The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Local Hour: The Cloak of Sadness

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

There is a TON going on locally, and Dan and the Shipping Container are here to discuss the Marlins attendance, Inter Miami, Canes basketball, and more. Then, Stugotz spent his entire career trying to be Mad Dog Russo, but it seems like Mad Dog Russo is becoming Stugotz. Plus, ESPN says it's committed to "quality journalism" and Stephen A. takes out Shohei Ohtani. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. As a big time CEO, I demand to be the smartest person in the room, which is why I never let wit and enlublin employment lawyers in my office. Because they make employees smarter by putting them in control of their options for workplace harassment, discrimination, and wrongful dismissal. And as someone who condones all those things, being constantly outsmarted would leave no rooms for me to be in. Witten and Lublin employment lawyers, bad bosses hate us, employees love us. There is so much local stuff to talk about. There really is.

Just soccer, UM basketball, an assortment of things. But I have just looked up at my television. And on Get Up Right Now, Harry Douglas, who I do word association with Harry Douglas, and all I think of is an enraged bow-bock lifetime Atlanta broadcaster shaking prescription pills and screaming about how he's not a Homer. Harry Douglas plays for the Atlanta Falcons are played and is now predicting that the Falcons are gonna go and destroy into Detroit and pull off an upset. Mike play that sound for me before I

go any further here because I am jealous of something I don't feel jealousy very often, but I am jealous right now, and I'll tell you what and why in a second We're trying to upsell the Fountain for you So you're not a valentine you haven't been and if you have been you don't know what you're looking at be at a home a boat get out of my house what is a home don't you ever call me a home who the hell do you think it's been saying the truth

since 1973 I did land a radio who I feel like I've been saying the truth since 1973 on Miami radio and the reason me and the reason that I am feeling something swelling inside of me that doesn't feel good is because I came in today and Jeremy asked me how you doing Dan and my answer is well I get up every morning and I put on a cloak of sadness and Then we started talking about like is it a king's velvet robe? Whatever it is. It just it drapes on my shoulders and it's heavy and what I see happening all over television now sports television Mike There are so many people dancing and laughing and having a good time on sports television

dancing and laughing and having a good time on sports television. Genuinely enjoying themselves. It used to be starched and stiff and now I am watching. We used to be that. I know that's what I'm looking at. We used to have Spice Step Wednesday. That's correct. And that is what's happening to me right now where I'm looking at my television.

On first take and I've got Mad Dog, I've got the worst version of mad dog aging that I'm married to. Part of the cloak of sadness. You'd think it would have jewels, nope, it's just stew got snots because he's still reaching into his nose while we're broadcasting, taking things out and rolling them in his fingers. Stugots was gonna be the aging version of mad dog. Unfortunately, mad dog is now better at being stugots than stugots is and is doing it. He's had a rejuvenation, a radiant rejuvenation. So he did something on television yesterday. I've never seen a Disney television on Disney television where he says you know what my Saturday is gonna be

Drinking a noon drugs after that and then I'm betting 10k on Colorado $10,000 because that's what he makes to do first take which is stealing money for him at this point I have never seen a media member just say, yep, drinking drugs and gambling, that's my Saturday, and I'm jealous of him. I'm like, I want that to be my Saturday. Yeah, I mean, we have seen a media personality say that. It's been Sue Gottz, who is entire time has been trying to be mad dog,

but now mad dog has more fame than he's ever had because of the platform, and now he's actually becoming Sueugaats a little bit too. You say this, Mike, but it's not true, and I'll tell you why it's not true. Sugaats concealed all of his drug use until he got to freedom. That was not something he was saying out loud. He certainly wasn't saying it, like it was obvious in his performance, but he certainly, and every employer tried to fire him, also noticed it, but it wasn't

something he was saying out loud. I mean, he went to every grateful dead show. Again, circumstantial evidence. Yes, his performance showed that he had short-circuited and fried all his brain cells in a way that was obvious. But he wasn't saying out loud, you know what I'm doing during my sports analysis consumption time. I'm gonna come on next week and talk about Colorado and I'm telling you right now I was high while I was watching not usually part of the commentary

Pretty unexpected from mad dog to to be to be fair like this is this is a bit of a sea change from for mad dog Rousseau he's talked about gummy used in the past right With I think he said it here on this show that he was gone. But I was shocked when he did it here too, because it's not something that I've heard. You keep that concealed, but I wonder if the normalization of marijuana everywhere has freed him to be maximum mad dog in a way that he's now taken the mantle from Stugat.

