The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 8

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

This episode of the Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show covers one of the most challenging, but creatively fulfilling times in our history. Dan, Stu, and the rest of the crew are putting together great shows with fun bits and becoming bonafide stars at ESPN. Racial and political tensions in the United States, such as Colin Kaepernick’s national anthem protests and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, are just on the horizon, though, which leads to conflict between Dan and the executives in Bristol, with Mike Ryan inevitably getting caught in the middle. Would John Skipper’s seal of approval be enough to quell these tensions, or would Dan’s inability to “stick to sports” be too detrimental to overcome? Find out as Dan, Stu, and Mike reminisce about this period. And make sure to hang around for a great super cut featuring our interviews with Trump, the famous afilador conversation, and Stugotz’s shameless restaurant reservations.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit HelloFresh.ca and use code SPOTIFY for your exclusive offer. At one point you had gone public saying you had a sex addiction, right? No. Stoogehuts. He caused them a game last night. Although they won the game. But had they lost, I'm telling you, it would have been on Lamarcus Aldridge. Twenty mediocre years. I'm doing a thing!

Stooge! I'm doing a thing! I'm doing a thing! Stooop! I'm doing a thing! We were to play that! I'm running out! This is the oral history of the Tan Levitard show with Stugatz. In both rummaging around in our past over some things with Stugatz and Mike Ryan that we haven't talked about

or covered before until we did this oral history and also revisiting, listening to some of the oral history and enjoying that. I realized that up to now in the story there's been far more misery than there should be for a thing that is having success and feeling like it is growing and getting bigger. There are a lot of growing pains in this, but this episode is gonna concentrate on what comes closest, I would say, for me, to feeling like a blissfully confident time. I don't think I can say the same thing for Mike Ryan,

because he was running interference between me and other people in a way that he had learned to be not just protective, but also Stugatz, one of the interesting things about it is for me to not know when and how he was being protective so that I didn't actually feel the unrest from our bosses at all. Like Mike was dealing with stuff that I remember this is a happy time because okay you're gonna actually give me freedom there aren't going to be problems I'm going to get what my people want as a time slot and a work experience and we're more

comfortable and now we start soaring we start growing we have the power of Disney and a big time slot and we are invigorated by it creatively super invigorated by it we were really pushing ourselves creatively and we are invigorated by it creatively. Super invigorated by it. We were really pushing ourselves creatively and we had this whole new sandbox with the video element which we were growing in confidence with that allowed us to do not necessarily video first executions, but video supplement. We were always keenly aware

that we didn't want to alienate the audio audience which was at this point really growing. We made the move in mid days for a lot of reasons. Number one for me with a bullet was life balance. But number two was I think the show can get much bigger, not just because it's getting more clearance, but because our podcasts were a digital first property. That's how most of our audience consumes us. If we get to market earlier, I know, I just know we're going to see that bear out

over the podcast numbers. And it did. We were a podcast sensation. We were the biggest thing in sports podcasting, all while ESPN really knew very little about podcasting and how to monetize it. But we were crushing it. But Mike, explain that to the audience because we used to put the podcast out after we were done with the afternoon show. So they were getting it at seven o'clock, seven thirty eight o'clock at night. You're saying putting that episode out, the podcast episode at one thirty was a big advantage for us. It's a couple of things here that make for wonderful timing and a cool part of the story. This becomes a podcast property of significance without us having any support around us that's real from

any of the people who are running anything. I'm not talking about ESPN, I'm talking about in our entire history. They don't know what to do with this thing. They don't know how to value the changing marketplace that makes us an audio sensation. And they don't know how to measure either, the relationship that gets built in the intimacy of, people are able to consume you on their own time in lonely jobs, when they're jogging, their exercise, when they wanna get away from errands,

or whatever, you're following them around in their life now in a way that's not just in the car. It was the single biggest bet that we made as a show. No doubt. The decision to prioritize digital audio when you made your money not driving people away from the commercials. You made your money having people sit in their cars through those commercials. Single biggest bet

that we ever made it was what we were best positioned for because we always had a keen understanding of where the industry was going and to have this move coincide with this huge podcast boom that we were at the forefront of, it immediately paid dividends on a huge bet because it didn't come without risk. At the forefront, accidentally, I would say you were protecting things. I think that short sells like how strategic we were. When I say accidentally, I know, but wait, when I say accidentally, it's because when you don't have support of any of the people who are paying you, and you're undercutting the main ways they make money with the decisions you're making, we are

fighting for something that matters to us and mattered to Mike specifically more than it did to me and Stu Gantz who grew up in a different time. So that's why I say accidentally. I'm fighting for what Mike Ryan believes in just because he believes in it. It's not because I'm a lot better than all these other executives and seeing what the future looks like. But we've always followed Mike Ryan because he's younger, because he cares about us, because he knows the industry.

Like you're right, you and I just wanted to speak into a microphone and do radio. I had no idea that people wanted to listen on their own time. But on ESPN though, what had already happened is Bill Simmons had come and gone as somebody who pioneered this particular space and they didn't know how to interact with that either which they had

you know before they had us. Yeah they accidentally stepped into a lot of digital audio success because of our hard work our decisions our occasional fighting to keep this RSS feed alive the RSS feed that you're listening to right now is the one that we created back in 790 in the bowels of Miami Gardens. It came with us through ESPN. I saved it seven times. You never actually did.

And it followed us. And yeah, we were very strategic with this and we were constantly trying to get podcast exclusive content. You were very strategic with this. Well, I was strategic with it, but me and my production team, the shipping container, editing the podcast was a massive chore because I didn't want to have this huge runway of getting my podcast to market as soon as the show ends and then work on post-production for two hours. So you would occasionally lose a producer because we would post hours as it would finish.

And that was a huge advantage for us. And we never really got that much pushback from ESPN as to how we were releasing it. There was one guy at ESPN whose his whole job was digital, PG and Cine, and he was just marveling. And he gave me a lot of great advice on cadence and how to release things. I know it was a bit controversial, especially with some of our contemporaries, our strategy to break it up, thinking that we were gaming a system. I would say, no, we're not gaming a system. We're actually getting the rewards for the work that we're doing.

Other podcasts do maybe three hours of content a week. We do four hours a day. Our episode lengths are just as long as your episode lengths. It was really how ESPN wanted to do it. I actually followed there because I was kind of old school Rogan model. Let's just pump out three hours at one time. It really helped shape and inform how I would go forward. I wish we did a little bit more with digital video because those were the very early days, but I wasn't getting leadership there from ESPN. I was kind of leading

the way when it came to digital audio. It was really cool to see that be a successful bet. And it was a little frustrating too in that we found even the worldwide leader couldn't sell it, couldn't monetize the podcast. Matter of fact, they never figured it out. They just outsourced it. They don't actually sell their own podcast inventory. It's a shame because they've had properties like Bill and us in-house and they kind of wasted that opportunity in ways that I kind of wasted the opportunity to leverage their

digital video assets. When you say we didn't build out the video stuff there, it was when we left the ESPN and I see it in the numbers now when it is that I have to do the excruciating task of looking at our accounting. The making of the video product of the growth of MetalArk's support of this thing is really expensive and really hard. And we weren't even able to do it while we kept the RSS feed, which was hugely important from one day to the next, leaving ESPN and then landing somewhere else without changing your listening habits.

The video thing you guys have felt over the last four years, the rattling that that has done to our cage, just trying to build all that stuff while we're doing the three and four hours a day. I wish I was smarter back then. I wish I was smarter and more capable. Well, Mike, it was hard to see though. I mean, I saw the podcast thing coming. I should have seen the digital video thing coming.

It's not like I didn't see it coming, but it just felt like it was too difficult to do all those things simultaneously at once. It is. We've been doing it for four years, and it is. My main regret there, if you will, on the digital video front is we didn't have to do that part particularly well. That actually didn't have to meet our standard. We just had to be doing it more actively.

I wish I had a grandfathered RSS feed for video like I did with audio. That wasn't the case. So that's the one misstep I made. While I made very good bold moves on the audio front, digital video, I think you can certainly nitpick and say I made some mistakes along the way. You say that though, but I would argue, and I'd be curious what you guys think

of this philosophically, I would argue that the most charming versions of our show, even though we did this part well creatively during this time period, is when it seemed like we didn't know we were being watched. And so once you add the video component to what it is we're doing, and you let people know through social media,

you're applauding their behavior, all of a sudden everybody in here who knows that they're being watched, it makes it just slightly less authentic in a way that I didn't love that change. But, but Are you saying that I'm faking it? I mean, not, not, not you, I'm not even talking about you, but in making the transaction, you guys know,

we've covered all the ways that I wanted to be careful about selling out because I really valued the chemicals that we had that kept it not only comfortable but also so much more relaxed when you don't have directors yelling in your ear when you don't have to worry about what something looks like visually and then can just tell private jokes with you know internet cameras that are amusing your audience. I'm glad you mentioned that too because another thing that I kept away from you was the actual directing on site in Miami. Charlie had left to DC was gonna start climbing in his career.

We had Lorenzo's very green. We had a very small team in DC. I was also kind of producing the video product as well, giving camera cues, making sure that it was relayed sometimes through a scene. So you're producing us and you're talking to them at the same time. Yeah. I'm remembering only director and Lorenzo. I'm not remembering a third person involved with whatever it was, our Washington television

product. That was our Washington product, but we had stage directors in Miami. We also had camera operators here in Miami. And sometimes, look, I'm not going to relay a message to DC when this is a show that is so heavily reliant on comedic timing. So sometimes I just go direct to our camera operator and DC kind of falls in line. But all that to say, like you needed to feel like that wasn't actually an operation that was going on.

And you did a great job by not showing your hand because I knew it was going on. I'm not certain Dan did, but I knew what you were dealing with. I just- You weren't just a radio producer anymore. You were dealing with a TV staff. I learned how to produce TV. Right. And I learned right then and there that production is production to a large degree.

Like a lot of the skill sets that I was leaning on when it came to the sonic experience of the show translated, whether it be communication, leadership, foresight, all that stuff, intuition. I knew where to put the cameras better than the camera operators just because I knew the show better. And by knowing the show better than anybody else It also made me the most qualified person to produce and not to take anything away from people in DC But they were kind of following my lead there. That was such a fun playground that I do remember very casually Mentioning to one of the very high higher-ups at Pablo's wedding at a table Hey, you know

It would be really easy to just throw our show on ESPN 2 for three hours and you guys would have an amazing amount of cheap programming there that you're already paying for. And I thought to myself, what an enormous evolution for me to be even offering that to this person when I was super enjoying the creative space of, ah, nobody's watching this. We just got two people in Washington, Eric Ridehome, the producer of Highly questionable. A little business and a wedding for you too.

Yeah, I would say that that's where I also realized while in that conversation, oh, we are too hot for everything happening here. Connor Schnell has no interest in what it is I'm saying. This is a fascinating story. If you've been following, yeah, they don't actually watch any of this stuff. They've never watched any of this stuff. I was going to ask you to name names, but you did.

