The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Pablo Torre Weighs In on The JFK Assassination, Mike Tomlin Readies the Steelers for Daniel Dimes, And Why the Chiefs Versus Bills Remains the Best QB Battle in Football

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

Happy Halloween Football America! Is Kevin O'Connell really a quarterback football whisperer or did he just coach great quarterbacks? Will Mike Tomlin pull a Mike Tomlin and beat the Colts? We'll dive into these topics along with listing the Top Five NFL games to watch in Week 9. Plus, Pablo Torre joins the show to answer the unanswered mysteries like the JFK assassination, the Moon Landing and what to do with the Louvre Jewels. Host Dave Dameshek and the gang ponder these deep life questions on this episode of Football America! (Photo by Gene J. Puskar/AP) Timestamps: (00:00:00-00:00:21) Intro - GET TO THE SHOW! (00:00:21-00:12:18) We're gonna make a million with Pick Six (00:12:18-00:38:15) Pablo Torre on the Moon Landing (00:38:15-00:51:35) Top Five Games of the Week AUDIO Football America! is available wherever you listen to podcasts. Leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/football-america/id1831757512 Follow us: Dave Dameshek: https://x.com/dameshek Pablo Torre: https://x.com/PabloTorre Host: Dave Dameshek Guests: Pablo Torre Team: Gino Fuentes, Mike Fuentes, Bradley Campbell Director: Danny Benitez Senior Producers: Gino Fuentes, Mike Fuentes Executive Producer: Bradley Campbell Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Rams, Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, New York Giants, New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tennessee Titans, Washington Commanders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi and hello, my fellow football Americans. It's your old pal Dave Damasek here. Welcome to NFL Week 9. Welcome to Football America, Episode 21. Happy Halloween, by the way. We've got Pablo Tori on the way. We're going to make our picks for you for the upcoming games this weekend. And I'm in Miami. Let's talk about all of it, shall we? Let's start the show. Yes, hi, and hello, my fellow football Americans. I am in Miami. I just said that, right? And guess what? Mike and Gino Fuentes are right on the other side of the glass there. I'm over the moon. How excited am I? I said, listen, instead of getting a guest to help us make the picks, we're so rarely, if ever, together. Let's just do it amongst ourselves today. So that's what we're going to do. But before we jump into it, and like I say, Pablo Tori on the way, excited for that, had a great time today on the day or yesterday on the Dan Lebitard show. did I just betray a little too? Like, okay, so we do that all the time here. I think it's fine.

I like, like, there's no point. We're recording it on Thursday. I'm sorry. I don't know what's going to happen in the Ravens Dolphins game. Can I tell you something? I do know what's going to happen in the Ravens Dolphins game. And I'm not going to suggest that I'll pierce my nipples if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty confident that Baltimore is going to win that game.

Let's start this show off like we do most shows, which is honoring the episode number and the play. player who wore that number best in pro football history. Number 21 is where we are. I think it's pretty easy to say. It's Dion Sanders, right? Any debate there, fellas? I got a few honorable mentions here.

Sean Taylor, also wore. Very good. Maybe the best safety ever. L.T. That would be my pick. L.T. Just to be, I mean, man, oh, man. I am either an old man or you guys have no regard for history.

You can't just throw out L.T. That's right. Danian Tomlinson. LD. LT2. There's an LT2 who is already one of the all-time best players. You can't then say not as bad as there being an A-Rod, Alex Rodriguez, and then Aaron Rogers decide, I'll be A-Rodd's one. No.

How about we give L-T-2 a new nickname just for our show? We'll call him the sequel. Listen. Okay. Ledanyan Tomlinson won me plenty of fantasy football money. He is L-T to me. Okay. Fair enough.

