The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Local Hour: A Life Before Cell Phones (feat. Mr. Fat Mouth)

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

"Dude, you're 65." While the Canes QB situation spirals, their fan base is spiraling even more as Uncle Luke goes after #MikeRyan. Also, Mike McDaniel is a hot commodity after the Dolphins replaced him with noted sweetie pie Jeff Hafley. Today's cast: Dan, Zaslow, Greg, Chris, 'National Champion' Dave Dameshek, Jeremy, Lucy, and Mike. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dan, I'm a little bit nervous today. About? Well, you know, I get here and I go say hello to my friend Mike Ryan. And this is also coming off of a very, like, he was in a bad place yesterday. Like, he said some dark stuff on the show yesterday. And off the air, a lot of people in Miami are still hurting. There's a feeling of like sickness of hangover all over the city. Yeah.

And I said hello to him this morning. You know, I was like, hey, I just regular how you doing. It goes, terrible. want to die. I don't know what I'm supposed to say to that. Yeah, you're not supposed to say much of anything. Is that because Duke is suing to keep Mensa from coming here? Is it because he's fighting from fighting with Uncle Luke? Is it just because they lost and he still hasn't gotten over it? He's here. I suppose I can ask. I mean, maybe it was because FSU beat the Hurricanes basketball last night. That too. I went to that game yesterday and I thought I could power through. And I saw a couple like

people in the Hurricanes lounge that I'm friends with and we all looked at each other. This was a mistake. We're going to go. Left at halftime. I didn't have the heart to just watch green and orange running up and down a court. They had like ESPN on in the Hurricanes Lounge. So every 30 seconds, you just see Mendoza and confetti fly. The thing I wanted to ask you guys, actually, is if you've been able to avoid the televisions enough,

because I just saw it this morning, to avoid seeing again and again the Mendoza play. The one Mendoza play of him running up the middle. and scoring the touchdown keeps playing. I feel like some of my channels are only airing that, nothing else. Yeah, it's glorious, isn't it? Hey, by the way, I don't know why everybody's so down in the dumps. It's another sunny day here in football America. As we go into this show, a request, in fact, a demand.

From here on out, call me national champion, Dave Damashire. Thank you. I mean, that's aggressive. I don't, you just came in, you just bossed everyone around. Now Indiana is going to be cocky. He's got the right. He's got the right. His team won.

Do you, do you, well, I should say, I was going to say, do you miss it? But have you ever felt that way? Or what, like, when is the last time you felt that way that you were hung over with sadness because your team lost? Wow. For me, I have had the fandom beaten out of me by journalism, by neutrality, impartiality. I think the last time I ever shed tears or came. close at a sporting event was when my 1967 Red Sox lost in the World Series to the St. Louis

Card. Not when you almost died at Battlecourt? No, no, I was passed out, you know, so I couldn't, I had no emotion. I was dead on the ground. In order for the University of Miami to keep the momentum going and stack successes on top of each other as they have for the last four years, they have to get a quarterback because the last two years they've had profound stability at that position. And Darian Mensa is very good, but Manny Diaz and Duke are now preventing him from coming to Miami because he's got a contract. And Barry Jackson has tweeted

there remains optimism that Dary and Mensa will join the Cains, but it's going to take longer than hoped and nothing can be assumed in our judicial system. Duke decided it wants to make it difficult for Mentsa and Miami. The lawsuit portion and litigation portion of there are no rules, and we're trying to figure it out as we go along and different people have different interpretations of the rules make it so that Duke doesn't want to be a feeder system anymore for everybody. They don't want to just exist anymore as ACC champions is something that can lose its quarterback to Miami.

Duke is a school that has invested a lot more than people think into their football team specifically. Mensa was the highest paid quarterback in last year's Transfer Portal cycle. Duke, people don't realize it's taking NIL for football. very seriously. Yeah, they're heavy into the rev share. So yeah, you just have to look up how they got Darien Mensa. And they absolutely set the market with that. And the reason why quarterbacks are getting offers of like $6.5 million reportedly is because Darian Mensa doubled whatever the highest paid quarterback was the previous season. I have no problem

points again. My hypocrisy when it comes to stuff like this. Like I hope it works out for the canes because it's the canes and I want a good thing for the canes to happen. But there is a part of me where it's like, I don't like the players signing contracts with team or schools and then just being able to say, eff it, I'm going somewhere else. Like that part of college sports, I would like to be reigned in sometime soon. Now, there are employee agreements for non-employees and contracts that people have to adhere to, but the fundamental principle, because this is a lot like the Xavier Lucas thing is like, okay, so you're saying he's an employee.

