go on. It's a transparency that I think would keep a little, a very dishonest industry a little bit more honest. I don't know what the solve is for this and what's going on. Do you find it? I just know that right now it's unsustainable. Do you find it interesting at all that basically

what has happened until now is the University of Miami has an extraordinary medical program. I just saw it at work with my brother. The University of Miami is not known for that. The business has always been football that makes the university matter. The University of Miami has never been Harvard of the South, even though the President of the school under Jimmy Johnson wanted to make it that. It's the football program.

So now we're just making it super overt. Like here it is, it's not even about academics. The school is running a football program and it is a monster in Alabama and the kids don't have to go to class. We're just paying dudes because it's minor league football. And you'd see some of these buyouts probably come back down to earth because if these schools actually own these football franchises, they're more punitive measures because right now they have to get out of jail free

card, which is all right, boosters fix our mistake. They may still have that in a future incarnation, but I would not be surprised if it actually we remove the veil entirely and it does become a professional sport with ownership. Don Lebertard! Well, you guys building out the a-rod bathroom of your imaginationsinations is that what I heard you discussing during the break towels with an a on them you know the thing you slide the toilet paper on that's a baseball bat hey like that still got you think he actually calls it the throne probably does an actual throw an actual throw there's got to be a full length mirror in

there somewhere I imagine somewhere in his house. He has a replica of David, but with his head on it This is the down libertar show with this to got Can't wait to get excited about you see up signing an 11-year-old to join their school UCF signing an 11 year old to join their school. It's, we, so brutal. You're so dirty, daddy. So dirty. You will, what separates soccer from globally from here

is that they just had an earlier start on it. So they figured out all this bullshit before you're coming around to it because American sports are in its infancy still. And you're realizing that academies might be the way to go. It's all going to become soccer. Mike, with soccer, here's the thing, right?

Because what you made me think of at the end of that segment is I had the visual image in my head of just basically capitalism taking a nine-year-old and throwing him into a woodchipper so cash can spill all over the place. The academies in soccer start very early, and there are all sorts of issues in soccer with knees and heads and stuff like that, but it ain't football. And so the concerning monetization of all this stuff

is, I don't wanna ruin, like, portal day and high school recruiting day and everything else, but do you realize we've all become Tom Lemming now? Like we're all, we're all these, everyone around football is somebody running a high school newsletter because we're so excited about that 16 year old added Dakota. Yeah, it's, this is not some sort of dystopian future

that's far off. In terms of college football, this is in the past. USC years ago, like nine-year-old. We're seeing every once a year, you're seeing a story about how an 11-year-old is getting offered. Stuff now offers don't really mean much more than the paper that they're written on. They mean nothing in college sports, I mean. No, it just, yeah, it raises awareness and it gives you a bit of a brand.

It's like a commitment these days. Just kind of signals that you're going to be on the defensive trying to keep that hard commit. I'll believe a commit is locked in when they fax in their commitment on signing day. Yeah, they still use that. Now they have to do it on TV with the hat. That's it for me at least.

Even then, a Cormonium McLean had a cake that was in Cain's colors for signing day and then they just decided, nah, they're not still sending faxes. Come on. David Sown went to a signing day. He was in early Committo, Oklahoma. Does it still make the noise? He was, there were orange and green balloons behind him.

He surprised even his family. Speaking of broadcasting youth football, high school football state championships on Bally sports Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Jair, Emmy, Tasha with the halftime show. All right. Go sit in the family. Go sit out there. I don't want to hear from you anymore. What was that? At Labatard show. I have some breaking news. It's, it's terrible. It's, it's not great news. It terms of breaking news. But Zach Wilson will indeed start for the Jeff this weekend against the Texas. He's going to do his job. That was a really terrible story that came out working against him.

I'm curious how that leaked. I'm curious how valid it is. I know you mentioned Beninco as Rob Salas number. There's such a terrible look to not be there for your brothers in that locker room. Maybe that's overstating the relationship that he has with this teammates, given what we know about Zach Wilson and how it went last year for him. But that was a really bad look for dude that already gets projected plenty of millennial young youth. You don't know how this game is played or how to

manage those personalities. I want to talk about this as you know more and more young players are going to come into the space with more and more mental health issues. And I'm not saying he has them. I'm just saying the pressurization that we're putting around all of this is going to make it very hard for any of the people coming up through this pipeline to be different than the generations that came after them with what this relationship is with works, do gots. Like if you're a young person working in new york and you're the quarterback of the jets and diana rucini reports something that air and rogers is commented on now and i want

to get to that sound in a second but i imagine that so much of what's happening around all of the seriousness that we do around sports winning losing in the jet i imagine diana rucini is getting swallowed right now by all manner of awful because air and rogers is pointing out to people that there are leaks in the jets. I imagine Diana Rousini is getting swallowed right now by all manner of awful because Aaron Rogers is pointing out to people that there are leaks in the jets building and beyond that, and he's complaining about it and giving more news to a Diana Rousini story that Zach

