The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Local Hour: Hi, Lucas

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

"Mike Vrabel cutting off his dick. Then the Giannis trade. Then the Super Bowl." The University of Miami basketball team may just be tournament-bound, and Mike Ryan wants you to know who makes him get hard wood when he steps on the hardwood. Also, players' coaches, long snapping, the NBA Celebrity All-Star Game, and the introduction of limited fake Dan's inner monologue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So, Dan, you know, we're all sitting around, even like right before you get here and we're tossing around ideas and, you know, what do we want to do for this show today. And Jeremy trying to convince people that a Janus trade, bigger than the Super Bowl. That's not exactly what happened. That's the gist of it. It's the gist. What I did say, and I do believe, is that if you get a three-hour window next Thursday where Janus, Jha, and another superstar are traded, that will be more entertaining than the Super Bowl. Are these people, what's wrong with these people? What's wrong with these people?

And I hear a lot of Super Bowl slander in the office, people next to me. I don't like it. Okay. The only thing. Name names. People next to me. Mike Ryan. Name names.

Mike Ryan. Not into it this year. Yeah, I'm with Mike. Because one team isn't in there. Tony, make it out of 10. Zero out of 10. Rate every Super Bowl matchup. Where's this one?

Ever? Yeah, go through it. Don't do that to him. I'm just saying this is like a six. How is it a six? It is a six. Guys, you guys are out of your mind. Quickly, I can do it inside of five.

second. It's a Super Bowl rematch. They both wear Navy. It's going to be an assault on the eyes, and I'm not compelled by the matchup or stories. Sam Darnold. The only thing saving this, Tony, and this is where you'll agree with me, the only thing making this competitive, Bad Bunny's half-time show. Oh, this is absolutely

a football game around Bad Bunny's show. We are all gathering around in 10 days to see Bad Bunny's show. What's going to happen? This is going to be fascinating a number of different ways to watch the Bad Bunny show. But how many people are going to be introduced to the idea of, oh, why, I can't stop moving.

I don't understand how it is that this makes me move. Wait a minute, I'm moving. I am now dancing, and then juxtaposing that with, wait a minute, I don't understand what he's saying. What's that language? Get him out of my country. And why is he wearing a dress? Yeah.

Man, that's going to be awesome. It's just going to be the scene of Beetlejuice. So, Tony, I want to get into, though, what it is that you're saying, because I learned, I did not know this before today. Lewis betrayed him. is something I learned today about Tony. Lewis says, yeah, Tony's a Patriots fan. Tony, I didn't

know that Tony. Wait, what? Yeah, thank you. Okay, so I'm not the only one. I feel like he's so Miami. Well, this, so Tony is a Patriots fan, and I'd like him to explain himself, but we really have gotten hard when Mike Ryan doesn't like the Super Bowl, and it is the most improbable Super Bowl

there's ever been between a team that was 80 to one odds before the season and a team that was 60 to one odds before the season. Like, that's never happened. The narrative of Sam Darnold getting to the Super Bowl after having 17 teams in his wake. Huh? No, there's occasional good stories. Yeah, you can't.

You told me there was no storylines you left. No, I said I'm not compelled by the majority of the stories. You're not compelled by Sam Darnold. To me, the Super Bowl. Mike Vrable getting to the Super Bowl, he said he would cut off his dick. All right. Okay, dude. You know about cutting off that dick?

If he was going to do that, I'd watch. Whoa. I would not watch. Why would you know? That would make it more entertaining. No, absolutely. It's too graphic to actually show it. I would watch, but like if there's a curtain there.

No. Seeing his reaction. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like to waste up. No. I want to see him react. Disgusting. No, that's more entertaining.

That, Mike Rabel cutting off his dick, then the Yonest trade, then the Super Bowl. Oh my God. You should take that back. You should consider taking that back. This is the Dan Levatore show with the Stugats podcast. They already played the Super Bowl as part of the problem. Seattle and the Rams played the Super Bowl. already. And so I understand how it is around here. There might be a lack of enthusiasm for

Patriots Seahawks because beyond that, we'd all prefer to see, except for Zaslow, Rams Bills, something that's going to have offense in it that we know is going to have offense in it. And these two offenses have been good, but it'd be real easy to forget that the Patriots are good at offense given the last two defenses that they've played against. I've been slightly misrepresented just because of the nature of sports debate. Look, I like sports. I'm not here to tell you the Super Bowl sucks. I'm not, I'll get up for it.