You're paying him to play. And the NCAA is always like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. slow up on that. And that's always how these players always drag the NCAA in these things. But why does that matter? Like, you'll have to excuse my ignorance. Because once you open that Pandora's box,

it stops being what the NCAA likes to pretend that it is. I mean, labor laws, unions, all that stuff that come with employees. Yeah, they don't want to open the door to those. But should it just a contract be a contract, whether it's pay for play or name, image, and likeness? So, like, the way that they write a lot of these contracts is you can't write a contract. that says you are going to play X amount of game for the Duke Blue Devils next year.

They write the contract specifically. You have a contract to do X NIL appearances in Durham County, North Carolina. So you have to go to this. A lot of it is like signings. A lot of it is like volunteer work that they're really getting paid, you know, a ton of money for, but it's not written as pay to play. So Duke, the contract they'd signed, like, kind of claims ownership over his name image and likeness, saying you can't, you know, use your name, image and likeness with another school,

which clearly Miami would be doing that if he goes and plays school there. It's a weird. There's a lot of, like, work around with it. A lot of these schools will, like, outsource their NIL contracts. There are, like, these entire companies now that are just simply NIL organizations that help write these contracts and, like, facilitate these deals. But it'll never expressly say, you have to play X amount of games to be the quarterback next year. You have to take this many snaps, but they find a work.

around of that. I love that the subtext of all this is Mario Crispal against the former coach Manny Diaz. But I can't see that this stands up in court. I know the courts ultimately decide this is the age of player freedom and player movement. I cannot believe the court is going to rule that a player has to stay at this school because he signed some contract that was mostly about making appearances in Durham. Let him still make the appearances in Durham. Just do it in a uniform. Hey, this is all great, this sober conversation of legalities. How about we talk about national championships Indiana Hoosiers are that and they have their quarterback for next year, which is great news. But how about can we get back to, I know you guys are trying to turn

the page, but as far as that goes, can we get back to Mike Ryan trying to go to the Canes basketball game yesterday and then having to leave like a scorned lover? I'm trying to move on. I want to find somebody else. I'm not ready yet. My heart isn't open just yet. He had to leave the game at a half time. Minor penalty, two minutes for verbal diarrhea. Wow.

Bad call. Bival diarrhea. I was making fun of. How about that? Thank you for rescuing me. I was getting an alpha right there. He kicked my ass. I don't know what to do with the level of pomposity coming out of Indiana about sports.

I'm confused by it. I'm disoriented. I want to get back to the legality of what it is that Greg is talking about, though, because we've talked about this before. At the very advent of cell phones, we didn't have enough towers and stuff so that the cell phone communication was actually good. But people began relying on it so much

that during a time where cell phones weren't yet working properly, people were demanding it so much that a lot of people had poorly working cell phones. That's where we are along the path on all this. NCAA stuff where we're making up the rules, we're trying to figure out what the contracts look like, we're taking it to the judicial system so that the system can be put in place so that 10 years from now, it's not something that has this in it. You cannot have Duke suing.

It's the quarterback who's under contract to prevent him from leaving. 10 years from now they're going to get this all sorted out. But now is the time that they have to set all the precedents because they don't, they keep getting presented with stuff they haven't seen before. So like when you didn't have cell phones, how would you talk to you? other. Did you like write a letter? Imagine Lucy, imagine, Lucy, imagine trying to meet someone at a stadium when you don't have cell phones. If you're meeting friends at a stadium, how do you be? Gate numbers used to be a big thing. Oh, huge thing. Someone's late, but imagine someone's late

can't get there for a half hour. Like, how are you doing any of that stuff, meeting your friends at a stadium without a cell phone? What? That's right? I would just assume they were dead. Excuse me? You stand up in a row and go like this and hope that they see you. you five sections over. I mean, someone's stuck in traffic on their way to meet you, and you have no idea how long it's going to take until they get to you, or if they're going to get to you at all. So did you guys have to use, like, maps to get there, like physical ones?