Thank you. You know what's fascinating about that story, and believe it or not, it's not that the fact that the ESPN suit doesn't listen or watch what's on ESPN. That job is pretty all consuming, and I can understand how someone doesn't actually get around to watching what they're putting out. The most unbelievable part about that story is, look at your growth and your relationship with TV just over the last few episodes,

hating your fusion experience, going to ESPN, moving to mid days, being on the main set, to the point that we have to take a sabbatical from TV, a two week departure, no cameras at all, move back into our room. It was that instantaneous and it was that seamless. The move to DC had you growing in confidence,

me working in concert with the TV team, had you come around so hard that about a year later, you're saying, put us on ESPN too. Full press, I mean. It wasn't even an opportunistic thing. I just was trying to be helpful on, we're already doing this. You're already doing a bunch of stuff with

ESPN radio that is just throw away video stuff it was more offering him an opportunity i was only casually interested in it was just like here's three hours of programming right that as you can tell you were doing it for him huh is now very valuable it wasn't just him those two guys i mean the president of the company asked us to do a job for them And now I was growing in the kind of comfort that I needed to to actually want to do the job because there wasn't Interference or I thought there was an interference because all of that interference was landing on Mike throughout this entire oral history One of the things that's going to make an appearance is some form of I didn't know exactly things that's going to make an appearance is some form of I didn't know exactly the job that Mike was doing.

He was doing it so well and protecting me from so many things that I have since, tears in my eyes, subsequently apologized to Mike Ryan for not understanding and appreciating the job that he was doing. That was done by design though, right Mike? I mean... Yeah, well, my job was to keep Dan comfortable because a comfortable Dan gave us the best possible content. The job is Dan. The job is Dan.

I am talent producing first and foremost. And the best way to produce my talent is to make sure that the grounds are most fertile around him for creativity and simple execution. Because I know that one simple mistake, especially on the TV side, can really undo a good show. So making sure that we're clean or a good career. Or yes. You realize the comfort I got from not that many people are watching

at ESPN. The comfort, the security in, oh, they're not watching what we're doing so we can push the lines more and I won't have to make changes until the complaints come. But the complaints aren't getting to me. They're only stopping at Mike. Well, complaints did come because keep in mind, we replaced Colin Cowherd. And when you move to mid days, in our afternoon experience with the ESPN, we'd hear from affiliates, we'd get feedback.

But now when you're in a spot at the radio day part where you get way more clearance, you get a lot more opinions from program directors. Of course. And Dan wasn't really on these affiliate calls. We'd only bring them into the more important ones, but quarterly I'd get briefed on how our radio show is doing terrestrially. There were a lot of good stories there, like, wow, our show randomly is huge in the Carolinas. And there were unfortunate stories, like, look, while we were mid-days here and struggled enough with how do we establish a zig?

We're not running counterculture to a full day's worth of coverage We were the morning show out in LA and LA was a huge Affiliate for ESPN and you would have thought because Miami is similar to LA in a lot of ways Our show would have taken off there It didn't they hated us the station hated us the fans hated us because they wanted to hear their Lakers talk. They wanted to hear their USC Trojan talk. Colin was always very good about forcing the issue when it came to the Los Angeles market. We were just kind of doing our own thing and it really blew up in our face when it came

to LA. So it's interesting because I remember for the first time we really had to change our approach to programming, to content, to how we were gonna do the show because even when we were on in afternoons at ESPN and ESPN radio, they told us Miami, focus on Miami. Do Miami, it's the biggest market you're on. Go Miami.

And that was easy for us. That was an easy transition. This was a difficult transition because I remember you and I having discussion saying how are we gonna cater to New York and LA? I never gave that a thought. I know. Not one thought.

But we had to. I had a conversation with Colin Cowhert and he is a Navy SEAL of strategic radio knowledge on how it is. He can fake caring about something in Los Angeles just because he wants to talk to Los Angeles. Sometimes occasionally he gets caught on some of that stuff. Walking around with a bowl of soup. I would say it can be a bumbling Navy seal, but strategically for what executives want,

can you plan your show so you're satiating Los Angeles is not something I ever thought about. You say we've got a program to Los Angeles in New York We were huge in New York. We are leaving really Yes, and there were really good stories when it came to the radio ratings in New York But you're always going to be compared to Mike Francesa there But the last book before they took us off ESPN radio in New York Dan and I we had cracked the top 10 Yeah, and then they yanked us off ESPN radio in New York, Dan and I, we had cracked the top 10. Yeah. And then they yanked us off that station. That was a Stephen A Smith and WFAN play that they made as a radio strategy team.

You guys say you guys were talking about it and it was challenging for you. I don't remember a single conversation where you guys came to me on, we have to do this for Los Angeles because we're the morning show there. No, and that's why we were off because we didn't do this stuff that Colin was so good at being able to kind of ham it up I mean I didn't care though. You know you didn't care Mike and I had discussions Which we could have done with you giving more of a low Yeah But I wanted Dan to focus on what Dan wanted to focus on and I'll be thinking about you know any market in particular

Dan's an artist the only market he's ever cared about catering to is Miami. And at that point, it had been pretty successful going about his work that way. It had proved to be a winner. So I don't blame him. It would have made my life a little bit easier. And sometimes it's pride swallowing, knowing that, ah, man, I thought for sure we'd work in LA. But we did.

And another aspect of Dan's workflow that we probably took for granted was right before we went to mid days, Dan was as locked in on sports as he's ever been in his life. Super sharp because why? He's taping highly questionable before the show. So he's coming out, he's already testing takes and he's fully informed. He's getting research packets back then. I also used to write for highly questionable. So he came in super sharp. Now his work day is totally flipped and he's doing the radio show and he's not getting that prep, he's not getting the research, he hasn't been able to see how other people dissect stories.

So I'm curious, did you also miscalculate having to do this before Highly Questionable as opposed to after? The way that we did this philosophically starts with, because you mentioned sports and that is not the thread that I need. The thread that I need is I really need to not respect the thing that I'm doing so I could blaspheme against it. I need to not

respect television. Sure. I need to not respect radio and what allows that zig is the fact that everyone else is in sports coats Respecting what it is that they're doing So you're noticing that I'm more informed with the sports stuff and that is absolutely so because what we were doing not just on Television highly questionable was a really smart show done with really smart people that shows booming simultaneously So I'm not merely in meetings with Sports Takes, I'm meeting with Sports Takes where I'm learning what everybody is saying around the horn, pardon the interruption, and everybody behind the scenes.

What a meeting. Yeah, but I didn't want to be in it. I did. I didn't want to be doing much of that. One of the interesting things that happened throughout all of this, right, my maximum comfort when our show started to go national was in the fact that I always had in reserve, no matter where we stalled out, Miami Sports, Miami Sports, Miami Sports. Now what I had is sports. When I talk to people and they don't totally understand because they're not built in this world what the personality type is that can talk for three and a half hours and have it be some semblance of entertaining for three and a half straight hours. There's not a lot of that. We could do a lot of that in all of the places

where I didn't have respect for stuff and at any given point, if I've wandered 12 minutes too far on the Masked Singer, I could just swing back to sports story of the day and everyone would have something on that. It was such a great time for our show. It was such a big playground, a wide playground. I remember that because we're not doing afternoons now.

We are in the middle of ESPN's day, both on radio and on television. We're dictating conversations that are happening on other shows that are airing after hours. And I was so thrilled because to be the show that is anti-establishment and be firmly entrenched deep inside the establishment was such a cool playground for us. We found a way to rage against the machine while inside the machine and for no one on the outside to pick apart that hypocrisy.

Right. Because everybody knew the dynamic. We didn't fit. The salespeople certainly knew it. Dan still is not doing reads Dan will occasionally be the talent that'll say the worst possible thing ever. That's also a learning moment for that Meeting was fun. Yeah, that was one of the few times that damn was I love a good radio sales meeting I had to go to that because I said such bad things about

Again, I was trying to protect you and you didn't even see it Hey, Dan. I'm like What are you doing, dude? I'm trying to protect you from even naming it and you're over there calling predators I'm trying to get him on the air. I mean bleep all of it. Just bleep it all stop it We doing lives for us or whatever. This is a perfect example the type of talent that he you're right Mike I'm literally trying to put away away from it. This is it. And he says the worst fucking thing possible. It's a goddamn headache every time. There were plenty of things that I miss about this era

though, too, which is, number one, we moved to a different day part. Our commercials got longer. And while that was frustrating, man, do I miss being able to create content within the breaks. Yes. I really miss something organically happening in the back during the break that we're just

laughing through, Dan picking up on it and starting a segment with that stuff. Something that's kind of been missing from the show ever since. I don't think there's anything I miss more than that from our- The eight minute commercial break. Our present inco- I'm not talking about the eight minute commercial break itself. I'm talking about the gathering where I get to just observe you guys wandering around in the wild and Stugatz is doing Stugatz stuff. So when he's shooting sausage fingers over the break, oftentimes the stuff that's happening

is funnier than anything that we could conjure on live. There was some great content during the breaks. Dan would never participate. He wouldn't say a word. He would just hop and watch. But he would sit there and he would write things down. So sometimes I was doing it so Dan could hear me so he knew to bring it on the air because he knows,

for the most part, I don't really care what we talk about here on the air. We were doing a show for Dan. We were trying to bring our topics, you and I, Mike, to life by talking about them in a weird way during the break. Yeah, that's how magic about that. But also in a loud way.

And Dan was writing them down and I knew he would come back from commercial break with what it was you and I knew he would come back from commercial break with what it was you and I were just discussing. Constantly workshopping. That's also how we would play really well-received rejoin music. We had our rejoins and then song, and I would be very thoughtful with how I do it,

often sending subliminal messages with the set list for the day. But I would play a song and then play with playing a sound in the BPMs in between. Show within the show. Making remixes, and I would use that time and then play with playing a sound in the bpm's in between show within the show Making remixes and I would use that time to see like if this would work and we'd go live and we'd do that Because it worked with our bullpen essentially. I really miss that stuff. It really brought a lot of creativity I don't know how interested in the weeds and the minutiae people

Would be on how it is that we do this show in the minutiae people would be on how it is that we do this show. But I would argue that in the history of ESPN, television and radio, from the perspective of the hosts, there's been never as little planning from the hosts on what it is they're going to do when the microphones go on. They wanted rundowns from us. They wanted organization. We didn't know what they were talking about because we were doing three and a half hours of improv that then became a structured thing or what felt like a structured thing, at least in part because the producers had learned how to plan around us without making it look like we were doing too much planning

because planning in our case I feel like can be the enemy of natural stuff it can lead to acting it could lead to moments that aren't organic and I guess bad actors I prided myself on the organic nature of what we're doing and not only are we bad actors we do not have a good actor here, except for maybe Mike. Maybe. Maybe Mike. I've seen Chris Cody freeze and have to read something 16 times.

