The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Local Hour: Big Game James Franklin

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

Jessica is coming out firing this morning after her Notre Dame Fighting Irish defeated the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Orange Bowl to advance to the College Football Playoff National Championship in an instant classic. Did James Franklin nearly fool us again in a big game, or was this loss on his quarterback, Drew Allar, throwing a terrible interception at the end of the game? Andrew Hawkins is in studio with us and was in a suite last night scouting Drew Allar for his Cleveland Browns, and Hawk is doing everything he can to earn the Look At Me Louie sounder. What were his takeaways from his scouting venture and breaking down the All-22 film? Plus, Greg McElroy had an all-time announcer jinx, a shard of plastic turned the tide for Notre Dame, and Amin shares some new aspects to the Jimmy Butler extension talk. Today’s cast: Dan, Amin, Andrew Hawkins, Roy, Jeremy, Jessica, and Mike. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. and get up to $75 in PC optimum points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. Shadow show. Shadow show. Shadow show. Shadow show. Shadow show. Shadow show. Shadow show.

Shadowing it. Shadowing it. Roy, I got a problem today. What'd I do? I know, it's not you. Although Izzy does have questions about how easy you think it is to ice skate. You seem to think that you're gonna be Somebody who could hockey ice skate in a short period of time is he thinks it's not gonna be sure

But the problem I have is I got Andrew Hawkins in here and I got a whole lot of people who really want to talk About football. I got Amin Elhassan in here He's got a whole ton of basketball takes and Jeremy's got a ton of takes too But I only got one person here who was in the middle of all the football action yesterday and being soothed by the parents of the Notre Dame players in the stands. And I feel like that person needs to be showcased today because she was in the center of what feels like the biggest moments that Notre Dame football has had for national relevance, hope, and belief since they were getting smoked by 40 points

in all the championship games that they played in in the last 10 years. Thank you, Dan, I am pumped. What a game that was last night, what an experience. It's great to have that barn jump in the way that it was. Wait, but who is it? You were being soothed because of the amount of tension in your Notre Dame football spirit

because you spent that game trailing and scared? Yes, I would say that's accurate. It was a absolutely batshit college football game. I'm curious what it was like watching it on TV. Did it feel as insane and just weird as it did in person? Yeah, yeah. It's a great kind of game because literally every play feeds to this narrative.

And for those two programs especially, like for the winner, greatness, for the loser, utter embarrassment, I think less so for Notre Dame when you consider like their injury situation, but teetering along the line, the entire game is James Franklin's legacy. And I think it just added, it was, I thought last night was a spectacle.

It was a great game, a bit of an old school game, but it really opened up in the second half. It was tremendous drama. Yeah, tremendous drama. I was crying, screaming, throwing up. It was just the most, I disassociated for the entire halftime show. I don't even know who that guy was,

but he was singing a country song. It was super famous. That's a permanent way to describe it. Yeah, I'd never seen that person before in my life. Don't care to see him ever again. Jessica, let me ask you a question. Have you elevated to known Notre Dame alum? You're not famous Notre Dame alum,

obviously there's so many famous alums, but are you at least a known Notre Dame alum? You guys are throwing a lot of subtle shots. Can I say that real quick? Cause that was a shot. It's a question. It's a shot though. I don't know how to answer that though.

And then Jess was like, I want to know, what was it like watching the game at home? And it was kind of like, that's a flex a little bit too. It was a lot different on the sidelines guys. How am I supposed to answer that? I mean, like, do people come up to me at tailgates and like take pictures with me. Yes If I say yes, I sound like a tool and if I say no, I'm lying

This is the Don LeBattor show with this two guys podcast I Don't think it's a particularly interesting distinction to make today, but very often with games people say games are great and what it was is well the ending was great, the end of the game was great. Last night's game was fun for a lot of reasons, but I did not have that fourth quarter happening all of a sudden where when Mike talks about the narratives James Franklin is now 0-13 in his last 13 games against top 15 I'm sorry top five teams he's 4-20 career against top 10 teams and now in 11 seasons at Penn State he's 1-15 against top five teams and that one was

there for the taking and I believe that all of us looking at this would say if those teams kept playing we don't know that's the arbitrary measurement of the day but if they kept playing we don't know who would win if they played 10, 15, 20 times because we're at the point of the season that if Texas beats Ohio State you'd be like yeah if Ohio State beats Texas you'd be like yeah but I don't think this is an accurate measurement for who's best it's just an accurate measurement who wins that particular night. I know it's the measurement we got, I know, but you're gonna have a hard time convincing me that Notre Dame is the best team in football after they've lost to Northern Illinois at home during the season. Wow, quick Mac shot out the gate. I'm not gonna condone that, but isn't that what you want in the playoffs though?