Yes. I used to. I didn't even know that. I didn't even know they made those anymore. You know about that printing out Google Maps? I mean, before that, you just use regular in your glove compartment maps. Now about that map question. Now I'm doing the back in my day.

It is a back in my day. Because the maps are so big. How would you, like, how are you, like, how are you, you? able to tell where, like, how can you spot where you are? If you were running into any sort of trouble, you'd pull into a gas station. And they would tell you where you could go and explain a map. We should do a bit where we just go to a gas station and ask the direction. No phone. No phone. No phone. You have to find your way to Eugene, Oregon.

You think that in Miami you're going to find someone who speaks English in one of those gas stations to give you directions? I couldn't get home right now without my cell phone. The Verizon was like one of the five worst days in my life. Yeah, that's awful. Like, truly I had no idea what was going on. Like, thank God I live in New York because I'm like, okay, it's a grid. I can figure this out. But if I had been anywhere else, I would have been dead.

We are so bleeped if for some reason our technology in this country doesn't work for 10 days. If everything shuts down, I told you, I was in a coffee shop the other day, and their credit card system went down. And I just saw 11 employees standing by the bagels, just unable to do anything, as if they'd been paralyzed. Right, cash only? What? Who cares cash? Oh, I got it. Wait a minute. Hey, you could ask Fernando Mendoza, as he proved on fourth and five, he always knows how to find the way home. It's true. Minor penalty, two minutes. Sport came out of your mouth.

Justice! I had a cash incident the other day with Sedano. I don't know if he's around at all. I wanted to get his appraisal of because I asked him to save it for the show because he was standing right next to me. Okay. I come out of a place where I'm paying $16 for parking. Now, first of all, the normalization of people overcharging for parking is something that I'm not generally good with, but we've gotten used to. I have a $20 bill that I'm going to give the valet to go get my car and pay for the parking. And the guy says, I'm sorry, sir, we do not take cash.

And I'm like, you're taking this cash. This is cash you're going to take. This is how I'm paying for this. This has value anywhere I go in the world, and it's going to have value here. The thing you want represents this thing I'm giving you. Yeah, but that's a company not trusting their employees, so you're hurting this employee. That's fine. So he brings his manager over, and his manager says, sir, sorry, we're not taking cash.

I'm like, you're either taking this cash or you're just giving me. You pulled that move? Yeah, you're either. And no, and it worked. Wow. But I'd like Sedano's opinion because I don't know whether Sedano thought I was being an asshole or not, but I reached my breaking point on this cash stuff where cash isn't good enough, but you got a tip jar. You got a tip jar where you take my cash, but you will not take my cash otherwise.

And it's like, no, I'm not doing that. You will take the $20, you'll get a $4 tip for going to get my car. You shouldn't be charging me for any of this. Like the idea that it's normal now to charge me $16 to put my car somewhere just so that you could grift off me I'm not okay with. And I just lost my patience in a carport. I wasn't impolite about it, but I'm like, this is the only way you're going to get this paid for. There's not another way this transaction is going to happen. Okay, so let me get this clear.

That was not your tone of voice. No, it was gentle. It was gentle. I thought it was gentle, but I'd be curious what Sedano thought. I'm reaching out to Sedano. Because I asked him, I asked him to save what. whatever his opinions are on this and inform us on this. But Mike is presently feuding with Uncle Luke.

Oh, I saw this. I don't know the backstory here. You texted me that Mike had a problem with Uncle Luke. For those of you do not know, because it was a long time ago, Uncle Luke is the godfather of hip hop in Miami. Two live crew took his lyrics to the Supreme Court. How in relation to cell phones is this, like on a timeline? Before cell phones, 20 years before cell phones.

I don't even know. How did you listen to the music? It's a great point by you. You called up a radio station and requested a song. No, but how would you call the radio station? With what? With a wall phone. A landline. It was a rotary dial.

How would you know the number, though? You know, they set it on the radio. Oh, my goodness. Are we in a playstand where we would hand Lucy a rotary phone and she wouldn't know how to use it? Probably not. I have a purse that shaped like one, so I'd be able to figure it out. She goes thrift shopping a lot. In sports championships aren't one alone, the one with the right people around you.

