The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Jonathan Zaslow's World Cup Update | Hour 1

Episode Date: July 8, 2026

"This is why it's called World Cuck Update." Zaslow has to watch the crew talk about his favorite subjects while he's shut out of the conversation, and despite how he's acting, we all know he likes it. Plus, Christian Pulisic has worn out his welcome as our superstar, the US continues to fail at building up its soccer program, and Dan says the term 'cultural cachet' 4 times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are listening to the Dan Levitart show in partnership with the Draft King Sports app. Now live in all 50 states. This episode of the Dan Levitart show is presented by Draft King Sports. Draft Kings, the crown is yours. A couple of those Egypt goals, including the one that was disallowed. Zico was the goal scorer, Egypt's Mustafa Ziko. And his quote is the following. Quote, it's clear that this tournament has been fixed.

end quote. It's clear. You just don't see that very much. Like, it's just, it's not that plainly stated. It's what they brought. It's what they brought on with the balligan thing. I'm telling you. That's why optics matter in a sport that is supposed to aspire to objectivity. They famously have officials that have zero ties to either of the countries

because they're supposed to be impartiality here. and growing suspicions, things that you can point to, yeah, Inter-Mymi-Making the Club World Cup is a little weird, but whatever. They just made it up. But it just adds fuel. And when you have the balligan thing burst through the dam, now you've allowed for everything to have credence. The goalie can't be the one who says that.

Because if he stopped the shots, they would win. But it wasn't the goal. It was Zico. Oh, the goal scorer. Oh, you're such a professional. Big difference. Quite the opposite, actually. I'm going to punish you now by making you do a World Cup

segment. I got lots of Sam World Cup. Okay, I'm going to punish you and you deserve it for that mistake. Make sure you're not late. It's time for Zaslo's World Cup update. I mean, I don't know what that was.

Trying to do a World Cup Update. The hell are you doing there? I do have a few more things I want to say, Dan, as far as the World Cup is concerned. Now, because yesterday was the final round of 16 games. You know what comes next?

You know what's next after around the 16? I cannot believe how electric this World Cup has been. It really has been. We finally have the good matches that give life to this being one of the greatest tournaments of all the time. We were missing those bangers in Argentina and back-to-back matches. Give us instant classic after instant classic. The Cabo Verde game was insane. Against all-time African underdogs.

They run up against the greatest player at the tail end of his career, still having enough for one last job. Mike, let me tell you what, that 13 on Cabo? What a shot. This is incredible. Did you see it bent? And how about those fans? Did you see it bent in? Literal movie.

It was crazy. He runs into the sand. Gets over. His lady. Boom. That's how you end the movie, folks. He was looking. And the security was like, no, no, go back.

And he's like, no. No, where is she? That's love right there. She's got to know also to come down the stairs. I'm already done. I'm the one who's doing this. Your second topic, Zaz. Do you have another world cuck topic?

Well, I'll tell you what. I, all right, I don't know why you're saying it like that. But anyway, I have other things that I want to talk about. You know what? You can't take this away from me. I don't know if you saw Monday night this past Monday night. CM Punk returns to WW. After months away and all sorts of rumor and innuendo,

he's not on the right side with TKO comes back in his hometown of Chicago and beats Sammy Zane, whose title reign lasts about a week, much. I'm the one. Much fanfare in Chicago. Is CM Punk related to Daft Punk at all? No, not at all. Oh, really? Yeah, but see.

Dat Punk's good, though. Not unlike Messi later in his career, finding Top War. His body looking incredible. You know what this might set up? Cody Rhodes versus CM Punk at Somerslam. Greg Cody Rhodes. Hello. I'm going to SummerSlam.

I want to talk about this. Well done, Jeremy. Your third topic is as low of this World Cuck Update. You know what? Actually, I'll allow you to call it that here, Because there's a movie that just came out that I want to watch. It's by our pal Billy Corbin. It's called God forbid.

That's not just coming out. It's the most popular documentary in the history of Hulu. It just came out. Dan, you saw the movie. What did you then? It was excellent. Yeah, why don't you have a turn here? It went deeper into religious power and cuckery than I've ever seen a documentary.