That you, like, anybody could win on any given night. Is that not the goal? My preference for all playoffs is find me the best winner, but we have imperfect measurement systems everywhere except basketball. If I may espouse the virtues of fighting Irish football in a likely scenario for me, no, I think if you play that game ten times, that was just about the weakest form of Notre Dame when you consider their really bad injury situation.

That game was totally there to be had for Penn State. Up 10-0, it felt like a three-score lead with all the momentum. And then Angele comes in and they get a crucial field goal. Field goal drive of the year. It was massive for that game. And then they start the very next drive in that Penn State side, which was,

that stadium was loud last night. It came across on the television. They get the delay of game, and you're thinking, man, Notre Dame is toast. But they compose themselves, they answer right back. You realize this is a tie game. And then, we're just playing with James Franklin now. You know that he's gonna screw this up.

Drew Aller is so friggin' overrated. I can't believe, I don't know if you're watching this game with a sound on, I wish you did. Because right before Drew Aller threw that interception, Greg McElroy said, Drew Aller's not the type of quarterback that's gonna throw an interception. He was like, you should get aggressive in this spot. He's not gonna throw an interception. And like two plays later, he threw a bone crushing

interception to Christian Gray, which set up Notre Dame to kick the game winning field goal. Yeah, I mean, what a freaking game. It was awesome. It was so loud on that Penn State side too. And like, it seemed like it was actually really bugging Notre Dame and Riley Leonard when the offense was on that side of the field. And I mean, for these ball games to feel like a college football game, like that's a tough thing

to do in an NFL stadium. And that felt like a real college football game. And it was just an incredible atmosphere and so much fun. Let me ask you guys a question. How do you feel about fans who overreact in the middle of the game? I get if it's at the end of the game and you just do a big pick six or whatever, like,

oh my God, but it's crazy to me. Like there was an interception earlier in the fourth quarter, and then they do the crowd shots, and so many people were crushed. Like their life is over. They're in tears. I love that about this sport,

I love that about this sport because it taps into something like almost primal that other, the professional sports don't. The tribalism attached to college athletics is the closest thing that we have to European soccer. And I love that it manifests on the face, the surrender cobras and the Sands, I think it just provides great drama.

Jess is here, that's one of the best Notre Dame feelings that she's ever had, but also throughout that game, probably the worst she's ever felt watching a game. Yeah, I felt terrible. And like Dan alluded to it in the Shadow Show, but I was in like the Notre Dame parent section. And during the game, I was next to Xavier Watts's family. And like we were right against a railing

and like I had my head like over the railing. With my head down. Yeah! Thanks I guess. The tickets were, they were nice. Like. We weren't in a suite or anything. You were in the player family section. Yeah, Ryan Clark was a few seats away from us too. Name drop.

I was worth it. Was he wearing the lapel pin? Double. You got double. I was like, hey, I work for the Levitar Show. I'm a huge fan, but also I'm a Steelers fan and you're my hero. And then like an hour later, we were dapping each other up after the Christian Grey interception. But anyways, I mean, to your point,

like I was like head bent over, like I can't believe this, like this team looks so gassed. They haven't played like this all season long, like just bad in the trenches in a way that I haven't seen. And like Mike mentioned, like losing two linemen in the first half is brutal. The defensive line is completely decimated.

There's three starters out just on the line and Howard Cross is playing with one leg. Jeremiah Love's playing with one leg. It still scores that touchdown somehow that was on that two yard bond. Unbelievable. That's an iconic moment, that run from Jeremiah Love with the brace on his leg to battle through.

And Abdul Carter was the best player on that field and he's one of the players that slip off Jeremiah Love in there who's giving it his all like a heroic effort that was just such a great game. Yeah like the second half like I'm bent over in pain like I can't watch I can't look at the field and the players families literally one of the players like moms is rubbing my back she's like it's gonna be okay, we got this, we're gonna win, it's okay, we got this. And I was like, I can't even watch.

I can't do this. One of the things we're always talking about around here in sports is, was it fun? Because if you'd lost that game by a field goal, you'd come in here today and say, that's one of the worst experiences of my life. She'd come in? If she came in, she would say she'd feel hungover

and she'd feel terrible, she'd have trouble sleeping. But the experience is the same in both instances, it's just the ending. So did you have fun? Like did you actually have fun to be in pain and feel like you're vomiting all game? I had so much fun, first of all, tailgate lines didn't open until 2.30,

Orange Bowl, figure it out, that's bad. From 2.30 until kickoff at like 7.30, I had the time of my life, and then from 7.30 until like 11.30, I was in a bad, dark place. Do not read my text message thread with Mike Golick Jr. I am going to burn that. No one should ever see the things that I said.