Also, there's Charles Wood. There's Charles Woodson. There's the third leading rusher in NFL history, Frank Gore. No, he's 20. Compiler. Ah, it says 21 here. Parts of his career. I have no recollection of that part. But you know what? I'm glad you just mentioned that because I felt like we were so. I should say also thank you for all the feedback. On the last couple of shows in particular, they've been real good. I feel like we've done legitimately. We're on a nice hot streak of about a month of real good shows here. and most recently we had Brandon Perna from That's Good Sports on a week ago today, and we had John Hamm on on Monday, go back and listen to both of those, appreciate all the feedback, great stuff from those characters, but we were so hurried on the last episode. We didn't get to fully honor number 20. Barry Sanders was the winner there, but that might also be on the short list of best jersey numbers across the sports landscape. I think 21 is pretty strong, though, too, because,

because you have Roberto Clemente. Some people say that they should retire 21 across baseball, much the way they did Jackie Robinson. When we had the All-Star game down here, there was a big contingent of fans holding up the signs, get to retire Roberto Clemente's number. I don't if you remember that. They had a lot of guys walking around with signs. There was basically protesting. It was our dad's favorite player. Dad's favorite player. And I just remember a lot of fans were in Clemente jerseys petitioning for MLB to retire that number. I'm not surprised to hear that. He has great meaning beyond his deeds in baseball, what he meant, or actually as a trailblazer for Latinos abroad. He's essentially the Latino version of Jackie Robinson. Speaking of which,

Juan Marischaw is number 21. Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, is that right? Is he 21? Tim Duncan, the greatest athlete's ever come out of the Virgin Islands? Yes. Five championship. I can't push back with another name. Peter Forsberg is as skilled a hockey player as I have seen. There's Mario Lemieux and there's Connor McJesus, and I think Peter Forsberg is just for raw talent about as gifted hockey players I've ever seen. Stan McKita.

By the way, as we're flapping our gums down here in South Beach, I keep hearing a muffled voice. It sounds like it's coming from New York City up there. Bradley, is that you? Yeah, what's going on? How are we doing? Well, you're wearing a mask. And it's a little weird.

What are you supposed to be? Dr. Doom? It was a death eater, but the problem with the mask is I didn't realize there's no mouth, like, opening for it. So it was a problem. You got a plan for these things, Matt. Well, it's only a show in which you're expected to speak. So, yeah. I know.

Priorities. It's giving me gibbib lives. I feel scary. Mike looks like Mike is a jester. Yeah, I just found this hat over there. Gino is a mad scientist, and I'm nothing. And why is that? because this is, I'm a curmudgeon about a few things in this world, nothing more than

Halloween as a grown-up. I'm not in on it. No, yeah, you put, you put a little caveat as as a grown-up, and I understand that, because you've had kids already, you've done the trick-or-treating with them, but you also look like a guy that cuts it up good at a Halloween party. Oh, listen to me. Listen to me. Oh, yeah. College, my 20s, I got as loose as I'd ever gotten on it on the other 364 days on the calendar. I had some positively gay times. Well, I mean, you know what I mean. But the, or do you?

Either way, this thing of having to get dressed up and then you walk into the party and then you feel like, did I overdo it? Did I underdo it? Either way, I don't want to be putting that spot. Just leave me out of your Halloween party. Me and I mean how to talk about this earlier. And especially as you get older, one thing that becomes worse is the wearing of a mask because then you got to to scratch your face, you're sweating. Even worse, face paint. Two years ago, I did a really cool like penny-wise, half-clown thing. Let me tell you, between the sweat and the itching, it was

awful. Also, is there ever been a Halloween party where you haven't gotten an hour in and been too hot? Yeah, exactly. Or I just don't want to do this anymore. Yeah. I once, I had that thing that you see in movies where it was a Halloween party, but it was people who thought they were more grown up than they are late 20s, you know, kind of people. So they weren't, they didn't go all out. Except for my pal Tom, we went into the party. He went as a blue man from the blue man group with that cap and he took an hour and a half, the blue paint, his face all the way up. And as soon as we walked in the door, everybody was melted.