I didn't get an advanced screen. How cliche, a pool boy. This movie, yes, and distinctly Cuban pool boy. Like, just not actually a pool man, a very pool boy. A Cuban kid who's not fully grown up who was having sex with the wife of Jerry Falwell's sons, the president of Liberty University, his wife, and he liked to watch it in a corner of the room while he was wearing very little clothing. This is why it's called World Cuck.

All right, get back in this seat here. Get back in this seat here that is a prominently featured seat. That concludes our first ever World Cuck update. Excellent work by you. The end of the last hour, I thought, ended with perfect words and numbers together when Mike Ryan ended the segment with just the words and numbers, Adam 22. But Greg and Zaz were just staring at each other wildly confused. I don't know how much of our audience.

I really, I feel like I know our audience pretty well, generally, just generally speaking, what our audience knows about and doesn't know about. But on this one, I'm not totally sure. So when the segment ended and Greg asked me, who's Adam 22, I didn't get that. I was then in the awkward position of trying to explain to him. He's probably America's most famous cuck at the moment, even more famous than Falwell's kid, even though Billy Corbyn did the, God forbid, documentary on Jerry Falwell's kids. So you just left it at World's Biggest Cuck at the moment?

That's what you have in your arsenal? Well, what else would you like me to say? Podcastor. It's worked out for Adam 22. He did very much so. Yeah, but he is famous, not for being a podcaster. It was cute that Zaz was pretending he didn't know who he was. I have no idea that is.

Sure. I think you see that guy and you're like, goals. I'm going to look him up now. Yeah, Google him. I don't know who would finish second place. right now in terms of famous cuck doesn't it likes to watch his wife have sex with others for those of you not familiar i've seen this guy before uh so that was it are you going to do the show mike do you think you will indeed i have to i i have to do a little bit more research

because i don't want to make waves for the company i don't know the full history there i admittedly there's only a couple things i know about adam 22 and i express this let me check and research to make sure I don't make waves here for Metal Arc. And the response from the producer was, Adam doesn't make waves, he makes tsunamis. So good bar by that guy. Give me a little. That guy knows what he's doing, by the way. It works with a lot of great talents. Afro-Man, one of them, and Killer Mike, another one of them. So I'd like to be in that family, but I also got to do some research. Just be careful what show you get booked for. You never know all of a sudden. You got a lot of explaining

Dutio-Royfe. I want to have the conversation with Greg Cody about about the United States soccer team because Christian Polisic is getting crushed by everyone. It is loud. And yesterday on the show, we were having the conversation about whether or not the World Cup was a success for the United States. I maintain, and I'm the only one here who maintains it, because the volume has gotten really loud around this team, that the United States met very middling expectations. and therefore advancing to games that matter and the ground of 16, I believe, is a success. And I think of them, I don't know, what would they be if they were a college football program? Louisville, Memphis, like the United States would be somebody who's always around 16, around 17, around 20, others receiving votes.

Like, what would be the program that would best represent in college football what the United States actually is on merit? Not what you expected because they were a host country and all of a sudden they were. favorites in five games and you expected them to beat Belgium and they end up disappointing you, would it have been a failure if the last game they lose in penalty kicks or they lose one nothing? Would you guys view this all as a failure? No. So it was the way the last game specifically went. Yes, they embarrassed themselves. I didn't, from the beginning, I didn't get a sense of, this is an American team that thinks it can win. The goal that Matt Fries gave up was just diabolically embarrassing,

like unfathomably embarrassing. The worst of the tournament, right? The worst of the tournament. Tim Reem could have stopped a goal and didn't. He got Moss. He's spent. And Polic, look, he's done being the face of this team. This team is not

going to move forward if he's the best player. It's as simple as that. I don't expect them to have an Mbapé or somebody like that. Or Lameen Yamal. They've got to come up with new talent. It's just not good enough. Your analogy, college football, they're Cincinnati.