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So when I got up there, I had to say something and I said it. Cheaters never prosper. Stugats. My buddy was saying not today. Not today. I think that was what he was adding. Yeah, that's so much better. I'm telling you, the response I got from this guy, what I said was amazing.

He got a friend. Cheaters never prospered. This guy yelled as angry as he could. I ain't cheating. This is the Dan Lebatar show with the Stugats. It's a backstory that's unbiased Zaslo before we get some Mike's thoughts on this. Yeah, so I saw Uncle Luke posted something. The first tweet I think Uncle Luke put out was something that's the effect of,

where's that kiss-ass Mike Ryan? You know, what's he saying today? You know, the morning after the Keynes Luz. Yeah, where is kiss-ass-mike-Dan today from hashtag Dan Lebitard show? You think that's a commonly used hashtag? Just hashtag Dan Lebertard show? I don't think he really knows. He did hashtag Mike Ryan, not really.

Oh, yeah. I'll bet there's a lot of hashtag Mike Ryan. I really want to know what he has to say, Mr. Fat-Mouth. And by the way, that's a weird tweet because Mike Ryan is featured on a huge show for three hours every day. And he clearly knows what the Dan Levitart show is, because you know, he hashtagged it. Why doesn't Uncle Luke go watch or listen to the Dan Lebitard show and see what Fat Mouth meant Mike Ryan has said? Can I see the rest of that tweet, please? Can I see the rest of that back and forth after Mr. Fat Mouth? Because Mike Ryan says depressed knowing we could have been

champs if only we listen to your ass Ray Ray Joseph takes. And now he's pissed Luke off. Well, yeah, because for years, Uncle Luke was always, you know, why don't Rayway Joseph play, this, that, blah, blah, blah. And so Luke comes back with Mike Ryan, you a piece of shit. You know nothing about football. Jojo and Ray Ray never got an opportunity. You replaced them with zero and seven. You watched them last night and all you got their ass beat by two kids from Miami,

coach Beard, who you bleep ride for. And then you say, Mike, and I don't know what this is responding to because there was more to that tweet, not on the page. Dude, you're 65. I'm sick burn. Is he indeed 65? Is Luther Campbell 65?

I assume Mike looked that up. I mean, is he 65? I was ball parking. Well, and here's the thing that I think Mike Ryan probably doesn't like also. Uncle Luke, at least to me, like Uncle Luke loves when the Keynes lose. He loves when the Keynes lose because it seems that unless every coach on the team are Uncle Luke's handpick coaches that he approves of, and every player on the team, and it's a lot of Miami kids, so, of course, Uncle Luke does a lot work with here, you know, high school football. He's gotten a lot of people to the NFL. But unless

all of them are playing the exact amount of time that Uncle Luke thinks appropriate, Uncle Luke would rather be right than the Keynes win. And so the Keynes lose because they're not doing everything that Uncle Luke suggests. And I feel like that's annoying probably to Keynes fans. I think he proved it, which is after the Keynes lose. He's like, where's Mike Ryan at? He's a big I told you show guy. Yeah. So like here's how this is gone. Like I've seen Luke out a couple of times. I until very recently considered myself friends with Uncle Luke. I've known Luke for 20 years. We worked together, all that stuff.

And whenever I've seen Luke out, which is rare because I grew up with him being identified with University of Miami, but he's opposition at this point. He's not doing a lot in terms of being supportive of the program. If they're not doing everything his way, he loves when they lose. So I saw him at a game and he was around. And I'm like, great to see you around. Like, we're still going with the Ray Ray Joseph stuff. Come on, let's be supportive.

So I saw him on Sunday. And in an Adidas event, I saw him, he was like in the back. And as I was saying goodbye to my friends, I'm like, hold up. I got to step up to Luke because he's happy that we're obviously here. So I go to Luke, we're shaking hands. We're hugging. We're laughing. I'm like, you're happy that you're here?