Like a jackass who brought this asshole in the blue face. And he took the bald thing off. So he's blonde-headed with a blue face. And now we had to leave after 20 minutes because he was too embarrassed. And we're walking down the streets on the north side of the street. Chicago with him burning a nail, lamenting. Like, Dave, I didn't expect everybody to show up without costumes. Like, maybe your first clue should have been that me, who you're with, isn't wearing a

costume. Yeah, but you didn't do them a favor. You let them go all the way over there like that. Wow, you know, that I think about it, you're the villain in this story. You should have told him something. Oh, I was delighted. Hey, quick update for you. I haven't updated my Super Bowl 60 pick.

You may recall that preseason. I had the Niners and Bills hooking up. Then they got decimated by injury, did the Niners. And so I had to drop them, unfortunately. And I picked up the Packers just in time. This was a month ago, at least, that I picked up the Packers. They're now down to 20 to 1 odds for those two teams to meet in Super Bowl 60. I do think we are at the crossroads as we approach Chiefs and Bills.

If the Chiefs win that one, get ready. I'm going to change it. As I say, though, for now 20 to 1, I'm going to stick with the Bills and the Packers here. If you're interested, the shortest odds are the Chiefs and Packers and the Chiefs and Lions both at 13 to 1. But we'll see what happens in this Crossroads game. Speaking of Crossroads, shout out to my football American of the week. It's my boy, Jean-Claude Van Damach and all his teammates at Crespi High School on the cusp of completing an improbable, undefeated season just three years after they didn't win a single game.

So excited for all those guys. It's a real cool thing, and I hope they get to complete that streak. fellas, what do you want to do here? Do you want to make picks while we wait for Pablo or do you want to lay out a little bit? I think I'd like to do the pick six because I would love to be a millionaire on Monday. Pick six. Okay. Let's get into it. Now, may as well confront our deem and we can't overcome this beast of getting all six of our pick six picks correct here. Let's change it up. It's time for the pick six presented by Draft Kings. Draft Kings, the crown is yours. And I have the last few weeks been focusing squarely on touchdown scores. I'm going to stick by that, but let's

change the order. Maybe that'll change the juju up a little bit. Mike and Gino, take it away. Tell me who you think are the best plays in the pick six this week. Okay. If I'm going to start here, I'm going to go, I just watched the Jets run up and down the field. The Jets who couldn't do anything on offense for the past month before this game on the Cincinnati Bengals. And if the Jets can do it, the Bears can do it. So I'm thinking DeAndre Swift gets in the end zone, at least once in Cincinnati. Okay. Yeah, that defense.

Kyle Monong guy, though, feels like he's getting more and more of the touches there. They could both get in. I think DeAndre Swift is kind of reclaimed that. There was some push to see the rookie overcome DeAndre Swift, but he's turned it on. They are letting him get beat up at the goal line a little bit, though. I feel like DeAndre's swift to really get one. He has to take it

from 20 yards out or something like that. But for me, Kyron Williams, he's only got in the end zone on the ground twice this year. He has three receiving touchdowns, but two of them came in one game. So using, like I've said before, he's got to get another one eventually. This week, Kyron's... We talked about this.

A pity touchdown? No, listen, listen, listen. We talked about this. I've crapped out seven times in a row. The number's got to go my way at some point, right? See, but this is the thing. Dave goes by this thing called the hot hand fallacy, right? They explained it great in the big shorts.

Selina Gomez is playing blackjack. It's this whole thing where he thinks that all because the guy scored last week, it's going to keep happening. That only works for Jonathan Taylor. He's the only guy who gets that, right? But it's a fallacy because you think, because, something has happened so many times, of course, it's going to keep happening. That's not true. But Kyron Williams, since he hasn't scored a rushing touchdown since, look at that.