They're the team that's thrilled to be 19th, and zero people think they're going to win the world championship. You know, it was very disappointing. It's not a successful tournament. They had an easy run. They had an easy run right up against Belgium, and they should have won. Now, if they reach the quarterfinals, everybody says it's a successful tournament. Everybody. Here's my perspective on this.

And I just, I really think that we don't have quite an appreciation for how the sport gets passed down in other countries where the sport is 100 years old. What's MLS? Is it even 30 years old? Like, basically, the best American soccer players have to do what WNBA players were doing recently. You have to go somewhere else to get the big money. You can't get it in this country. We are, whether you like to think so or not, new to this. I know it doesn't feel like it because we've been talking about it for 40 years. But we do not have the pedigree of Belgium or.

or any of these countries that have been playing soccer for 100 years. On the men's side. On the men's side. When Zaz talks about yesterday, he says that he believes that American athletes, if they all went into soccer, that we would have the best team. And I understand how it is that he arrives at that appraisal. I would also say I'd frame the question differently. Go ahead and give all the other countries America's means

and see if you don't find that the best athletes are also there who don't have access to some of the things. our athletes are able to have access to, and so therefore they get into situations where they can play all of the other sports as well. You've seen, when I make the comparison of 30 or 40 years new to this, you've seen the world catch up to the NBA in basketball, right? You've seen it happened since the NBA went global and all of a sudden it became a thing everywhere where the cultural cachet of being great at that sport matters so much that everyone's fighting over the money. You've seen that happen in basketball.

The world has caught up to the United States. It's going to take us about that long to start developing the same kind of soccer stars that will merit top 10 in this tournament instead of top 20. Dan Levitar. The Packers winner, the Bears lose. Jonathan Sasselow. Shit, do you want to know? What would the kids do it?

This is the Dan Levitar show. Okay, so a lot to chew on there. I haven't had an opportunity to even speak about what happened there, but I do agree. They found a way to burn up all the goodwill. That was the only way that they could do it. Get destroyed. Look pathetic. Be as bad as you were while also having all the nightmares.

Is free he's good enough? Is Tim Riem too old? Is he going to get caught in a bad spot? Is Polistic too fragile? Is this team whose maturity has been questioned for an entire World Cup cycle because of the backroom fighting and calling Daddy to help bail you out of a situation? Is that all going to play out? And in one singular match, it did.

and oh by the way politics got involved too they reached out and took the world cup and i've spoken to some people around uh u s soccer they wish that stuff had never happened you happen to know i happen to know like that that put them in a in a bad spot so i would love to touch on polisic but let's talk about like why we're where we're at so why is we are the only developed western country that does not fund its olympic sports there are carve outs the world over for Olympic sports, we don't do that. We have a pay-to-play system in soccer, especially, and in the rest of the world, these clubs are incentivized. I was reading about this yesterday. It's really interesting. It's like precious resources. You go into the favelas of Brazil, you find the

next prodigy, and you sell him for millions and millions of dollars to the next feeder club until it obviously ends up somewhere in Barcelona, Real Madrid territory. But that's the business model. You go out, you find, you scout, you develop, and you sell the player, and that's your business model. Here, it's inverted. I mean, I went through it here. My son played years of travel soccer. Now, it's like that for basketball. It's become that way for basketball.

It's become that way, especially for baseball. And by the way, on the international level, the U.S. does not have the success that other countries have shown. So it's already caught up in some of the sports. But until this is changed, until you have local MLS clubs and the U.S. clubs and the This private model can see that, okay, maybe the coaches behind the scenes and these little travel teams don't make the money. People are going to make money off of this if you change the system. It's going to take time to template. It's going to take time for the clubs actually see a return on their investment and nobody wants to stop the money train right now.

They don't. You need to go out. You need to find a seven-year-old. You need to invest in their education. Pay for their schooling. Pay for their development. And sell that player for millions of dollars. That takes time.