Once you tell him this requires you to plan something and then say it, he'll fall apart. But if you just ask him to be him, that one he can do. One of my proudest things is that you guys would just stroll into the studio we turn the mics on and we'd go. Anytime we brought in a different guest host their head would be spinning at the pace that we'd operate but we prepared a lot because our show could go anywhere and I would often tell people how do you prepare for a show that can go anywhere you got to be

prepared for anything and everything and that's loads of pre-production that's loads of production in show and production can mean many things. It can mean a bit of imaging, or it can mean, hey, let's talk about this process right here. Why did that go wrong? How do we make it better? The communication is constant, ever evolving, 24-7, everything is feedback, everything is production. Just to give the audience an idea and take them really deep inside, I mean, there are

times I'm certain Dan walked in there and he had a list of things that he was thinking of talking about or had a list in his head and was going to start the show a certain way. And I can't tell you the amount of times until this day even where I will say something to Dan right before the microphones go on and whatever he had planned he changes it and that's where he starts. He starts right there and he hopes it's going to turn out great and most of the times it did and sometimes it didn't. One of the places where I have felt my aging over the years is I'm gonna go ahead and guess that on our first ten years doing the show I never had notes of any kind. Most of it was just rolling with whatever was in my head but I will say during this period and during the last

ten years the very best shows are the ones where I have notes and never get to them. Yes. Like I'm just leaving everything in the notebook because a bunch of stuff has happened that is better than whatever it is I thought I was going to do. Shout out to the show sheet.

A huge, massive booklet. That the baton was passed throughout the years. I took a lot of pride in the show sheet. Roy did the show sheet for us. You would get mad at us at times because we wouldn't look at it, right? We wouldn't read it. We killed so many trees. I'm telling you.

It was thick. It was much thicker than Sugat's personal record book. And you guys insisted. I remember there was one time that I'm like, all right, we're going to go largely digital with this to save some paper. And you guys hated it. And my resentment was such that I'm like, you guys don't read the hard copies but you insist on this but again talent comes first talents come Dan and I were still using at that time instant messenger on

AOL I mean that's all we were communicating his computer to mine you had your creature comforts and you were married to that and that's fine and it good producers fall in line do you agree with Dan if we didn't get to most of the stuff on the show sheet or in his head, we had a good show, right? That's a good show. That's a great show. That's always the hallmark of a good show.

Like, oh, damn, we didn't get around to that. Oh, damn, we didn't do this produce bit. Oh, damn, we didn't cover that. We had good stuff there. It's always the hallmark of a good show. So we're humming. We're doing good. We're clicking on all cylinders.

We're navigating Dan's amazing proclivity to step into it, especially with sponsors, but it's all fine. In large part due to, and this part can't be ignored, John Skipper as president at ESPN. And I want the listener to keep all of this in mind. And I want Dan and Sue to keep this in mind because things start happening, the world starts changing around this era. It creeps in with the Colin Kaepernick stuff. The lines between politics and sports become really blurred, probably the greatest example of that over the course of our time at ESPN. There were constant landmines around that. And then Trump's candidacy, keep in mind,

we had Donald Trump on the show several times. Yes, many times. Oftentimes, Dan was begging for him to run for president. Donald, do me a favor, break news right here on this show on ESPN radio. Don't wait till June. Are you running for office? Are you running for president? So I'm looking at it very seriously, fellas.

And by the way, you guys have a great show. That's why I'm doing it. But I think you have a great show. I watch it a lot. But I am thinking about it very, very seriously. And the country is in trouble. We're being laughed at by everybody. China's taking our jobs.

They're taking our manufacturing. They're manufacturing their loading us the money they're taking our money and then they loaded back to us we are trying to know one point three trillion dollars can you believe trillion one point three trillion dollars mexico's not our friend to mexico is doing a number of us not only at the border but they're doing a number economically they're taking our jobs like crazy

ford just announced a two and a half billion dollar plant in Mexico I am looking at it very seriously and I'll be announcing in June and I think a lot of people are going to be very very surprised one thing I will tell you if I decide to do it and if I win I will make this country great again because our country is run by people that don't have a clue and our country really I mean it's run by politicians and a politician and I've said it for a long time nobody knows them better than me they're all talk they're no action and this country is in trouble our country is in trouble.

We have no idea how the GOP is going to evolve how Trump becomes this massive cult of personality, but the seeds are there. Initially, Dan's rooting for all the chaos, but I'm curious, Colin Kaepernick. Regret that, Ernie. It's pretty amazing to think back on just how naive it was to welcome an anarchist to political debates and think it'd be a harmless clown show. As you say that, I'm just like going over everything that happened after 2016.

I'm like, my God, that happened after 2016 I'm like my god I that is as wrong as I've ever been in 2015 there was like an exchange like oh please you have to run Donald please run I love you guys I listen to your show all the time you guys are the best like that's like it's a real that's all I wanted to hear less than ten years ago less than ten years ago Dan and Donald Trump were showering each other with praise. But I'm curious, Colin Kaepernick for me, cause LeBron.

That's an amazing sentence. I mean, Pablo Torre started his podcast just exploring the tapes and didn't even get to the one where it sounds like I'm begging Donald Trump to run for president. Oh, you have to. Don, you have to. We probably should have kept going with that. We'd be Trump to run for president. Don! Don, you have to. We probably should have kept going with that.

We'd be in the cabinet for sure. No doubt. You guys would definitely have a cabinet position right now. I'd be the vice president. Honestly, I think we can get you approved right now. Lisa, there are problems. Oh, damn it. I got to stick to sports real quick.

Colin Kaepernick for me is a top five story in the history of this show. LeBron, all the Patriots stuff with Tom Brady being the football player of his generation with the coach of his generation and also on top of that, you dash scandal on top of it. That was a great story. But Colin Kaepernick, this was a story that probably challenged you guys in ways that you'd never been challenged before in front of microphones. And I'm very curious your approach to this, how our show probably talked about it more

than any other show because it was dangerous. It was almost self-governed over at ESPN. It wasn't so much people telling us not to do this. There was a lot of talent that just tried to punt on it altogether. I remember how great it felt because I knew, and I've always known, that I'm sitting next to this pillar of journalism

who's gonna handle topics like this better than anyone in our industry. So my strategy and the way I prepared for that topic was probably way different than how Dan was preparing for that topic. I was confident, I knew the guy who drove the show, he's got it, he's got it, he's got good opinions, they're gonna be great,

you're not gonna hear this from anyone else. My job has always been in those situations to think about how am I gonna get us out of whatever it is he's going to start and make it fun and make it funny. Which for you, your process pivots a little bit because the start of the show was you were a traditional sports guy. You had different takes on Colin Kaepernick. You and Dan were pretty much aligned from the get-go, so it wasn't a push and pull type

of thing. You might have spoken for Joe Sports fan occasionally, but you were really there to get us out. And we've learned this new character comedically, how we inject you into these segments. And I often use it as a device, Dan more often than not probably saw it coming, whether it's breaking NFL news. We use you often to get us out of places

where we kept getting too entrenched that were a little dicey for us professionally. So this is interesting for a lot of different reasons because you say this story was unlike other challenges and we might not have been prepared for. That particular story I'd been preparing for all my life. Like that one. There have been any numbers since then where I have fallen behind because the Sports Center is calling and they want me to talk

about transgender North Carolina bathrooms and I'm like, okay, wait a minute, what's the controversy here? Because there are any number of things like that that have made an appearance since where I'm not prepared for it. But I will say that something I learned that was both an illumination and I say this with no ego, it was just a real blessing to be a part of it. I remember listening to Bill Simmons and Chuck Klosterman on a podcast and they were as smart as anyone going and smart and it seemed clear to me in what they were talking about that they were dissecting

a sports issue for the first time that they had not considered that me and Bug Shambi had been talking about 10 years earlier. And Bug Shambi particularly, the way that he thought about sports and would then birth all of the people that I ended up gravitating toward at ESPN and were brought to us by Mike and because they just wanted to be around the fun thing, the Minas, the Bomaneys, the Dominiques, all of these people who thought about sports

a lot differently, all of that stuff, Boog and I were doing at the very beginning of what we were doing in sports radio down here So that particular story wasn't one that I shied away from that particular story because I'm Cuban exile and all that stuff and we're talking about freedom and black causes I'm like you've got to be shitting me that this is gonna land in the middle of sports I love the entire industry is sprinting away from microphones and Dan is running into the studio You know he was preparing for it though because Dan was actually for the first time talking about one of these crazy scenarios

Are actually playing out Dan did several shows on what if Peyton Manning were a Klansman? Yes for fun Like we just made that hypothetical just because he liked the challenge. He would have started So really. So good. We did like a week, we did a week of shows. I was in PTI's offices when I was doing that. I remember the way that they would look at me because I was saying, he's the MVP of the league. Who in the locker room is going to say, you can't be the wizard of the clan? I remember that feeling so dangerous, but I would just say, hey, I'm just following

Dan's lead. I mean, he asked me a question. It's a great, it's a great hypothetical. I never dared to write something like that because the rules were different in print. Remember the ESP in the magazine, what if Michael Vick were white and how poorly that went too. That was probably the second craziest Colts hypothetical

that we had behind, how much do you think a shopping cart with an arm attached to it? How many yards do you think it would get in a season? If you just give it a push start. We said it would be Dallas Clark. We said if Peyton Manning had a shopping cart, now it wasn't even an arm. You saw what Eli Manning did in a recent show of his

where he's hitting bowling pins from 50 yards away. We were saying just a shopping cart pushed into the secondary. How many yards? It would have a fumbling problem. But how many yards would it get per game? Maybe not if Peyton got it right in the basket. Look, we'll do this show again.

I think it would have Mo Ali Cox-like production really dds instead of screaming mo alley cox would be shopping cart with a mannequin arm does that shopping cart make it to the hall of fame it would be plus 800 every day versus score touchdown we take it every sunday mo alley cox is now over nine and a half yards for your per game on on betting props he would not be a hall of famer the shopping cart but it would be Dallas Clark. Do you guys remember how we started talking about Kaepernick and this whole story around him? Because many people might forget the Miami ties

to how this whole thing blew up. Kaepernick started doing this. He initially wasn't even kneeling. He was just sitting down. Then he famously consulted the teammate who had served, said, go ahead and take a knee that's a little bit more respectful. No one really picked up on it. There were whispers of this.

Then he came down to Miami and on the heels of the pig socks, the police officers depicted as pigs. The Fidel Castro shirt. Yes. And now you have this messenger trying to have a take that you support, a player's right to speak their mind and speak out against injustice. But also, Dan, you mentioned Cuban exile.

Now it appears, I know Armando Salguero had a huge, very passionate piece at that time. You have the message coming from a player that is wearing a Fidel Castro shirt, almost cosigning on the entire Castro experience. How did you handle that? Before you go down that path, I wanna start with some different Miami ties, because I

will tell you when I say that I've been preparing for this all my life. White bread, Hispanic, childhood, high school experience, very few black people. I get to the University of Miami as a journalist, and immediately the way I'm writing about the team and befriending players on the team, I am getting a crash course immediately the way I'm writing about the team and befriending players on the team, I am getting a crash course in the black experience. Just very rapid, you know, walking across campus with Bernard Clark and hearing for the first time, you know, Dan, there is justice in prison, right? Just us.