No, I mean, I think that in a lot of ways, this season was a success for Notre Dame, no matter whether or not they had won last night. They beat Georgia last week in the Sugar Bowl. They broke the New York six Sugar Bowl game, or the New York six bowl game losing streak. They had a 13-win season. They beat Indiana in the first round. It's a really good season for Notre Dame. But obviously, you want to win a championship, and you want to win the game that's in front

of you. It was excruciating watching that team with all the injuries they have, especially in the trenches where they've been so solid this season and on defense, where their defense has been pushing around other teams all season. It just was a hard game to watch because I know that this team is better than that. And I think a ton of credit has to be given to Penn State because they look like the more organized team

for a lot of that game. They were able to put pressure on Notre Dame and they were able to really maintain that level of dominance in the lines that Notre Dame did to Georgia seven days ago. So yeah, it was painful to watch because I know this team is honestly like, they're better than that and I'm super happy they won. Totally like a toss up outcome given where the game was at

in the fourth quarter, but regardless, I was like trying to maintain some perspective on the season while watching my soul get crushed. And then like by the grace of God and Marcus Freeman, they somehow came back and won that game and put together two really competent quarters, even though Riley Leonard threw like an awful interception and was out for a series in the first half like it

was brutal to watch but the release of tension after the game going into the tailgate lot for like an hour afterwards and seeing all my friends there and family members and friends parents like that seeing Mitch Jeter's dad walked by and I gave him a yeah Jets it was awesome and like made up for all of the stress of the previous four hours. I was in a suite at the game. Oh, well, don't hit that button, no? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Come on. We didn't request the button. I tried to earn the button. We do not say things. No, this is not how it works. I was sitting on that so I could get the button. I was in a suite last night. Is everyone in Miami? You don't get the button when you request the button. I was in a suite last night. Is everyone in Miami?

You don't get the button when you request the button. You were in a suite last night and what? The whole stadium is suites by the way. Yeah, it's a lot of suites. It's ridiculous. I got them, it's a shared suite. It's gonna get more and more pathetic. I was in the bathroom, I was watching on the television.

It's like a stub hub of suites. And anybody can buy a ticket in this suite. So the point is there was a mixed bag in this suite and we had Penn State people who were super passionate. We had the front row of the suite all Notre Dame guys and all game something happens with Notre Dame they go ballistic, something happens with Penn State they go crazy and it was all good. They're like who are you rooting for?

I'm like I could care less. I went to Toledo, okay? So we're sitting there and everything's all love. We're buying group food because the food doesn't come with the shared suite. You gotta buy it bespoke, and then it's like a bunch, it's expensive. And you have to buy like a Caesar salad,

and it's like $85, but it's like each 10 or something. I wish it was, exactly. How do you break that down with strangers? It's like wings are $230. I've been in that's I was in that's a suite like that for the Miami So it's like yeah, I paid for it, but everyone gets to eat so everyone kind of ordered their thing I ordered I think a shrimp cocktail which was like $300, but I had to contribute They had already taken the hot dogs and all the cheaper options. I was pissed But anyway, the shrimp cocktails, everyone's having a good time.

The moment Aller threw that last pick, the Notre Dame folks go crazy, right? All of a sudden, all the fun loving, you know, we're all in this, football is great. Out the window, guy in the back is like, hey, you got people back here trying to watch the game. Oh, oh, is this what it is? It's the half time, it's time out.

The game's not going on. I'm like, okay, come on son, it's time to go. Let's get out of here. I did see a lot of Penn State. The Penn State fans were super locked in, really loud, really fun. They were so excited. I have nothing bad to say about them.

But after the game, like to your point, when you're in the bad place, I saw so many Penn State fans arguing with each other, walking out of the stadium. And I was like, man, I've been there. It got tense quick. I also feel like there was more Penn State fans than Notre Dame fans.

Yeah, I think it was probably like 60, 40, Penn State, Notre Dame. It was a lot of Penn State fans. Juju, put it up on the poll please at LeBataard Show. Do you say I could care less or I could not care less? Which is it that you say? And also, I want you guys to notice why it is that I have the exclusive domain

over this particular look at me, Louie, and how successful I was in correctly governing its standard. That suite got shittier and shittier as he talked. Like, that sweet. Hindsight, you had the right call. Like him just saying it's a sweet and just throwing it out there as if that's supposed to impress us and then it becomes,

well, fans of both kinds. That's a disaster, by the way. That is not what you want in your sweet. You do not want fans of both kinds. It's kind of what you want if you're a neutral though that seems pretty fun it was a lot it was two games going on yeah so much entertainment I mean I have a question but you grew up in Johnstown so you don't have any Penn State like or pit you're not on either side of the Penn State pit thing cuz that you're

kind of like closer to Pittsburgh right but I'm literally right it's an hour and a half to state college it's an hour and a half to take college, it's an hour and a half to Pittsburgh. And my nephew played football at Penn State, he's an alumni, I probably go more Penn State than Pitt, my little brother played football at Pitt. Until you don't just beat Pitt in the whole game, obviously. And I'm just kinda, they didn't recruit me either way, so I'm kinda like to hell with everybody.

