The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Local Hour: The U Is Back (Again)

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

"I can't praise UM enough." It’s time to celebrate the University of Miami Hurricanes for not losing the game they have traditionally lost for the last two decades. Is this team going undefeated with several first-round picks and the best defense in the country, or is it a bunch of Malachi? Plus, Michael Irvin has a lot of energy, Chris Cote's wife ruins what could have been one of the best days of his life, Greg has a great moment at an Italian restaurant, and a breakdown of the semantics of a heated conversation. Today's cast: Dan, Greg, Zaslow, Chris, Billy, Mike, and Roy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Shadow show. Shadow show. Shadow show. Shadow show. Shadow show. Shadow show. Shadow show. Shadow show.

Shadow show. Shadow show. Shadow show. Shadow and it. Shadow in it. I have next to me a radiant, Greg Cody, still radiant from what happened to him last week in an Italian restaurant. What are you laughing about? Because I think I know where you're going to say.

Well, go ahead and tell the people what happened to you, why it is you're so delighted. I like how he thinks he knows and you're going to say, are there multiple, like, instances in an Italian restaurant last week? You know, I may have mentioned it to him off the cuff. You know, I don't know. I don't recall that. But, you know, I live by small pleasures in life. To me, the quality of life is measured in not the major stuff, not the Europe vacations, but the little minutia.

And so we're in our favorite local Italian restaurant the other night. And from two tables over, a guy I don't know looks at me nodding. And I know he recognized, and he says with a thumb up, nice pick on the Dolphins game. And he was right, okay? The Bills won 31 to 21. I predicted the Bills would win 30 to 20. I came that close to a Zagato. And that's a big deal.

And I was happy, and somebody recognized it, and I was happy for that, too. You're still happy. You're still happy days later. A whole football weekend has happened since, and you're still buoyant because your Homer Dolphins are 0 and 3, and you're still here on the dolphin wagon. You're the only one in South Florida is still saying. I tell you, the bandwagon has a lot of room in it. I'm in the front. I'm steering the bandwagon.

I'm looking in the rear view mirror. It's empty. I can swerve all over the road. Nobody's criticizing me. except you. So it's good, yeah. I was not criticizing you, but of the surprises this weekend, because I would say Thursday, I would say I have seen religions built around smaller miracles than the dolphins stopping the bills at all in that second half. But playing Marlins baseball this week of the season,

where they still have a chant, and they just dragged the Rangers, they just ruined the Rangers season. They just went up to Texas and totally ruin the ranger season. And the Marlins now have Billy, what is it? They need to win all their games, but they're four out with six to play? Let's see the official standings here. I mean, if they win all of their remaining games, they'd have a 12-game winning streak because they've won six straight, 10 out of 11. They're not eliminated yet.

They're four back in the wild card, but there's one team tied of them, two ahead of them. They've got to jump four teams. Yeah. Yeah, it won't happen. It's tough, but 76 and 80s. 80 is a surprising season for them. I'll tell you. The Marlins are like... Tell me. The Marlins are like no other major

team in this market. They're an exception to the rule. Winning isn't everything with them. The bar is so low for the Marlins. We expect terribleness every season. And so what they've done this year is a success. They're relying on the youngest team in the league, I think.

And for them to do what they've done and have a couple of legitimate, long winning streaks, I think it's been a successful season and sort of a validation for the path they're taking, which unfortunately includes not spending on payroll, but still, they're winning with youth.

They have an opportunity to ruin the Mets season. Like, they finish with the Mets next week. The Mets right now are tied for the final wildcard spot. That'd be fun. To end the year, ruin their season? I mean, they have the same win percentage, basically, the heat had last year. They were a playoff team. It would be fun if they ruined the Mets

season. But in terms of distinctions of things that generations of fans will remember, ruining the Rangers season will not be among them. Like, just randomly taking out the Texas Rangers at the end. Remember that team in the A.L. Western? We're just trolling my grind here, no? I mean, people notice.

You're talking about that dolphin game that happened four days ago with Marlins? If I lose that game, we know what we're starting. No, no, no, that's why I have a smile on my face. I see right through, you asshole. We're talking about not that dolphin game from four days ago. that Italian restaurant meal from three days ago. Dix? This is the Dan Levatore show with the Stucats podcast.