And he would hit that note in various forms for a long time. And so I'm learning all of this stuff as we go along. So once we get to police brutality and Colin Kaepernick, someone kneeling before the flag, to me the most important thing there as a symbol, if you're going to take a snapshot of it, isn't the flag. It's the freedom in the kneeling and that is something that Cubans don't necessarily agree with me on in Miami because they're like respect the flag. It represents freedom and I'm like no the ability to protest it is what represents the freedom that it still protects you

even though you disagree with it. Community stops listening the second he puts on the cash show shirt. Correct. Yeah, correct. Not just Mike. Well, he starts getting criticized a bit. Yeah, of course. Yes, initially we also criticized him because it was misstep. Of course, he was free to do it. But you can be right on one opinion and wrong on thousands of others. I've been doing it all my life. You've never done it. I've been doing it all my life. You've never done it. I've been doing it all my life. But I think this is perfect in terms of how different

me and Dan are because his approach was measured. It was from experience. It was from talking to people. I just got on the air that day because I was upset and I'm like, who cares? So Dan is measured, educated. He's given it to you, nuanced, all this stuff. He has the experience, right?

He's been waiting for this show his entire life. And all I was doing was blasting everyone who has ever stood for a national anthem, or not stood, and they've been farting, burping, putting in beds, talking to their kids, not paying attention to the actual national anthem, which you find at every stadium every Sunday in the NFL. It took you a while, but you kind of-

People were getting beers during it You found your angle there. Yeah me. I'm constantly getting feedback from ESPN from Liam or babysitter What are the talking points? How do I know I've gone too far? What do I say that? It's not necessarily an opposition, but have you considered I didn't like my allies at that time But I'm like, you know damn the flag means a lot to a lot of different people and you know Like I was just trying to be devil's advocate. Put you in a bad spot. I thought where you put you in a spot where people I think might have been

misidentifying your politics just because you were doing your job and not just doing your job. I need to articulate this very clearly to the audience. When I say that sometimes I did not know what Mike Ryan was doing. That is less so now. I know when Mike Ryan is now trying to push me off a topic, but because I am neither aware of the executive discomfort or care about the executive discomfort,

combined with Mike's not actually relaying the discomfort to me, what he's doing is, when I start talking and he wants to run me off of something, he's trying to produce me by simply forming the argument or the show lane that will take me somewhere else. It's kind of like putting a shiny thing in front of a toddler's crib to distract it or something because Mike is producing the show but he's not telling me how he's producing the show. He's just doing the kinds of things that run me into different directions. Sometimes it would

be with a different opinion. Have into different directions. Sometimes it would be with a different opinion Have you considered oftentimes though it would be with imaging or feeding sughats aqua? Yeah, like just giving him something that would slightly distract you Having Rick Springfield bombing out of nowhere and deliver his favorite colors Or you know doing something that was pre-produced we had also we had layers Magic created content was kind of born out of this stuff like it was all creative way that one I knew when you were doing that really that was a little more obvious Well it eventually became candid that it was his sole reason for existing was just to get Dan off of political

I missed that crazy It's so interesting that you guys remember some of this this way though, because I'm telling you that I did not feel either a hiccup of hesitancy or any great communal outrage from the power at ESPN. I really felt on that subject matter. This is why you guys hired me, right? This is the reason I'm here. Cut to John Skipper in his own voice

And yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, I think throughout all of this part of the reason why you're not feeling it And we got to a point later on at ESPN where that level of protection It would just go over my head and they would go direct to you and the reason why they weren't really going direct He wasn't because I was particularly effective in keeping them away Is I was the only person that they could talk to because John Skipper had handpicked you. And with that came a lot of protection, protection that we would later find out we would sorely miss. You talk though about protection, I wasn't fully aware of that either. You have to understand

that because I'm always negotiating freedom and because I really just want to be left alone in a way that's probably in retrospect not the most ambitious way to handle all of this. I was really working in the comfort of many people in Bristol told me you don't know how good it is that you have it in Miami because you're outside of the bubble. Eric Ridehome had that in Washington as well where you've got more freedom because you're not playing in the hallways there and they're not just reacting to everything that you were hearing. But when you say the protection that I had,

it's almost the opposite of how it is that I experienced all of that. Imagine how different this is to got for me and Mike Ryan, where he's getting the daily fearful calls about whatever. And I'm like, this is why I was hired. Not to avoid this, to talk about it. The reason that you employ me is because you in some form at least know who I am.

The place where I lost protection the most in retrospect was John Skipper leaving the power position, but the place where I felt least protected is, oh, these people don't actually know why I was hired, why I'm here, or who I am. Like they haven't listened to the show enough to know that this is who I am. You're not going to push me off of this. Yeah, but Skipper knew all that, right? Like you didn't feel that protection at all. In your defense, I don't think you were aware of it either because if you were,

you would have used it more. Yeah, that's fair. But I felt it. I knew. I saw the relationship. I mean, we went up to Bristol. I could tell how much John liked it. No, but that was after. I don't think Dan would have abused it, but I think he would have pushed it a little bit more if he knew the levels of security that John's cosign on our show.

But Mike, you have to understand my perspective on this. I didn't understand that I was in need of protection. I negotiated being left alone, and Mike Ryan's not bringing any of what he's dealing with to me. So I'm blissfully unaware of all of it and it's how I prefer it. Well, I guess citing your encouragement, Donald Trump runs for president and then the lines between sports and politics get more blurred. Donald Trump weighs in on Colin Kaepernick, uses a cuss word to describe Colin Kaepernick and the volume gets turned up

on all of this and you see extremism find its way into sports because they're using sports as a pathway to further that agenda. So fun times ahead for the radio show and we lose Skipper in the process and we lose all the protection and then Dan realizes what he had when it's gone. So all that's coming up. But in the next episode, we're going to hit pause on the narrative storytelling of our show and do something that we haven't been able to do yet, which is really focus on all the voices that helped us get the show to where it is. We haven't really had Greg Cody's voice bless us on this show yet, and I want to be able to pick apart each and every individual voice what our motivation was. So the next episode is going to be a pause on the narrative

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We'd do that differently if we had to go back and do that over? No, I don't think so. I mean, I think it was, you know, there's a large group of we would do that differently if we had to go back and do that on the i don't think so i mean i i think it was you know there's a large group of people out there that would like to see what's going on and look right now i will say this this country has bigger problems when we have a health care thing that's in total shambles and you can't get a website after spending a billion dollars i mean we have some very big problems but no i don't consider that at all there's so so many people, I walk down the street

and people are screaming, keep it going, keep it going. They love it. Now, maybe they like it for entertainment and maybe they like it because they believe it. But that is a, you know, it was a very, very serious subject and there are a lot of people out there that agree. So, you know, I don't, again, no regrets whatsoever. I just think that I'm onto other things and the other things are trying to help this country to do something, you know i don't again no regrets whatsoever i just think that i'm onto other things and the other things are trying to help this country

to do something you know if you look at russia if you look at china if you look at india if you look at so many places that are just doing so well and then you look at what's happening in this country we've got some very very big problems and their problems it could be straight out because the country has such tremendous potential Donald Trump with us here on ESPN radio Who is your best famous friend like among your famous friends?

I'm giving you the opportunity you've waited for all your life your Trump to just name-drop all of your friends And so I'm wondering who is your best of your famous friends? You know what people don't know about me I have a lot of friends. I have a lot of good friends and that's not my image I'm wondering who is your best of your famous friends? You know what? People don't know about me. I have a lot of friends. I have a lot of good friends and that's not my image, but I actually have people that do like me, which is a little hard to believe. Well, I have a lot of people in the sports world. Bob Kraft is a friend.

Coach Belichick is a friend. Tom Brady is a friend. And by the way, Tom Brady is a great guy. And I hope that all works out and I hope it works out well and soon, tom brady's a global and so how do you experience if these are your best friends how did you experience the flight date like if if brady i did experience it and i go along with tom and you know a lot of people questioning whether or not they were actually measured properly and there's a lot of different things can go on but

i can only tell you this tom brady is an honorable guy is an honest guy and he's a really good guy i play golf with tom brady and if he played because i've won a lot of club championships over the years i could tell you if you play he would be a phenomenal he played more he would be he's got tremendous golf talent i'm sure you're not surprised to hear that because you know it's great at one of the time you come on here you tell us a great golfer i don't care whether he's a great golfer I do

Donald I do is good Ella friend I know him well I like him a lot he's had a rough year there's no question about it but I think he's a terrific person he's a very good man good golfer I don't know him as a golfer Donald Trump cornered Donald Trump! Finally! We've cornered Donald Trump! But I'm just curious, as you've seen Deflategate play out in the press, I'm curious if your friends with Belichick and Bob Kraft, like Bob Kraft, that was a hugely humbling thing that he had to experience where he goes from, the NFL is going to owe me an apology soon,

to never mind, I'm going to run away with my tails between my legs. Well I was surprised that he did it and personally I would have never done it in a million years I would not have done what he did. I was very surprised that he took the punishment without an appeal. I think you're always better off appealing because if you appeal you're going to get something out of it. Even if it's not much you're going to get something. So there must have been tremendous pressure i mean i know bob well and

he's a terrific person and uh... he's got a he's been a great team owner if you think about it with you're not too much uh... drama he's just taking that team and they've got a great job for many years now it helps when you have bellacheck and it helps when you have brady but he's been a very good team or i was very surprised when he didn't take an appeal.

Actually, Trump, you mean not much drama outside of the giant cheating scandals? Well no, there's a scandal going now but I'm saying up until this point certainly there hasn't been. For somebody that's been at the top of the heap for so long, I think there's been very little drama. Now this has caused a little bit of drama and they've had a couple of things with has been some drama but if you think about it they've done really well

lots of super bowl lots of everything else they've been in lots of super bowls at two super bowls that could have been one they could add five but uh... you know i i think there's been a lack of drama for for somebody that's been in that position which i give a lot of credit for I think Bob Kraft has been a great owner I think the last time that you were on with us you told us that your biggest business regret the transaction I think I have this right was your yacht was that do I have this right that your yacht was the bit the biggest purchase You made that you regret the most well that could be I had a yacht a very big one

It was Adnan Khashoggi shot It was called the Nabila. And I was never a yacht person, but I, and I'm a golfer. And golf and yachts don't work. So I buy this yacht, unbelievably expensive, 72 people in crew, and I never used it. And I said, what am I doing? And I'd have this yacht all over the place. And because I wanted to play golf.

And at that time, I, this was before I had all these clubs and I play at Wingfoot because Wingfoot is a great place where I'm still a member. It's a great course and I love playing golf. So I play golf and by the time you play golf, you say, I don't want to go on a yacht. So I'd have the yacht sitting all over the world and I'd never go see it. And it was a good day when I sold the yacht. So I consider that to be a stupid purchase. Absolutely.