You're telling me I won't get an ROI on this for maybe five to eight years, 10 years. No, thank you. Let's just keep it going. So that is the fundamental issue with U.S. soccer presently. And it's going to come to all the sports. It's only a matter of time. The reason why Europe is like this is not because they're socialist commies. They did this because they had 100 years heads up and found a system that worked.

So it wasn't always like this from the start? No, they had to find their way. I spoke to when I worked with Chelsea, I spoke to a person that developed. that was ahead of their academy. I'm like, how do you even scout a three-year-old? How do you even do that? How do you scout a three-year-old for a parent club that is looking to either develop that player

into a star for themselves or sell that player later on? You find one thing that they are elite at, one skill that flashes, and you work with everything else. I'm like, I'm just astonish at how you can look at a three-year-old and make this investment. But it's happening.

You see college athleticism is going to make its way to this. When Lynn Kiffin offers, you know, a seven-year-old, a scholarship, it's going to be that way. We are going to eventually find our way over to a European model. We're just playing a hundred-year catch-up. Greg, which of these do you find more interesting as subject matter? Men and Blazers pointing out that the World Cup quarterfinals will feature none of the 20 most populous nations on Earth, none of the top 20. or Carly Lloyd saying on X about Pulisic,

you rest when your playing career is over, period. Every star American voice I have heard, male or female, Landon Donovan as well, is just crushing Polisic for taking himself out of a game where he lost possession 11 times in 45 minutes more than anyone else on either team. I think he merits all the criticism he's getting. He's the only star of this team. He's the only player we saw.

on TV commercials in the buildup to and during the World Cup. He's the star. He was supposed to be the leader, and he did the opposite of lead. You can't blame him. He wasn't totally healthy in the World Cup. Everyone's blaming him. What do you mean you can't blame him? Either blame him or don't because everyone's blaming him.

Okay, let me finish. You can't blame him because he wasn't totally healthy in the cup during the cup run, but he was healthy enough to play, and he was healthy enough to succeed when he plays. And he didn't. He didn't do that. He's worthy of all the critics. How do you know he was healthy enough to succeed when he plays if he played and didn't succeed? Because he wouldn't have played if he wasn't able to play.

Greg, let me help you out here because over the course of his very charmed career, I might add. A career that is decorated, a career that, for my money, is the single best career of a U.S. men's soccer player ever. He won a Champions League with Chelsea. In that run to the Champions League, he was a best player on the pitch, in my opinion. against Real Madrid. For stretches on end, he was a best player in Syria. A. The thing about the- The consensus is he's the best American player there's ever been, correct? On the men's side, easily. But throughout his entire career, we've been coddling him, and he's been on a load management plan. He is obviously very fragile. He's small. He is prone to soft tissue injuries. We get that.

The problem that everybody had, outside of being dispossessed 11 times. And by the way, the One goal that the U.S. did score was because Christian Polisic had an involvement in the buildup. They just had nothing going. Nobody was good. I also am a fan of Bill Simmons's view on things, which is like, that looked like a player that just realized he was no longer the most popular player, no longer the best player. He didn't get any of the headlines. It was all about, we moved on to Balligan.

So his comments were after the match. Now it's time to get rest, so it'll be okay. And Sidney LaRue was right in saying he rested the entire World Cup. Charlie Lloyd, you rest when, at the end of your career. Here's Landon Donovan's quote on the matter. The quote, the reality is he came out of a World Cup knockout game at home with his legs still intact. You would have had to bleep and drag me off the field, and I would have punched the doctor

in the face and said, you're not taking me off the field. Put whatever you need to put in me, I'm staying on the field. I agree with that. It's a World Cup. Because all the load management, all the coddling, the, okay, you don't play in the last gold cup to help because we need your body ready for when you're in. the prime of your career at 27 years old. Again, like this nation has suffered because of how we have treated him with kid gloves.

For that to be the tone-deaf response after you just got eliminated in a game that you kind of asked out of, it's over. There is no more time to rest. It was about being a host nation at 27 years old. You tone-deaf fool to have that quote after the match. Buddy, we're done. Enjoy the Home Depot ribbon cutting ceremony. Enjoy being featured in the commercials four years from now.