I'm going to be watching it. I'm excited to watch. You're going to watch Super Bowl? Yeah, I'm going to watch a Steve. I hope. I'm into the Super Bowl. It's just a sliding scale. You know, like I'm not that jazzed up for it.

It's all right. I'll get there, I guess. You have many, many days. We're not going to the Super Bowl this year. We will rummage at the big guest bin on Radio Row next week from afar. But I want to get to a sentence. think I'd be uttering today. I want to listen to what it is the Dolphins Long Snapper had to say because the dolphin talk

that we had yesterday with Nick Wright caught me off guard. It legitimately caught me off guard when he said simply that cold weather teams are tougher and Miami teams aren't tough because you don't have to deal with cold weather. And I'm like, man, that seems kind of ridiculous what he's saying there. But then Zaz comes in today, seriously. No sense of irony. He's not joking in any way, and he just looks at me, and he says, it's too cold out there. It's too cold, Dan.

Like, I didn't even want to get out of my bed, all right? Zaslo, it's four degrees in New York. Can you guys give me where it is cold? Never. Give me where it's coldest in the United States right now, because I've got my friends from New York calling me saying, like, I can't go, I cannot go outside. It's way too cold, and Zaslo's complaining. It was cold this morning for us, but it is still the 50s, right? It didn't get under 50.

My car said 49 when I got in it. You don't know. These car things, you don't really trust. My wife told me it could be in the 30s here this weekend. It will be. It was 32 in Orlando. And it was like 39 degrees in Juneau, Alaska. It is negative 28 degrees in Forest Center, Minnesota.

This is, I believe, the warmest place in the United States right now. I don't know what Arizona and California are doing, but it's got to be warmer right here. I saw some people, college football people making fun. of the fact that Norvel's hot seat is warming all of Florida, keeping off what is an Arctic cold front. What's second place right now in terms of warmer than us? Well, it's us because 78 degrees in Malibu. Really?

Nice. That seems like an awesome place to live. At 6 a.m. The fires. That's the thing. It's weird. They still have a rebuilds, by the way. It'll be like 78 in the middle of the winter and then like 52, one summer night.

California's crazy like that. The thing that I wanted to get to about the long snapper, though, will have to wait because the University of Miami basketball team is a tournament team. They've lost only four times this year. Two of the losses are totally understandable, right? You lose to BYU. I don't know if you guys saw the Arizona. Buksham be called the Arizona. Arizona's unbeaten.

They're great. They went to BYU the other day and they lost by three points. So Miami losing to BYU, there's no sure. shame in that. Miami losing to Florida. There's no shame in that. The loss at home to Florida State was kind of inexplicable because Florida State's not any good. Surprising and then another conference loss to Clemson. But that's a good basketball team. That is a tournament basketball team. And Laranega wasn't and Miami weren't able to capitalize the way you would like to off of a final four appearance where you build off it. But what Jay Lucas has done here is repair

what's happened at Miami and gotten them back to a place where they can be a tournament team and will be a tournament team, but it probably also means that they're going to lose him. I'm worried about that, especially with Kentucky's head coach being under a microscope and the results not being there. I get it that. It's Kentucky. You think they're going to get rid of Mark Pope in his second year?

I mean, look what Jay Lucas has done in one year. There isn't a single holdover from the previous season. This is an entire rebuild for Jay Lucas. And he has Dan talking tournament. I want to believe right now they are projected. in that 10-seat range? They're 6 and 2 in the ACC. The FSU loss was so bad.

It's such a bad loss that it made me kind of reconsider this team. And if you've seen their game since then, not that they've been figured out. I mean, there's not like, we are what we are. We're tough defensively. We're going to struggle with outside shooting. We're just going to try to out tough you. And I don't know how sustainable that is. But in terms of year one, I think Jay Lucas has proven that if there is a big-time marquee

job available, he should be atop any search, which worries me because I think that dude is a dog about talent acquisition. He's basically Mario on the trail, and he's a really smart defensive coach. I really hope that we can keep him. I think what he's proven is that J spelled with an I at the end instead of a Y is much cooler. This Jay Lucas with a Y doesn't really do anything for me. You look at this guy's name, J-A-I. I'm like, this guy, this guy's going to the tournament. Chris Cody is a two-time battlecourt champion. We are confused by the spelling. Jay-Lay. Because that's usually high-Lucus. Hi, Lucas. I think we should start calling him hi Lucas, I think, in honor of GM of the year.