You must be. Like, are we still complaining about Ray Ray Joseph? Ray just entered the portal. And he's laughing. He's like, Mike, Mike. So I think that we have like a good jocular relationship. And I saw that tweet and I assumed it was more jocularity and us having fun. And then dude just crossed the line talking about how he's going to beat my ass in public when I was just laughing with you,

when you had every opportunity to say shit when I actually checked you on your shit. Well, in one of the tweets there he said that you didn't check him, that he was going to smack you. But he looked around and there were people around and he didn't want to, you know, he didn't want to, in his words, come off as angry black man. I just think it's a real shame that. the aftermath of all this is this cane-on-cane violence, you know, this trail of blood. Fernando and I are men of peace. We just want to bring a little sunshine to the world. This is heartbreaking stuff. I'm genuinely confused by it. I know he's basically an internet troll now and he's doing a thing and I've known him for long enough to know when he's doing a thing.

What's confusing? He said he would smack you. Right. Although I was the one that checked him. And I'm also the kind of guy that reached out to him directly and I'm still waiting to hear back. Like, we can do this again and we can be jocular about it again, you big, phony goof. I'd like to propose a boxing match for charity between Uncle Luke and Mike. That's not cliche at all. We'll play the sound in a second here. It's a great inventive idea. No one's ever done it before.

But the question is, would it ever happen? You want him to fight a 65-year-old man? Yes, that'll look good for Mike? Box for the UM program. I think it would be an even fight. All right. This has been going on for a number of years. I'm actually kind of proud that Mike gets to inherit some of this as a disciple.

First of all, when Zaz says, okay, when Zaz says Uncle Luke supports the program only when the program does what he says, Uncle Luke famously said that he would go to the NCAA with all the violations against the University of Miami if they didn't start the black quarterback, Ryan Collins. That's where some of this started. And Uncle Luke also, I have never been more, I don't think I've ever been more shocked in public than listening to WQAM when Uncle Luke is on and Uncle Luke is saying to Hank Goldberg,

yeah, Dan Lebitard called me the N word. And I'm like, that is not in any way true. He just made that up. Like, he knows that's not true. when I came on, I immediately called him. Like, what are you doing? That's not in any way true. He starts laughing. So, yes, he's a professional troll. But he's a professional.

That's what he does. He's a professional troll who once invited me to a party that I was going to go on a boat with him and an assortment of other people. And my mother was legitimately afraid that he was going to throw me into the ocean to die, to drown to death because she was afraid in general of all the things Uncle Luke related, but he's now 65 years old. He is indeed 65. How did you call him that without a cell phone?

I did not call him that. He delights in remembering that gratuitous trolling that was wildly unfair. I don't think there's anything he could have said publicly about me that would have been more hurtful, untrue, or damaging.

I kind of love him. He's like awesome. See if you love him after. See if you love him. See if you love him after this sound because this is all going to get back to him. He was supposed to be here last week. We sent a car for him. I don't know what the hell happened. Well, I saw one video where he was like, I didn't want to come in because I would have beat Mike Ryan's ass if I came in.

What was the excuse that he gave us? He never had caught trouble. He never told me why. He was supposed to come in three different days last week and never showed up and never explained why except one time saying I wouldn't have been good to you because my voice is shot. Let's listen to this. asshole from the Dan Levitar show. And I was supposed to appear on Dan Levershard show this week, and I didn't go because I know I probably did something I ain't had no business doing to this dude, Mike Ryan.

I said, I've been a hurricane since you was a fucking diapers. What the fuck you're talking about? And I'm looking around because I really want to jack his ass up at the police. Okay, camera. Police, you got to look at your surroundings. And this motherfucker comes up while I'm talking to this guy and start talking about the same shit. So I'm sitting there and I'm looking at Mike

This ain't the time and place for that boss I'm like this motherfucker Now if I Take him around the corner Dummy his ass up This is gonna think I'm a So I So I

Luther Campbell Have to restrain myself In certain settings In certain situations Because I know It can be perceived As angry black man So the man

said the big executive was like, is that the Mike Ryan from the Dan Levitart show? I was like, yeah. He was like, why does he act like an asshole? Mike Ryan, in my opinion, is a, in my opinion, he's the dummy on the Dan Levitar show. But I won't go on your show and say that slick shit so I can make you look like a real goddamn, the dummy you are of the show. Mike, why are you grinning maniacally while you're listening to this? Because he's doing like a troll thing, but I do think it crossed the line. And for the record, I'm not the one for that. Like, I reached out to him directly. He still haven't heard back. He's doing his little goofy thing. He's become a Twitter troll. Did that happen what he said? We said, Mike, this is not the time

for that? No, he was just being a goof. He was laughing and hugging me. Was he looking around because he was going to smack you? No, he wasn't. In fact, I had him on skates because I'm one of the few people that, like, will talk to him in person and be like, why are you doing this to the program? Like, you're still talking about Lane Kiffin? You're still directing kids to F. You have an opportunity. You're all about taking credit for paying the players before it was legal. You have a legal avenue right now to actually help the program that you're supposed to rep.