Enjoy being on the Fox broadcast. You are now yesterday's news. Yeah, I don't think he'll play again for the US M&T. And remember, when he elected to skip the Gold Cup, he's showing Instagram photos of him on a beach in Hawaii or something. The optics were bad. The optics were bad. And all this thing, this mess had happened at U.S. soccer with the arenas and the Burrho.

halters, all the questioning of maturity. He's been captain before. A lot of that stuff happened on his watch. And we saw an immature nightmare play out on the field in which he was one of the main attractions for and everything played out. Are you going to be that dog? Are you going to be healthy? Are you going to tell your body not today? Sorry, we've turned the page. Christian Polisic, enjoy MLS. You are no longer the face of this organization. We are moving past you. Put it on the poll, please. Polisic, tone deaf fool, yes or no, at Lebitard show. So he's getting hammered because he played poorly, but he's also getting hammered by the dual criticisms. And this one stings is we have to have someone to blame when that's the result because the blame is going to go everywhere.

And he's our most famous player. So the expectations go to die with him. But also, he was the biggest problem. You can blame everyone else, but you don't even know the names of some of those people. most of the casual fans, most of the people, I can't tell you how many of my friends are reaching out with, oh good, soccer friends. I can go back to hating soccer now, not soccer friends. I can go back. Anti-Soccurf. My anti-socer friends. My anti-socer friends. Because they performed like that. That's what they gave people. That's what they armed people with. And out of all the players,

he couldn't have said that. I'm telling you, it's been a decade plus where we're like, be careful, Christian's our best shot. He has to be our best. player in 2027. And for him to still talk about like it's a pre-2020, a pre-2020 issue. Oh, save my body. Save your body for what, pal? You were saving your body for this. You didn't play in the gold cup for this. We're constantly calling in favors to the clubs that you're at. Please be careful with Christian for this moment. The moment came and went. You were especially bad in it. And then you have that quote afterwards. Brother, get out of here. That's it. Yeah. Enjoy Austin FC. Right. I think his entire career, his entire future, really.

deflated in the game against Belgium. Now, you can't oversell how crushing it was. It's a two to one game. And Freeze makes that awful play coming out of goal and then having the ball turned around and putting the net while he's staring at it. You can't overplay how crushing that was, but I blame Polisick for a lot of what happened the other night. Just awful. He's really getting crushed because what has happened here that has caught me a little off guard in terms of the volume around this. When you take American entitlement and wrap it with American expectation, what you get is really rabid sports opinions that people have not had on soccer in the last four years because they wanted to go and feel good about their country. Look, it's harder than it's

been for a minute to feel good about the country, given everything that's going on with it. And so the amount of expectation I thought wrapped around this team was unreasonable given what I've seen the last 40 years and given what I saw over the course of this tournament where the volume has gotten so loud that I feel like I'm on an island saying look they perform to about what their expectations are it's who they are they were favored against Belgium but a small favorite and it was based on home country and I was surprised that they were small favorites just because does anyone not pay attention to what this team has been? Not just the last 40 years.

Recently as well, you should not expect them to win a round of 16 game against anybody, really. Like, that's not a reasonable expectation in my lifetime. You know what's been going on with Zion, his entire career, where it's taken forever for Pelicans fans to finally crush the guy because we can't have him be this sour superstar. If he's ever healthy, we need him to re-sign with us. If he's ever healthy, we got a shot. and then it eventually gets to a place where you're like, man, get this guy out of here.

That's where we are with Christian. This was people biting their tongues for years because of how we all understood. He was our best chance. I maintained that. As disappointing as he was, I maintain, or only shot in that game was creating space for Christian, having him take on people. That was the only way we were ever getting back in that game. He is the most talented men's player we have ever had.