Mike Ryan's the GM of the year. Co, co, you are looking at the GM of the year, but that's because you're looking at both of us at the exact same time. Don't overlook me here. The cyclones, I was looking at you because he's been saying you're looking at the GM of the year. He was never pointing at you. I met it. Collective way. When you have said you're looking at the GM of the year out of your mouth.

Chris Cody was spraying champagne over there. I would have said that the same way. I'm heavily inspired by early. So you're doing the thing. You're not going to do it. You're not going to divide us. There is no schism in this locker. Sounds low.

That's fine. I won't talk to them about this. When Mike Ryan was saying, as he has been saying for several weeks now, you're looking at the GM of the year. Was Chris Cody ever in the room? Was he ever pointing to him? Was he ever asking us to look at Chris Cody when he was saying and has been saying the phrase, you're looking at the GM of the year?

I'm just remembering a post-tournament, video interview and it was just Mike Ryan on the microphone holding a trophy. I was too busy. There was plenty of Chris Cody Chris. What are you guys trying to do? They're not doing it. It's not working. It's not doing it. It's not working. It's not going to work.

I'm just interested in accuracy and I'm asking Zaz who's the biggest journalist among us these days. Don't ever question my integrity. Look, in fact, this is a good time. We're like Riley and Ellesberg. This is a good time to do an is this journalism segment

with our foremost journalist. Which one are you, Chris. Jonathan Zaslo. Jonathan Zaslo is a judge. He is somebody who's an expert in the race war. Race war expert. He is a journalist.

He's a radio host, obviously. South Florida legend. Whoa. Don't ever say that again. You're kind of a sucker. You know that. He is. Everybody knows I'm never going to be a cuckold.

Big ahead. If there's one thing they know about Zaz is that that's not for him. Can we get to this? Is this journalism segment? Does it have any imaging? Is it just a question we're asking? And then Zaslow Rules. What is the nature of this segment? Is this German?

All right, Dan. Let me present to you here the latest edition of Is This Journalism. You may as saw awful announcing. They linked to the story, alloponounce.com. I like them, read them all the time. And the headline here, Shams Charania, ESPN MBA, Insight, Shams Trania to play an NBA All-Star Celebrity Game. In a couple of weeks is the All-Star weekend.

They have all kinds of activities. One of them is the Celebrity All-Star game. You all have like musicians, you know, media personalities. Celebrities. Yeah, like kind of low-end celebrity. I don't know about low-end. There's some good celebrities. Kind of low-end.

Where were you when Win Butler set the world on fire? I don't even know who that is. But Sean Sharania, Brad Williams has played in it? There are. Has he really? You got to post him up. The thing that is happening with this celebrity game, though, when you guys say that... There's no way that...

I love Brad Williams. I love him. Don't make me break character. Do not make me break character. They all in the paint. You guys got to keep a straight face there. You cannot. You cannot.

You can set a scream, man. What? accusation being made by all of you that the celebrities are low end, it's hard to It did the jump ball. Wait a second. Oh, bad shot, too. No. Let's make sure that tip is sent to video.

That was great. Yeah. That was really great. Was that AI? It is correct. It is correct. Look, this is what I would say, both of what Zaz is saying is it regards to the cold. Okay.

It is correct to say that it is colder than it's acceptable to us, but it's also wrong to say that at present. So you're right, but it's wrong. You're right to say that there are some low celebrity quality of curating in that game, some, but you're wrong because it's hard to find enough celebrities to fill out two total basketball teams to make that game as high end as you'd like. it to be. But if you guys would look this up for me, I'd appreciate it, Jeremy. Just the last five celebrity games, give me what is the highest rated celebrity based on fame

and the lowest rated so that I can get an accurate appraisal here. But please make a ruling first on whether or not this is journalism. Shams Sharania is going to play in the NBA All-Star Celebrity game. Is this

journalism? German. No. It is not journalism. Shams, playing in the All-Star celebrity game, not journalism. By the way, what are his credentials to play in that game, just because he covers the sport? Just because he's... Oh, sure.

He's probably the biggest celebrity if you want to talk about, like, followings and people that know him. But where's his hoop credentials? Where are they? What are you getting that? He covers the sport. Let me see his jumper. What are you getting at? I'll tell you what he's getting at.

