The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Local Hour: Mike Ryan's Dark Money (feat. Pablo Torre)

Episode Date: December 9, 2025

"H2H Matter. Miami in!" With the Miami Hurricanes making the College Football Playoff, Inter Miami winning the MLS Cup, and the Cyclones earning their way to a title game this upcoming Friday, Dan did the only thing he could: leave Miami for New York to co-host the Local Hour with Pablo Torre. At least he's not doing this from East Texas A&M. Today's cast: Dan, Pablo, Zaslow, Amin, Roy, Jeremy, Mike, and Tony. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What a weekend. And I sit here, and I say to you, what a weekend. I dare you to come up with a better weekend in recent memory. My God. Local or national? Local. I mean, local. Big weekend.

What a weekend. Panthers, they got it going again. Incredible 6-7 win. You know about that 6-7 win on 6-7 day? All too well. Come on. Inter Miami. They win the college football.

They win the MLS Cup. They did win that. They're in the college football playoffs. Cyclones. And Dan decides to go to New York. This is the Dan Levator show with the Stugats podcast. Look at us in Miami. Look at us in New York.

Both spaceships up together. legitimately, Pablo, do not know where and how to start the local hour today, because I've got Inter-Miamy winning a championship on one hand, and I've got Notre Dame screaming at the sky, on the other hand. It's not even about Miami making the playoffs, as much as it is about Notre Dame whimpering, rightly whimpering, and I genuinely feel bad for them, and I didn't think there was a circumstance under which I could feel bad for Notre Dame. You're also wearing like three layers of clothing right now. It's unbelievably cold here. I hate it. How is it back?

in Miami. How is everybody back in Miami? I want to feel Miami out here, the warmth of Miami. I want to feel it up here in New York. Let me feel it. Oh, my God. What a weekend! What a weekend! Let's go! Of all the dramatic things, the Miami Hurricanes. So I'm talking about, Dan. We're not going to talk about the Kings game. No, we'll leave that alone. I was stunned that Zazlo started with the Panthers game, a seven to six win. Oh, you know about that 6-7? Come on now, Dan. Come on. Six-seven?

I am having, let's start with Inner Miami for a second here before we get to what everybody wants listening to this, which is the college football, Miami, Notre Dame stuff. But this is Leonel Messi's 43rd title, and I'm legitimately having a difficult time finding out where to put it on his resume. And I'm also having a bit of a hard time trying to figure out how to put it on Miami history sports resume. because you've got the local teams, the Dolphins have won a couple of times, the basketball team has won three times, the baseball team has won twice, the Panthers have won twice, and then the University of Miami football team is the one with the most championships.

And this feels to me like it's a good deal larger than the University of Miami baseball team winning a championship. The basketball team obviously hasn't won anything, but I don't know where to put it in the pantheon. So Pablo, tell me here, like nationally, no one cares about MLS, right? I would say that I really didn't think about it until I saw Mike Ryan doing the robot in Miami. And I was like, I wonder if any part of that robot is because of this team. Mike Ryan went to the game.

It's a huge moment for soccer fans in Fort Lauderdale during the December month. Before the show, we were kind of bouncing around, like, where does this rank on the list of career achievements for Lionel Messi? He has 43 titles. Okay, when you say you've got 43 titles, like, what does that mean? He's won 43 trophies. Like Michael Jordan's got six titles. Messy's got 43? I think we've slotted it just behind a gold medal, an Olympic gold medal, just ahead of the league's cup.