Give us the coolest person you played golf with i played golf with so many i played golf with sort of they're all cool in the road where but i'd play with michael jordan is a great guy also gambling gambling gambling trump now not so much every day and let me tell you michael's a good copy of a lot of people say all of these overrated is over michael can play what were the stakes trite he's a great chipper and he's a great potter state on the golf gambling i know george george not playing out there for

free i don't know what were the stakes a little bit but you got to ask michael about that though i don't know if you want to call me conference and then we'll ask him a right now i don't know what the stakes you'll be happy when i say he was a great one i know but i'm not as i do want to know what we were partners and we want okay we were partners and we want well who we played against uh... we were playing well actually we had on a concern stem in the group

and we had somebody else on your side well no no i think it was a company also said and when we realized how good she was we immediately all fought over realize that good she was a little bit over a lot of care article was seriously good and she is seriously good terrific and i think it was the stakes of the bad now i don't want to do that i don't want to a better i don't know what another way the highest stakes that

donald trump is ever played for on the golf course well actually the highest stakes are united some of my best deals on the golf course and i've gotten to know people and i'm i bought trump tower on and you know if that that built it but i bought the site because of gulf because the people that i played golf with really like to be a lot and i made the deal because of them i mean because of golf and i've made many great deals and these are billion dollar deals

because of golf so golf and you know i tell the people at the warton school of finance which is considered the best business school i say you know you should teach golf at the school cuz i've made many great deals on the golf course one of the reasons i got turned very was because the gulf i was playing something else and the folks that had term very for many years i've got to know me on the golf course and

i was able to get turned very in scotland which is one of the great places one of the great iconic places in the world not just in the world of golf so i've made many great deals on the golf course abt once students do you see what trump just in the main courses so trump do you know what you just did to me i had to read it around you did out there did it where

and i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know that i had to do it like a policy talking about the most i ever played for it i gave you an actual little bit i think that it was more interesting but you know what i don't know trump answer that question and i i i i flipped it around I liked my answer better I think the audience doesn't like that answer they want maybe they maybe they like it now I like to gamble a little bit but you know I keep it down to a minimum number one you know I've won a lot of club championships I play

well but it's still not my business it It is time to wake and take with StuGats. 786-456-4837. That's 786-456-4837. Stu wants to hear from you. 786-456-4837. What's on your mind? 786-456-4837 What's on your mind? 786-456-4837 Have a question for us too

786-456-4837 He's taking notes 786-456-4837 But it is up to you to get them out of him 786-456-4837 Call now 786-456-4837 That's 786-456-4837 It is wake and take here on 790 the Tickets.

I have thoughts, I have opinions, I have notes. It is your job to get them out of me. I could open up the microphone, I could share those thoughts, opinions, notes with you, but that's not how we do it here on WAKENTAKE. You do the work. If I did that, I'd be lazy. And by extension, I'd make you lazy. Because then you wouldn't have to do any work. So you do the work, you ask the right questions, and perhaps you will get those thoughts, those

opinions, those notes out of me. But first, we interview Greg Cody. Alright, I'm a bad quote, I gotta tell ya. You were Clicks for Cody, I retweeted your column yesterday from the Herald. Thank you. You were at a dolphin training camp, and Mike Ryan, Roy, Guillermo, Chris, they were all out there as well. What are you seeing out there that maybe excites you, maybe gives some dolphin fans some excitement

headed into the season here I think they're gonna be much better than people think the the betting over under of six six and a half wins Cody thinks that every year no no Cody you think that every year you are a dolphin Homer I am the only team that you've been a sports fan up this is way can take I am interviewing Greg Cody I'm sorry allow the man to speak you're fitting out as a matter of fact the Dolphins are the most bet over team in terms of exceeding the win for Levitore two minutes penalty but oh wow jeez I mean you're lucky I didn't find you two dollars I mean let the man lucky I didn't find you two dollars.

I mean, let the man speak. I mean, get out of my zone, will you? That's a good point. Waking Take is a judgment-free place. Oh, you're right, Dan, you're good. Yeah. Because remember, we established Waking Take's all about vibes. Yeah, it's all about vibes, right?

We nullify the two-minute period. So anyway, more positive news for... I sincerely apologize. Okay, well, it's very nice of you. Good progress. very nice of you That works in waking take your apology fit in please Yeah, have the respect for us and we showed for you by accepting your pop right now You know listen we start waking take I interview someone and today it could have been you but I decided to interview Greg Cody So what I'm doing that just let the man make his points. It all we're saying. Let's go to Ken on line 2. Ken you are on wake and take

here on 790 the ticket. Okay if you could permanently enhance your life by four inches would you go height or would you go baby? That was a great question. Rash him. Can I do two of each? Oh, that's very, yes. You want to spread out the four inches? No, no is the answer. I want to be five, 11 and... No, the answer is no. That's a very good question.

You can only choose one though. What are you doing there? I wouldn't choose either to be honest. It's not a very good question. Really? It's a very good question for short people with small penises. Well, I'm one of them. I don't need four inches height.

I could use four of each. So you don't need four inches of height. Correct. I mean, so, I mean. My process of elimination. Right. We know where you're putting your four inches. That's why it's not a good question.

And you revealed your hand, by the way. Oh, I don't care. We reveal these sausage hands every day. I mean, everyone knows. Anyway. Do we have other callers, Mike? Oh, I don't care. We reveal these sausage hands every day. I mean everyone knows Anyway Do we have other callers Mike? No. Oh, they don't trust me. They don't think I'm gonna take their phone calls They've been holding your bluff. You've been saying it for four months. That is amazing Wow, we have reached the end of the internet when StuGuts looks up on sports radio and

Pathetically says we have no calls. I cannot believe that, no, well, they don't think I'm gonna take their calls because I never do. They don't trust you. We had a full board of calls for people just waiting to silently wait for an entire segment to pass just so they could clap at the end of it. So the people wanna call, they just don't trust you. Lamarcus Aldridge, awful.

I mean. No, he's's an embarrassment man. I'm telling you Greg Popovich is gonna get rid of that guy in the offseason. He was an embarrassment last night. He is so out of shape. There are so many times where the Rockets were playing five on four on offense because Lamarcus Aldridge was walking back on defense. He's bad. He's not a good player. I don't know what happened to him because when he was in Portland, he was fantastic. He is not good, Dan. He caused them the game last night, although they won the game.

But had they lost, I'm telling you, it would have been on Lamarcus Aldridge. And the only reason it's not is because they won the game. Otherwise, San Antonio would be crushing him today. I'm still going to crush him even though they won. So we're in the semi-finals of this tournament and we're playing a team called Orange Crush and listen congratulations on the victory but I'm telling you we're better than you. Alright, Orange Crush, so next time we play you be prepared because we're gonna beat you by 10 goals and it's a very close game back and forth one goal

differential and the referee is just making bad call after bad call. It's a very close game, back and forth, one goal differential. And the referee is just making bad call after bad call. It's a running clock, Dan. They're 22 minute halves. She had to go to her rule book while the clock was running in a one goal game to make sure a call that she made was the correct call. And that set me off. I start getting mad at her.

I start yelling at her a little bit. But in my defense, Dan, game was over. I accepted defeat. Hands have been shook and we are going our separate ways. And the referee, who is just tiny, and she drags me back into it. I am going to talk to my team. She's walking off to referee her next game.

She calls me back over to her and she says, what's your overall problem with me? And I said, I don't have an overall problem with you. My overall problem is with the officiating down here in general, you are paid to know the rules and you don't know the rules. And she goes, well, what makes you think I don't know the rules? I said, you went to look at a rule book during a running clock game to see if the call you made was correct or incorrect. To me, that's not knowing the rules, do a better job.

She said, you have this problem with all the refs? I said, listen, do me a favor, I'm upset, my team just lost, why are we still talking? Why are you talking to me? I was walking my way, you were walking your way. She said, as long as we're standing on this grass, on this field, in this park, you're in my domain. I said, really, I'm in your domain. It's a public park. I have every right to be here. I'm not in your domain. If anything, I live around here and I'm paying property taxes. You're in my domain.

That's what I said to her and then I said that Napoleon thing you got going on is not a good look. Record! Get out of here! And not just out of here, out of my park. I have profound respect for the late Johnny Cochran, God rest his soul. But it might be the cockiest

thing that I've ever said. Christopher Darden and Marsha Clark did an absolutely horrendous job as prosecutors. Cuz if it were me, there's no way in hell Johnny Cochran would have beaten me with that evidence that they had.

I'm telling you right now, I'm not even a lawyer. There is no way that you would have put 12 jurors in front of me with that evidence and I would have lost to even the Johnny Cochran. I don't want that trial. I've often said that. I can't believe LeBron this quickly has been a league afterthought. Made your own bed. Sleep in it. Jerk. Yep. He's a jerk. They're showing you, you can believe in them, but you can't depend on them. See, that's the problem. Champions, it's both. You believe in them and you depend on them.

Want to be champions, you can believe in them, but you can't depend on them. This is a diminished LeBron James. They're also better when Kyrie Irving is off the floor than they are when he is on the floor. LeBron James ain't bringing a title back to Cleveland. He's going to be another one in a long line of Cleveland losers. You can go back home, but the trophy stay here.

Who on Cleveland hates to lose? LeBron hates to lose, but even you have lamented, he may not hate it enough. Golden State may not have lost, but they've tasted the champagne. And because they've tasted the champagne, you sort of like hate losing in reverse. You love the champagne so much,

you don't wanna know what life feels like without drinking it. His career ultimately is gonna be seen as a disappointment as somebody who was so great individually but ultimately underachieved. Cleveland's gonna hate him again. It's going to end with Cleveland hating him whether he leaves or not. I don't want Netra. I've often said that. This is as far as they've ever been right from what it is That he went back there to do sure we just got dirty Granger and everything is great I question the mental makeup are they gonna be mentally tough enough when they're in somebody else's barn

What about the coach who I've renamed to the low because he is going bye-bye after this series There chances of winning this series is zero as far as I'm concerned The only reason the 8% is up there is because you're giving human beings a chance after this series. Their chances of winning this series is zero, as far as I'm concerned. The only reason that 8% is up there is because you're giving human beings a chance. After all, Steph Curry could have food poisoning, or you know, might get kidnapped, or Klay Thompson might get injured,

or you know, somebody might have diarrhea. So I don't know. This is the first time I can ever remember, in the NBA finals, where I'm talking about why one team is gonna win, and everything I said is right. They can't play that style. They can't keep up with them.

They're not smart enough. They don't shoot well enough. I feel like the window closed. Maybe we're overreacting. Maybe not. Oh crap, not only am I not gonna win the title this year, it's never happening again. He's not gonna win in our championship.

I look like I want the finals for LeBron James more than LeBron James once. You do, that based on based on I'm with you based on what we saw particularly last night He's been true. That is that that is it. I don't I don't get it. I don't understand it What has he done can you tell me big Magic Johnson, what has he done? Can you tell me? Big Magic Johnson, what has he done? Well, he's a business person. He's got AIDS. Did he do any business? Did he help anybody in South LA? Well, I think he has HIV. He doesn't actually have full-blown AIDS. Welcome back to The Right Time. My name ismany Jones. Thanks for listening on ESPN radio and the ESPN app.

Ahem. Excuse me. Help me. Welcome back to the right time with Bulmany Jones here. We're gonna be joined by Brian Windhorst, our insider at ESPN here very shortly. I'm good. Something got caught down my throat. Sorry about that, Brian. In the meantime, how did the calves not have a general manager right now?