Let's go and put a camera directly on Tony. Exactly right. Go ahead and tell Shams what you actually. want to tell him here. Shams? Big fan of yours. Okay, I like what you do. I like what you're, I like, I like what you've become. Don't do this. Me and you on a court right now? No, stop. I beat, I beat, that ass one-on-one. No. Easily. Easily. I don't know how tall you are. It doesn't matter how tall you are. If you get one of these in the post, wha, you're going to feel like Brad Williams in the pose. Me and you, where is, where is it out this year? San Francisco? No.

No, that's where the Super Bowl is. Okay. L.A. Okay. L.A. Englewood. That's up to no good. Right. Thank you. At the wall. Meet me. at the Intuit Dome, I think it's called. Intuit Dome, me and you, one-on-one. You'll get into it. I'll wait for you here. Wait a minute. So go to the Intuit Dome.

You'll wait for him here. He's going to be there. I'm going to wait for him until we get the thing from him. As far away from him as you can be practically while remaining in the geographical United States. Exactly. But then I'll go over there. Listen up, folks. It's game day, and you already know what that means.

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sold out. Miami artist, Miami culture. And I'm reading Moss Miami is sold out. And I'm reading about digital podcast network and I'm reading about us. And I'm like, this is our dreams coming true. Stugats. A thousand people come out and we see the shipping container and they're on a stage and they're like rock stars. You and me both had tears in our eyes. We're like mom and dad of sentiment and it's hard to get you to sentiment, man. That was a very emotional moment for us. To see those guys. I'm telling you guys, you were on stage. Dan and I were both crying. Are you guys aware of this?

Crying. Like crocodile tears. No, crocodile tears are fakes. I thought they meant big. This is the Don Levitar show with a Stugat. So Mike, do you think he should have another crack at calling out Shams better than that? No, I didn't enjoy that one bit. And we talked about

the University in Miami and we closed that loop and started talking about journalism. We didn't talk about the headliner when it comes to the University of Miami basketball team. I'm talking, of course, about Salientumtage, the Turkish delight. Every time I've seen him, I notice his bald spot. I'm like, how old is that person? How old is that person playing for the University of Miami? Salialtumtage is definitely 38 years old.

There's no question about it in my mind, but he is regularly getting playing times six foot 10. I like it. Jay Lucas has these Europeans playing some defense. Sorry, hi Lucas. But every time Sally Altumtage steps on to that hardwood, I also get hardwood. I'll beat him when I want to. No, you will not. He is fun to watch.

He is fun to look at. Mike, is anyone questioning? When you say 10 seed for the University of Miami, 17 and 4 ACC team, I think Renault, when Henderson and Donaldson, like, that's enough. To me, that feels like enough to be something that's in the tournament. Henderson's a good player, huh? Yeah, he's a really good player. Is he win 10 games in the ACC? You're in the tournament.

The ACC's not looked at the way it once was. I'm not quite there yet. I'm not quite there yet. They look so bad against FSC. That is such a bad, bad loss. I know it's college basketball and that happens. But they're 17 and four. Their other three losses are those are credible losses.

Just be Cal. Be Cal on Saturday. They beat Stanford. Stanford's not making the tournament. They beat Stanford at home. And I understand why... They got a good little point card, though. That FSU game, it's inexplicable that they lost that game at home.

It honestly is beyond college kids are going to, you know, be inconsistent because they're college kids. I'm not even talking about athletes. I'm just talking about college kids. But that seems like it's obviously a tournament team to me. I don't know why it is. You would be hesitant about that. What are they saying, Jeremy, in the people who do these rankings and seedings in season? Because we're going to have to start getting ready for this stuff.

And I do plan on and want to have a combined... Selection Sunday Oscar show that we combine with Adnan, Verk, and David Samson and just make a mess of that Sunday night. What are they saying? What are the experts saying? Well, Joe Lennardi is the expert. And he has the University of Miami as a 10 seed right now as one of the last four teams to miss the play-in games. So you know how there's those playing games amongst- And also last four to miss the play-in?

He's breaking it down. He's giving you as many specifics as possible. Just give me the team Also, Kaysen not played in the celebrity game, Dan, so you might want to eat your words. No, it's a look, what are my words? I've said they have legitimate celebrities at the high end. Chris Brickley.