Instead, your opposition. You're not helping at all. And I give them the guff over that stuff. Like I thought it was all love. I thought we were having fun. But I do think that he crossed the line and don't play with me like that. He's the self-appointed general manager of Miami Hurricanes football. He's living in his own world.

I think he's got a right to do everything he's doing and say everything he's saying he's fun he's a cartoon i'd be careful though as i'd just be careful on this front shug night snoop dog all those people uh ice cube they all had to ask permission before coming to miami uh of luke uh because you might want to be careful with what it is you say publicly stop stop he's a 65 year old man he plays a bunch of golf like he he he's all chummy he's doing a wrestling character i'm not talking about him i'm talking about the people uh who defend and protect oh stop that was true last week but now the president of Miami is Fernando Mendoza, right? He runs all business here, right? Don Lebatard.

Imagine if someone told you you couldn't have a Corvette. Stugats. I'm a grown-ass man who's not filthy rich. I can't afford a Lamborghini. Well, I probably can, but that's... Whoa! Hey! This is the Dan LeBatar show. This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stugats. Well, I want to ask you guys something here.

about the coping involved that the Miami Hurricane fans have been doing the last couple of days. So I cannot tell you how many people yesterday sent me the tweet of Chris Falika saying and showing video of on the Malachi Tony punt that he downed at the five-yard line. Which Mike got mad at me for saying that he shouldn't have caught that ball. The tweet, though, that is being sent, I was really surprised by the number of people who sent me this yesterday because it was clear that Miami was trying to set up something that you probably haven't seen a whole lot on punt returns. You may have seen it on kickoffs, but it's never tried on punt returns where you're on the right side with the football and you lateral it across the field. And it's clearly open and it presumes a lot that the pass will be accurate. There's a lot of presumption involved, but people are pointing to that play. and saying that it means something that this was left on the field.

And I understand it as a coping mechanism. But the thing that I wanted to ask you guys is, I thought we all understood that Indiana did the small things better than Miami. And I thought we all understood that game was decided by Indiana special teams. They do that stuff better than Miami. And so it's not surprising that the punt was so good that they couldn't do anything on that play. Because that's what they do well. And it's one of the places Mario Cristobal,

supposed can be criticized. He's got more pros than Indiana. Indiana is better at the small stuff. I thought we all knew that. Their reputation was they punish you for your mistakes. They're a great execution team. All that stuff played out on the field. The punter from the punter booming that punt to Miami not being able to maintain their blocks, which was a running thread throughout special teams. And that's the difference. Like they execute those two things. Honestly, credit to Malachi Tony for not forcing it because he did have bright. Fitzgerald, I believe, on the other side. And I know it assumes accurate pass, but we've seen Malachi Tony be able to throw the ball.

He was a high school quarterback. Wouldn't even have to have been accurate. There was no one near the guy. Right, right. Yeah, but the reason no one tries that is because you can't be having the ball on the ground back there when you're playing near that close to your own end zone in a game decided by the small thing. It's ballsy, and it certainly would have done, like, let's say that plays out in this alternate universe. Imagine what that does to Mario Cristobal's legacy.

He liked that call in that spot against Kurt Signetti? That's like Sean Payton onside kicks. Right. And the thing is like he made the call. It was just blown up by the stuff that Indiana does very well. You guys know that when Malachi Tony turned to throw, would have turned to throw the ball that the Hoosiers players would have reacted to that and gone to the other guy.

And that assumes that Malachi would have thrown a good ball over there. You know they would have gone over there and gotten in his way. It's not as though they would have just been like, well, we got duped. There he goes down the sideline. Great play. I love that we have to write fan fiction for Mario to get the big one. Yeah, no, I get it. And screw you.