Remember, this is not the first trophy that Inter Miami have won with Messi on the roster. So I think 31 sounds good. We have ranked it 31st on Messi's career achievements. Okay, let me direct Mike instead of Pablo then for the editorial judgment on where it is we should start the local. hour today, given your Homer biases, given the fact that you helped fly a plane in Texas over where the committee was to remind them that head-to-head matter. I legitimately think, Pablo, that Mike Ryan and people of his voice actually helped change this because the committee was forced long before they had to do it to put Notre Dame and Miami side to side. And I believe

arguing actually got Miami into the playoff. I think it's never been clearer and it's never been sadder that Mike Ryan is an actual bona fide power broker. He is actively changing the conversation. He is throwing dark money, which maybe is Dan your money, but maybe also just Mike's money. I don't know. Who's funding Mike Ryan? I said to Mike Ryan, look, Mike Ryan had a dark weekend, okay? Mike Ryan was confident publicly. A dark money weekend. He was confident publicly, but privately the morning, all of this was happening. He was dying inside because he's like, what do you think is going to happen? If there are two spots for three teams, it's Alabama, Notre Dame, and Miami.

He had all of the persecution complex. But one of the things he did, he pulled money to fly a plane over where it is, was it Great Vine, Texas, where the committee was meeting. That's a real place? Didn't you put up billboards as well? Because I said, I wish we'd done that. And Mike Ryan said to me, I did do that. I did put money into that.

And then someone else tried to take credit for it, right? Yeah, Lifestyle Miami. God, we love them. They own the Chargers in Battlecourt. More on that in a moment. But, yeah, I was part of a group that did that because head-to-head should matter, and I'm glad that it did ultimately. It was ridiculous that it didn't matter for a month.

But, yeah, all this stuff, it's ridiculous that this stuff is decided in a literal back room with 12 old, rich white guys, and they're Condi. No, not Condi anymore. I saw one woman, though. There is one woman. Yeah, there is a woman. But they're impressionable, and I told you on Friday's show. People were going to wake up to a whole new world where everyone was all of a sudden going to start stating the obvious.

And we had Kirk Herbstree, we had Nick Saban, you had Urban Meyer, you had Greg McElroy. You had all these people saying head-to-head mattered. And I was really confident entering that Big Ten title game where Mark Ingram, a Heisman trophy winner for Alabama is even saying Alabama doesn't belong in here. And I got really worried by how that Alabama game developed because Alabama- You think the Bama fans are mad? Dan, Alabama is the first team in the CFP era to not say. slide whatsoever in the rankings after losing their conference championship game. And they got blown out. They had negative three rushing yards. Miami rushed for more yards on Saturday than Alabama

did. BYU slides because they got beaten in a similar fashion. And that's the benefit that benefits Miami. But I can't for the life of me understand why Alabama didn't move down. Notre Dame should feel wrong because they are better than Alabama. They are better than Oklahoma. But the discourse nationally was always about Miami and Notre Dame. Miami always had the head to head. Did you hire the nightclub plane? Like I'm like on Miami Beach and I see the like at live tonight or 11 or whatever. Did you literally get the same plane? Because that's what it looks like.

It was very expensive because that plane deported from Opelaca. H2H matters Miami in feels like a threat, frankly. I mean like when I say power, Dan, we're living at this time when politicians actively are leaving like their coalitions because they're afraid of. the maniacs in their mentions who will send mail to their house and docks them. What Mike Ryan did in this billboard and that plane is basically say, I am going, we are going to spend money haunting you if you don't do what we want. I do believe that Miami argued its way into this over the last month because it's true what Mike is saying that all the voices were saying this except for Joey Galloway. Joey Galloway says that what just happened is very strange and it is

very strange. It's wrong and it's going to end the bold system as you know it. Look, you can't wrong Notre Dame like this and not have major change. One of the great things that I read is that Notre Dame now has it contractually guaranteed that if this happens to them next year again, they're automatically in writing

no matter what it is that they're doing with the system because they have a contractual clause that if they'd had it this year, can you imagine if they had it this year? Can you imagine how crazy Miami would be if this had already happened last year and Notre Dame had a contractual clause that got them into a violent sports championship round with paperwork,

with paperwork, and that's what Notre Dame has now. But when you have the athletic director, Pete Pavakwa, the wording he's using, he's calling it a farce. He's saying it's a shock. He's saying he's in utter disbelief. He's saying they feel like they were punched in the stomach. All of Notre Dame was watching that, waiting to see who they play. Notre Dame was sitting in front of the television, assuming that this could not happen, that this was not something that was even possible, and I legitimately feel bad for them, because they're right.