I think Zaz is the one of the ball trainers. Chris Brickley's famous. That's the least famous of the group. Kaysen, that's a low-end celebrity. That's no, no. No, no. I don't know what you're talking. What about the biggest show on?

What about Drewski? He also played. He's also low-end. You're low-end. You are low-end. You should not be saying. You know what? Says, you know what? I hate to hit you with this.

No, you don't hate that. Minor penalty, two minutes. Accidental racism. I do hate to hit him with that one, because that's what just happened. Two Americans. You're deflecting. Two Americas. What do you mean?

I took my penalties. I served my time. You like Drusky, Dan? Yeah, I do like Drusky. You would call him Tyson at. Major penalty, five minutes. It's true. Five on three.

Those are the toughest to stop. What Zaz just did there to Kaysenat, like I can't believe he just did that, where he's that far out of touch. I understand generationally, I understand even culturally. You can't look at what's happening among young people influencers and ignore the following. Like how, in what world are you calling Druski and Kaysanat? In what world are you calling them small celebrities? By the way, Dan, Kaysenat's Mafiathon 3 was an all-time record-breaking 30-d-d-year-old. day Twitch sub-a-thon where he became the first streamer to surpass one million active subscribers

and had 742,000 active subscriptions by September 23rd. It started two days earlier. I'm in my 50s trying to keep up with the young people. I hope people do not hear my inner monologue. Get really worked up about Druski. I just got enraged on behalf of Druske's following. You played it well, Dan. No one knew.

No one noticed that I'm 57. You're cool. No? Push, push through. No, no. No one's seizing on this. You're cool. Keep it together.

I like this character. You two speaking as my inner monologue, whispering as my inner monologue. Say something about I shall speed. The long snapper for the Miami Dolphins. His name is Blake Ferguson. Former long snapper. Thank you. Here we go, sweet spot.

Back on track. Everybody's none the wiser. You think long snapper is my sweet spot? Former dolphin. Yeah, Dolphin. Oh, share that. Share that Larry is a story. So Blake Ferguson was the long snapper for the Miami Dolphins, and he is on a podcast.

The dive bar pod. Jet Weaver was my neighbor once. Say that. And here it is what Blake Ferguson had to say, again, as the former long snapper for the Miami Dolphin. Do you think it was, it's fair to say that McDaniel was too much. of a players coach and too lenient at first. And then when shit hit the fan, it was like, oh, let me try to whirl it back in. It's too late.

Yeah, it's too late. The leash had gotten too long. His intentions were right. But the execution got the best of him and the team. When you allow players to have a voice in the locker room and control a lot of how every single day runs, you leave yourself vulnerable to that being, that getting out of control quickly. I think the best coaches are able to manage player relationships

and manage keeping their players happy while still having a healthy level of respect for the fact that at the end of the day, it's his call. And I think that sometimes that line got blurred. I do not mean this as insult. I actually mean it as compliment. It's going to sound like an insult. And it's weird.

No, because this one, you guys will understand what I'm saying. saying as soon as I get through it. Blake Ferguson, and I do not mean to rip him on this, is somebody the entirety of his career because he did his job so well I never noticed or thought about as a Miami Dolphin. And it's only because he did his job successfully that I can say that. And so this is a person given voice to something who's in the locker room. And you can dismiss him as a long snapper if you want to. But he was exceedingly competent in his job because none of us ever notice in his entire time long snapping that he messed anything up.

The Ferguson's are the first family of long snapping, by the way. Does a long snapper ever actually get coached? By the special teams guy. Does he? He doesn't have to block anybody. Hey, a little lower. Hey, no, a little higher. Hey, good job.

He does have to block. He does have to do other things. No, you're not allowed to touch him. He doesn't have to block. No, but he's got to go down. He's either got to go down to field or be it. He's got a clubber. He's got to play football after snapping the ball.

Oh, right, right, right. Okay. How many career tackles he got? I thought it was pretty good there. The long, wait a minute, that voice changed. What's happening now? I got to find your inner monologue voice. Well, it's got to be a little insecure.

It almost turned into man 101. It's too masculine. We're doing okay. Yeah, it's got to be, it's got to feel a little, yeah. A little feeble is what it has to feel like. Keep working on it. We'll get it before the end. Blake Ferguson had one assisted tackle last year.