Stugat's thought that lane was for him. It's shocking to see it on ESPN. Like that's where it's shocking to see it. It's not shocking for Mad Dog to come on here. Where Stugat is always talking about it and have him say all of these things about gummies. But for him to do it on ESPN air, where ESPN is freedom for him?

How? It's not something I have seen before. It's also not a great idea. Gummy's a nighttime thing. Almost exclusively unless you're at a concert, depends what kind of gummies you're eating. Gummies need to be a vibe and it's not it just doesn't match the vibe for watching get some Sativa gummies. I, I, I understand. Look, I too have done gummies. I just wouldn't want to do them during a Saturday afternoon college football

experience. Who wants to sink into their couch metaphysically? Put it on the poll, please, Jude. At Lebitard show gummies afternoon thing or evening thing, but I can't help but be disoriented as my good friend Ricky Williams got run out of that league for marijuana to see one of the guys most likely to rip him as a character assassination for daring to do marijuana that all of it would get so normalized that my media member who's on ESPN representing old timey media. Can't shut up about Bob Coosie, that that guy is out there saying, yeah, I'm doing drugs on a Saturday.

I mean, the gummies do explain a lot of his basketball takes at this point. Explain a lot about a lot. I mean, he doesn't seem like a guy that you would say Dabbles and the gummies I mean $10,000 betting on games like that's outside my price range by a lot. Yeah, that's not not exactly a unit for me That that's a lot of he has made a lot of money in this industry being a caricature of a sports media personality, skip bailiffs before skip bailiffs. Man, that dude invented

argument television. That started with Francesca and Russo on the radio and it infected everything in the coverage of newspapers, fandom, sports television, so much so that, and Stephen A's right when he tells me that I'm sanctimonious because I'm not looking for broad appeals. Stephen A's good going on-handity. He wants more customers.

He does not care what he has to do to get more customers. And he will go for broad appeal and he will help make television what Ricky Lake and Jerry Springer and Morton Downey Jr. did. And it's just television. Like it's there to be entertaining. It doesn't have to be something that adheres to a journalistic standard ESPN. Decided that once as a business and now seems to be moving away from it as ESPN's president says And this is a quote. I was actually surprised to hear him say this this way And I I found it a bit confusing because I don't think it can be true He says quote Jimmy Pataro says quote quality journalism has never been more of a priority at ESPN and quote

It's hard to argue that it's that much of a priority when you're going into business with all of the leagues and the leagues get to control some of their content. It's a hard argument to make credibly. I mean, they're specifically appealing as it's been reported to these leagues, which already kind of own them, to have equity stakes in ESPN. So the entities that you're covering, journalistically, will now own you? I don't like that. I mean, it would make for,

it would make for a bit of a tricky situation if they aren't already in one day. They're already in that situation with an assortment of conflict of interest that allow Dana White to make his own productions. And also, Dana White is taking a very specific lane that other sports leagues aren't taking, which is my athletes can say whatever they want and we're never telling them to apologize for anything.

I'm sitting next to Trump and this cavalcade of Alex Joneses and Russell Brands and Andrew Tates and Tucker Carlson's like, we're taking that lane for sports fans. That's what we want. But they've also laid off a lot of journalists and the reinvesting or diverting some of the talent funds to people that while they do news breaks, even a news break, so all the time and he may take offense to me, not calling him an active journalist because he's got the bonafide is to back it up, but he's more of a personality. Same thing with Pat McAfee.

His show does break news. It has a tremendous guest list, but he's not a journalist per say. And you have guys like, June Lee, let go. And you have a college game day letting go of some of their more perennial journalists. So it's hard to believe Jimmy Petaro when he says they value journalism more than ever when they're going to these leagues for equity potentially and when they're actually cutting the journalists. When the leagues are owning the entities that cover them, and again, I'm a massive UFC fan. I love everything that's happening in the UFC, except for some things, but for the majority of it, it's a sport that I enjoy and I consume and I do content for at this company.