The system is wrong, and Notre Dame is right. Notre Dame is better than Oklahoma. Notre Dame is better than Alabama. Notre Dame is better than James Madison. What Notre Dame is not better than is Duke. I am serious when I say, if you told me before the year, here's a riddle. Mani Diaz is going to win an ACC championship before Mario Cristobal does, but Mario Cristobal is going to play for the actual championship that year while Mani Diaz doesn't.

I wouldn't have known how to explain it to you. Like I would not, having seen it happen, I would not have been able to answer the riddle. How does Mani Diaz go seven and five win the ACC? But Mario Cristobal is the one who gets to play for the championship against Texas A&M. By the way, it probably goes without saying that is by far Miami's toughest game this year. Texas A&M is their next game is their most difficult game. I'm just glad I get to see them play another one. But Notre Dame's yanking its bowl.

You see what Notre Dame did? Notre Dame took away the money from the television networks, like took its ball and went home and said, we're not playing in a bowl game. Yeah. This is going to end the bowl system. Oh, oh, I like that take. I like it, by the way. So that's how Notre Dame does business, right? They do it like through official legal channels.

They're getting rules and policy changes enacted. And Miami does this. They do whatever Mike Ryan's super pack is doing. And the whole notion, by the way, of like the expansion of the playoff field, something that I'd laugh about nationally is when this was announced, it was like there's not going to be any of the drama because 12 teams is so many, because of course, like who cares about numbers 10, 11 and 12? And here we are arguing spending dark money because that's now not enough.

is not enough. We can expand this field as it happens in March Madness to 64 and still be mad about the 66th team. That is actively the magic of what the college sports system is, which is, by the way, yes, a giant bank that the people who put the most money in Notre Dame are now not understanding. I thought you wanted our money. And now you're not going to get our money. You're going to get Mike Ryan's money. Congratulations. I mean, what do you have here? I got a question for Mike. The sign said H2H matters, Miami Inn. Were they charging you by the character?

Great question. It seems pretty obvious, yeah? There was another lieutenant in our Air Force that negotiated that deal. I just contributed to a pot. So those six letters, major difference. I mean, imagine. It's flying from Opelaca. You've got to cut corners where you can.

It's like the scene from the Three Amigos, where this guy's sent the telegram to the Three Amigos, like, it's cost too much. I'll give you the 10-Pasel version. I know that because I'm a movie guy. Can we talk about how banks are still acting like it's 1994, fees on fees on fees. Overdraft fees, monthly fees, probably a breathing near the ATM fee coming soon, which is why Chime feels like someone finally flipped the script. Fee-free, smarter banking that's actually built for you. The person trying to make it through life, not the billionaire who keeps a yacht in every time zone.

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He sounds like he's having The time of his life Stugats Coming up next I'm going to tell you The Savannah bananas How do you know I'm How do you know I'm smiling?

That's how I find my vocal range Sometimes I just say Savannah bananas Savannah bananas This is the Don Lebertar show with the Stugats. Do you know what the rejected ones were, Mike? Were there other options?