Zaslow legitimately came in here today with an observation that made me wonder where have you been for 35 years. He comes in today and he's like, Michael Irvin is crazy, huh? He had his own intro Saturday night. He came out the tunnel before the smoke. He came out the tunnel with everyone lined up. He gets his whole intro on the Jumbo Tron. He loves hurricanes and not just Hurricanes football. Because remember, I think when the Keynes were in the NIT final like seven, eight years ago,

nobody loves anything the way Michael Irvin loves the university. Well, go ahead and put in the corner. the screen, the jump cut, the jump cut of Michael Irvin's just general behavior during the game because everyone should have former NFL alums that care about the school the way this guy did. I do remember when he was with the champion Dallas Cowboys, Michael Irvin would call his old dorm room number just knowing a football player would pick up and start yelling at them about how they were supposed to be playing football. He didn't even care who it is that was answering it.

He just wanted to scream at them. Doing push-ups. Yeah, of course, he's always doing push-ups. And that game was encouraging for a number of different reasons. But chief among them, to me, it has been a really long time since I saw a University of Miami football team that could survive its quarterback having a bad football game against a good defense or a great defense.

That would have been done better before the show. Thank you. That's good to put that there now, though. Video covering it, no one knew. It was actually a good job. It was actually phenomenal. The video team. Head on a swivel, pal.

One person did a bad chair, as you're pointing it out. The Miami Hurricanes playing against the Florida Gators, I know there will be people who have their criticisms because that game shouldn't have been close. I really thought after the first half that you can make the observation, I could give Florida 1,000 plays and make the football field five yards long and the Gators will not score a point in this football game because it's not just that the hurricane defense is violent.

It's not even just that the Florida offense is awful, which it is. The thing that I'm seeing out of the hurricane defense that I haven't seen in a good long time is the side-to-side speed that doesn't allow anybody to grab the corners. on them because they have a lot of speed on the field. So you saw the way that they can lose a football game this season because Florida should not have been in any way in that football game. And I imagine, Mike, that you were shitting yourself when you're up 13-7 and the gators are inside the 35-yard line in the fourth quarter

and mystified, I imagine, how that game was closed. Not mystified. I thought that I was town in Florida's defense entering that game. I thought it would be tight early and then Miami would pull away. and that's what happened. I was upset at the interception. First off, I thought Cormani McLean was excellent that game. I thought their corners were excellent on our receivers,

but Cormani made a great play on that ball, and really wasn't so much the interception as to where the interception was. I'm like, that's probably the first time they crossed a 50. I know that they just scored, but look, that was a total supreme domination. They were over 13 on third downs. Pro football focus said that that was the worst pass-blocking performance. in the history of pro football focus by 24 points. The Miami Hurricanes defense is incredible right now.

And say what you will on DJ Lagway, he does seem broken. He had five picks the previous week. All five picks that he had were entirely his fault. For the five, he had good protection. This is not a bad Florida Gator offensive line. In fact, if you watch the content that PFF puts out there, is like, we still understand this Florida Gators offensive line to be good. top end in the nation type of good.

That's all about Ruben Bain. That's all about Akeem Mesedor. Players that were here last year, but looked different. These guys have slimmed down. In Ruben Bain's case, he is healthy. He had a bit of a sophomore slump last year. And this year, honestly, there isn't a more dominant player in the country right now in terms of winning your individual assignment, play in, play out.

He deserves Heism. It was clear, given how he played his first year and how he's playing this year, that he was hurt last year. because that's not, that was not a regression. That was not a sophomore slump. That was somebody who didn't have his explosiveness, did not have his strength because he was hurt. And the hurricanes have, I'm going to say they've got at least four first rounders

that I can identify by sight, two of them on the offensive line. One of them not the center who had, I believe, Brock Amier had one of the worst games I've ever seen a center have. when do you ever notice the center? Mike was so mad throughout the game at the center. He was so mad. It's amateur. And the last two weeks, like, the opponent had found something on tape and being able to coax Miami into these procedural penalties.

But I'm right there with Dan. Miami presently, I think, has four first rounders. Markell Bell was never really talked about it. He's like, if this guy meets his ceiling, he could be. He's so strong. He's bigger than everybody. He was a transfer. Came over last year, and this is a testament to the development. Now, look, that is a body type.

most offensive line coaches would dream of working with, but he was not at a big-time football school. Football relatively new to the young man. Six foot nine put out dominant tape. This guy put himself in top 20 draft pick consideration. You got C.C. Mau and Noah. He got Ruben Bayne, of course, and Carson Beck, who was coming off a pretty bad game for him.