When I hear that ESPN is now being possibly bought up by NFL, NBA, MLB, and having ownership stakes, it doesn't feel great. Here's the thing about all of that, though, because people around here have heard me lament or tired of hearing me lament that something I care about journalism dedicated my life to it. I've been appalled and surprised that basically the people listening to this and many of the people just consuming things, hate the media almost more than they hate anything else that they will side with a Russell brand a drug addict sex addict who You know probably did some recovering

Well, but yes, but an admitted drug addict and sex addict who during that time probably did some things that he doesn't even remember doing. They will just rush to the side of defense of Russell Brand who has created a great brand for himself. Being anti mainstream media, Joe Rogan has built his empire as a fear factor host on top of the idea of people hate the media so much that they'll elect Trump on a platform of fake news. I don't care about your journalistic standards. But when it applies to sports and when it applies to business and customers, the state of Disney right now selling off pieces, maybe ESPN being one of them, they don't have to choose journalism as a business. The reason I was surprised is not because I think Petaro is lying, you don't have to

say that. You can move away from it, and I don't think anybody would have an issue with you simply saying, hey, we're not in the journalism business anymore. We'll do some well-reported stories, but we can't with these partnerships. Let's call them partnerships. If we're partnering on business, that's antithetical to journalism. That is a conflict of interest of the highest order

if we have to succumb to the dollar. I don't know why you can't just say that. Programs and sports teams are also getting a lot more support for just blocking credentials. I don't know if you're following the topic with Lincoln Riley, who before the season pulled the media aside and said he appreciates a great work. All of a sudden there's a beat rider

that they don't necessarily agree with the perspective and that beat rider has been suspended for a full season. Inner Miami had totally blocked the full season. I thought it was two weeks. No, like I'm seeing full season now. Like initially it was two weeks and now it's been protracted. I'll get an update on that. This as as Northwestern goes in on a goes down on a scandal that was reported by the student

newspaper inner Miami had blocked writers from the athletic Locally and this is something that I know that you and Jeremy both have Some of the greatest sportsalities going have gotten their start covering high school sports. Locally, a new company is acquired the rights to high school football, which in the state of Florida is massive. They don't allow for credentials anymore.

Credential media aren't allowed to actually cover these games because they wanna hog the video rights all to themselves. It's a terrible thing that's happening here locally. And you're seeing all sorts of support now for these teams and media entities to just cut off access to something that 20 years ago, the media would have had the fan support

in terms of coverage. But now the media has been painted so successfully by the right and everybody else. And even Justin Fields invoked like going at the media, and we'll get to that a little bit later because it's a winning position. The media is such an enemy right now that you can do things that are unjustified and unfair. Well, and what's interesting about that is when you look at the media side of it, obviously you have them painted as the enemy and know they can't help us create these stories

because now you have players who are able to do it on their own and put their story out there with whatever their slant is, but this is also a product of COVID, where ultimately the journalists who were allowed into the locker room who were given access that we had all of this time before COVID came down and we had this social distancing, that access has been taken away. The access that we're given now, even where it's been, quote unquote, totally restored, is different now than where it was before for the beat writer in general. And so that's changed the way we do this. I could lament that selfishly. I can lament that because of course I'm going to this is something that I care about.

It you threaten me when you take this away. But for the leagues and for the employees of the leagues that are playing games, I'm not sure it's not better. I don't need the media. I don't need your filters. I will do it myself. I can do social media. You are a relic. You are antiquated. I don't need to give you access, press passes, especially if your coverage isn't going to be favorable. I don't have to adhere to your journalistic standards in my huddle. My huddle is not a place for journalists. I can keep you out because my business is bigger,

better, and more popular than your business. And speaking of adhering to journalistic standards, I was wrong. You were right. It was two weeks. I read a tweet and I went on air with incorrect information. It's a two week suspension through September 28th that USC has implemented on this beat writer. and that is being met poisingously by the local media because if you go through the offenses of said beat rider one of the things cited was they didn't address the school president properly. They

addressed the school president who was a woman by her first name. Is this a byproduct of the people and everybody being distrustful and hateful of the media? Or is this a byproduct of player empowerment now where it's like, hey, I know you guys would write stuff about me That I didn't like or do whatever, but now all the sudden I can go on podcast P and do whatever I want to do here or there Like I have the power to answer the answer your question is yes It's both of those things. This is meritocracy, democracy, the customer speaks, the public speaks on this. At Desha Dan Online Brokridge, we provide high-performance Disney at platforms

so you can invest online with no commission fees on stocks and exchange traded funds. We also offer tools and free training courses. Plus, we've been ranked highest in investor satisfaction among self-directed brokerage firms by JD Power. Visit disnet.com. Certain conditions apply. For JD Power 2023 Award information, visit jdpower.com slash awards.