Hello. No one is available to take your call. Please leave a message after the tone. Hey David, it's Billis. We're all set for the Patino interview. He didn't ask for any conditions on topics. I can ask anything I want, and I can go into any area I want. He did have a couple of requests, you know, logistical stuff, so it should be a big deal. He'd like to do the interview at midnight, and he's going to be in the Carpathian Mountains, so I guess we'll have to have a local camera crew. Really can't blame him for wanting to get out of town with all the media attention. He did ask about our blood types and he expressed some concern

over garlic being used. So you might want to let catering know that he may have some dietary restrictions. He said bottled water would be fine and asked that we make sure there was no holy water. He asked about the appropriate attire, which frankly I hadn't thought about. So I just told him business casual, you know, open collar. That seemed to make him happy. He asked if I was going to wear a turtleneck so I just told him business casual, you know open collar that seemed to make him happy He asked if I was gonna wear a turtleneck, but I told him I'm not Steve Jobs or Mike Bray And then you got a kick out of that one Okay, that's it. So I'll just see at the venue and oh

Let's not let this out to anyone until the interviews done like don't tell lebatard because he'll just make a big joke at everything On the air no offense, but that guy's stupid. All right, later. And I'll tell you who else wants to fight. Dwayne wants to fight. All right. Dwayne, yeah. Well then let's fight, man. Let's go. Let's go fight. No. Dwayne!

Kill me, I'm here! Dwayne wants it! Dwayne! Dwayne wants it! Kill me now! We want it! Dwayne! I'm here! Let's go. Kill me! They ain't scared. Dwayne!

I'm right here, kill IT! Wait a minute. I'M RIGHT HERE, KILL ME! That's a man. Will you shut up Stu Guts? I'm doing a thing! STUVE! I'M DOING A THING! We were to play that. I'M RETTED EARTH! But I just talked on SportsCenter, we just talked about Colin Kaepernick, I didn't say

anything inflammatory. Nothing. Inflammatory. Just said his name. Well they asked me a question about him, and so I said nothing inflammatory. And a guy writes here on Twitter, Trey Tanner. Trey. Levitage show gets a mic blabs about Colin but won't allow talk about the Castro incident or the fact that Colin Kaepernick was silent until he didn't have work. How do you not see that this is? 101 camouflage 101 on way to Dismiss the messenger way to dismiss the message by making it about something else Colin Kaepernick is talking about black people being killed unjustly by police

officers leviton won't talk about the castro incident or the fact that calling cavern it was silent until he didn't have work how do you not realize how obvious what you're doing is which is not wanting to talk about the thing calling cavern it is getting you to talk about and just you talking about calling cavern instead in any couldn't be further from the truth to say that he was silent until he was out of work. All last season he was not silent. I think he means as a starter. Right. I think he was until

he was no longer a starter and I wasn't silent about the Castro stuff. The Castro stuff was stupid and so was him wearing pigs on his socks. That was stupid too. You've said that a number of times, so anytime you discuss Kaepernick moving forward, you have to address that, even though that's not the thing being discussed. It's just camouflage. It's camouflage because you don't want to have the uncomfortable conversation, which is fine.

I mean, I don't blame you. You're probably tired of it in general, but you never wanted to have it. Greg, to your point, I would say he did it during an even more difficult time. He was trying to get a starting job back. Mm-hmm Yeah, absolutely, right? No doubt. Yeah But the the trouble with this whole is he being blackballed is he being ostracized?

Of course, he's being ostracized But the blackball argument is is just impossible to prove especially with a quarterback Who's in that gray area of is he good enough he's pretty good here is a big lead greg the one the one that's most damning is josh mccown cannot be your answer if you're the new york jets and not calling current that's the one that's most damning when your owners politics are also something that would lead lend you that's the proof you would offer up right i mean that's just that's i don't know whether it's proof but it's the it's the place that's most suspicious a

brittle quarterback who's never been as good as Colin Kaepernick i agree with that and i would i would like Roger Goodell to step out front and say i wish a team would give Colin Kaepernick a chance just that well he doesn't have to stay publicly he could do it privately yeah say it publicly would be important I think I think it would but privately would be I understand what you're saying say publicly support Colin Kaepernick privately getting him a job is really what matters right so if he tells the owners hey guys what's going on here are you guys telling me he's not one of the 32 best quarterbacks in the world I disagree with Cody on this though

I don't think that Roger Goodell should be telling anybody what to do with their telling me he's not one of the thirty two best quarterbacks in the world i disagree with cody on this though i don't think that roger giddell should be telling anybody what to do with their roster not michael sam not colin kaper nick i think he should stay out of it but if he's going to do it do it privately exert your pressure privately why would you do it publicly well because he's saying publicly that

he doesn't think there's anything wrong going on here does he... really believe that because it's hard to think that he really believes that when... he sees some of the other quarterbacks being signed yeah you know 64 more than... that because some teams keep three quarterback positions three... quarterbacks on the roster let's say there's seventy five quarterback jobs in the nfl colin cappernick who just a couple of years ago was uh... seen as one of the great rising young uh...

multi-dimensional quarterbacks in the league now he's out of work it it it just it stretches credulity you know it just doesn't make sense as seattle was a weird one to austin davis it shows you that all things being equal they think that Colin Kaepernick and Austin Davis are about equal and they'll take the one that doesn't come with a headache. That one surprised me because I thought Seattle could absorb it I would love to have a I thought that locker room could absorb it and I would love to have an honest conversation with someone in Seattle about what happened

there do they think he simply can't play anymore? Does the backup role matter to you? Meaning they don't want to, like, you'll deal with it as a, you know, if the guy could be a starter for you, but as a backup maybe you just don't want to deal with the headaches that come with it? I just happen to think that Kaepernick is a good deal better than Austin Davis on top of that. I don't think it's all things being equal. Right, well then if, because you can say the same thing about the Buccaneers who signed Ryan Fitzpatrick to be their backup. It's absurd. Yeah, and there are some political ties with the Buccaneers who signed Ryan Fitzpatrick to be their backup. It's absurd. Yeah, and there are some political ties with the Buccaneers like there are with the Jets that might

allow you to read through some tea leaves. The Seattle one really angered me too because Pete Carroll sort of got preachy and took the opportunity to make it look like he was being nice to Colin Capric. No, he's too good to be a backup here. He's a starter in this league. And then he signs a guy who hasn't thrown an apple pass in three years if you can speculate by reading into what uh... calling capper nick retweets because he's not actually talking about football then you can see concavenic was kind of other by two the the weird thing is it it's going to take uh...

that the team most likely to need capper nick is the dysfunctional team the really bad franchise the the the team most likely the sign was going to be the Franchise with a backbone in its ownership with a strong coach like a Mike Tomlin. That's why we surprised at Seattle Yes, Seattle would have been a perfect landing spot for him I think but let's reasons how about the Cowboys because Ramos gone Prescott You have no idea how good he is and what a Prescott's not good. Yeah. Yeah, why not? In Texas? Yes, in Texas. Yep. Jerry Jones, man. Show some guts. Seriously. Stand up and say what's going on here is not right. And I

have no idea if Dak Prescott's gonna be any good. He was good last year. I have no idea if that's gonna carry over. And in the event that he gets hurt, I don't have to go to Kellen Moore I can go to Colin Kaepernick. How about that? Be a leader. Introducing Fat Man fighting crime with his political erectness. You guys get so mad anytime I mention anything about someone being black. A figure who publicly looks down on citizens while on his high horse atop a soap box by day. Oh, young people, you're just peacock-prine with your ignorance. And a vulnerable blubbering mess by night. I'm at a stoplight in my car, shirtless,

tears streaming down my face and Who's that riding fat man's coattails to the scene of the crime? Hello. Hello. Hello. It's none other than his lovable sidekick robbing Who is constantly revealing his secret identity for a chance to get into? exclusive locales. You sound like a big sports radio fan, so I must tell you that I host one of the biggest radio shows in the country. It's on ESPN radio.

I do the show with Dan Leventard. We're on TV as well. So I have the ability to promote you guys out for free, for nothing, just for the reservation, to millions of people. Millions. for nothing just for the reservation to millions of people millions while fat man fights crimes robbing fights the truth you just say stuff you let it fly that's it I don't care I'll take stuff from August of last year you did take it from August of last year I'll take it from August five years ago doesn't matter

gonna get a rise from the audience that's really how you do it no I'm teasing on this week's episode, Fat Man and Robbing battle with the Bad Joker. What's the celebrity that has webbed feet? I know Donald Duck has webbed feet. Will Fat Man and Robbing triumph or will the Bad Joker finally succeed in killing the show? I'm curious, where were you when you first heard

that you'd won and what did that mean to you exactly? To be honest, I don't know nothing about fantasy look. I just found out about fantasy football this year. Yeah. That explains why he didn't attend. Shut up! I don't know how to... I think we've talked to you before briefly. I don't know how at one point you had gone

public saying you had a sex addiction, right? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no Addiction That was I like sex just as much as the next man. Or woman. Bob Saget has announced that he is here and he is horny. It's the horniest morning of his life. We were three comedians doing this gig, the strip club. And Kevin Neal and I went to go look at Mount McKinley, like two guys would do, like two bros. And the other guy, the other comic,

was just in the trailer with the strippers all weekend. So, I mean, what a- And so, they were gonna introduce me, and there's a stripper on stage, and she had pie pans over her chest, two pie pans, and then another one lower, in her lower region, with matches, literally just matches, paper matches.

A scotch tape to the pie pans, and then she lights them, not even sparklers, you know, just matches. She lights them. She has, she lights the top pie pans, She lights them, not even sparklers, you know, just matches. Just matches. She lights them. She has, she lights the top pie pans and she lights the bottom pie pans and then she blows herself out and then literally blows herself out and goes, ladies and gentlemen, Bob Saget. Does Kaleus Campbell sound like a friendly cartoon monster?

Go ahead and put it up on the poll because he does. I love talking to you simply because your voice is so great. I'll tell you, I'll tell you. I'll tell you that was a compliment. Kyle Lowry is an old friend of the show, Demarja Rosen a new friend and they join us together here. Who idea was it to walk to McDonald's and we'll get McFlurry's at like 2 in the morning and what you talking about? It was yours. It was yours. It was yours. It was yours. It was mine, yeah, yeah.

That's what I was sad though. That's what I was good at. Okay, there you go. There you go. Steve the Perfect. I'm glad you helped me out. It was 3.30 in the morning, we walked to McDonald's to get a McFlurry.

It was closed, so we had to go walk through the drive-through window and knock on the window to order the McFlurry. They weren't serviced because we didn't have a car. So we just asked the guy on the motorcycle to order for us. Wait a minute. You guys make how much money again? We pay for his meal, though.

We pay for his meal. So I'm not going to. Wait a minute. So two Toronto Raptors, all stars, three o'clock in the morning are just sidling up to a guy on a motorcycle, by foot and saying, order us some McFlurries? Yeah, can you please order, you know, can we get some McFlurries? Colonel Jassof, did you order the code wet? You know, listen, I'm the judge here.

You don't have to answer a question. I'll answer the question. I answer 78% of all queries put to me. You want answers? I think I'm entitled to them, Eric. You want answers? I want the truth. You can't handle the truth! Any better than Joel Anthony could handle a basketball.

Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Kaboom! Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom.

I have seventeen responsibilities in my life, eleven of which are onerous. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury You have the luxury of not knowing what I know that Santiago's death well tragic probably saved lives possibly between 40 and 45 lives and my existence while grotesque and Incomprehensible to you saves lives You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.