But I've been biting my tongue for years on his attitude. I've been biting my tongue for years on his fragility. I've been biting my tongue for years on his mindset. And for that to be the quote, after that performance, a performance that burnt up so much goodwill for U.S. soccer. Something that we were talking about, we are going to feel this impact for generations to come. For him to be the one to say that

shows you how weird and corroded his world became with all this babying. We're not babying you anymore, man. You're a fully finished product. You are 27 years old. we're done with you now. We're done with that. You want back into this team, you're going to have to say healthy. You want back in this team, you're going to have to grow from this. You want all the commercials and adulation? Fine, let that be your legacy, but this is going to be the first thing people think about now, unless you change it.

Dan Levitar. I want to address Tony and all men who would wear that shirt in public. Great Curry. Don't do it. This is the Dan Levitar show. It's not just a quote, because he's a notoriously terrible. quote. It's that he asked out of the game that he subbed himself out. Like, I don't, I don't know that there are a set of circumstances that I can put in front of everyone in the hypothetical that would have made people louder in their anger at a single player than the things that happened in his career and in that game and in the quote after the game. It's just an avalanche of stuff where you're like, how does it, how do you give us the appearance that you don't

care. Yeah, I totally agree with that. But team-wise, living up to expectations is not success to me. The round of 16 is the United States team's purgatory. It's where they always are. It's where they've gotten and then failed. But it's who they are, though. It's not, it's not an accident. I know, but sooner or later, you have to outgrow that. Sooner or later, you have to move forward. It's been 32 years since the U.S. previously hosted a World Cup. But they're, they are, They're toddlers here. Like, the world has, these are franchise, these are countries that have played for 100 years, more than a, more than 100 years. Like, we are still new to this.

I know America is impatient, okay? I get, and I get that 30 and 40 years sounds like a long time. But when you're talking about feeder systems, imagine if right now I decided, you know where I'm going to do? I'm going to go right now to China. And I'm going to put in the baseball Dominican feeder system on baseball. Let's see if in baseball, China can be as good, what it's taken, Japan. Japan is, O-Tani's the best player in baseball because of how long they've been playing baseball in Japan. But I remember at the beginning, which was about 40 or 45 years ago, we'd go to exhibitions in Japan,

and the Japanese teams would get crushed by the American players every time. Dan, sometimes you just don't have the juice. China commits tons of resources. according to Pablo Tori finds out their sealing theionic sinners brainwaves to create the perfect athlete, and they never make the World Cup. This doesn't mean anything to you guys in terms of the fact that MLS, is it even 30 years old yet? Is MLS 30 years old? It's about 30.

Yeah, just about 30. So we have what, in terms of world leagues, where does MLS rank in just soccer? In soccer, it would be low top 10? Low top. It's not in the top five, right? Why would it be on the pyramid? It's all subjective. There's a big Saudi League is better thing, but they're OLLI, no doubt.

They're not among the global elite until next season they have this wonky calendar. It's still in its infancy, no doubt. But I do think the Federation needs systematically change how they approach things. Look, we're good on the women side, not just because we have these incredible, God-given athletes, these incredibly talented women. And for that gender, that's the sport. That's the sport if you want to make money. That are women's basketball. There is an American football to compete with.

But why were we so successful? Yeah, we have these incredible athletes. But we also have programs like Title IX that legislate this, that force the development. And I think that's where you have to be with the men's side too. You need to replicate what the rest of the world is doing. I couldn't agree more. Inter Miami has a very great youth academy that has seen young players grow up and and make the big team. And all of a sudden they're playing with Leo Messi. And there's no reason

the United States cannot do that and grow their own players. The North American Soccer League was around in the late 60s. My argument is that soccer is not a new sport to this country. At some point, we have to stop making excuses and arrive. I'm not saying it's a new sport. I'm saying when it comes to cultural cachet, young people, what do they want to be in this country? They want to be football players, they want to be basketball players, they want to be baseball players. It's not even hockey, even though we're pretty damn good at hockey. That's in the world right now. Americans have gotten pretty damn good at hockey.

But in terms of cultural cachet, I don't know where you put it, soccer's low on the list, and you have to have cultural cachet. Like, it's got to be important to a kid to be popular. The way rock stars want to be popular, they don't want to get into business. because of the music, they want to get the women. They want to. Yeah, I saw that tweet, like, well, growing up in this country, the soccer players don't get the girls. I don't know if you know about the reputation of soccer players abroad.