It would be a tragedy if we were losing one person to drug overdose every day. Even five, seven 7 or 12 people. It would be unimaginable if 15 families a day received news of a lost loved one to overdose. But in Canada, we lose 20 people to overdose every single day. That's a crisis. At CAMH, we won't back down until there's no one left behind. Donate at CAMH.ca to help us treat addiction and build hope. Don Libertard! That bear was not on house death. Deck, excuse me.

I was gonna say desk. I meant deck. I botched it. Terrible. Two dollars. Penalty box? Two minutes. Ah!

See ya! Home for the day? Walk to the ocean? What do you want me to do? Superbowl week, Dan. I didn't ask for any of ocean. What do you want me to do? Superbowl week then I didn't answer any of this and I have no money Aqua stoo gots walk to the ocean. I Walk to the ocean. I've got my money get out of here. Get out of here. I'll do the show without you I don't like this easy down lebathar show with this to got

Jeremy mentioned COVID. This is happening a lot over the last couple of years to me. Levitard is a decrepit wasteland now. I think it's our whole show. I don't think it's just me. Like, I went insane, man. I don't know about that. No, no, I'm not. It's not me the boy yesterday.

I'm not saying. I'm not saying that our show is a decrepit wasteland. I think this person is referencing our show, not me. I don't think this person is calling me a decrepit wasteland. I think this person is referencing our show, not me. I don't think this person is calling me a decrepit wasteland. Put it on the pole, Judeo, at Levitard show. Is Dan a decrepit wasteland? Levitard is a decrepit wasteland now. They were funny until COVID ruined all of their brains.

Now it's just ultra-left wing liberal psychosis daily. Put that on the pole as well, Juju, at Levittar Show. Roy, you're laughing like you're filled with left wing liberal psychosis. I'm progressive, Dan. Like a madman. No, but the way that you're laughing is something that makes me feel like this person is right, that we are indeed a decrepit wasteland that has been consumed by ultra-left wing liberal psychosis daily, that they're your crazed. So put it on the poll, Judeo at Levitage Show, has our entire show become a decrepit wasteland

that is just ultra-left wing liberal psychosis daily. Because there's plenty of local sports I want to talk about. There really is. There's some cool stuff going on. Mike Ryan is telling me that messy is tired. It's tired of carrying around Apple and soccer and and and yeah, what do you mean four games? But four games are a lot of soccer the last years. Much soccer for club and country.

He hadn't really had an off season. He played the entirety of the league's cup, which a lot of people are calling it to, it's called a lot of people who should know better. People that cover this sport, I saw someone associated with FC Dallas was like, is anyone go to criticize Inter Miami for letting Inter Miami play Messi throughout the league's cup?

Keep in mind that Inner Miami beat FC Dallas in a spectacular game that actually went to penalties. I think there was a total of eight goals and I came before it went to pens. Yeah, it's a trophy. It's a major trophy that they won because he played in everything. The American casual soccer fan and even beat writers inability to go beyond what they can Google because when you Google Inter Miami season, you just see the main thing. And even when I'm trying to explain to Billy or Stu Gotts, like, it's a trophy. It matters on Wednesday. They're playing for a trophy.

This is a club that won zero trophies before winning trophies that guarantee you a spot in the Champions League is a major deal. But they keep pointing to the standings, buddy, last place. Well, how good could he be? It's a really frustrating thing. How many regular season games has he played? He misalized few because of the international break. He actually had a dramatic winner for Argentina. Greg Cody thought he shouldn't have left at all. Greg Cody, I was waiting for you and Greg Cody to be here on the same day so that you could argue about this. Greg Cody was making the argument that he should play only for Miami. He won a World Cup qualifier with a free kick. World