He was off all night. I will say it's... How much did the rain, wetball, effect? You were out there. He hasn't played in good weather yet this season. No, no. He's played in a month-long monsoon in that uniform. terrible.

But I will say, like, there is a narrative online that, keep in mind as a young man that had elbow surgery, there was a little less zip on some of those passes. I think that you could probably blame the weather a little bit, but I'm not too worried. How does Michael Orvin have the energy? I don't know. I wonder. Passion for the game. This episode is supported by FX's The Lowdown, starring Ethan Hawk.

Allow us to introduce you to Lee Raybon, a quirky, journalist slash rare bookstore owner slash unofficial truth seeker who's always on the tail of his latest conspiracy. This time, his most recent expose puts him head to head with a powerful family that rules Tulsa, meaning only one thing. He must be on to something big. FX is the lowdown premieres September 23rd on FX. Stream on Hulu. Don Lebertard. That's how it's going to end. The mailing and end to end of the retirement, Chris, go get me this, it's just going to be him coming out and hitting the one or two notes of

that kind of thing, and you know it, and then just giving us finger guns and leave it. Baby! You should listen to the Great Cody Show podcast, because that's all we do for 55 minutes a week is just say catchphrases. We even make songs about them, and you know it, is a song

for crying out loud. That's great. Hopefully that's a suey nominee for best song. And you know it, Baby, and you know it. Stugats. Baby and you know it And you know it Baby and you know it

And you know it Baby and you know it This is the Dan Levitar show With the Stugats Let's do the Hampton Farms Nuddiest fan Because we're going to beat this guy We've got some nominees

We've got Michael Irvin There are a number of nominees Locally Chris Cody was very jealous of Mike Ryan this weekend because Mike Ryan was tailgating with how many of the Panthers, the two-time

champion Panthers. Paul Maurice is going to join us here, champion coach at some point during the show. Mike, how many of the Panthers were you tailgating with? One, two, three, four, five. Four than five? Six. Six. Six players and a couple of the staff. They were great. I should have been there. It's my wife's fault. We don't have to get into that.

No, I don't want to. Why bring it up? did get an invite. I got an invite. I should have been there and I had plans. What did your wife do? We had plans for months with friends. It was a fun time I had, but I hated life. I saw pictures coming in and I hate life. And those are Nutty fans. They were having fun. Every video and picture I saw made me want to be there. But let's get to more nominees. It's the Nuttiest fan brought to you by Hampton Farms, the official snack nut of the tailgate. Vote for your favorite Nutty Fan at Levitard show on Instagram. And keep an eye out for Lucy at Arkansas. You think you're your team's Nuttiest fan.

Well, who are the nominees? We've got Michael Irvin. It's going to be hard to beat Michael Irvin. We got Mike and his crew partying with the Panthers. I just have to nominate them because of how jealous I am. And then we have two signs from Game Day. We have a Jonathan Zaslo special, which is... Thai food.

Look at that guy. Okay, so what happened there, Zazlo? You were doing part of your campus tour, not on campus. You were doing... What are you laughing about, Cody? Just that somebody would hold a Thai food sign. Well, you know, they want to be part of... the trend, the worldwide trend.

TIEFOO! Now, granted, that does look like one of those signs that you can like keep erasing and updating for people. I'll bet that was never a race, though. You do that in permanent marker. Those are the college game day signs. They hand those out. So they're sponsored by the Home Depot, yeah. He's going to have that for life, that K. You've got to elongate the word tie, though, don't you?

It has to be T-H-A-A-I-I-I-I-I-I-I. Minimal effort on actually writing the Thai-Food sign. Don't criticize that great fan. Ty-Food. That cannot win this competition. just because he held up a sign. Sure, it can. It's up to the voter.

None of those can win you. Voter suppression. No, Michael. Michael, how about that one? Panko and Pinka. Then we have this one. You guys are going to have to help me out with this one. It says,

pancom, ping, which means bread with dick, and we're all out of bread. That's right. That's what you're getting. That's the winner. Dick sandwiches. I go Michael Irvin.

That's a repeat for the last time the game day was here, though, if we're going to be on it. That's a great callback. That's nostalgic. I mean, that should be on repeat for a, I want to talk, though, about what it is that the hurricanes are, because I would not object too much to anyone who said right now that they don't have a quality win, although I expect Notre Dame to be number one in the next rankings. They got snubbed in these, but I expect them next week to be number one when they climb to two and two.