We use words like honor, code, and loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something like Hassan Whiteside defends the room. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather that you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand the post. Either way, I don't give a damn

what you think you're entitled to. Kaboom! Did you order the code white, Eric? I did the job I was- Did you order the code white, Eric? You're d*** right I did. GASP CHATTER

When's the last time you used a machete? Have you ever used a machete? No chance. I did, yeah, when I was younger. You know something, by the way, for the national audience. Dismembering a... Hold on. Yeah, when did... You know what my favorite Miami things is, Dan?

Are you familiar with afiladors? You're gonna just run over that joke? Well, that's already ruined it. That's where you are today. That's where you are today. Just trampling everybody. Continue, please. Are you familiar with afiladords? No. Afiladords are like ice cream trucks and they play like a sound and there's a guy that screams afilador, afilador, and he goes around your neighborhood sharpening knives and tools. I hate those things. It's amazing. There's no chance that exists anywhere else but here. Guillermo is the most Latin among us. That right there is Guillermo. That right there is deep Miami.

That is where like goats are sacrificed on behalf of God's blood is drunk on, you know, drips down the chins like that is deep deep Hispanic Miami the frustrating thing about the afilador is that he doesn't have a schedule so it's not like I know he'll be here once a week at this time so like you hear like it's like an ice cream truck for real and it's like off in the distance it's like I get the machetes we need to have them sharpened but I can't get them in time and then I can't find the guy it's like off in the distance and it's like, oh, I got the machetes, we need to have them sharpened, but I can't get them in time and then I can't find the guy. It's awful.

So what that is, so wait a minute, that guy is called the filer. Afilador is the filer. Yeah, he'll probably file anything, kitchen knives, whatever you need. I can't, I did not know that this existed and I've lived here all my life. I did not know that this was a thing.

You didn't? I had one in my neighborhood when I was growing up. I lived in Westchester. I had all? I had one in my neighborhood when I was growing up. I lived in Westchester. I had all sorts of strange things in my grandmother's neighborhood. All sorts of strange things. But I didn't have one of those. How much is this coconut milk? How much is it?

Because I can get a machete right now online, Gerber Machete, for $12.88. Coconut water is not that expensive. Like it's $6.99 if it's a giant one. If it's a giant one. Yeah, but look, you buy a $12 machete, you can have, you know, endless supplies of coconut water. I want to talk about El Filador. Hold on, ask the audience.

I'd like to know the audience, how much of the audience knows this. Because I think part of what you're doing there, Guillermo, is I've never lived in really broke Miami. My grandparents have. And so I'm wondering if a guy who comes around the neighborhood filing knives, if that is something that happens, like that's not going to happen in a, is that going to happen in a middle-class neighborhood? A guy coming around filing knives, that sounds like something out of Cuba. That sounds like something they would do in Cuba.

I lived in a middle-class neighborhood and I had that guy show up at 10 a.m., which wasn't great when I was in college. Do you guys dispute what it is that I'm saying? Because I think a guy who comes around the neighborhood filing knives, I don't associate that with middle-class. I associate that with real working class and not making money working class.

That sounds like you're, I don't know, being a little judgy of the community of the Apulador. I don't mean it like that. I don't mean it like that. I'm asking, I'm not, how am I judging? Who am I judging? All these poor people use knives. Oh, I have people who can cut things for me. Which people are not going to have a knife filer anywhere around them? Like, they're not gonna have a guy wandering around the neighborhood sharpening knives where there's a lot of money.

But the middle class uses knives? I mean, I don't understand. I know, I'm not saying knives. I'm talking about the sharpening of knives to do that kind of work, work with machete. Work with machetes. My knife set comes with a knife sharpener. Oh, that's cool.

Do you guys think I'm wrong about this I'm asking out of curiosity I didn't mean to like I lived through it I lived in a middle-class neighborhood there had to have been a reason why he kept coming back right you know when you wouldn't think that he'd make it a part of his route if he got no business there that's true yep good point I didn't have one in my neighborhood growing up. Is this a Latin thing? I mean, I've only heard someone screaming into a bad sound system, I feel that aard, and it was the most, oh God, when you did that, a chill went down my spine.

It's so exciting to be alive. No, you're always woken up because that horrible sound system and the guy just screaming. I'm just fascinated by this because I've lived in Miami all my life and you are showing me a part of Miami that I had no idea existed even though I was in, I lived in neighborhoods like that growing up with my grandparents. And I didn't see any of that. I saw, you know, the snow cone ice guy guy for ten cents Yeah, like all that stuff the people cooking a pig on their front porch. Yeah, did you have the fruit truck guy? Yes Yeah, because that was a that's a Hispanic thing too instead of an ice cream truck

But I don't think there's anything else you guys like I've even seen some of the Santorilla stuff Like I have seen some of the religious stuff that happens in some of these neighborhoods and the thing that you're talking about Right now is something that I have like I don't know that there's anything else in Miami that you could surprise me quite as much With is what you just did there Which is that there is something in Latin Miami that is ingrained and known and I'm sitting here saying that sounds foreign to me as I'm Sure many of the Americans in the audience are saying that sounds foreign to me You gotta think about what we're talking about. You got a knife sharpening ice cream man coming through the neighborhood.

He really is an ice cream man. It's a horror movie. No, no, it's great. There's music playing. I gotta tell you, I'm on the site right now. Looks fantastic. It looks fun. What site?

There's a guy who's got a site down here, the new tropic.com. I mean, he goes around and he sharpens things for you. It's amazing. Look at the truck. It's beautiful. I was ahead of his time. There is no way the person that was in my neighborhood growing up has a website. These people don't have websites.

Well, they do now. These people don't have websites. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. What just happened? I said this is a broke area and you're saying, are you so judgy and now you just hit them on feel I thought you just hit him with no way as a web So that feel I thought doesn't have a website

You didn't have like an at me on Instagram on the side of his truck get out of here. That's right And that was judgy. How is it judgy? The dude is 88 years old now. Yeah, it's a dying business business. It is also, I'm sure it's both ways right? Because some people use it to sharpen their machetes to profit from the dying business. Like because who the hell buys machetes nowadays? Some dude in my neighborhood definitely. The machete sales have to be way up. People use machetes here Dan. People with yards. Put it on the poll. Are machete sales up? I think they are. Put it on the poll. I'm pretty sure they are. If you think the machete business is booming. The only thing that can be hurting it is people like me that think they can make their own machetes from watching the show. Again, and also put this on the poll. Is it pronounced, do you pronounce it machete? Go

ahead and do it in your obnoxious insulting white guy voice Guillermo go ahead You're throwing like s's and H's in there That's not how you say it and these people give me crap about the way I see it on also what follow one? Instruction this morning one he does say Juan he does this with Juan to one one hello Juan hello Hi cool whip Juan the guy's name is Juan Diaz that That's his name. Juan. They're making a Juan with a W. Hold on. Hello Juan. Hello Juan. You're showing off.

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Whilst the Stugat School of Broadcasting makes every effort to ensure that the information provided in this advertisement is accurate at the time of posting, we will never update this disclaimer and what you just heard may in fact already be completely inaccurate. Any opinions, hot takes, or lessons learned while attending the Stugat School of Broadcasting may or may not actually be industry standard or up to all legal codes in any or all states. The Stugat School of Broadcasting is not in any way credited and is in fact the loosest use of the word school in the history of education. It's highly unlikely that attending this school will benefit your pursuit of a broadcasting

career at all. Stugats have never attended this school. Any and all testimonials and endorsements are strictly fictional and were written in a shipping container. To this date there haven't been any notable alumni, and in all likelihood there will never be any notable alumni. At best, maybe we can call on a personal favor and get you an internship, but that will set you back by large. If you opt to buy an internship, you're on your own after that. Thank you for calling our start reservations at the edition. This is Jessica speaking, can I help you? Jessica? Yes, can I help you? Hey, how are you? I? Hey, how are you?

I'm well, how are you? I'm doing well, thanks for asking. I need to make a reservation at the Matador Room. It's a very important place to my parents, to my mom and dad. My dad actually asked my mom to get married there. So I figured with Mother's Day coming up, I'd like to try to get them, you know, table for six, I'm thinking me, my brother, his wife, my wife,

my mom and dad. So six people at noon on Sunday, prime time, baby, if you could do it. We're sorry, we're fully committed on Sunday for brunch, but we do have availability for dinner. I can do give you like an early dinner like at six o'clock. Yeah. And while no, my parents are usually sleeping by four. So that's not going to work. What if I make it four and just, I, you know, I don't invite my brother and his wife. We just don't have the tables. I'm so sorry. We're fully committed. I just don't want to, I can't promise tables. We don't have. Can you find a table? Like can you add an additional table? Like, I'll bring my own table. How's that?

BYOT. We don't have it, I'm sorry. You sound like a big sports radio fan, which, so I must tell you that I host, I don't know if you know who I am, but I host one of the biggest radio shows in the country. It's on ESPN radio. I do the show with Dan Lebetard.

We're on TV as well. I also host a show in New York City. So I have the ability, unlike anyone else who's eating there that day, I have the ability to promote you guys out for free, for nothing, just for the reservation, to millions of people, millions, millions. I mean, if I were you, I'd be looking at that reservation

list and I'm thinking to myself, all right, well, who are the six people I'm kicking out to let Stu got in you know? Yeah I can't understand that that sounds like awesome. What I can do is I can give you my manager's email. He'd probably be more than happy to do that for you. I'm sorry I don't really know much about sports. Well is your manager there? Oh you don't know anything about sports? No, I'm sorry. I don't listen to radio. I mean you sound like most of our listeners to be honest with you. Is your manager there or do I have to email him or how do we do this? Can I speak to him? Because I'm not good with email. I'm not good with email. I'm much better talking to people. Yeah, yeah I'm pretty sure you can convince him. Let's see. Let's try this. Hold on. What was your name again? I'm sorry

Yes, Jessica. Jessica try this. Okay. Is there anyone else there in the room right now? Anyone else? Anyone like any guys? Any guys? It's just me. How about this? How would I get my there's no one else in the entire room? Because what I want you to do is just yell out the name Stu got you She yell it out as loud as you can and I guarantee you that someone will hear you and someone knows me Yeah, probably a big fan. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, it's just me. I'm sorry. But what I can do is I can I can write down your name and I'll give it to my manager so they can get you know, starstruck and book you. What's your manager's name? I have a few. I have one named Dara. That's our general manager. That's not gonna work. Yeah, let's go on to the next one. Oh

Okay, well, I'm assuming Dora is is it's a she right there is this is it was a man All right. So now we're back to Dora. Let's stay with Dora for a second doors a man, huh? Yeah Dara so like what the D has a dog so Dara. Yeah, I don't know it's like this, but that's a chick's name, man I mean, yeah, that's not the first time I've heard that. Oh, it's not right. Okay. Everyone makes fun of this guy. Okay Yeah, I probably shouldn't do that it's good advice from you Jessica I probably should make fun of them right It's DOR ah No, it's DOR AH oh no it's D A R A G H I have a good friend Dari Nokawa I'm sorry I have a friend named Dari Nokawa just the name reminded me oh true okay so is he a big sports fan because what

we need to hone in on Jess you're gonna help me out here and I'm gonna take very good care of you I promise you are you gonna be me out here and I'm gonna take very good care of you. I promise you. Are you gonna be there Sunday? Yes, but I am upstairs Well, I will make a point when Dari calls me back with six people at noon I will I will make a point to come upstairs and I'll slide you slide you a couple of 20s if you know what I'm saying Maybe even a hundred Okay, so take down my number. It's nine five four. I Don't want their email addresses. It's fine. They can call me. Okay, so take down my number. It's 954. I don't want their email addresses. It's fine. They can call me. Okay. Because I've done enough work here and I'm trying to

promote them for nothing. What's your name? My name is Stu Gatz. Stu G-O-T-Z. Okay, G-O-T-Z. Yep. Okay, I will have them call you back. Okay, you're an angel. I must tell you. All right, thank you. Bye. Good afternoon. Thank you for calling the Rainbow Room. This. You're an angel. I must tell you. Alright, thank you. Bye. Good afternoon. Thank you for calling the Rainbow Room. This is Ryan Seacon.