Nice. So a lot of, needed more coaching. One assistant time. That job is a really excellent one to do for a living if you don't mess up. Like I, I had a son, I'd be like, I'm going to make you a long snapper. We can do this. Do you realize where it comes to human error, honest to God? Like this, it's something that's perpetually unnoticed in the NFL and next to nobody talks about it.

But it's the weirdest. Do you know how exceedingly odd it is that? none of these game-ending field goals ever have a bad snap that doesn't get handled by the holder. Like it's going to happen in the Super Bowl now. But it's just an insanity that it's never a bad snap. Do they use different balls? Pick and balls. Yeah, they use kicking balls.

But it's not the ball that the reason, like you would think, right, there have been times. What was the name of, the last time it happened was the New York Giants, and I remember the name only because it's so, or I remember, I'm close to remembering the name. junket or something like that. It was so many years ago. A Giants Long Snapper ended up costing a playoff game. I think it was... Against a Niners.

Because nobody knew his name before that and then we're all stunned because none of us on an extra point or field goal are ever expecting a bad snap. But your entire worldview is upside down as the long snapper. Like, it's not an easy job. Like, it must be easy to perfect because they've all perfected it.

It never gets messed up. Or the holder is often so good that he correct. the bad snap. But just off the top of your head, give me all the famous missnaps you remember. Romo. No, that was, you know, that was the hold down for it. Dan nailed it. Trey Junkin. No, it's a good point you're making because you see at least once a game probably, the center does a bad snap to the quarterback. Probably one time a game. We have to like reach up for it. It's a hard thing to be consistent about it. And it never happens

with the long snap. Well, that snapper's doing, you know, what, 45 a game and this is a lot more shock. No, but that's not why that's happening. The reason. that some of the shotgun snaps happen is because the center's also worried about holy shit this pressure. He's got a pull. He's got not just pull. He's got to make sure. Centers don't pull. Centers sometimes pull.

Yeah, centers are like the same most important guy. He pulls. Centers are also identifying protection. You got to point the mic. That's the mic. I don't know what that means. I never know. That means it's the guy that's most likely to blitz.

Do you like Will Sam? What does that mean though? I know they say the middle linebackers. He tells you what the entire defense is. Sam's strong side. Wait, if it's always the middle backer, why does the center have to point it out? Because he's not always in the middle. He's not always in the middle.

I feel like you guys are being dismissive and you don't know exactly. So if the middle linebacker moves off to the side, he's going to point, he's over there, Mike there? Yeah. It's for the protection. All right, I'm sorry to do this. No, him and Chris, Chris's been bad today. Chris has been bad. Wow.

Minor penalty, two minutes for a shit contribution. Whatever. That's right. Wait, I was offering, wait a minute. I was giving that penalty to Zaz, and now Chris is also leaving. Wait a minute, why is Chris being kind of life? Because he was doing the same thing Zaz once. Didn't understand that you point the mic out.

But sometimes it's to the fore right. Sometimes he's like, watch the mic, watch the mic. Yeah, because they're a different alignment. All right, so hold on, I'm sorry. Minor penalty, two minutes. Peste, tremendous, tremendous. I'm going to look it up. Peste, Tremenda, Comemienda.

For those of you who do not know, who, uh, woof, smelly, uh, tremendous shit eater is what it is that Chris Cody just got penalized with. Thank you, Roy, uh, for sitting in the seat. Dan Lebertard. John's as Lozing teams in the triple air. Stugats. These all smiles to Lubbock. This is the Dan Levatar show with the Stugats.

What about the meat of what it is that Blake Ferguson said? one of your thoughts, like this is the reputation, and I don't know, guys. Like, I really don't. Do you think that Sean McVeigh is a players coach? Do you think Pete Carroll is a players coach? Like, do you, like, how are you guys doing this? A lot goes into the leadership of people. Many of these people are learning on the job how to lead. Mike McDaniel has never been a head coach. You get the reps that Andy Reid gets, and you go from being what Andy Reid was, bad clock management, to being what Andy Reid is. We were talking about Tom Brady here over the last couple of weeks.

Tom Brady has gotten better. Why? Because with reps, you get better. You have to have the opportunity to get better at these things. But I would want to work for somebody who's a player's coach. And it insults to me adult human beings who are responsible professionals to say they can't be trusted to keep each other in line and accountable because they're professional, good at football, and they don't need somebody who's a scolding teacher. to rain down fire on their back of their heads and yell at them like Tom Coughlin did when the kicker misses a field goal.