But here's Greg Cody writing in the Miami Herald. The Cain's team, I've seen the first third of this season is the best all-around UM team I've seen since the glory days, the championship era. This team will make the playoffs and with a huge chance to do major damage in them. This team, yes, I'm saying it, has what it takes to win UM's long elusive. Isn't that elusive? Long-elusive six national title, the first since 2001. It's crazy that Miami can say that they've got five titles and a chance at a six. But this team does look complete because of what I was saying at the beginning.

If you told me, all coaches since Coker were playing against a great defense because that Florida defense is a championship caliber defense. And their quarterback had a bad game. They would not have been able to drag a team the way that they dragged Florida. Because I know that the game felt close because it was in the fourth quarter. It was 13 to 7. terrible whistle on one play. But I was legitimately confused at how that game was just 13-0 at the half, and I was legitimately confused that it was close in the second half, because I really

did think that the Florida Gators would do nothing offensively all game, because that first half that I saw from the Florida Gators was sheer incompetence on offense, and they might be bad on offense. Mike is saying their offensive line is grading out well, but I did feel that was done to them by not just a fast defense, but a violent defense. Like, these are, these are hits being put on people that I did not see. I'm going to say there were more violent hits in that game. And again, when an offense is that constipated and lacking confidence, you can do it to them. But more violent hits in that game than I saw from the hurricanes all last season when they couldn't play defense. They had 32 yards of offense in that first half. I don't think they had a positive play

until like their fifth play. So many three and outs over there. I don't think they picked up their second third first down until late in the third quarter. Yeah, it was the second half for sure. I think Mario Cristobald deserves a lot of credit for fixing that defense. And that was honestly last year the worst defense I had ever seen where Miami uniforms and they wasted a championship level offense. In previous years, I think Miami gets away from the run game and keeps trying to make

the passing game. Hell, last year, I think they probably get more enamored with the idea of trying to get Cam Ward a Heisman. This is a really good Miami team. I know it was tighter, but we've been on the receiving end of those. We've been up against elite Florida teams, elite FSU teams, and elite Clemson team where Miami's defense puts up the effort, and then the offense goes nowhere,

and then by the end of the fourth quarter, you're down 21 points. The spread in points was not that much different than last year's game. Dan is right when he says there was a bad whistle. The officials themselves went up to Mario Cristobal explained, we shouldn't have blown that play dead. What was their explanation that they didn't see the ball? So there's a couple of narratives online. Samson Okunlola's, who's developed quite nicely, by the way, his helmet came off during that play, but he was not the ball carrier. In college football, if it has nothing to do with the play, the play can roll on. The refereesful Mario Cristobal, look, we just missed that call. Marty Brown did not stop moving. And if that game is 20 to 0 and you get Florida in a predictable passing situation, that game gets really ugly. I was very frustrated that they were only up 13-0 because I thought they could just keep handing the ball of Fletcher and moving the pile to

make, instead of, they had so many punts at the end of the first half where they had the ball starting at the 50 yard line and they end up going backwards. That was a really quiet 116 yard game from Mark Fletcher and I think it was quiet because more than half of those yards

came as part of a pile that was just moving physically manhandling a Power 4 program in Florida that has good line play along the trenches that they They've improved over last year. But to be fair, they had three guys out. They did.

Three starters along the defensive line out. Very impressed with Florida's corners. There was not a lot of separation there. There wasn't. Which is probably an argument to get Jojo Trader and Josh Moore a little bit more involved in the offense. And hopefully they can rise to the occasion because Miami does need a little bit more separation there. But there were some checkdown options available to Carson Beck. I kind of like that he was deep shot hunting.

something happened in that USF game where he realized, I like my chances downfield. There were open checkdowns, and sometimes Carson just missed either lower a high or in our tight ends case. They weren't ready for the ball at all. He was bad. Carson Beck was bad. His anchors, he was way off. Yeah, I think he's afforded a bad game there. Usually if your quarterback plays like that in a game like this, yeah, that's the recipe for the team pulling off and upset. And instead, we see a team kind of stay in, hang around, and you saw Miami step on that throat and salt the game away. They had a huge play by Marty Brown that was big for Carson Beck, that one-handed catch there. That's the stuff that breaks away for good championship teams.