But once you get to a certain level, trust me, you get the girls. And you have to keep in mind, soccer has as big a leg up, no pun intended, on the competition as anybody. It's the number one youth sport. Why does participation in this youth sport die down? It craters at a certain age. Yeah, it could be because there are other sports, but Lord knows we have enough people in this country that they can share the wealth. No, Mike. Of cultural, cachet and money.

It's the money. People cannot afford in this country to play the world's most accessible game. They come out and find you in other places. They come out and pay you. If you are worth your soul, they come out and find you and they fund your education. It is something, it is a way, much like in. in parts of this country where you groom a kid

in Pop Warner football, you're going to get to the league one day. That is not the way that we view soccer. That's a cultural difference, but also since it is, we need to incentivize it. The rest of the world does. I've seen a couple of faces being made during these segments that I want to check in on. Chris, what were you and Zaz laughing about

while we were... It's not a laughing matter, Dan. Well, what were you, but what were you laughing? It was a laughing matter, was the matter? What was happening? Do you know? You know, when you're in the middle doing a show, you know, do you need bodily noises, you know, intervening? His breathing, his breathing's on one today.

Was it the breathing? I mean, I've heard some breathing. I've heard some noises. There's speculation here that it could be Dan or or Greg with the noises from the throat. I'm not saying, I let that shit play on. But, whenever that stuff comes out of Dan. There's definitely heavy breathing going on from you. I had to turn your mic down. Like in the middle of a take, it's

what? What? When you slow it down like that is for emphasis. You are the champion. Everyone who comes at you with this. You're undefeated. I'm like, Zaz's kid.

I'm trying to like get him. And he's like, ah, it pins me down. So while Mike was telling his story about meeting show fans and meeting Adam 22's producer at the Atlanta airport, Tony, I saw a flash of something on your face that I wanted to go back to. What were you thinking of while Mike was talking about that?

Slight embarrassment on my part. I love July 4th, Dan. I'm a big July 4th guy. It's my favorite holiday that we have on the calendar. And me and my family, we go down to the Keys. We see it a nice little resort that has a pool and has a couple of barbecues and a jacuzzi. The marina we go out to the boat. I'm telling you, I love July 4th. There's nothing like it. Those are family. There's nothing like it. The Keys, Cuban Keys family stuff is so good. So good. Hit Rodriguez Key for a little bit. You parked a boat into the sand. It's great. So July 4th happens. We do the parade. They have a beautiful, nice little parade in Key Largo. So we're there at the parade. We get back. We're like, all right, we're going to hit the pool. We're going to do burgers and dogs. I'm the guy that

hits the grill. So bring all the stuff down from the condo. I've got the Costco, like, cardboard box that they give you to carry all your stuff. So I've got burgers, frozen. I've got dogs. I've got this. I've got that. You throw the frozen burgers right on the grill. It's got a blackstone. Everything's fired up. Everything's greased up ready to go. Guys using it before me, obviously community situation. He's roasting some corn. Looks pretty good. I'm looking over. I'm like, all right. This guy knows what he's doing. He's handled the Blackstone before. Turns around. He looks at me. He goes, Tony, big fan of the show, man. I'm like, dude, thank you so much. I really appreciated it. Appreciate the support. In the meantime, I've got the spatula from upstairs. I've got the burgers that I got to separate because they're frozen. As I'm

separating the burgers. He's kind of finished. He's like, hey, do you need a little bit more like oil? I'm like, yeah, throw me a little bit of oil. So I'm separating him. Boom. My brother-in-law's helping me put him on the grill. All of a sudden, I look over. There's one that's a little bit harder to get with the spatula. You've got to be careful separating the burgers. As I split, it slips and the end of the spatula. This is obviously, you know, because I had a was a la-a-sla. It's the smallest cut I've ever seen. Wait, that's not a cut. It's swelling. Like, you're looking at the cut, but how about the, the, you'd have to drive. You'd have to, you'd have to, you'd have to, you'd have to, you'd have to, you'd have to. You'd have to. You'd have to. You'd have to. It's. It drag me away from that grill. That's what they had to do. They had to drag me away from the grill. But it was much deeper. Awasala, Dan, you know how it is. Sanatoa. You have a cut, you have a scrape,

you have some sort of sickness. You put your body in the ocean and it heals it. I don't know what happens. Zazz, did you know that? That's true. You didn't know that, Zaz? It's a salt. Yeah.