But he had space. It probably... Who would have thrown a good ball, Fernando Mendoza. And did. It would have been pretty cool if he was on the hurricanes. Tell you what, that Alberto Mendoza couldn't get out of Indiana fast enough on that. That's the truth. Come on.

Get near the microphone, Greg. as you often forget to do. I wanted to ask you about Mike McDaniel. The reports are that he's going to the Chargers, Justin Herbert, unless the Raiders job becomes open to him or the Ravens job becomes open to him. He's obviously in demand. It is funny to see what's happening in Miami, where he's in demand, at least in part, because everybody understands, oh, had the number one passing offense in the league, and Rahim Moster had 18 touchdowns on an offense that had a quarterback that wasn't as good as the one that he would now have in Los Angeles if Justin Herbert stays healthy, which he has.

And Justin Herbert will get to play differently than he's played the last few years because the amount that dude has been hit is insane. Like they are not, I know a lot of people argue about Justin Herbert and say stop making excuses for Josh Allen and Justin Herbert, but I saw no quarterback in the sport playing as unpleasant a football position as Justin Herbert at quarterback because the Chargers couldn't block anybody this year once they got injured on the offensive line. And I've said before, that offensive line didn't belong in the playoffs. Like that was an incompetent offensive line. No, that's fair. I think Mike McDaniel took the right job for him because you go where the

quarterback is. He was still a finalist for the giants, I believe, and pulled out of that job because he thought Justin Herbert didn't want any part of the Brown's job. Could have had the Brown's job, doesn't want any part of that. He went where the quarterback is. Now, I personally think Justin Herbert is overrated at this point in his career. I don't think he's lived up, but he's a better quarterback than the other choices he had. Has a chance to be especially painful for Dolphin fans because, you know, Dolvin's took Tua instead of Justin Herbert. And now you got the coach who rightfully has been run out of town linking up potentially

with Herbert with an opportunity to improve him even more. It has a chance to be really painful for the dolphin fan if Herbert all of the sudden becomes a big time passer. I don't know how you look at Herbert and think he is like not great. I don't know what you're doing with Herbert there. Yeah. He had a bad offensive line this year so he didn't have time. Yeah, he had a terrible offense.

We have a pretty good idea because Justin Herbert seems to be like a sticking point with Dolphin fans. McDaniel with Herbert is going to make you realize how bad Tua is. I think so too. Like that's the reality is that McDaniel made Tua and Justin Herbert's tools with the ability to create a run game out of nowhere that McDaniel has, when you can have that to free up everything that Herbert does. He is going to be spectacular with Mike McDaniel,

and it's going to end any of those debates you were having as Jeremy Fowler throws out there, hey, the dolphins are looking at Malik Willis. It's also fair to say at this point, you look at the interest in Mike McDaniel, both the head coach interviews he's done and the offensive coordinator jobs that we're opening for him. that makes it debatable to this day to say that the dolphins were right not to give him one more season.

Which some of us were saying that we're going to miss that offense. No, it's absolutely debatable. And Jeff Halfley right now and the new GM have to prove that it was the right decision. I know that Mike McDaniel and Dolphins fans don't want to hear this right now. He is idiosyncratic and doesn't cut the figure of the leader of men. I like him. I don't like what Zaz is saying rightly ran him out of town. So 500 coach who produced offense.

Fair. I know I keep going back to this anytime I'm talking with you guys about the Mike McDaniel era in Miami. But man, that Monday night game against the Tennessee Titans. I hate that game. Stop bringing it up. If they survive that game, Mike McDaniel's job is not in question at this point. They would have been 10 and 2.

They host a playoff game. They host the Steelers in all likelihood. And in all likelihood, they win that game. And it's a very different discussion. but erase that. Forget about that alternate reality. For all the stuff about, see, he's not a serious guy for pro football, he did keep the dolphins afloat.

He was fired three months ago. And then the dolphins, you kind of had to look at the standings if you aren't in Miami, if you're elsewhere in Football America. Wait a minute, the dolphins are kind of hanging around. They've kind of played themselves back into being relevant in the AFC playoff chase here. And you guys just canned him. I don't know if that's the greatest idea. I don't think he's a head coach.