I came away very happy because that's kind of the game that I thought would happen and Miami got tested in there and doesn't have to be victims of a rat poison for two weeks as they head into this FSU game. Well, this is the kind of game we've all seen Miami lose in the past where you have a lead. You seem to be in control. then all of a sudden it's 13 to 7 the lead has whittled momentum has shifted a little bit again in the second half there was a time when it seemed like florida was still in the game instead of losing that game like they have so many times in the past they rose up and and i can say nothing bad about this team right now they deserve to be number two in the country

behind ohio state or penn state whoever you think but i'll tell you what last year they had a bad past defense they solved it Last year they were in balance because like you say they wanted the Heisman for Cam Ward. This year, not just Fletcher, Marty Brown has been great. Malachi has been great. Malachi, sorry. You mentioned the two running backs. I would argue Jordan Liles are best running back. He turned his ankle early against Notre Dame.

We've been holding him out. He's going to have to lie. He'll be ready for FSU. Those are two of Miami's best three running backs. You can make a strong argument than Jordan Liles actually RB1. Fantastic team. You know, and okay, I'm the Homer. I get it.

the home run. Yeah, you are. But in this case, I can't praise Miami enough. I think they're an airtight kid. Oh, is sure it's not Malachi? It is Malachi is a biblical name. It is Malachi. It should be Malachi. Yeah. I apologize for miss speaking. It's okay.

No, apparently it isn't because everybody's laughing. Everybody's mocking. I'm used to that. Malachi's funny. Greg, I hope you know I was an ally. I corrected you. Corrected you quickly and I moved on to the running backs. For them to stay here is really disrespectful to allegedly like you. I'm used to it. Let's make it a running.

joke. Let's say Malaki and, you know, replay it and just make fun of that one thing, the whole show. That would be... He hasn't been the same since he lost that soup competition. Well, that was rigged. Yes. Thank you, Billy. You're welcome. It was barely coconut in it. And it was a conscious

decision. I'm going to beat this guy. No ginger, no ginger either. What do you mean? No ginger. There was so much ginger in that. Okay. I don't care what was in. I'll taste good. Okay. Mike ordered it from Hello Fresh. Chris told us the next day. So, I've seen this theory. there, and you can follow recipes, but where's the red bell peppers in that recipe?

Where is the garlic? Where are the shallots? Where's the over amount of the generous serving of ginger? Yeah, there was sweet coconut milk in that. I've seen these theories out there online. What I made was totally different. The internet needs to shut the hell up. Don Lebertard.

What do we got here? I got a magnum condom. We won't get that out. That's shocking. Stugats Here's a picture of Christopher when he was like three years old Right next to the condo Yeah

He's a subtle reminder Never never forget This is the Dan Lebatar show With the Stugats I thought That the college football weekend Was more fun than the pro football weekend Even though the witching hour

Thank you Yes the witching hour did cover up some blemishes there really were only five games worth talking about yesterday in the pros. Like, go ahead and see if you can name them because it's not going to be easy for you. I thought the college football weekend was a lot of fun, and I'd like to spend more time on college football than pro football today just because of how much I enjoyed the college football weekend. I'm sorry to all of you who had Auburn plus six and a half in that Oklahoma game and got buried by a safety at the end. I wanted to talk about a handful of things, though, from yesterday, what were the games worth talking about?

Because the Philadelphia Rams game was interesting from a number of different perspectives. The Eagles being down 26-7. I've always thought of Jalen Hertz is a bit of a front-runner on that team, right? I see them getting ahead and then staying ahead, and they've won 19 out of 20. They're deserving defending champions. And beating that Rams team is an achievement when you are down 26 to 7. and they have recreated. I have to apologize.

I said last week that St. Brown to golf is the best combination in the sport that has the best timing between quarterback and receiver. I am wrong about that. It is Stafford and Nakua. Because at the end of that game, they were doing the shit that they did with Cooper Cup and the Super Bowl with no look passes where everyone knew the ball was going to Nakua and Stafford was still going down the field,

throwing it to only Nakua. Get the Nakua song here. I'd like to play some of the Nakua song. but what ends up happening at the end of that game where you have the heaviest man ever to return a blocked field goal more than 50 yards. You had jiggle running down the field

on a day that had a lot of blocked kicks. I know a lot of people will look at that and say that that's what won the game, but this is what won that game. The Rams got stopped on fourth and one, and that never happens to the Eagles. Like, that happens to so. so many teams, and it never happens to the Eagles, because they've got that play that everyone...