I'm just surprised, cause Western PA is very, and Central PA, like, Yeah, no, I'm literally in the middle. If you're Penn're Penn State you hate Pitt and I feel like there's not a lot of people stuck. The only point that matters is that the sweet was shitty. I mean it wasn't great. Look the Caesar salad you just described made me sad it was expensive the fact that you had you didn't have your own food shared food with the group that's not opulence that ain't't opulence. It ain't opulence. Can I tell you about the food and the non-sweet?

Because Lehman and I got a tray of nachos around the third quarter and he bit into the queso and there was a little, like a shard of plastic in it that he almost broke his tooth on. And then like the next drive was the Angele Field Gold Drive and then Notre Dame scored a touchdown right after it. Notre Dame dominated the middle of the season, by the way. But we saved a little piece of plastic,

because everything changed. Everything changed after we took the plastic. Tapper would have lost his mind. You're gonna freaking kill somebody! You're gonna kill somebody! A superstitious piece of plastic, and you're not just. Yeah, I'd like to revisit the Penn State of it all briefly because an expanded CFP is supposed to mitigate

a team getting there kinda with a lucky path. But if you've watched these games, and I caught a little bit of BS from some Penn State fans online, but those that actually watched that game, I'm serious, I know it was a blowout against SMU, Penn State's offense stunk in that game. That game was there for the taking for SMU and similarly a little less so but Boise State had its opportunities and I didn't come away with Penn State

Despite them kind of shifting a narrative a little bit. James Franklin won two big games. College football playoff games are supposed to be big games But when you watch those games and you consider the opponents and all the questions that you had about them, we're waiting for him to have a big one. And they go up 10-0 and I realize how many crucial injuries Notre Dame have and I'm like, are they going to do this? Are they going to have good fortune all the way to a CFP final? And are they going to need this much luck to change this narrative? Because they also looked really good. They like they had nfl body well let me ask

these questions okay because you're telling me about the decimation along the injury fronts for noter dame but penn state and ohio state have been teams that are very good at will be really physical with you at the goal line at it in the most basic formal how state has a million different advantages payment and otherwise but when football becomes the barbaric primitive thing of who's stronger down there ohio state's roster wins and penn state's roster wins the part that you're

bringing up though that i want to address is this moving line on what big games are because the first to that franklin one people were saying okay this changes the narrative changes the narrative and the moment he loses the narrative is right back and it's forever like this narrative goes right back to can't beat the top five teams yeah as m u yeah boys he stayed but what were big games you're telling me to get two weeks

ago big game big game james frank Franklin changing, changing, not now. It ended with a loss, ended with a loss against the top five team. What changed other than they allowed more teams that shouldn't have been in the playoffs in the playoffs? Well, I think people were already saying that about James Franklin even after the SMU and Boise games, like regardless of last, like that,

I think the path that Penn State got they earned through the regular season they made it to the Big Ten championship they lost to Oregon obviously but like they absolutely we're not gonna do the whole like did they belong to be their thing but yes they're just to help you out like if this were not expanded they would have been in the CFP like they would have made it over Ohio State I don't think that's true because they had they would have had two losses well they lost in the conference yeah fair enough but they would have been over like what is now on the odds on favorite to win the national championship

They would have been over Ohio State. Yeah, I think that that's probably Maybe true. I don't know losing the conference championship game I think would have kept them out of the the top four if they because they would have had a lost Ohio State and to Oregon I don't think they would have made a final four But whatever besides the point. The difference, Dan, is that now in the last three weeks, Marcus Freeman is a third year head coach. He has won two top five games in eight days,

and James Franklin has won one in the last 10 years. So. 11, yeah, one in 15 in the last 11 seasons. The Day on the Baton Show with Stu Gotz is sponsored by BetterHelp. Every January feels like a fresh start. 365 blank pages just waiting for your story to be written. In 2025, maybe you're ready for a plot twist. Ready to revise the parts of your story holding you back. Life isn't about New Year's resolutions that disappear by February. It's about picking

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Jess, you can't talk about double digit national titles when every single call of you winning the national title sounds like this. Oh, there's, there's Stubby Jack running down the sideline. If the audio. That's not true. Yeah, and there's a World War II veteran pitching into another white guy and he avoids another white guy! Oh my god, not a name!