Well, he had one, he had one last week, but that was only his second one since week two against Baltimore. He's bound to get another one this week. Anytime touchdown. If Led Zeppelin, well, that's a bad example because they're literally incapable of reforming. But, okay, REM, I don't know. If somebody got back together, I don't want to hear their new songs. Play the hits. That's what I'm doing here. Josh Allen's getting into the end zone. Five out of the last six, I'm sorry, not getting into the end zone, he's going to throw more than one and a half touchdown passes, not just because you can't throw half a touchdown pass. He'll throw two or more because he's done so in five of his last six and six out of the eight games he's played this season, he's accomplished that. Patrick Mahomes has done the same in four of his last five, and he's had at least three in four of those last five, too, so he's on a heater.

Justin Herbert. He's done the thing. Two touchdown passes or more in the last three and five of his eight games. So I think all three of those are pretty safe plays. Jamar Chase, four touchdowns in his last four. He'll make it five out of five. And Rishi Rice, since he came back, three touchdowns in his first two games back. You know, before I round this out, I'll round that out for you. Jemir Gibbs averages a touchdown a game so far this season. He'll get in there. Hey there, my fellow football Americans, you feel that chill in the air, don't you? I do, and I'm in Los Angeles. It's officially football weather out there, don't you know?

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The crown is yours. All right, here we go. And I'm going to be honest with you. You know I don't like to jive. I'm a little nervous for this one, and not because I think he's going to investigate me. I have a very boring life, but he is the guy who's made learning fun again. He's the host of Pablo Tori finds out. It's Pablo Tori.

How are you, man? Thanks for joining. I often get the sense that people are trying to butter me up so that I don't investigate them, and it only makes me want to investigate them more. So full disclosure, I want to investigate you more than I did five seconds ago. Okay. All right. Yeah, maybe I opened up a can of worms by saying too much.

You and I met, I'm sure you don't remember this, but we met in Atlanta at an after-hours thing in a Super Bowl week with Mina Kimes. And there were, actually, I was about to say neither you nor Mina was the most famous person in there. Can you name who it was. But I think you and Mina are probably at this point more famous. There was a high-profile quarterback in that After-Hours barge. Can you name who that was? Oh, man. For some, okay, so this is the sad reality of my brain is that I was sure, I tell you said quarterback, that the answer to this question was John Rocker.

But I don't know if that was the same night when I encountered John Rocker in Atlanta. That might have been for like the college football playoff or something. Who was the quarterback? You notice I said high profile. I didn't say good. Blake Bordles. Blake Bordles was in there. It was very strange.

Also very strange and captivating and all the rest of it. Your latest episode, pretty much all of them are. But this one continues the saga, the melodrama, cinematic as it is, Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier. I was going to say, I was going to ask you, what director, if this were turned into a movie, would you like to direct it? I have one in mind for you. Oh, I mean, it's always the Coen brothers to me. That's exactly right. That was exactly. If I can choose a pair. I mean, it's the mixture of. like a high drama and high stakes and like truly office water cooler level incompetence in which you have like again a list of just truly like bold face names acting in a way where you're like I can't believe they're putting this all on Instagram basically and yet here we are incompetent criminals you're at that's pretty much every Cohen brothers that allegedly allegedly that right yes alleged incompetent. Come on come on come on I'm trying to get us both invited to the next Bordles Fest.

You've got to make sure we're buttoned up here. Minding my peas and cues. I don't want John Rocker turning his nose up at me next time I'm in the Peach State. That's right. More sort of broadly, or I guess 30,000-foot view of this, does it strike you with this particular story that's unfolding with the NBA, the gambling, and sort of two legs to it, that guys at the level financially that these. NBA. I mean, it's a story all of his time, but is it sort of like to invoke another movie like Heat, Tom Seis, more saying like, yeah, you know, the action is the juice. I mean, is it basically come down to that? Why would Tyrone Lou or anybody else need to be involving themselves in this?

Yeah, this is a question that I contemplate, and there are two sort of like ways to answer it. One is to point out that a lot of these guys do, in fact, need more money than they ever want to admit and or we would ever expect, despite there being lots of reporting, clear stuff that I've done in the past about like there's a staggering rate of athletes going broke that would sort of blow your mind even though it's well established at this point. So that's the one thing. But the second deeper thing, which takes us to, I'm trying to think of like which sort of like psychoanalytic, a little Darren Aronofsky maybe in this one, right? Like you're sort of like crawling into the brain of someone for whom what seems like a luxurious life is kind of also this nightmare.