Wilson was reluctant to play because he might get injured because they stink and I don't blame him for not wanting to play. Nobody would want to play quarterback for that team, but the mentality of football players is you go for your teammate and you fight with your teammate to make us better because we're all breaking our bodies out here. And somebody who comes in with the Gen Z of like, oh, no, man, what are we doing around here? Aaron, defense that. Like to me, that's that port's annoying.

First off, if Diana Rossini, I'm glad you brought this up. If she reports something, it's accurate. Like if she's telling you something, it's accurate. She's one of the best NFL reporters that we have. And I don't care what Aaron Rodgers says. I don't care if he tries to discredit her. I don't care if he's made it to the jets. You chose the jets.

You have played football for four downs for the jets, okay? Yep, there were leaks. Welcome to the party, pal. That's what our organization is all about. You chose this organization. Oh, John McClain. Yeah, I did. It was weird. And Green Bay has to be sitting back and laughing at all of this because he's the jets problem now. And the jets are paying him $40 million a year. And Jordan Love is making a lot less. And the Packers, the Packers,

and by the way Jordan love will be signed by the jets at about fifteen years the packers are about to go on the greatest stretch of quarterback play in the history of the NFL for far to Rogers and if Jordan love is the guy oh my god mark Murphy good to kiss they're all sitting there they are laughing at the New York jets that they should have Jordan love if Jordan love is closer to what he's looked like the last few weeks and he did at the start of the season. He's been great. Then it's unprecedented. It's like the Steelers with head coaching. They're just they've got all the luck, but we've referenced this Aaron Rodgers sound bite from the Pat McAfee show. Here it is. When you use sources and whether intentional, unintentional,

use sources and whether intentional, unintentional, try to assassinate someone's character like that report does for Zach. I have a rubber rod down with that. Okay, so you're saying that that was an effort to maybe make Zach look like a worse human than a potential people already view. I think that that was how can he not read it any other way. I mean you're basically saying that this this kid is is quitting on the team and and doesn't want to play and has given the middle finger to the organization That if that's journalism now if you're gonna use sources and whoever that I Want to say the F word now. I can't we're doing journalism We're right that's yeah, that's That's cool. That's on the rules.

What's on the rules? Whoever that person is, that thinks it's okay, number one, to talk to anybody like that. I don't understand what you get out of that number one, but number two, what is your impetus? What is your motivation to try and bury someone like that? And that's a problem with the organization. You know, we need to get to the bottom of whatever this is coming from and put a stop to it privately because there's no place in a winning culture where...

And this has been, this is not the only time. There's been a bunch of other leaks. Big cities, a lot of reporters. I get it. A lot of friends. I get it, without your friends. No, yeah, without your friends. Yeah, friends.

They're not your friends. Even if they are, like, is that really what you want to be about? You want to be about using someone in the media, the leak stuff to, in order for what? To get them to put your name out there for a job, or if you're a player, to get you a you a write up something I think it's chicken shit. Looking directly into the camera for effect is pretty powerful there. I'm with Aaron Rogers on this one.

Me too. I think it is, if it is indeed a true report coming from within the organization that is someone trying to drive a schism there and I find it really hard to believe. Even knowing what we know about Zach Wilson and how he stepped into it in a post game press conference and essentially lost his job last year because of it, I find it really hard to believe even though what we know about zack wilson and how he stepped into it in a post game press conference and essentially lost his job last year because of it i find it really hard to believe that zack wilson would be given the opportunity to start again and say no this is why i side with aron rogers on this and it's not siding against a an

arucini it's just the tension we're in the middle of that we just talked about with mat barns many of these people do not like us because we report the truth. And Aaron Rogers' problem is not with the media, although the media is an easy target. It's the truth. It's his organization giving the truth to someone outside the organization.

I don't blame him for being mad about that. That's not what winning places do. But you can't get mad at Diana for doing her job. She's like, he just doesn't like the media. Look, to God's, the tension he can get mad at tiana for doing her job she's what he just doesn't like the media looks to got to the tension he can get mad at is yes absolutely no question about it these athletes can have trouble with the truth and journalism in general because our job is really inconvenient to them it's not there to support

them it's not that they're there to help them they get buried under this when the truth gets reported get buried under this when the truth gets reported.