Cup qualifiers are a big deal. Maybe Greg is polluted by the fact that the US does not have to qualify for this World Cup as one of the hosts, but it's hard, especially in South America and that qualifying region. He did not play the second game, and what is going on with Messi now appears to be fatigue because trainers were not working on him in Jordi Alba when they came out of the game. It actually presents an interesting situation for the league

because Fox had the rights. Most of the MLS games happen in the same TV window, except for a handful that are given FS1 priority on different days. It would appear that Fox had positioned or Lando city, which is one of Inter Miami's rivals and a good team in their own right, against Inter Miami for main network Fox, which means he would have had clearest

and a bunch of NFL announcers promoting coming up after the America's game of the week, Lionel Messi on network television. And now he is not playing. It's not that Martino said, Messi is not playing coincidentally. Inter my any played a lot better after Messi left. Thanks to Bobby Bulls X. Oh, tell me more about the four nothing victory last night.

I am not brave enough to brave what I 95 has become to get to that game at seven p.m. I can't do it. I don't know. I can tell you as someone that lives this, Dan, it took me a hundred and ten minutes to leave my house in Kendall, which is a popular center of Miami-Dade County, to watch a team called Inner Miami. That's Miami and it's named on the term park. You're going to go. I went to the term park. It took me a hundred and ten minutes to get to watch 36 minutes of the mess. I am telling you this Mike and I know we've talked about this over the years around here It's been a fairly stark change to see civilization change so much

with technology and the addiction to devices and the allergy to inconvenience. To watch in my lifetime that a sporting event most people listening to this would say, especially if you get to my age or older, rather do it at home. rather do it at home. Don't want to go and deal with the number of things, heat, drunk, and in Miami, if you put these games at 7 p.m., it's gonna take me two hours to get there, because trucks are on top of cars,

are on top of chickens, are on top of dumpsters that are on fire, and they're all going down highways that are too small to handle the number of people that we have down here now. So if you give me a 7 p.m. game and you're telling me, I don't get a tailgate two hours in front. I'm gonna be in traffic for two hours to get from my home to wherever it is you're putting that game. We were invited last night and I wanted to go and I'm like, I'm not going in rush hour traffic to get there not at seven. I won't get there till eight because if I leave at five I'm not going to get there at a reasonable time. It's really really far and that that's always going to be the lament of the Miami soccer

fans to support their team. I was encouraged though with my own eyes. I had seen construction happening at Melries. I don't think they're gonna nail this a very aggressive timeline of 2025. They're still digging up toxic soil. Well, that's what you said though earlier when you said there was a trophy at stake and I'm thinking to myself, they already got their trophy. They're building it by the airport.

Like the business will work because they got what they needed to this incredibly expensive land where they're gonna be able to build a stadium. But when we're talking about attendance, the attendance story from last night, it's an old one here. It seems like we've been talking about it here this entire century. Gary Cohn and Keith Hernandez, old timey baseball guys who live in an old Timie baseball market where the Metz still matter and the Metz are jealous of the Marlin season.

They spent a ton of money. I've told you this before. If you just tabulate what the Metz are paying former Metz to play for other teams, that would be the 17th highest payroll in the sport. Just what they're paying for their former players To play for other people that payroll is higher than the Marlins payroll just Verlanders and Shursers and all those people

They come into town yesterday and this breaks my heart as a Miami person Who is so tired of the way that New Yorkers have infected this market my entire life. To see the Mets in this failure of a season successfully act as spoilers and to have their announcers come in here and say that our crowd stink because baseball has treated Miami like a whorehouse, like a brothel for how long has it been now? 30 years of brothel in Miami, they noticed last night that there were no crowds for an exciting team that is relevant, that is over-chieving, that is a surprise, like it's all the best things. The only thing the Marlins don't have,

I mean, jazz chism, they don't have stars or they don't have national stars because baseball doesn't have many national stars. It's not even the four they just have regional stars. Hell, Stephen A Smith yesterday is getting baseball fans infuriated because he's saying baseball doesn't rate. Baseball doesn't matter. Ot otani's not a draw he's arguing with someone on his show uh... named fuzzy a caller named fuzzy telling him to shut the hell up that baseball doesn't matter and this and rage is baseball fans because baseball fans care deeply about baseball and it's great right now like baseball is a lot of fun to watch that marlin's team is fun to watch and it has all the ingredients that you want

but the betrayal is so profound and I don't think this one's traffic because the area around that stadium, that ballpark, should be able to feed enough people, just the area around the ballpark, Latin people, in order to get a crowd, but that was a pathetic crowd last night for meaningful baseball against the Metz. Like the Metz are used to go,