Can I help you? Hey Ryan, how you doing? I'm good. How are you? I'm doing well. Thanks for asking. I'd like to make a reservation with you guys. Dinner and dancing?

No, I'm actually looking... I'm flying up. Your place is very important. It's a very important and historical place in my mom's life She was engaged there and I'd like to take her there for Mother's Day. I'm thinking like noon prime time, baby Okay, so from mother and how many people it would be six people if possible. Okay, so for six I know we did have some canceling. I'm not sure we're gonna have any available for six. I I know we did have some canceling. I'm not sure if we're gonna have any available for six. I could definitely put your name down on a list, a waiting list that we have.

Yeah, you know, I was hoping that perhaps we wouldn't go the waiting list route. It's really important. Again, my mom got engaged there. They eat there all the time. They love it there. My family loves it there. We've been there a million times. So I'm hoping that you can help me out. You don't have six? Is that the problem? I don't think we really have anything. We've been there a million times so I'm hoping that you can help me out you don't have six is that the problem I don't think we really have anything we've been pretty much booked up we actually opened up our gallery as well right so I'm not sure if we're gonna have any availability for six let me see what we have well I mean there's no comfortable way for me to do this Ryan so so I'll just do it I'm a host at ESPN I host a national show your voice

sounds familiar yeah and I also host a show in New York ESPN. I host a national show. Your voice sounds familiar. Yeah, and I also host a show in New York, ESPN Radio in New York, Saturdays with Stu Gotz. So if you could take care of me, I'll take care of you. And by taking care of you, I'll promote you out to like, you know, 20 million people. I think you guys probably, you know... What is your name, sir? My name is Stu Gotz. S-T-U-G-O-T-Z. Yeah, I know your voice sounded familiar.

Oh, you listen to the show? Yeah, I've heard you. I listen to ESPN Radio a lot. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I do the show with Levitard, man. Yeah. Yeah. But how about taking care of Mama Gotts here?

What can we do for Mama Gotts? Let's see. I'm telling you, man, I'm going to promote you guys out everywhere, okay? On Twitter, I got hundreds of thousands of people following me on Twitter we got millions of listeners and I'm shameless and I have no issue no issue promoting you guys out in fact if you want to give me a free meal I'd be even better let me just take down your your phone number and I'm just trying to see if we can move some things around and see what we could do for you you got a pen handy yeah is a, it's 1-800.

Okay. Get me in that damn building. You need the numbers on that? I think I got it here. You got it? Yeah. What's your, uh, your best contact number? I just gave it to you. 1-800 confirmed is my number.

Okay. All right. So, uh so six people. I might have to make it eight. I'm just telling you now. I'm not certain yet. I will let you know. But it feels like we're on to something here. It feels like, Ryan, it feels like I'm going to see you at noon at the Rainbow Room this Sunday for Mother's Day. What are you doing with Mom this Mother's Day? I'm not 100% sure yet. I'm definitely going to give her some flowers, but I'm not sure where we're gonna go out to eat yet. Yeah, well 1-800-FLOWERS, use the promo code DAN. You'll get a great deal. I'll help you out, okay? I'll help you out with 1-800-FLOWERS. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. Is that set? Yeah, definitely. Alright, so I can give you a contact. Oh, I thought we did

that one 800 confirmed. All right, I'll give you my number. It's 954. Okay. Okay. I will definitely be in contact soon. I'm going to do my best to squeeze in here. Do me a favor. Okay. I appreciate it. Don't use that number. Like don't give it to anyone. Okay. I'm a big time celebrity. I don't want your friends getting excited. You gotta listen, man, I give that number out. I got to trust that you're not going to give it to anyone. Okay, I'm a big-time celebrity. I don't want your friends getting excited I don't you gotta listen man. I give that number out. I gotta trust that you're not gonna give it to anyone I'm not giving it to nobody you promise they're coming to the grave with me, too All right, so we appreciate you to call me back I will definitely be in contact with you and think we should be able to squeeze in I just got to move some things around but I'll definitely be in contact with you for sure Ryan. You're awesome, dude

I appreciate it. You got it But I'll definitely be in contact with you for sure Ryan. You're awesome. Dude. I appreciate it. You got it Eating house. Yeah, how you doing? Hi, how are you? I'm doing well. Thanks. I was I was hoping I could make a reservation with you guys Sure, for which day and just give me a party size I'm looking at a April 20th a table of eight at eight o'clock prime time in okay So unfortunately for 420 we already sold out the dinner Well, it's an annual dinner. We do every year celebrating the holiday and unfortunately, it's been booked out for about a week now Really? Yeah, we are taking a waiting list. We'd gladly put you on a waiting

No, I don't want to do I don't want to do a waiting list I mean listen, I don't know like there's no comfortable way for me to do this so I'll just do it like you know I don't know do you listen to sports radio at all? Of course of course yeah we're lots of sports radio fans here. Big Heat fans. This is Stugatz man. What's up Stugatz? How are you buddy? Good bro. I mean I don't know listen I appreciate you listening I'm glad you knew who I was I don't know if you can help me out in this regard though. I'll promote you guys all I can, but if I can get this table for eight at eight,

that'd be awesome on 420. Man, as much as I would love to help you out, we actually have no room. I mean, I just feel like, I don't know, the people who have the reservations right now, can they promote you out to a national audience to millions of people? Cause I don't think they can, I know I can.

No, no, no, they definitely can't. They definitely, maybe they can, but you know, the thing is those are- Who the hell are these people? That's what I wanna know, who are these people? Man, they're guests, man. We got repeat guests that have been waiting for a year for the center to come back in.

We gotta stay loyal to the people, man. You're waiting for a year? We have some, I'm sorry. I wish I could help you out a little more, but do I? I think I'm gonna need to speak to the owner man. I am the owner actually oh you're the owner I am I am you're shutting me out, and you're the owner. I'm sorry man. I can't do that to my people Well what about this person? I know man, but we're booked up We're full of a lebatard called what if lebatard called I. What have Levitard called? What have Levitard called?

I bet you if Levitard called you would let Levitard in, right? You would let Levitard in. I'd have to let Levitard know that he needed to reserve. Levitard's been to the restaurant, man. We're big fans of his as well. Unfortunately we're booked. I'm guessing of Levitard called right now. I don't think you've been to Eating House.

I know Levitard's been to Eating House. I know Mike's been to Eating House. I don't think you've been to Eating House. Well, it just so happens that Mike got a reservation on 420 and I can't. I know, but Mike reserved a week and a half ago. Maybe you should kick Mike out and replace him with me. How do you feel about that? I mean, that, if he's willing to do that, I mean, we can make that happen. I'll deal with Mike. Just put me down. Okay. I'll deal with Mike. Now, what size party was mike's michael to talk what's it to talk about that bill to people yet can be difficult to get six

more men how about that what if it if if we can make a little picnic setting up outside we can bring a couple of the tables in a complex chairs you have to be willing to do that i can work something out i think that sounds great for the people that you're gonna kick out of the restaurant to accommodate Me completely on the a perfect. I think you should offer that like I think you should go back in the reservations

I maybe call some people say hey listen all right No, I would even say Stegata's want to come this is how you do it okay? I would say that listen man. We were overbooked. I apologize. We're overbooked. We will make it up to you We will guarantee you next year 420. We will guarantee a table for whatever at 8 o'clock this year, though I have to put you outside picnic, you know the whole deal. I think that's the way you do it Don't tell them it's for me. Just say you're overbooked That makes sense. I'm gonna have to talk to my business partner about this though. Alright, well this is-

If my business partner agrees, man, we're fair game. Alright, well sounds good. So I'll see you at 420, 8 o'clock. Sure, what we're going to have to do is we're obviously going to have to confirm with you beforehand. We're going to let you know if it did work out or not. But as of right now, we'll just put that reservation on hold. If we do manage to get to the room, I'll see you at 8 o'clock definitely. Alright, well this is the confirmation.

I'm telling you, it's 8 o'clock, 8 people, 420. Confirmed? Good, see ya. Heating up. Hi, this is Bob Saget calling. 420. Confirmed? Good, see ya. Eating House. Hi, this is Bob Saget calling. Who's this? This is George Rapagavoli. Hi, how are you sir? Good, good, how about yourself? I'm good, I'm good. I didn't mean to drop my name like that, but I'm at the

Dan Libertard show and I know that Stu Gotz had called to try to get a reservation on 420 and you guys were sold out and full up. Fully booked man. You're booked. And I was wondering if there was any way that I could get a reservation myself. I mean I don't really care about him. Clearly. I'd heard something about a table for two that could be available. Would it be possible for me to get one but not him? We do have a two person table that was recently just given up, but we are also offering an 1145 seating so we're doing like a late night munchies, I don't know if you're interested in that.

Maybe Stugas would want that, maybe he eats late at night to have a feel. I know, I know, he wants prime time as he says, I don't know how happy he is. But I could have an 8 o'clock, I could have an 8 o'clock for two? 8 o'clock is impossible impossible man we're fully booked. Impossible. We may have something around six o'clock if we do get a cancellation but dude we are. What if I'm able to hire a really gorgeous escort for the evening to make me look like I've still got it. I mean that would make a little bit more sense you know then we just gotta make a little table we can send through. Is there anything in the kitchen you can set up a table for two or

in the restroom? Yeah I mean if you're into something like that, we can definitely make them like that happen man You're down to just sit anywhere. Well, we can set up a random table somewhere in this restaurant. You got a roof We got a roof. Yeah for sure. Is there a main office? I mean I just want to bring a woman in there and let's do got to know that I got a table at 8 o'clock and he Didn't that makes a hundred percent sense and I think that's completely respectable. Okay so we're gonna make this happen. We're gonna make, you know what I think we can make this happen.

If you're willing to sit in the office or in the kitchen man. I mean anywhere, I'll sit anywhere. Well thank you, you're incredibly courteous, all the best man. Hey such a pleasure. You too, take it easy. Billy Snobby Dog everybody, Merry Christmas. Christmas week is upon us and many of you are hosting family gatherings, having friends too. Take it easy. A beer with tastes that you know you can depend on. No games, no gimmicks, just great beer for people who like beer. You put out the Miller Lite, you set it, you forget it, and everybody is all happy during the holiday season. You'll take that first sip and you'll know right away

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