Were you part of the decision-making process on what it would say on the banner itself? That was workshop in the group chat, but I just, you know, Venmo. somebody. Okay, so H to H matters. Pablo's got this right when he says it did sound like a threat. It sounded a bit, you know it's from Miami, you know what, that Miami, you know, generally resorts to thuggery. And I believe that that was threatening. You have no... It was only slightly less threatening than we know where you live. That's basically what the message is. We are single R watching you single you to save characters

we did know where they live but I think that what we saw over the last month and I think Notre Dame is right to feel bad and feel duped by this TV show which was That's the only thing they have the right to is to feel duped That's it they should but I think the real injustice here is as was that

the nation and Notre Dame was led to believe maybe not for the first release because Miami was not playing good football when they were ranked behind Notre Dame even I said I understand this one but if Miami gets it together we got to write this wrong. And then two weeks in, I was like, this is absurd. That's the real injustice here is that they were led to believe for so long that as it pertains to Miami, head-to-head didn't matter. They could have used two weeks to campaign against Oklahoma and Alabama because I truly believe Notre Dame to be

better than those teams. Notre Dame is deserving of a playoff spot. I've said that all along. They're just not more deserving than Miami. I don't think so. I don't think they're more deserving than any of those teams you just mentioned right there. And the only thing Notre Dame can gripe about is that they were duped. That's it. Is that there were people. going on television for four straight weeks telling you that Notre Dame is in when the fact of the matter is they shouldn't have been in at that point. Zaz, there were minus 3,000 on sports books to get in up until that message came out. You can't say all they have to be upset about is being duped. When have you been duped and not been upset? Like that's the thing that they're

upset about. When Bavakwa is saying that the television show for the last few weeks is a total waste of time when he's calling this an absolute joke and a farce um there's no disputing of that oh it all it is they are absolutely right to feel wronged by this because duped is a you don't play football games to feel duped at the end you're right they can feel wronged but feel wronged because they got duped not because they deserve to be in based on merit they didn't deserve to be in based on merit the only thing that the only leg they have to stand on is you said we were in and then you told us we weren't that's it that's it no no no i would say the other leg they have to stand on is they've got only two losses while alabama has three and they're two two very good teams and they're very

close games one of them on the road at miami like that's the leg that you stand on alabama's got three losses and isn't actually that good we're better than alabama you're giving Alabama credit for a couple of four downs that they made against Vanderbilt. I hate the, I think the committee did the right thing when it comes to Alabama. First of all, Alabama was the number one seat in the SEC. And I cannot roll with the idea that

if you lose your conference championship game, you wind up missing the playoffs. I can't roll. Let me stop you guys here on this one, okay? This is what's disqualifying. Alabama lost FSU. That should be disqualifying. FSU won two of its last nine games.

FSU has five wins this season, one against Kent, and one against East Texas A&M, which is not something I knew existed before I looked it up. Put it on the poll at Levitart Show. Did you know there was an East Texas A&M? How many Texas A&Ms are there? That's another good question. Put it on the poll as well. How many Texas A&Ms are there, yes or no?

When I say to you, they lost by two touchdowns against FSU, a five-win team, it's a disqualifying loss. Like, they've got two others. They've got three losses, and that's more than Notre Dame. But Notre Dame's two losses are to two teams we would all say are top ten teams. I just found a West Texas A&M. They like their agriculture mechanics out there in Texas. You were saying Zaslo?

I just feel like you're then doing the thing where the losses wind up mattering more than the wins. And while FSU's lost FSU is as bad a loss as there is in the. the nation, it turns out, in regards to the teams in top 25, Alabama's wins to me mean a whole lot more. They have great wins on their schedule this year. The wins need to win, the wins need to count more than the loss, no? The way they lost in the championship game, to me, should be something that makes them not be allowed to play any more games this season. To dance. Stop their city. The way you lost that game to Georgia, a team you already beat, okay? A team you already beat this season and you usually do beat.

You're the only ones who have beaten Georgia the last few years and the way that game went, I don't want to watch that as a playoff team. To Dan's point, it's absurd that this team did not slide. I don't know what they did to be ranked ahead in Notre Dame and Tuesday's rankings.