the Metz are used to mattering the Metz are used to matter wherever they go. And especially here, Metz crowds are not bad crowds here. Never mind playoff crowds for the Marlins. Never mind a meaningful game for the Marlins. When the Metz play in town, you hear Metz fans. Where were the people last night? This week personally hurt. Like as someone who's believed that

if you get the ingredients going, you will get that attendance to follow. The season has had all of it. It's been a fun season that's been competitive. They're a half game out of the wild card race. They made the trades at the deadline that you're asking for to bring in bats and get more competitive. The team is fun and young.

They do have a local star, and yet, even with the Metz in town, despite the fact that the Metz are bad and that did affect the amount of Metz fans who want to be there, there were only about 12,000 fans a night over the last three nights. And that's with $5 burgers on Monday and $5 beers all week. Like the Marlins are doing everything that they can.

They've made the game affordable, they're competing, they're doing all of the things that we ask for. And I think that's why like this week is so particularly infuriating because still not that many people are at the ballpark for a wild card chase. When you mention all the variables that it takes actually get good attendance in this market, we have a representative sample size now that it's a combination of two things. It's a combination of a competitive team,

but it's alive in a playoff chase, and a star, preferably a pitcher. There have only been two players in the history of this franchise, and they've had great players in this franchise. Miguel Cabrero was there. They've had two players in the history of the franchise that actually meant something to attendants, whose don't draw Willis and Jose Fernandez on pitching days. They don't have stars. For as competitive as they are,

they have people that you have to explain to an audience. Hey, Josh Bell is really good, Bernardo is pretty good, but the casual fan needs to see a superstar in this market. It's been proven to actually attend games. For what it's worth, attendance on Sandy starts all through last year as he was winning a Saiyong.

And this year at the start of the season, we're higher than your other games. When when Ayuri Perez first showed up for the Marlins, more people were attending those games. They've had pockets this season that have been exciting and more attendance than you would expect. But you're right, Mike. People aren't showing up because they don't have, whether it's a name to associate, but I just think it's a, it's a general baseball problem, right?

The Marlins, this is not the Marlins being cheap or not spending or not creating a team that's competitive or any of those things. The Marlins are essentially, they're doing their part. Fans are not there. Now, it's 30 years of betrayal and overcoming all of these things.

Is it that this team needs to be this for four seasons before people believe? I want to get back to the C-V-N-A portion that you've led with, Dan, because this is the second time he's kind of stepped into it with Otoni. The first time he had to apologize for it and it was on the heels of an All-Star game where it was like a crowning moment for baseball in the star making enterprise they made otani a star and you had a league partner and its biggest star actually question the star power however Stephen a does see data he works for first take which is the most

data driven show and not in terms of analytics when it comes to their opinions but they know what the reason why they're always talking Dallas Cowboys is Dallas Cowboys always works. This is largely, and I mean this in terms of this country is largely a nation that is capable of talking about two sports really. Football and basketball, the third biggest sport in this country is not even a professional sport. It's amateur football, it's college football. And all he's doing there is all he's had to do is an ESPN employee.

You always want to say, why don't they talk more soccer, why don't they talk more baseball? They flatly do not have the talents to talk about these things because they have been fortified and reassured through their ways that only three things matter on that network. State Farm helps you score an affordable price when you bundle home and auto insurance

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Don Lebatard! Listen, it could be Julius Randall's building. Have a look at that, the mecca. Or is Julius? The mecca? Stugats! Steve Martin was a prop comment. You said that. I said it two seconds earlier than you. This is the Danelebatar show with the Stugats.