Greg, you knew that, right? So you embarrassed yourself in front of a listener. So I don't know if he saw me stab my own hand with a spatula or not. So I'm not going to call, I'm not going to reveal his real name. I'm going to call him Ray. Ray. The one guy, you saw me. If you did see me, please write to the Levitart show,

hey, I saw him stab his hand or not. But Dan, it hurt. My hand was bleeding. I had to wrap it up, finish the hot dogs, finished the burgers. I had to go upstairs. In the meantime, my brother-in-law overcooked the burgers a little bit. I'm not going to say that.

Too loud. You just said it. You just said it. I mean, it's frozen burgers. I expect more than that from you, Tony. You get that blood on the burger? No, no, I didn't get the blood on the bird. That one I had to throw away because it fell in the sand after I stabbed my hand.

Put it on the poll at Lebitardtard show. You ever heard of someone cutting themselves with a spatula? It's the edge of it. Also, I've just never heard of that happening. Also, put on the poll, do you have to be careful separating the frozen burgers? Yes or no? And while we're at it and just cleaning some things up around here, Chris, Cody, have you heard from Scott McCullough, the family friend? Marlins manager?

No, that's the mistake Greg made yesterday where he was talking about Clayton McCullough pulling Uri-Perez. out of a game, perfect game with seven innings. And he mentioned Scott McCullough. We tried to reach Scott McCullough, a family friend for many years. Chris Cody had not tried to reach him in 15 years and suddenly called him yesterday. Did you hear back?

I got a text back yesterday saying, hey, I didn't know what I was receiving today. Oh, good to hear from you. I was really busy. And I was like, hey, we'd love to hear from you. And he's like, I got more, my 10 o'clock hour should be free tomorrow. So I'll try to call in. So I'm hopeful that we will hear from Scott McCullough on the Marlins' perfect games.

Can we also ask him about Alberto Hernandez? That was a big home run last night. Oh my God, that guy. You know he has the fourth best OPS of right-handed hitters in the last two months? It's like Junior Caminero and he's like 30 points behind him. It's unbelievable.

I don't know that. Well, now you do. Did you guys know that Wimbledon's going on? I just learned that today. I heard that. How about that Cocoa golf, huh? I got one for you, Mike. Do you know that the big dumper now stinks? Yeah, I'm in a Mariners group chat. I haven't been able to watch a game all summer because, you know, the world

the cup, but he's bad now. Yeah, he's been awful. Just dreadful. This is our first non-world Cup day since June 11th. And you know what that means, Chris? I am like, so much has changed the world. You know what that means? Guess who has the news cycle all to themselves today if they want it? Oh boy. It's happening today. You think LeBron's going to be today? It's got to be today. 16 year anniversary of the decision. He's got to be today. I feel like I've just been in a FIFA coma and I don't like know anything that's happened since June 11th. Marlins have been the best team in baseball. Pablo met Oprah? Is that going to happen today? Zaslow, are you willing to predict or guess or hypothesize whether LeBron will make

his decision today? I mean, it is 16 years to the day, so that would be funny if he then went, and once again announced he's going to take his talents to South Beach. That would be really funny, but I think he's effing with everyone. I think we're still weeks away. Really, weeks away. Well, he's in Akron, though, right? Like, he's spending time right now. I know it's his hometown, but wouldn't that indicate that that's probably what's going to happen there? There was a Shams report that many on the internet have cited saying, wow, Shams is now reporting on playdates. He and Jarmond Green are planning to, quote, hang out.

The Knicks won a championship?