Eurecheck was saying that they over 5 and 7 Auburn they went for a couple fourth downs and the committee was really impressed by that. You have zero precedent for a team losing, especially that badly in their conference title game and not moving. They were slaughtered. They were telling us that the committee, the big debate wasn't Miami, Notre Dame all season long. It was Alabama and Notre Dame. I don't know,

even though Notre Dame is idle, I don't know how Alabama doesn't fall a spot. And then, you know, maybe Miami doesn't even get in the playoffs. Because my whole concern was that they were just going to use Alabama as this BS buffer team because they introduced this season the notion of direct side-by-side comparison as to where head-to-head only matters. Although that's not what they were telling us the last month, right? No, it was absurd. I understand why Notre Dame fans are pissed. To their credit, no one's really saying Notre Dame should get in over Miami. Even Shane Gillis was like, I was kind of privately hoping that they would just screw Miami and we'd get in. They knew they didn't have a winning hand there. It just sucks that they didn't

have the ample time to mobilize and campaign against the likes of Alabama and Oklahoma, Pablo. So the key part of any debate, if you actually want to resolve the debate with an agreed upon winner is to define the terms of the debate, and the committee just never actually consistently defines them, which is why on the back end, you can have endless and understandable feeling of dupidness. Everybody feels on some level like they got scammed. Even people who got in are like, wait a minute, why are we playing, why are we matched up that? Why are we doing two rematches, by the way, of regular season games that we've already seen? The thing that I'm curious about when it comes to how Miami feels, though, is like, do you guys want the system to change?

Like, what would you actually do differently? Because politically and economically, the reason I laugh about, like, the planes and all of Mike Ryan's dark money is because there is no actual pressure for any reform. The games are going to be self-evidently, right? Cottes football, the number two, multi-ticular sport in the country. But when Notre Dame says this in this voice, there is now pressure for reform. This will cause that pressure. Well, but that's an open question to me because they are alone and they are historically singular when it comes to having like individually measured economic pressure because they're not in a conference.

But other than that, everyone's going to watch the games and from a big picture perspective, like, are people going to actually agitate for revolt? Like is that it just feels like this exercise that happens by not by design because that's giving them too much credit, but it just happens because of. course it's going to happen this way. And so does Miami want anything to change next year? Is there actual like suggestion on how to make the system different? The system remains stupid. Notre Dame is being so petty about its reaction to this that they're denying themselves $4 million and they're denying their players, another game that they may have wanted. There are seniors there who might have thought that they did not play their last game and now do not get the bowl experience. And they're doing that.

strictly to punish the television networks, the partners, and to allow their dismay to be shown. To be measured. Yes, to be measured. Four million dollars is not a small amount of money for Notre Dame. I mean, maybe it is for Notre Dame. It's not a small amount of money to give up on a principle. But lest you think that Mike Ryan is sane, okay, because you talk about his dark money funding of propaganda that did indeed argue Miami into the final games. This is the text I got at the beginning of that.

morning. I don't see any light. Two spots, three programs, guess which one they're going to bleep. December 7th, a date which will live in infamy. That is the last, that is the last text I received from Mike Ryan. Mike, take me through your darkness and how it is you were crawling around nude on your bathroom floor and then collapsed in the fetal position around the toilet before the committee saved you. Saturday was going according to plan. And the one thing that I couldn't account for was Alabama being defeated that soundly for Miami to have more rushing yards in Alabama on Saturday. I didn't account for that. And then I started getting really worried because the committee had already established if you lose your conference title game,

there's always going to be some sort of punitive measure. And this is the first time that they decided no in what was probably the most lopsided example in conference title history. Yeah, there's a persecution complex, but I think it's deserved when it comes to Miami fans. They had normalize the most ridiculous thing for a month. I do want to give credit to the Notre Dame fans because they kind of know that they didn't really have a hand there when it came to Miami. And I understand why they're pulling the rug out from anybody that was excited to watch a Pop-Tart bowl and say Notre Dame is not going to compete in this. I didn't want to compete in that joke of a bowl game where they make you a punchline. But I do also... I win last year. That game's