The Fighting Irish have done it again for the eighth time! They were playing white people! Stugats! Chubby Checker. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. He's black! He's black and I was really going,

what's a white name? Chubby Checker. I picked up my... I'm sorry, man. I'm improv'ing here. I thought I didn't hear you correctly. A Hawaiian Chubby Checker running down the sidewalk. He spells it differently. All right, maybe you didn't hear me correctly.

His name is Chubby Checkers. There's an S at the end. I feel like that should be the largest of five. Yeah, Chubby. Yeah, Chubby Checker. It sounds like a college football man. This is the Dan LeVatar Show with the Stugats. Context helps. And that's kind of what my question is. I didn't watch that game and feel like, you know, Penn State was a bad team that shouldn't

be there. Like that, that wasn't it. Oh, that would have lost to Bama by 40. That's what you're supposed to do. And so even the, like you just said, if, if Marcus Freeman and his team loses, it's still a successful season for Notre Dame. I would hate the fact that Penn State ended up on the bad side of that loss to be like,

oh now, what a terrible ending. Yeah, I guess context matters over the years, but they got really close there. And closer than Penn State teams have come in a very long time. If I may, just to fuel the James Franklin narrative, they had really good fortune leading up to this point, and their good fortune continued with Notre Dame's injuries

and also they almost made it to a college football playoff final having won a semi-final game without completing a pass to a wide receiver. Did you see what happened on that field goal? Did you see the two guys way in the back that weren't at the line of scrimmage to block the go ahead field goal? What were they doing?

There's plenty of stuff to pick apart. The call, why are you putting, why is Drew Aller throwing in the middle of the field in that scenario? Like, boy that's another thing. Let me tell you something. He's six foot five and white and from middle America. I understand why people like this guy.

This dude stinks. He may get there, but this season they didn't ask any. You want to talk counting sets like, 50 touchdowns, nine interceptions. I don't trust that guy at all. Haven't, haven't. That dude threw three picks. Now two of them, rightful calls, I understand.

But they were bailouts. Not the second one. First one was the hold I think on Christian Grey in the first half. Yeah, fine. The second one, the pass interference that they called on Watts was supposed to be on Adon Shuler. That was the classic under thrown DPI bailout play

where everyone's saying, oh, you have to turn around and look at the ball. No, you don't. That's not the rule. Everyone that says that doesn't understand pass interference. And they got completely bailed out by a terribly thrown football

into triple coverage in the end zone. Letter of the law, the official even in the booth said it was a right call. Like, I'm with you. I disagree. It was a bad decision, a worse throw. Warren wasn't afforded the opportunity to make the play as he was being face guarded, but whatever.

It just continued that I don't trust Drew Aller at all here. And in that late game situation, he makes a terrible decision. I don't see it at all with him. I understand why execs fall in love with the measurables, but this dude to me is a stiff. I went there scouting Drew Aller as a Browns fan. He's from Cleveland and I saw all the hype videos online with him growing up in Browns gear.

And I'm like, we might have something here. Let me go get the best suite that I can find in Hard Rock Stadium. So I got a bird's-eye view exactly what what yard line we were on the 50 There any orange bill orange bowl committee members in your suite with the orange jacket mark my words I will wear that orange blazer one day. Dude, fight me for it. I was in two suites. I was in two suites throughout the game.

You ate two suites? Two suites. You ate two suites? In the first suite, there was about five orange jackets in there. You know what, he is holding his arm out here to get the look of me, Louis. Which I'm not going to press, however, I will say that you continue to make me

someone who gets more and more influenced and manipulated by you, because every time you point for some reason, the waft of your cologne is bringing a really lovely scent through here. It reeks of mahogany. It's disorienting me. I don't even know what to do with it.

It smells like a nice, nice nightclub. Like a really fun nightclub. And it smells like Luca Mellui is what it smells like. And here's the crazy thing. It's just sweat. That is not true. That is not true. Wait, Hawk, I have to ask.

While we're talking about the Orange Bowl committee members, were you there pregame when Brady Quinn was giving a plaque to Urban Meyer and they announced Urban Meyer on the speaker and he was on the Jumbotron? The entire stadium was booing and they were trying to use Brady Quinn as a meat shield so people in the Notre Dame fans wouldn't boo.

But that was the loudest the stadium was the entire game. Everyone came together and booed Urban Meyer on the field during pregame, it was crazy. Can you give me please the sound of Greg McElroy doing the announcer jinx thing please? How do they play it with 47 seconds to go? Are you aggressive or are you cautious? I'm aggressive.