And that's not actually teaching or leading. It's just Tom Coughlin being mad and venting. Dan, it's also Tom Coughlin, two-time Super Bowl champion. Correct. I do think that there is something to be said for culture. And sometimes disciplinarians do break through. And sometimes locker rooms are too loose. So do you think Siriani is a disciplinarian?

that do you guys think that Andy reads a disciplinarian? I mean, look, if Nick Siriani was a true disciplinarian, would A.J. Brown be doing this weekly? Would it be reading a book on the sidelines? I just don't know. Look, Blake Ferguson has more information than we do. And it is really easy to say from the outside, ah, players coach didn't have any control of his men. But to me, it is deeply insulting, right? Given what all of these men have done to get to where it is that they've got.

gotten, and I don't mean this is a slight against the long snapper either, but it's easier to be a long snapper than it is to do some of the other things required to be great at football. It insults them, to me, to say they need a babysitter, that they can't learn how it is to control themselves. The reason for a manager to me, a manager of people in sports, the reason is because all the guys want to play and everybody wants to be out there and somebody has to make those decisions that are hard decisions to make that look you merit this or you don't and this is how I'm assessing you that's the job now there are other parts of the job and people management is one of them

and one of the things you have to do is when the guy who's not playing or not getting the ball enough you got to get a j brown right but who were the coaches in the NFL I know bellichick's the model but we've seen there Tom Brady kind of had that one figured out but by the end and didn't actually need a whole lot from Belichick in terms of breathing on his neck. Right, but we can't just discount the winningest champion head coach of all time and the Patriot way. You could hold up Pete Carroll, who's won a championship in college and in the pros, who's highly regarded as a player's coach, and you could hold up Bill Belichick on the opposite side of the spectrum. Ultimately, leadership is getting the most out of your guys in your locker room.

If you have the right locker room, maybe you don't have to press on the gas as much. I'm not discounting it. But I don't think there's a single way to do it. But, Mike, I'm not discounting Bill Belichick's way of doing it, but the hiring trend right now in sports respects very often that these guys are adults and need an ally. You've heard me say before that in some instances, the CEO or the coach or the leader also has to act as administrative assistant, especially in the modern age where you've got players, you've got a generational gulf. But I get it in college. are often kids. So you might need a guy who's a little bit firmer with stuff because they're still kids and they're still trying to get away with things and college kids are rule breakers. But the

adults are professionals who have climbed over a whole bunch of other professionals who are fighting for money to get where they are. And they care deeply about being good at their jobs, right? So what they need is someone to help them as much as teach them, but the audience loves the teacher, loves the guy who's going to point at them and breathe fire at the back of their neck. And I just don't think that that's not what McVeigh is doing. That's not like it's what Signetti is doing. But it's not what it's not what McDonald is doing. Dan, to your point though, like you said respect.

And I think respect is a two-way street between players and coaches, right? You can't have the substitute teacher that lets you do whatever you want. And then when it's time to buck up and he's like, hey, you got to respect me. And I'm like, ah, buddy, like we know what your deal is. Right. You have all these new coaches that can kind of do both things, right? They can be the teacher. They can be the guy that puts you under his wing and says, hey, look, this is how we do it the right way.

And also be a player's coach. You talk about Ben Johnson, Campbell over in Detroit. There's guys of that mold that can kind of be in both worlds, yet command respect from men in that locker room being like, no, I'm the big dog here. And you're going to see. But generally, and this one happens all the time, right? Dan Campbell's a great example, Tony, because this one happens all the time. That guy better have played football. Like, if you're going to be Dan Campbell and walk those...

You mean like at a high level? No, just, yes, played football. Not at Yale the way that Mike McDonald did. You look at him and you know he played it at a high level. You know that he played foot. No, no, that's that guy. I'm saying, no, but Belichick wasn't, I'm also a player's coach. No.

Belichick was just, I'm in charge. I'm talking about what he's talking about, where Dan Campbell can live between both worlds. I'll breathe fire in your face and also I did it. I also was tougher than everybody else when I was playing, and everyone knows that about me. Like, Mike McDonald doesn't have that, but none of the WizKid nerds do. Not they're all, none of them do. Like, we're making fun of the dolphins. They're all small.