fun. How dare you? I think for Notre Dame specifically that decision, there's probably more to it than just like hurt feelings i think a lot of players are going to opt out because it's not important and if you look at the the schools that have opt out of bowl games opted out of bowl games you have kansas state and iowa state teams that have change at the at the head coaching position and i happen to know like that is a possibility here with marcus freeman what you what do you happen to know great scott he happens to know gather everyone get the children he happens to know so wise watch out for the the new york giants here i think now that marcus freeman's season is over early he generated a lot of interest last year but notre dame kept pushing on and had a shot at a national title

now that they are not in this college football playoff picture his name as adam shepter already alluded to is going to be the hottest in new york circles there's some notre dame ties there with the new york giants and i don't think we can discount that as looming over this entire opting out of the bowl game how does that wind up looking, Mike, if Marcus Freeman, if you're right, he does wind up taking the Giants job, but they opted out of playing a bowl game and now he's available to go talk to, like, that winds up looking kind of shady. I think there's going to be a lot of evidence that you can piece together if Marcus Freeman does move on.

I know he loves Notre Dame. He's not just going to leave for any job. He's not just going to leave for any NFL job. And he probably wouldn't entertain it if they were positioned for a deep run in the college football playoff. But my man was in New York last week. And while I haven't been able to confirm this through multiple sources, I have an own good authority that there have been conversations from the New York Giants

to Marcus Freeman surrounding that head coaching job. And it wouldn't surprise me that the specter of him leaving is also one of the deciding factors here than just, we got screwed and we got left out so we're taking our ball and going home. You know about that specter? I'm getting to it. Get into it. Don Lebertard. But it's just his titties are sitting on the shelf that is his belly.

Stugats He said titties It was like shocked me a little bit I wasn't quite prepared for Titties This is the Dan Levitar show With the Stugats Dan to piggyback off

of Mike Ryan's Notre Dame topic Can you go back really quick And talk about the contract The Notre Dame signed That says basically Hey we're in the playoff anytime There's some sort of situation like that How do they get to do that?

I couldn't believe it when I read it I was confused by it And I want more details I haven't done any reporting on it beyond that. I just know that if they're in the top 12 next year, they're guaranteed a spot no matter what the committee is talking about. I don't know how it is that they ended up getting that contract clause. It's a good question that you're asking.

Yeah, I would assume that a lot of people would want that clause. I'm on it. I do have an update, though, when it comes to where Marcus Freeman is going. I have just found out that there is a Texas A&M, University at Qatar. Pablo. That's a real fact, by the way. That's an actual thing on that.

So how many Texas A&Ms are there? Have you gotten the answer to how many Texas A&Ms there are? I'm still scrolling. Can I explain to people just very briefly what kind of insane space Mike has been occupying recently when he spits at you in the matter of a few minutes? Even Shane Gillis says... I was going to comment on that. Like, this is...

how the sausage is made, actually. It's on Instagram. Even Mark Ingram and Shane Gillis say he's just looking for allies wherever it is that he can find them anywhere in the world. Even Shane Gillis said, Zaz, I don't think you get to celebrate

Inter-Miamis championship. You declared, dumbly, that you were out on Inner Miami as soon as Luis Suarez spat on a Seattle staffer. Okay, it's not like I decided to get out for no reason whatsoever. I didn't like the way Interimiting a handle and everything. I don't necessarily like what the team stands for.

I will tell you, it's like I was... They stand for a championship. They stand for being unlikable. And I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I didn't want them to win. I did want them to win. I was glad that they won. I'm not rooting against them. It's not like I have another favorite team.

But like I don't have the joy or like I don't feel it the way that I would have hoped that I would feel when Inter Miami won a championship. Roy, do you have the access back there to the Kentucky Fraud chickens? I can't access that here in New York. No, you're being honest about that, but the thing you're not being honest about is you said you were going to watch the game. You're going to watch Inter Miami before the SEC Championship game. I saw the last three minutes.