And I think in that nightmare, we can think of someone like Michael Jordan, who has famously said he's not addicted to gambling he's addicted to competition and I urge you to find the distinction in that difference I urge you to sort of find the clinical diagnosis in that non-diagnosis

perhaps but yeah man I think there's something very very familiar to the action being the juice to wanting to win and wanting to risk something given that sports asks any athlete and I respect this part

so deep And so sincerely, because I don't have it, I don't have the thing. Well, maybe I do now that I'm, like, investigating them. But before, I was like, the idea that you put your name on something and put humiliation on the line every time you stepped out in public, right? Like, that's on some level the juice in sports, in gambling. And I'm not surprised, I guess, that a bunch of these guys find that level of a high in something that feels kind of beneath them. It is fun. I mean, if you're an active player, that's one thing.

But the anecdote that I always go back to with this sort of thing is I was having a catch with Michael Irvin name drop in Indianapolis on the field before the Super Bowl one Super Bowl week. And I threw him a pass in the corner of the end zone and he caught it and he turned around to the empty stadium to the seats and he did his iconic pose to them where he puts his hands out to either side. And I said, what is that like, man, when you do something in life and then 70,000 people applaud. you for it and he said man i've had a crazy life i'd had a wild and great life there's nothing that beats that moment and it really is i think once you get done with that that probably life has a weird that you're you're searching for some meaning or what you're looking for is action right yeah look i think about so i keep going back to jordan and even barclay um as a sort of like point counterpoint here because both of those guys love gambling and that's okay there's nothing

wrong inherently with really enjoying gambling. The question becomes, what are you using it to fill inside of you, so to speak, to get back to that sort of like interiority, what kind of a movie are we watching? Michael Jordan, like, the guy could not have

one more. He is the person for whom we consider this synonymous figure, the face of winning. And yet that wasn't enough, right? And so you watch the last dance, as I have multiple times, and I marvel at just like how the thing that's supposed to be at the end of the rainbow wasn't there for him.

And meanwhile, by the way, Charles Barkley, loves, again, loves a casino, but at the same time, did not win in the way that Michael Jordan did. It is, in fact, synonymous with the other way to sort of be embarrassed in public. You never want a title. And yet, I look at him and I'm like, that guy seems happy. And maybe I'm buying into a different fiction. Maybe Charles is miserable, although I will say in every understanding. interaction I've had with him, name drop, he seems unbelievably thrilled to be Charles Barkley.

And so I think there is just something around what were you expecting that was going to fill that, you know, round peg, round hole problem inside of you. And I think that some guys, they keep on searching for that thing, for that high, for that thrill. And you're right, man. I've talked to, I mean, look, as somebody who was based in LA, remains very familiar. familiar with very famous people, I think it is really hard to not feel that anymore. I think the whole thing of like an athlete dying twice to be, you know, whatever, highfaluding

about it is not just unique to athletes, but it is unique to people for whom the spotlight and those stakes really meant something. And I get it. How else can you replicate that if not by feeling some danger? That extra edge. Yeah, I get, you know, it really is in, you know, mention L.A., I've always said, you know, it's sort of like the Ginger or Marianne or Luke Skywalker Han Solo, which side do you lean to? It's sort of the Shaq or Kobe thing. Shack was, and I would be Shaq, by the way, in this equation. I'm good enough. You know, this has worked well enough to get me some MVP's and some NBA titles where Kobe was never satiated. And that distinction is what drove them apart, ultimately, huh?