The dolphin leadership is now all physically smaller than Stephen Ross. Everybody who leads the dolphins is now 5'9. I think if you're going to be a players coach, you need to earn people's respect. You can, like, build relationships, but you also have to show. that you have your stuff together. Well, that's what it is. Like, any time I've ever asked former players or even current players about that kind of stuff, it's always all they care about is, can you help me be prepared on Sunday?

Exactly. Do you know what you're talking about? It's all I care about. Dick Vermil was out there crying, was widely considered, like, such a player's coach. But he's also a Super Bowl champion and made it to another Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles. He commanded respect, and they never had to wonder, is this guy just a joke? He's got his stuff buttoned up. Yeah, I don't know where we put Josh McDaniel.

like on this tree in terms of coaching. Obviously he was someone that was under Belichick and saw everything there. But as an offensive coordinator, like the way that he handled Drake May, there's a clip from NFL films that was circulating around. And Drake May in the middle of the fourth quarter, vulnerably, goes, it's hard. Good God. Like he's just really like frustrated offensively saying that to Josh McDaniels. And he says, look at me.

It's going to be hard. But look, this will be the most rewarding six and a half minutes of our lives if we can get done. And he just looks him in the eye, man to man on a knee. That's just having a moment with a vulnerable player. And Drake May, then later in that game, has the confidence to call his own number and make the play that gets them to the Super Bowl. The vulnerability is interesting. I don't know if you guys saw what Tom Brady was saying about his improvement. He said that Kevin Burckhardt, working with him, has been, feels like the greatest and most helpful team. teammate that he's ever had and it got me to think, oh, of course, Tom felt frail. When's the last time

Tom felt frail and needed just somebody to hold his hand because he was lacking confidence in a public setting where everybody was ripping him for not being any good and he's got somebody next to him just tapping him on the knee and helping him and being kind. But the thing you guys have heard me say a lot, right? Because everybody loves the Bill Parcell's type and you've heard me say that everyone listening to this wants the player to have a boss, they themselves would not want to have, right? The guy who's just lording over you. We don't run this place this way, and it's probably an indictment of how this place is run that I'm not sitting there breathing fire on everybody's neck chasing them around on, hey, make sure you get your deadlines

in, make sure, like there's not, there are barely any rules around here, but it's also why people enjoy working here. But it probably doesn't lead to maximum efficiency on however it is you arrive at success. I don't know. In recent years, just being close to the University of Miami, I saw how Manny Diaz did things and I saw a very stark departure. Kids are different though, Mike. I understand. I do think, like you said this. So help me because you are.

Pete Carroll was a successful college coach. You are embedded in the University of Miami stuff. And so you said something earlier in the show and you say it a lot that Jay Lucas is obsessed with talent acquisition. And while I know there are some coaches who are lazy and some coaches who are not obsessed with talent acquisition, The grand majority of them are achievers who are obsessive, compulsive about knowing that the way I'm going to do my job correctly is to get the best players. So while you've gotten close to Jay Lucas and Mario Cristobal and seen, my God, the work ethic on these people is insane, I will tell you that the best coaches, all of them across sports, are that, all of them. Right. Look, this is a very isolated sample size. Manny Diaz's approach, Mario Cristobal's approach.

When it came to talent acquisition and Manny got some guys. But when Manny was told no, he'd be like, all right, best of luck to you. And Mario doesn't take no for an answer. And that's why he's much better at his job. But Manny Diaz is the one who won the ACC. And he just got cucked. And he just got cucked because he just lost his leading receiver and, like, Dan's pass. Zaz, you know what that cuck?

They lost five games. Why are we comparing, don't ever ask me about my cuckold. Why are we comparing Manny Diaz to Mario Crizzwald? Mani Diaz lost five games this year. What did you shout? Don't, you copped to your cuckold. You said, don't talk about my cuckold. No, I said, don't ever call me a cuckold.

Is that what you said? Why would I ever say don't talk about my cuckold? Please cut that up. I want proof in the next segment. Cut it up and we will get proof because I may have heard him wrong, but I really did think that he, I think he copped to the thing that we know about him. I would never copped that. Everyone knows that.

Well, it sounded like you've copped to that, and it also sounded in recent weeks like you're having trouble. with speech and you've had a bit of an impairment in a way that's been revealed to all. I don't like the words you're using. Use different ones. All right. Can you guys put up on the screen, Brad Williams, please, taking the tip at the NBA All-Star game? Tip off.

Hey, yo. I should want to put it that way.