Because they cheat. And they got caught cheating again yesterday. Well, they should have, they should have. No, they didn't get caught. They didn't get caught cheating. They got caught by the masses. They got away with cheating because they don't get caught whenever they false start on that play. Buga.

Buga. Bucca Nakuwa. His quarterback is not named Tua. That was the game that everybody was talking about yesterday. The Cleveland Packers. game is a bit inexplicable. We'll have to talk about it, although I don't want to. It was not a game worth watching. Cleveland ruins football. Like they play, their defense is great. I'm just so tired of these half teams, the Gators, the Browns, teams that can only do one thing and you're out

there watching. And of course, it's going to be 13 to 10 at the end. But that was the surprise of the day. Go ahead and name all the other games, though, that you would want to talk about. Chargers and Broncos. Chargers are 3 and O, and it's all in the division. Like, that's, I know, I know we talk about the Colts. Colts are the best story. Chargers might be the best story in the league. Yeah. Justin Herbert's been absolutely great. Good thing we took two up. Yeah. The Colts seem legit. That is, if you're a fraud team. Daniel Jones might be legit too. If you're a fraud team, you're rolling a Nissan stadium feeling yourself and you get all of a sudden dragged into a tough divisional game. They were just wire-to-wire dominant.

The Colts I saw during the second quarter, do you guys see this? During the second quarter of yesterday's game was the first time they punt in. that's nuts all season like they they had had no team had ever done that 19 straight drives to start a season no punts and they and then they put up 40 on the titans easily i think that i'm very curious to see how Tampa bay and philadelphia goes because rams kind of built to beat the eagles and they had the exact situation which you salt that game away and i was very surprised at the eagles ability to come back in that game i know exactly what they do when they have a lead. But what do they do when there are a couple scores out? They were really

impressive. Jordan Davis showed exactly why he got Heisman chatter as a defensive player at Georgia. That is a big man. And that was a very backbreaking return for a touchdown that ruined a big-time SGP for your boy. I had Auburn and I had the Rams this past weekend. That's hard times, down. It's hard times. I thought Philly coming back like that was the game of the week, mainly because I had picked the Eagles to win. But the game of the week is tonight. I mean, Lions at Ravens is a dream. Jared Goff and Lamar Jackson combined for nine touchdown

passes last week, and there's going to be even as many tonight, I think. It's going to be a nutty game. I don't care what the over under is. It's going to be 60 plus points tonight. I'm not going to mince words when I say this, so I don't want anyone to be confused. Chief Stink. That team stinks.

The offense, certainly. They constipated offense. It was tough to watch. That first half was tough to watch. You mentioned Jordan Davis, though. That's a pretty firm 336 pounds, you would agree, right? We all love seeing a big man run down the field, but usually we like it to jiggle more than that. We don't, like, if that were running at you or towards you or even chasing you,

that is a, that had more musculature on it that I'm used to seeing on a 336 pound person. He wasn't, like that seemed relatively as fit as 336 pounds can be. And I would say that that's about as good a feeling as you can have in that sport, both blocking the kick and then returning it 50 yards in your home stadium with the ball when you're never supposed to have the ball at that side. I'm picturing the coaches being like, get down! Get down! Yes, but the reason I will not say that that was the best feeling you can have

is because Isaiah Rogers exists on the Minnesota Vikings. And so he has an 80-yard interception return. He has a 69-yard touchdown fumble caused, and he recovered it, and he ran the 69 yards with it, and he caused another fumble in that game. And I told you that even though the Bengals were 2-0, that their season is over. And I also told you, Greg, that you got inflated on the Atlanta Falcons just because they won at Minnesota when Minnesota had a quarterback who doesn't know how to play football yet in the pros, and they replaced him with Carson Wentz.

and then all of a sudden they put up 40 points because Isaiah Rogers exists. Yeah, and now once has the start until otherwise notified. You're right. I mean, I inflated Atlanta based on that one result. And in the NFL, it's easy to do that because, you know, Carolina looked like bleep, and then they win 30 to nothing. I mean, it's very difficult this league. There's parity all over the league.

You know, the worst team of the league can play the best team. And Brown's one. The Browns, right. I mean, it's very difficult. There's five, what are there now, three and old teams? Five or six? There's a lot of three and old teams. Some of them are going to end up nine and eight. I mean, you know, things happen in this. Yeah, six of them. Yeah, that's a lot. Let me give you these Daniel Jones Colts stats. They've now scored 103 points in their first three games. No Colts team has ever done that. None of the Paint Manning teams did. The 2025 Colts and 2007 Patriots. Is that the? the undefeated Patriots of Randy Moss? The 2007 Patriots are the only teams in the Super Bowl era to start 3 and O while punting fewer than five times. And now the Colts have scored on 77% of their possessions, the most of any team after three games in 45 years.