Let's explore this part of it for a second though, because a lot of people think that the things that I say about Stephen A. Smith when we go back and forth, they hear all sorts of things that I don't intend and I don't feel about what a conqueror this human being is and he's not wrong when he says, I will give my bosses what they want, which is more money, and I will give the customers what they want,

whether they're on ESPN or Hannity, because I want to broaden my reach with calculations. I've told you this before about Colin Cowherd, and how he knows the business of wrong, that wrong's not bad for his business. I thought you were just talking about the blazing five. Not even that is bad for his business. I thought you were just talking about the blazing five. Not even that is bad for his business. I don't believe him when he says he's kind of proud

of going 0 9 and 1 to start the season. That's a true gambling sickle right there, because I would also kind of be proud. That's impressive. It's as impressive as impressive as impressive as going 901. Put it on the pole. Is going 0 9 and 1 against the spread as impressive as impressive as going 901 put it on the pole is going Oh 901 against the spread as in it more impressive Is it more impressive than going 901 against the spread but you have to understand as we talk about media changing

Media evolving and the older people in media who have had these platforms mad dog Stephen A Stephen A. Colin Cowherd, how they keep up with the democratization of content, of anybody can go to a microphone now and start, and if you can get an audience, if you can build it, man, whether it's TikTok or YouTube, all the young people who don't have the resumes or credentials now have equal access to the audience. If you can earn it Stephen A Smith Has sacrificed great portions of a balanced life in order to conquer this thing

He is crushing it right now He took first take from Max because he said no. I don't want to do a nuanced Smarter show. I want to do an argument television show because I want broad appeal on morning television. A lot of people are home, they are not working. I don't care what their education is. I don't care what their dollars are at home. I care about getting their eyes on my television,

however it is that I do it. Now, when you say Mike, that there are only two sports we can talk about football and basketball. All of those are the two sports that ESPN has business relationships with. They used to have one like that that was much bigger with baseball. And I remember baseball tonight was a wonderful show. And baseball mattered more than when ESPN goes into business with you to sell product you have seen hockey get elevated when ESPN is even giving ancillary coverage. They're not pretending its basketball or football. They're not pretending they have the talent to talk about all those things. They're just

platforming it with a roster that outside of the people that are specific and doing ESPN plus specific shows to it, a talent roster that is largely incapable of merely doing the thing that a good partner should do, which is talk about this so we can promote it. First take is essentially a commercial for the rest of the network slate. That's why they go out to game days and they hype up because they know with game day, with McAfee out in Boulder, Colorado, we can use this promotional machine and the proof is in the pudding. Most streamed college football game of all time, Colorado, Colorado state. Look at where those programs were just last year.

It's Asinine. It is smart to lopside yourself and go where the eyes and the dollars are. But this is where baseball can get hurt and feel cheap end as something that was the national pastime. I believe that the future of sports broadcasting will have baseball games where the announcers are doing it the way they did during the pandemic. From a closet somewhere in stores or Bristol, Connecticut, but they'll still pay $17 million for Joe Buck to be on site because they're not gonna treat football that way. Football won't allow itself to be treated that way,

and you will break the bank making sure that our product in our partnership, that ESPN's not running our product, we're running ESPN. Baseball has to beg for ESPN to cover it that way. I remember when I started in this business, having an argument with one of my initial producers at ESPN radio, because I loved talking about baseball. I loved baseball, and I was telling him.

Later developed a gambling problem, still owes me money. I was telling him how much more I enjoy watching baseball games than football Sundays and he was like you're out of your mind and at the time it was still something that could be argued but what's happened to football Sundays is the action is so intense for one day a week that it has been aligned with our attention deficit disorder or need for fantasy leagues or need for action or need for stimuli. I can give you my Sundays or my Thursday nights. I don't have to give you every day for 162 games. Which producer are you talking about?

Oh, he's talking about me. It was before you. Oh, because you described me. I graduated to you. I After learning from other gamblers. By the way, I saw I'm gonna pay you This need this bonus come in I was arguing on behalf of the merits of enjoying baseball. I hate Brandon's daily Just flat out anytime I talk about Brandon's daily dude cost me so much money. I hate Brandon's daily. I'm just flat out. Anytime I talk about Brandon's daily, dude, cost me so much money, I hate him.

Let me ask this question of the audience and you guys, because when Mad Dog puts it that plainly, Mad Dog, just his nickname is Mad Dog, it's a persona. You have seen enough to know what is happening there, just entertaining, emotional, funny, old. You tell me how you feel as an audience. When you know that whatever the analysis is from the person giving you the analysis

is totally infected by their emotional biases that they lost $10,000 on the game and therefore ripping Deon Sanders a little extra for his coaching decisions because they lost $10,000 on the game. Like how do you feel about that when that gets put out there that publicly is a transaction. I hear it all the time in Stugat. I hear the the undercurrent of it with your analysis and Chris Cody's analysis. I don't hear it everywhere on television where I've got angry at coach

analysis because he simply actually harmed your bank account where you have less money to pay for things for your children because this person took it from you. Truly, it's flatly not going to private school anymore. Oh, no. Thanks to Brandon Saley's 27-0 Bl blown lead against the Jacksonville Jaguars. That is the biggest hurt I have ever suffered. It wasn't even money that I had. It's money that I could have had. So I will say, here's what this all. It's money that I had that you still owe me. I'm asking you again to it. How often? I'm asking you how often you see it in the analysis. And I think I prefer it mad dogs way.