Yeah, look, I mean, the whole thing of what is enough and how, I mean, by the way, here's what's funny about the Shaq thing, right? We were talking before I think we started recording, assuming that we weren't already taping when we were talking about pharmaceutical commercials, not to pull the curtain way back. But Shaq, you know, Shaq will endorse anything. And I just think there's a funny, I don't know, like, I'm trying to like wrap my mind or what archetype is he? And he's a guy for whom, like, he wanted to play himself into shape when he was in the peak of his powers.

And that was infuriating to Kobe Bryant and to many Laker fans. He's also someone for whom, like, brand management is just, like, not a concern, you know, like simultaneously, maybe that is connected. He'll, he'll, there's so many things, so many jingles, so many commercials, I only know because Shaq endorsed it. You know, I think of Dollar, the Dollar General. The General, I was just going to say, yeah, that's the worst. That's the lowest of the low. talking to the little cartoon general. A little cartoon general.

Yeah. Come on check. There's a deeper metaphor in talking to a little cartoon general, but I'm not quite equipped to find it just at the moment. But yeah, that guy will basically put his name on anything. And by the way, simultaneously, he kind of seems pretty happy. Relatively speaking to the sort of theater of misery, that is the Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, kind of like a school of thought.

Let me give you a quick because, you know, you're now, you in a large way, in a meaningful way, have put the spotlight back on sports journalism, investigative reporting and all that, just to check where you come down on some enduring mysteries. Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone? I feel like that one, you know, I am going to be very embarrassed to report here that I'm like not somebody who knows a ton about the J.S. Like, I know there's a, there's a grassy knoll, and there's the city of Dallas, and there's a convertible, and there are allegedly multiple shooters, and Zuprooter film. And that'll get me through, like, the first five minutes of a conversation with a real, like, JFK head, so to speak. And I'm, like, after that, I'm, like, nodding along. I'm kind of, like, nodding along. Like, a person who doesn't know sports is nodding along to someone who's, like, giving me Jets takes.

You know, like, I'm embarrassed to admit that. I feel like I need to, for branding reasons. I should probably study, and I have it. I've gone to the plazins and what's striking to me about that. Well, and let me tell you something, all the talk about like, oh, that's a shot that only a military sniper and even at that level it would be a hard one to make. When you see it, it's like, don't look that far to me. It's right there. I could probably hit him with a football.

You're doing this thing where you think that you irrationally feel like you could do these feats of history thing or you could hit that shot. That's not how. That's not a pretty dark feat of history. Yeah, it is, but you'd never hit that shot. I saw a YouTube video where someone took a tape measure and went it out there and it's like it's a very, it's a shockingly short distance. Yeah, it looks kind of close. Yeah, you wouldn't help.

I don't know much about gun play, but. Now you're telling me this is like the punt pass and kick contest. Exactly. See, Dr. Pepper Challenge. Yeah, you're not going to do it. Cations. Kids can do this. Just throw the bullet sideways.

That's fine. Yeah, you're not winning a scholarship, Dave. It's not happening. Well, the other thing is, it's the same thing as sitting at home and watching Jeopardy. How do they, how do they, know that when you add the pressure, you know, Lee Harvey Oswald was under some amount of pressure there. Allegedly, moon... Lee Harvey Oswald clutched jean.

Moon landing, real? I mean, I once saw a video of Buzz Aldrin literally punching someone in the face for questioning whether it was real or not. I feel like that guy is rightfully frustrated. I feel like that thing happened. I feel like Buzz Aldrin putting the courage of his convictions on a viral video. I encourage you to find it. It's great. Yeah, I'm going real on the moon landing, yes. If you go around comedy writing rooms, you'll usually find that the people there probably were propelled there by being considered the class clown by their peers growing up.

Did you, as an investigative reporter, watching The Sixth Sense, how early in that movie did you go? Like, oh, he's dead. I was inspired to become an investigative journalist because I didn't see it coming. and I vowed to never feel that embarrassment over again. The origin story. Yeah. We have a Pablo origin story. Like in signs.