I mean, I got two timeouts. I feel like the momentum's been back and forth. The quarterback for the most part, all season long, his whole career, Drew Allers made good decisions He's got 50 plus touchdowns only nine career interceptions. He's not likely a guy that's gonna put the ball in harm's way I trust him I think he could do it and I would empower him in this situation to drive him down the field for a game-winning field goal

If I may come on man, Greg McElroy knows college ball almost better than anybody I know I listen to his podcast weekly. Yep, and as he was saying it, I was mortified Mortified what did he do wrong? To Greg McElroy's podcast weekly is a look at me Louie's. She's great. I watch it is a look at me Louie's. He's great, I watch his broadcast. Listening to Greg McElroy's podcast? He's great. Earned a look at me Louie?

Routinely. Are you out of your damn mind? You're just not gonna get it. It's just not your day pal. I drove a Maybach here. I think it's racially biased. I think the look at me Louie might be racially biased. Drew Haller doesn't have that TD to interception ratio

because he's particularly good. I've watched a lot of him. I think he's fortunate, and they don't ask a lot from him. They hide him. They have really good weapons, particularly in that backfield. And Warren is like a unicorn, a unicorn that was probably concussed. I think both tight end ones were playing the majority

of that game with a concussion. And he's just not someone that I would trust. I don't care what the numbers say, I don't trust his decision making. Quite frankly, I don't trust his accuracy. Earlier in that game, that game is actually probably over if he makes a routine NFL throw. He has his running back wide open in the flat,

set that goal line, and he puts a ball like right at the inside knee. That is a throw, if you're talked about as a top five pick, you gotta make that throw. I completely agree. So I'm not kidding. I went into this game hoping that he crushed it and then the Browns at two could convince him to come out. We trade down to six. We get an extra first round pick and we still get our quarterback. When I watch this All 22 tape,

and I'm gonna get real football here, but when I watch this All 22. Look at me, Louie. Yes! You got it! Congratulations. If I may back. Thank goodness.

Thank you, thank you. I'm stunned that we're the show that gives a look at me, Louie, to when I watch the All 22 and not I drove a Maybach in here. Wow I'd like to thank my parents I'd like to thank my best combo God and Marcus Freeman. I love them so much. I would like to thank the Academy. There's so many people I forget. Mario't expect people's who is a very dear friend. Yes Andrew Hawkins seventh nomination and first win

LeAngelo ball the bar ball to the all 22 I need I'm a yellow in that corner. Whoa whoa yeah, we're gonna do it Who else here just so many people I plan to be back here. I couldn't do this without you guys This is just the beginning. Thank you As someone that still has a framed picture of Brady Quinn as a four year old wearing a Cleveland Browns uniform, I understand what it means to have someone who grew up as a Browns fan be a quarterback prospect that might possibly save your franchise. So I totally have with the idea of you just crunching

all 22 to see if you could talk yourself into this guy. Yeah, I was in there. And even in his best plays, and this is where the SMU and the Boise State stuff come into play, because he had some big throws there, but even in those, it was like the receivers are slowing down just a tick. And I was telling my son, who was a big Cam Ward fan,

like we talked about, he's like, I think it's Cam Ward. I'm like, this guy, but he's 6'5", and as you keep watching, he's having trouble getting to third reads. In the NFL, you have to be able to come across the field and say, okay, this isn't here. Can I go here and still make a throw? And when you watch this game,

all those things came into play. On the pass interferences, he did get bailed out. Those were bad balls. They were late throws and they were hung up in the air, which helped him in those situations, but those should have been touchdowns. Also on the goal line to the running back, you have to put that out in front of him

because he has to maintain speed. Even if he catches that by his knee, you're allowing the defender a chance to come up and make that stop. And then it- I was gonna ask you about that play because it was like, man, what a terrible drop. He's wide open.

But when I, I haven't gone back and watched the tape yet, obviously, because I got home at like 2 a.m. last night. You didn't watch the All 22? Not yet. You gotta get there. Literally the minute I get home, I mean, I will be watching like 2 a.m. last night. You didn't watch the All 22? Not yet. Literally the minute I get home I mean I will be watching the All 22. I'm so excited and then I will watch the game broadcast and then I will take a 13 hour nap. But I thought also it looked like it was thrown low and behind. So was that also what you saw? Absolutely. So you're slowing the running back down and in that moment which

is such a thin margin of error, if you're the arm talent that you should be Regardless of what your drop looks like what foot drop he throws a lot of passes falling away But that means you have to have the arm to still put it in the spots that you want to your point about the accuracy And then when I'm looking for you to say okay, this isn't here on the front side Can I get to a third read scan across the field and make a throw? That's literally how the last interception was thrown because you're falling away You try to get to the third read and you can't place it, those are issues.