I did. I watched the last three minutes on my phone, Dan. Yo, chicken thine. Your pride! It's okay. I wasn't watching either. I didn't see it. I didn't see it.

The Moss family, the Moss family that he called. It's all right. They played at one point. Huge weekend for the Moss family. Let's examine that one for a second because Mike is right. Not just for the Moss family, for David Beckham. Those owners were really emotional. They accomplished something in Miami that was really hard to do

and has an assortment of obstacles in Miami that you're not going to get other places in the United States just because Miami is so incredibly weird about how it supports anything with dollars. And Jorge Moss, I was introduced to him basically when he was sitting next to Jeffrey Loria pretending that he had the money to buy the Marlins when he didn't have the kind of money that you needed to buy the Marlins. But it's how he got into the game. And now he is going to be somebody who is one of the more successful real estate people that we have in Miami because he's got this giant stadium coming in and got the best player in the world and now got a championship. Like, you really do have to celebrate what this ownership group has done.

I wonder, Pablo, if you believe the comp, or if you can help me with a comp on, when you go out and get the singularly best soccer player to ever play, and you put him in a league that has a lot of soccer players who are not as good as him, Should Miami feel about this championship the way that, say, a city in Taiwan would feel if LeBron James, at 36 or 37 years old, decided to go over there and play against a bunch of Taiwanese basketball players? Because you went and got the best player in the world. He's clearly better than everyone he's playing against. He set a record for assists in a playoff series. The fact that they lost to Atlanta in the first round last year is one of the greatest upsets in the history of the sport.

but what would be a comp on what Miami did in just getting the greatest ringer you can possibly get and then ho-hum winning the championship because that's what you're supposed to do when you get the greatest ringer you can ever get. Yeah, I don't think the championship is the standard. I thought this entire deal, even based on how the contract, as you guys have reported, I think before anybody, was structured was this is going to be a thing tied to viewership. Like, this is a deliberately popular product. that will be measured through ratings.

So the idea of, like, yes, Leo Messi won the title, the championship, the reason I am like waking up today and shrugging is because, A, Dan, you're right, like, of course, it's Leo Messi, even though that was not guaranteed as of, as recently as last season. The real question is... As recently as the 71st minute of that game, it wasn't guaranteed. But the question then becomes, like, all of this was structured to be this segue towards the World Cup also coming to America. America finally embracing this sport in a way that was going to be different with Leo Messi as this giant lever.

And so to me, it's not even about like how does Jorge Moss, who has a great, perfect, rich guy, Miami name, how much does this do for the sport in general? And I don't, Mike, I don't know what the latest data is on that, but that's to me the actual standard of success. I think that's a fair standard to apply here. I will say in terms of on the field, they've knocked it out the park, even off the field. This is a club that almost died before it ever got off the ground. David Beckham almost left this project numerous times. Jorge Moss was a lifeline as other ownership groups fell apart. And then in a big press conference, they made a lot of promises. Messy was one of

the faces featured in this video, the hope, the promise that maybe this is a town that Messi could one day play in. Not only did they get Messi, they got Messi at a high level while he's still one of the best soccer players on the planet. He just had in 49 appearances. He had the greatest MLS season ever. He appeared in 49 matches. He scored 43 goals. He had 26 assists. And now he got the trophy that everyone that was a casual sports fan said, well, isn't that the one that matters, even though they afford three different trophies in this league? Isn't MLS Cup the one that matters? And I know you made the Taiwan comparison. Like, he's playing opposite of Thomas Mueller on the other side. The competition is a little bit better. I understand in the eyes of the

world. MLS is, you know, not even mid-tier, a lower-tier professional league, but this is still really impressive. They're really good athletes. I mean, help me with this then, because I just chose Taiwan for no particular reason. I was stumbling around with whatever the comparison should or would be on Miami getting the greatest ringer in the world and putting him in a league where the players are not what he is. First of all, you guys are not going to disrespect the Taipei Kings. That is a class organization. They run a good program over there. We're not going to use them as a punching bag. But