To your Patrick Mahomes' chief's point, during one era here, the era that we remember of the chiefs, they were scoring on between like 35 and 37% of their possessions. it's now 4%. It's 4%. You don't even want to watch the chiefs. And last night, Andy Reid's had enough of the Kelsey stuff.

He gave him a shoulder. That was the rare incident where the coach goes looking for the physical contact and the tight end didn't want any of it. Like I saw the headlines that said Kelsey involved in another kerfuffle and I'm like, man, Kelsey didn't want any parts of Andy Reid. Andy Reid went looking for the physical contact there.

They have done that a bunch. They've gone at each other. This is like at least the third time I've seen them go at each other on the sideline like that. This is the first time I've seen Andy Reid initiate physical content. Well, yeah, because Travis Kelsey is a non-factor now. Like, Travis Kelsey can't fight back when you don't do anything every single game. Andy Reid's, he's tired of him. You suck now.

Do something. Travis Kelsey has turned into an average tight end, which is one of the many. Not even average. One of the many offensive problems they have that. The chiefs have turned into the gators of the NFL. Well, and the thing that I loved about the Travis Kelsey Reed thing is that, man, we love the heated exchange on the sideline. As soon as that happened, and you see it on TV, I'm like, okay, we're going to be talking about that tomorrow. That's in all the headlines.

We're going to make a big deal out of this because we do that. Kind of like when you get mad around here, we love it. Look, it's a violent game. There's a dozen heated exchanges on a sideline every game that aren't televised that we don't see. it's a violent game things happen but we love the heated exchange it's rare though that the coach goes looking for the contact and if kelsey had done that to read it would have been a bigger deal i want to ask the it's honestly inappropriate a person in a position of power going and causing physical altercations with his subservience is something that the league should look into well they should take it up with hr for sure the chiefs should take it to human resources when does it when does though a argument rise to the level officially of heated? When, what needs to happen for it to be an exchange that is heated?

Like the minimum. The minimum? What is the- I think one bump, any bump, is heated? I think the heated exchange needs to result in something happening on the field. In other words, if Tyree Kill and Mike McDaniel are going at it, and then later in that game, Tyree Kill refuses to re-enter the game, even though he's not hurt, then I think that exchange that may have led to that is newsworthy. When the finger makes an appearance, when there's a point.

This is the way you play the game, Greg. I don't know what you're doing. We're doing the semantics of Heated Dad. I don't know what you just did there. He was looking for the minimum bar for entry on Heated, and you gave us Tyree Kill not coming into a game. Yeah, because after a heated exchange, that's when it becomes newsworthy.

If you're sitting and then you're forced to stand up and argue, that's one of the conclusion. I don't think my dad knows how we're playing this game. Yeah, Greg, do you understand? They're playing Fantasyland. You're giving real-life examples that are helpful. I answered it the way I answered it. Yeah.

Yes, you did, Greg. That's not... You said what you said. Yes, that's true. You did answer it the way that you answered. Can't argue with that. There's no arguing with it. Thank you.

Can we argue with the way that your father pronounces Malachi? Here we go. Here we go. Malaki. Okay, that's two. I'm going to keep track. Give me that pen. I'm going to keep track how many times during the show that that airs.

Maliki three so far. Okay. To be fair. They'll render a seven and a half on draft case. It would be best to use tallies, I think, for this one, Greg. You're going to have to keep scratching out the numbers. Yeah, you're right. I'm like a prisoner.

I'm riding off the days. Here we go. So minimum barrier for entry on how an exchange gets to Heated. Roy offered a good example. If someone goes from sitting down to standing up, we're coming dangerously close to Heated. Zazlo is right when he's saying if there's a finger being wagged or pointed. Okay. Those are the obvious answers.

You want an obvious answer for me? Oh, you're going off the board. You want an obvious answer for me when it comes to a shove, okay? There's physical contact. I said that already. Somebody shoved somebody. Those are all obvious answers. Mine is extrapolation.

Okay, I'm saying what really matters is if that physical exchange, that heated exchange, shows an effect in the game. That's all the matters. Because otherwise, it's one of a million heated exchanges. Everybody, the next day, predictably, is going to say, oh, it's no big deal. playing that, no big deal, which is exactly what Reid did. But contact goes beyond heated, don't you think?