When I spoke of the tension that we have in here between the number of people who wanna talk football and the number of people who wanna talk basketball, because I have watched Jeremy, Jeremy's here for those of you in the audience who have not heard from Jeremy yet today. Jeremy, I've seen in his eyes over there, he's thinking about that 97-92 Miami Heat Utah Jazz game

from last night that set the game back. Yeah, no matter how many turnovers you have in the fourth quarter, you love watching young stars in their first big moments. Hey, play through mistakes, come up big at the end of games. That's why Jazz Heat was so special last night. Yeah, young stars like Terry Rozier.

Not him. 11 for his last 62, four for his last 32, and everything that Mike Ryan hated about that acquisition has been on display over his 30% shooting over the last bit here. Where do you land, Amin? Because this has been a frustrating, it's been a complicated and difficult week for me

as somebody who's trying to be fair, objective, and critical to have people who I have relationships with, admire, trust, believe are better at their jobs than I am at my job, or that anybody criticizing them is at their job, but also can see in the standings and everything else that the Miami Heat are presiding over punctuation calamity with Jimmy Butler in a way that it cannot be argued that they've handled the end of this well.

I don't hear anyone arguing that this is being handled well, but the Heat is under more criticism, I would say, than just about any time I've seen that wasn't Whiteside and Deion Waiters, or that one season where Alonzo Mourning, his kidney failed, and then all of a sudden, Pat Riley's coaching a team that won 20 games, or whatever it was. Yeah, I mean, I think that when you look at decisions

and things, situations, people often react to what's happening in the moment. Oh, they suspended him. Oh, you messed that up. You did it wrong. The reality is the thing you should have done is typically something months ago. It's an accumulation of forks in the road and you take the one you

probably shouldn't have taken and then you arrive at this point where it's like there are no other options left. And so I don't look at Miami suspending him for seven games as oh my god you guys totally mishandled that now. The mishandling happened months ago when you knew he wanted a new contract, when you knew you didn't want to give him a new contract or the number was very far apart, that's when you start exploring other options so that you don't get to this point right here. By the way, the seven games thing, I talk about this all the time from a league perspective, from the commissioner perspective. Whenever guys do things, sometimes you hit them with a suspension that's not going to hold up in

a court of law. When John Morant was going through his stuff, I said hit him with like a 40 game suspension out the gate. Let the union appeal it, let them, okay it's not a 40, it comes down to eight or whatever it is, but the idea is you send the message right stern would do this all the time he would hit him with a a punishment that was constitutionally the incorrect is unconstitutional he knew it was going to get rescinded or brought back down in arbitration

but the idea is you send the message we don't do that shit over here and that's what the he did when they have a seven-gift start that's ridiculous that the seven okay but you say this and all of it leads to, I don't see, and maybe I have this wrong, I don't see the avenue by which the Miami Heat gets what it wants over Jimmy Butler getting whatever it is that he wants. And so now I ask you guys to do something

where you analyze this information kendrick perkins is not an information guy and i don't know if anyone is making these distinctions i don't know if anyone cares to make these distinctions as to how they get their information i haven't heard what kendrick perkins is saying here from anybody but kendrick perkins is saying and this makes sense phoenix win now phoenix wants to get whatever they can get for right now to

put it next to Jimmy Butler. Here's Kendrick Perkins saying Jimmy Butler is going to head to Phoenix. The contract parameters are set up. It's about money, right? And from my sources, they're telling me that the sons have a two-year, $121 million extension waiting on Jimmy.

I believe it. All right. I mean, I ain't no genius, but that's like 60 a year. Okay. Somebody is drunk over there. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.

Hold on. Keep a cool booty. All right. Here's the next thing. Here's the next thing. Okay. It's about relationships. And the relationship is Jimmy Butler and Kevin Durant. Now, I told you this about two weeks ago

when we made this bet, that not only do Phoenix, Phoenix, yes, the organization, they want him. You know why? Because Kevin Durant wants Jimmy Butler. And if he does get Jimmy Butler Which I believe he will they're both gonna sign contract extensions. Katie is gonna sign as well Booker

Durant butler is better than Booker Durant Beal What do you do with that information? first of all for the audio audience, what I was laughing at, because you couldn't see the video, the video was Channing Frye, as he's saying, oh, someone's drunk over there, he's tossing a ball of it, like very nonchalantly.

It's almost like he's not paying attention to the conversation, they're only half-assing it. It's my guy Channing Frye. But that information is exactly where we thought all of this was headed. A, Jimmy Butler wants his money. B, you're in a tough spot. C, who's a team that's desperate enough to do this? D, what does that desperation look like?