yeah, I mean, I don't, I think it bears noting other MLS stars that came over from Europe were way, way further down the line. It squeezed pretty much the last of the toothpaste out of the two. And Messi came here

relatively younger compared to those other ones. And, you know, Mike said it's a lower tier level of competition. I mean, it is. He, even when name of Thomas Mueller, but really what we're talking about about competition. We're not talking about the high end. We're talking about across the board with 22 men on the field. How many of them stack up. But I mean, if you were watching that game, they were running circles around Miami. Miami

did not have the pace to keep up. To keep up there. This is a Vancouver Whitecaps team. Vancouver controlled all the possession in that game. In the second half, like Miami had to be super efficient with their opportunities. They were. They did not have the legs to keep up. The athletic advantage was with Vancouver, not with Miami in that game. It's a really difficult season. They play a lot of games. He's got old legs. He was super efficient with his opportunities there. I don't want to diminish it. They beat a team that had played them off the pitch in two previous meetings. This is huge for Inter Miami. This is huge for the Moss family because they had a whole bunch of bless her and they followed through on everything

else. I do agree with Pablo that I thought the metric for success here was growing the game. And if you look at even attendance, which was something that MLS would always hang its hat on, that took a hit. The TV ratings, forget about it. The sport is less viewed now than when it was before Messi got to that league. So I think that that is a fair standard to uphold. But in terms of on the pitch, getting the stadium, getting the best player, playing the best football, the Moss family delivered there. The rest seems to be an MLS problem.

How have we gone 30 minutes and not talked about the cyclones? All right. Hang on a second. I mean, hold on. We haven't talked about the dolphins. We haven't talked about the dolphins. We're going in order of importance here, Dan. Championships, Dan.

Championships, Dan. I don't know if you're paying attention when you're out there. Well, they're on their way, too. They're on their way to playing. They have not won it yet. Well, it's in the books. I guarantee. We haven't won it yet.

I guarantee. We punched our ticket to Magic City Casino, Friday, first toss, 7 p.m. It better be a madhouse at the Magic City Fronton. Everybody from Clone Cartel better be out there. As we take on the Devils, you know, the ownership group from the Devils and the ownership group from the Cyclones, they were in the very first battle court final. And now we come full circle in the last battle court match ever played at Magic City Casino as we are moving locations next season. What do you like magic cities are there? How many Magic Cities are there?

Is that different? Different Magic City. Yeah, different Magic City. Both have wings, but that's where the comparisons stop. But yes, the Cyclones are playing, they did not play a good game. We almost went to a tiebreaker. And then Al Barba had to come in as an injury replacement in the final match, effectively securing our spot there. And I had to give Ray Lewis a handshake and say, hey, get them next time, Tiger, as we move forward.

And what was essentially akin to the NBA bubble, close to the public, just the VIPs there for this match. But on Friday, all bets are off. Open to the public. We better hear you. We better feel you. Ray Lewis went out there again. He goes out there quite a bit, doesn't it? Yeah, he owns the Warriors.

Yeah, but I'm surprised how often he's out there because he's nasty when the competition starts. Like, he's not fooling around. I don't think he liked us clapping. And we kind of looked at each other and said, now that Barb is in there, let's just keep it cool. Because, you know, Ray has a history. Zazlo, how did you feel about watching Tua on Sunday? Unwatchable, Dan. What?

I can't, I can't believe how low IQ a player he's become. he's brutal to watch he's so bad and you know what it's it's shown us that Mike McDaniel might actually be a decent coach because he knows he can't rely on Tua so he does what he's good at and that's run the football

he's a great running coach that filter fish that schedule the rest of the way is pretty tough for Miami have you seen who it is that they've got coming up next it's Pittsburgh Cincinnati Tampa New England that's not going to that's not going to go well throwing

behind the line of scrimmage with no H.N. Maybe the running back should turn to him.