Maybe. No, not in the football context. Hell no. You don't think, well, we've gone, when there's contact, you've gone from heated to assault. You're in the region of assault. Like, we were looking for just heated, just something that's getting hot. Well, Andy took it to assault, not Greg. Andy's the one that made contact. Agreed.

And by the way, I think the question that we're not asking that we all should be asking is, how is this going to impact the relationship between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey, because if we remember correctly, Taylor Swift's family has known Andy Reed for some time, much longer than she has known Travis Kelsey. Her father used to know Andy Reed. So now we have a situation where family friends are beefing with fiancés.

And I don't know whose side you take in this and where the family is going to stand in this situation. And if this is something that the relationship can even survive. I agree with that. And did Andy Reid just lose his invitation to the wedding? I think there is still one. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, it's a big controversy nobody's talking about.

Off the top of your head, can you guys recall just thinking out loud here because it's not something I've given any thought to. Can you guys recall confrontations between a coach and a non-quarterback

that are always happening? Because Kelsey's level of stardom absolutely has something to do with this. Every coach in Antonio Brown. Usually the non-quarterback on the sidelines do not get into it repeatedly with the coach. They're not allowed to get into it with the head coach. And you saw what happened to Antonio Brown when he was doing it.

They got rid of him. You cannot keep having those with the coach, but you certainly can't keep having those with the coach if you're a non-quarterback and you're not producing. Because Kelsey, Kelsey's old now. There are a lot of miles on that body. It didn't even make sense that Kelsey was putting up the numbers that he was the last couple of years with.

the amount of mileage on that body, but generally speaking, a coach, especially a Super Bowl winning coach, you're not allowed to get those kinds of arguments with him if you're not Tom Brady? Yeah, you have to be a player of stature. There's no question about that. You're never going to see the second team guard doing that. I've never seen a tight end do it is what I'm saying. I'm saying that tight end never has a level of fame that he's allowed to do any of that, that any of that can go to his head where he's always arguing with his head coach in public. I feel like it happened with Kishon and then Gruden threw him off the team. Yeah.

Wide receivers, it does happen. DeAndre Hopkins, Bill O'Brien had one. I think Richard Sherman had one before. I remember old NFL films footage of this happening in the parcels a couple of times. It didn't happen once with L.T. Kevin Green got into a fight with his lineback coach. You guys think that Dan Quinn should have gone into the concussion protocol? He had a bloody nose.

He was knocked down by Marcus Mary. Marcus Marriota hit him on the sideline. And are you guys always surprised the way that normal-sized human beings go flying when they're hit by players on the sideline? Normal-sized human beings go and they skid across the floor like it's a John Wick movie. They're being pulled by a rope when they get hit by these guys. And that's Marietta. That's not, you know, it's not Jordan Davis. I don't understand how someone can watch Jordan Davis do what he did and think that this game should be legal.

That person has an unfair physical advantage. It's like watching Markell Bell at six foot nine moving a pile. I wanted to ask you about, since we were talking about Bell, he's bigger than Bryant McKinney, correct? He looks bigger than everybody who's on the field with him. So I haven't seen them stand next to one another, but there's a, McKinney is one of the biggest human beings that ever. You worked with Brian McKinney, right? It's just, it's not just a height thing.

It is a shoulder thing with Brian McKinney. He walks near you, the sun goes away. Markell Bell doesn't exactly quite have that. He's very tall. He's the first guy off the bus energy for sure. But Brian McKinney just is just like a filled out human being is bigger. I had McKinney on my show this weekend. It was like, looking in a mirror.

He has a soda drinker's body. in retirement. I remember when Dwight Freeney came to the Orange Bowl, I'm pretty sure Bryant McKinney never allowed a sack at the University of Miami, not even in practice. I'm pretty sure that that stat is correct. Practice how you play. But Dwight Freeney came into town as a first round pick from Syracuse, and it was amazing seeing the size difference between them. And Freeney was trying to use his speed and kept getting stuck in McKinney's naval. Like just had just McKinney just kept putting his arms out to here without holding him

and McKinney would just engulf Dwight Freedy. But now we have another one of those. We have two of those to tackle now. Two first rounders. Man, Saturday pretty close to being, if that Marty Brown touchdown holds up, that's probably the greatest say of my life. That tailgate.