And then E, it's a superstar saying, I want him here. The cosign is pretty strong. And when it comes to Kendrick Perkins, people like to clown, perk, and make fun of him in his country accent, and he gives hot takes. But when he says information like that, you better listen. Because that dude knows people, he talks to people, he works his ass off on the back end

in a way that I don't think many people understand or appreciate. I just haven't heard the information guys say that and I expect the information guys to have that information. I don't expect Kendrick Perkins to ever have information the information guys aren't reporting. Then that's the thing that you're making a mistake there. You're assuming because they didn't report it, they don't have the information. And you know as a guy who's done this for a living that that's not always the case.

Sometimes you have the information, but it's not corroborated. Sometimes you have the information, but your source is telling you, I can't let you run with this yet. And so it doesn't mean nobody else had it. It just means that Kendrick Perkins doesn't have the restrictions

of revealing something like that. And when you see the Chris Haynes report a couple of days ago that says, the Memphis Grizzlies and some other teams have been told not to trade for Jimmy Butler, that's not necessarily to say that if they traded for Jimmy that he wouldn't report and would make a whole mess of everything,

but the reason that's happening is he wants to be in Phoenix or another place that will give him that extension. And so the reporting has to be sort of around that. Kendrick Perkins obviously famously played with Kevin Durant. One of my favorite interview moments was asking Scott Brooks during those finals, OKC against Miami, why do you keep starting Kendrick Perkins? And he gave me how good their record was when Kendrick Perkins started,

and I said imagine how good it would be if he wasn't starting. It would be even better than that. He's got a relationship with Kevin Durant that I do believe people listening to this who care about the transaction need to monitor because since leaving Golden State, next to nothing has gone right for whatever it is

that Kevin Durant wants from this as the ending of his career. Whittingham had an exceptional take in which he said, if we replay the entire career of Kevin Durant entirely over again, this is about as badly as it could have gone in terms of how it is you're going to be remembered by people as one of the greatest scorers of all time.

And I would assume that if Phoenix was in such wind now that they took Bradley Beal's contract a while ago, that they would be by far and away, given who their owner is and given who Kevin Durant is, I would assume that they would be the favorite in every situation. That's the mark. You know where the mark is, and it's them.

That's the stalking horse, right? On everything, but I still. You look at it as a stalking horse. I look at it as the patsy. That's who we're going for. I just believe that you found yourself in a fairly remarkable situation after what happened with The Heat and Dame Lillard,

where Damian Lillard becomes the first entity to make a mess and not get what he wants, that we go right back to what do you mean Jimmy Butler dictates all the terms? What do you mean he can tell Memphis don't trade for me? What do you mean that he gets to dictate to Pat Riley, you're not going to send me even for a month to a city that I don't want to go to. That's crazy. Am I wrong about that? That we've gone right back to showing Damian Lillard again? Hey, the only way to do this is to actually maximize the public exertion of your power. But if you publicly exert your power, you will be able to topple even Pat Riley. You think this is

where he ends up? You think that Jimmy Butler wants to end up in Phoenix and therefore Aminah Hassan is saying he's going to end up in Phoenix? I think there's a high likelihood that if he leaves Miami, Phoenix is going to be the destination. If he leaves Miami. Say it, say it, say it, say it.

Give me the take, what's the take? The take is there's a high likelihood if he leaves Miami, he ends up in Phoenix. Eh, he just said the same thing. I know, but I said it with, I said it with tape voice. I like Jeremy's subtle. Give me Stephen A voice. If he leaves Miami. If he leaves Miami is an interesting scenario

because I guess that's a possibility too. Well, we're just stuck with one another. Wouldn't it be the most Jimmy Butler thing ever to not get traded and then end up having a Phenomenal season that takes the heat to like the conference finals of the final I just don't think I just don't think the escalations has stopped yet Like I we've got like if you think Jimmy Butler is gonna be here in February You have not paid attention to the escalations that are coming because this is going to keep getting worse. But Dan, haven't they kind of for a little bit like the NBAPA came out with their statement. Jimmy Butler has been relatively quiet. He's posted you know some like

emo IG stories, but he's also posted himself at the Heat's facility working with coaches. Coaches did not make that road trip. They stayed back to work with Jimmy, which I found really surprising. A couple of coaches, not- No, but coaches that travel. Yeah, no, guys, guys who are typically on the bench and are part of the traveling party were there, including some other people. Wait, so what's going on with Jimmy Butler this week? The Day on the Batard Show with Stu Gotts is sponsored by BetterHelp. Every January feels like a fresh start.

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