Like, it's very possible, and we've seen this before. There are guys who are great coordinators, but they're not head coaches. I hear that. And there was no way for Mike McDaniels be demoted. He's never been a coordinator. I hear that all the time, okay? And I used to hear it about Belichick. And it bothers me that we make that assessment only with the results.

The last eight coaches, the dolphins have hired, don't have any head coaching experience. And you may think Halfling is a head coach. But I don't know. I don't know. He comes from Worchester Polytech Institute as his starting point. If you guys think he's a head coach, you know more than I do because I don't know. You got Diana telling me, well, he presents well in the interview. That has nothing to do, nothing to do with being a good head coach.

You're forgetting he's a sweetie pie. Yeah, yeah. I did forget that. I would ask to ask directly, did Mike McDaniel seem like a head coached you when he went to the playoffs, hit both of his first two seasons? Yeah. Yeah. When he led the league in passing, had the number one passing offense in the league.

Well, Dan, what you're talking about is how he presents in the interview and something adjacent to that is the dim cynicism expressed in every coaching cycle and especially this one right now. Look at social media and otherwise this last week or so. Every fan base, the guy who was just fired or is up for a job elsewhere, they're saying they want to interview our coordinator? haven't they watched our games? It's that sort of empty sort of reaction. Everybody who is close to their team thinks that their coordinator, their head coach is the issue and needs to go. That should not be a reflection on how good they are or not.

I would just add to Greg's question that he posed to me, yes, I thought after the first two years, this is a really good head coach, Mike McDaniel. But then we get a larger sample size and, like, my opinion can change. Like, I've seen more. I've actually seen double the amount of time now from four, from two years to four years, and I don't believe that to be the case. I think he's a great offensive guy.

But he's a 500 coach. He won half of his games. When he was 9 and 2, you thought he was a head coach. When they had offense, you thought he was a head coach. And he was 500 as a head coach in four years with someone now deemed to not be a good quarterback. Like that, I just, I hate when we do this. We just do it so often. And my starting point is Belichick.

I was told when Belichick was hired, not going to work. going to be a defensive coordinator. Doesn't present well and didn't? Well, the thing about Mike McDaniel is when he was winning, when he was making the playoffs, everybody loved his quirky personality. Oh, he was funny. The media was, he was regaling the media. We were all laughing.

And then Tua got worse. And then the losing started. Yeah, not as funny. And then Mike McDaniel were making ums and ahs, and he's like, he's terrible. He doesn't even know how to speak. He didn't change. okay, the losing changed our perception of him. He's the same coach as he always won.

Offly coveted. Offly coveted. Surprisingly. I don't think it's surprising. I was surprised. I don't think there's anything surprising about that. Rahim Moster had 18 touchdowns and then was out of the league. Like, what are you guys watching that you think it's surprising that every team in the league is interested in Mike McDaniel?

Can he sprinkle something over here, that Shanahan shit, that if I don't have an offensive line, it doesn't matter. I'm going to get 18 touchdowns from Rahim. Most of all I mean is that every coach who's fired in the NFL isn't automatically sought after. And he's been highly sought after, both for head coach and coordinator positions. You know, nobody's forgetting about Mike McDaniel. The league, we hear the league saying, you know what? The Dolphins got rid of a pretty good guy. Let's look into him.

Brian Flores's head coaching material to you? Just curious. I don't know how much his record was about. Leader of men. Okay. So that's what we're doing. Okay. The biggest thing he's got to run into is like, wait, is he going to assume me?

So guy who is caveman football coach, caveman masculine, or Mike McCarthy. Or a great offense or a great run game coordinator, like Mike McDaniel. You want the Dan Campbell or the Mike Vraveal as the stereotype macho man. Or the nerd that is just a genius. Brian Flores would have worked here if he got along with people. That is kind of a quality that a head coach needs to have. And I don't know that that's been. resolved, by the way, to answer your question, Dan.

Brian Flores, there's been some smoke in other NFL stops as well. That's what might prevent him from getting in. You say that. And one of the funny things that I learned when we were at Dolphin Camp is that he had installed. You said smoke on his office, the glass on his office, he had installed just something that made it not visible because it was smoky that he would just press. People outside would be coming to see him and he would just press it. And his office would just go smoky.

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