M. Knight Champlain, yeah, is my, is the cave that Bain was raised in for me. I'm just like, oh, it was water? The aliens didn't like water? I never got over that. Like Spider-Man with his powers. I will never let bad deeds go unchecked again. Here's one I'd want you to investigate that, doesn't have to do with sports, but I'm intrigued by this. The Louvre thieves who stole those jewels,

what do they possibly have to do with those jewels now? They can't go anywhere. What are you going to do with them? Good for you. You have millions and millions of dollars of these jewels. There's nowhere to take them. Can't spend them. I feel like going to pop up at like Fanatics Fest. Next to Michael Rubin hawking like a PSA 10. Tom Brady Rookie card it's going to be like whatever the princess Diana's

like amulet only an eight graded French crown jewel I didn't quite pass the trust yeah yeah by the way the authenticators I love that

it's so much bullshit I love that they exist I love that they're like you know what we need is a regulatory agency for trading cards and it's like well who decides it's like don't worry you about it

okay in movies it's always settled by at the hawk shop and it always ends up like this is a priceless item i'll give you 50 bucks for it like fine give me the 50 bucks um if you were doing the work you're doing now during the many patriots scandals which one would you have been most which would would have piqued your interest most spy gate the flate gate the tb12 controversy the demise of the dynasty oh i still love the deflater as a character. Remember that guy? He like showed up and he was like, and you'll never guess who it was. The guy they nicknamed in the building, the deflater. Like that's some

Cohen brothers stuff, man. I love that. I love, okay, a couple of things I remember about the deflate get, right? The ideal gas law. Remember there was like a press conference? And I feel like maybe it was Belichick who had to come out and basically like mutter because he obviously wasn't like trying to take the blame for what Brady was doing with the deflator in the bathroom like near the, whatever, or the field tunnel. And Belichick basically had to mutter about, like, the ideal gas law. And I was like, this is great. I love this scandal.

The deflater. Belichick, you've done some work on him. Maybe we'll have time for that. But quickly, I just wanted to ask you where you are in a couple of pro football, you know, well, different levels of scandal. The field mics, Miles Garrett, hitting Mason Rudolph with the helmet. it. Does that one intrigue you at all what happened there? Is it plausible that all microphones on an NFL field for a primetime game, national coverage and all of that? Is it plausible? Does

the explanation, the field mics were out? Does that check out? No, I don't believe that for a second. My thing, by the way, on the field mic and like the miced up sort of like thing is that There is a fascinating, let's call it like, almost like, maybe it's generous to call it like the equivalent of like a seven second delay, how they say it's live, but it's not really live. There's always the ability for like the people in the control room to recognize, oh no, like we should burn, effectively like stomp on this tape and let it never be released. I think that happens all of the time. And so purely based on informed or not even informed, just like vaguely informed speculation, yeah, why wouldn't there be? In this era in which, like, people, in this era in which kickers are kicking balls into, like, the wires for a spider cam. You're telling me there's not a tape somewhere of a microphone hidden in a pylon.

I just don't believe that. You know, we were talking about it on the Dan Lebitard show after your appearance on Thursday. And, you know, I'm not trying to be cute. For real, you said, you know, people now don't want to take my calls. Do you get nervous at all? I mean, when you were talking about, did you anticipate? that this was going to be part of what you were doing when you started the show. I mean, you're dealing with the mob, you're dealing with Congress, you're dealing with the FBI.

This is some heavy stuff, man. Yeah, I don't know if I've necessarily fully adjusted my behavior in line with my actual reality is. Hanging out with John Rocker, yeah. Me, John Rocker on the subway, just saying whatever we want. Singing Jardian song, singing prescription drug commercials. my my sense of like how much I should be worried is that I don't know I have like I live I live this is I guess fully disclosed so no use of pretending I do live in New York City I do ride the subway with John Rocker style characters every now and again and I don't really think

about it that said it does occur to me that if something were to happen to me and I am very sound of mind and body and I am very happy and I should establish these things I'm told I should basically establish. I'm not trying to hurt myself. I guess that's a thing that I should do now. Beyond that, I genuinely don't, I don't know. I don't think about it, and yet I recognize that, like, if you're trying to get me right now, like, there are a lot of suspects, so it's a pretty good time to try.