Just tell me, tell me so I don't have to discern for myself. Oh, this person's totally biased because they lost a bunch of money on the game. But it never used to be this. Not to stick this conversation in the mud because I'm enjoying it and I'm running that risk right now. But things like Mad Dog saying I have $10,000 in this game is probably a huge variable

in this huge melting pot of why it's super difficult going forward for ESPN to navigate its partnership with Penn. Because of how regulated this industry is, and their previous partner had all sorts of difficulty. It like, we do it here on this show. With Thursday, Thunders, and Goof Parley's that are promotional booths, it's very rare where we're saying we're toting a line,

and we're giving you analysis on the game, and we're telling you, oh, you should take it. By the way, there is a lot of bad weather on the East Coast this week. Take the unders. But it's difficult because ESPN right now is a media company that'll show you the line. It'll be like Oregon minus 21 and a half.

I think I got that one on the number. It'll be Oregon minus 21 and a half. And then right next to it, presently, it'll have something called the FBI, the football power index, and it'll give you a percentage of what a team has to win. And oftentimes, the line and the FBI don't make any sense. The FBI is created by ESPN. Now, I'm a regulator, and I am looking at ESPN appealing to be legalized in my state. And I'm looking at their television screen. I have mad dog telling me he's got 10 G's on Colorado.

Underneath I see a line and I see an FPI that doesn't reflect the line. This is a paradox, my friends. That's actually difficult to get licensed that way, doing it the way that they are. I do think ESPN's in a little over their head with the pen thing. And by the way, pen reached the 52-week low, like just two weeks ago. So there's a lot of people in this industry that are meeting this with a fair amount of scrutiny. Mike is so right that everyone should have been freaking out about him admitting to just having 10K in the game,

but yet we're still in a society where everyone got freaked out about him mentioning a gummy. Even though we've got, we've come a long way with marijuana, but we're still in a spot where if you're on TV and you say I'm having a gummy later, everyone's like, whoa. Chris, I'm telling you, I'm telling you that I don't recognize the shifting standards of what it is that I have done for a living. When not only does Mad Dog do that on television, but the reaction was largely, look at what wonderful television this is. It's incredible.

Holy half a gummy, huh? Yeah, but ESPN doesn't know that maybe in the future because they've gotten in the sports gambling game and is now the majority shareholder of a gambling company, things are going to change. And I think it's going to be quite noticeable when they do, when they finally get approval on this thing. And there's no one really at ESPN as the large stakeholder in this gambling company

that has that kind of experience. They're gonna be leaning on a company that just threw a Hail Mary that finally found a company Dumb enough to actually accept the licensing deal. I think it's gonna be a disaster Put it on the pole. Please that levitar show. Do you say 10 G's or 10 K? Well one thing that you don't with the IRS is you don't say $10,000 and one dollar Not what I asked you That's just more advice. Don't don't need your help there in terms of adding

undercurrent of ways that you scheme and cajole and move around. Tony's got that corner corner. Tony knows that the IRS considers anything 10,000 in under a gift. I also would explain that. I said 10K, it would have been like, yeah, I got a hundred bucks on it. That's a big bet, man. To say a unit, that mad dogs made some money feeding at this trough. When he do you think he's actually putting 10k.

Yeah, really? I never like that is. Yes, that's a lot of. That would be a move to lie on the like most people like Tony said lie smaller. He's just like, I want everyone to think this. you had $55 on that Western Michigan game against Iowa that you watched while you should have been watching your child ice Gate to Yeah The $25 is a pretty pathetic unit before we get out of the

Out of the local hour. We don't you need shame. We don't unisame. I wanted to put it on the pole, please, Juju Atleta Tard showed, do you shame your gambling friends when they bet only $25 on a game? Yes or no?