Yeah. So I should recognize that. I don't know. Do you think Levitard would, like, let me expense? I'm not trying to be glib, by the way, about this. I mean, I really do. I do. Because you start out.

I'm going to do a sports show. and I'm going to investigate some things. And all of a sudden, I mean, it feels like every week, Pablo Tori is breaking news that national news is picking up. And like we say, government is responsible. FBI, yes, Gino. I'm going to jump here in here, Dave. Pablo, we're worried about you.

The whole lebitard crew, everybody here, I think Tony mentioned it today. It's like, we're very worried about you, Pablo. So go watch or go stand by aside, man. Me? I think that's, I appreciate that. I'm not here to diminish what I think is work that I try so hard at that I sometimes don't actually internalize how much someone hates me for doing it. So there is just that.

I also do think when it comes to the unsavory characters that I tend to talk about, I guess what I hope, and this is going to sound, now I'm going to sound like an absolute idiot. But I'm like, I think the mob's going to like this episode. I think they're going to get what I'm going for. There's a reveal. There's a character develop it. You know, like, I'm sort of like trying to give a three-dimensional view of like what they're really up to. And it wasn't me, by the way. Like other people who are talking about this.

Like, I'm not the guy who was like there with a microphone. You know, like I'm like talking to other people. Like maybe consider that, sir. Your old man was a doctor, right? And I bet you he would watch shows, you know, ER and Gray's Anatomy or otherwise. and say, that doesn't happen in real life. I get the sense that mobsters like being portrayed in movies. Maybe this is a, maybe that's it.

That's what I'm hoping. I feel like, look, if I may appeal to the mob for a second. Please. We haven't heard about La Cosa Nostra in a while, and this has been a real development in the brand for the five families were mentioned in this indictment. And I say this very sincerely, having reported the story in a real way, I am more impressed with the state of La Cosa Nostra

today than I was two weeks ago. You guys are up to stuff. It's nice to say. Shout out to you. Please leave me alone from up here. Hey, I'm just podcasting here. I admire you greatly too. And you FBI and Congress, everyone else who we've brought up here. Where do you come down because you, again, are doing legitimately marvelous work and, you know, stuff that transcends mere sports. This is high-end journalism. What do you make of, I'm not looking for you to impugn anybody, but the notion, what's replaced journalism largely over the last decade is the notion of the newsbreaker.

To me, these are transcribers. What value do you think that has, if any? Yeah, I think the question is always, if you waited five more minutes, would we have known about it? Right. Like, that's really the question. I'm not above such things being exciting and worth refreshing my timeline for, but I think on some level without making this too binary, I do think there is something to reporting stuff that would not be known otherwise. And more than that, reporting stuff that others don't want you to know. And so I think, if anything, speaking to the branding problem of journalism and other, like the Italian mob, a once proud profession that has fallen on some hard. times until recently one might say i would say that we need to sort of distinguish like who gets to use that word i do think that journalist slash reporter slash even host you know like i see all of this stuff online and what an old sounding ass sentence just like i see all this stuff online and i'm like this is not a host this is not a journalist this is not a reporter this is somebody who's

talking into a recording device which is to say like miles garrett all of us may be claiming to have not said something that would get us in trouble later. But I do think the reality is we need to draw lines around, hey, I think there's something to the craft of this, to the intentionality of this, and trying to report something that other people don't want you to report. I think that means something. It just feels to me like spiked information, obviously, parties incented to get word out and then reporting that in advance of something. And there's very little, if any, evidence, to your point about investigation, there's a lot

of speculative stuff out there, but very rarely do the newsbreakers tell you something is about to happen before it actually happens. And that, like I say, turns them in to transcribers, high-end, highly paid ones, who then turn themselves into martyrs by saying, it's hard to have a regular life. I can't have a regular life because I'm too busy. I know. I'm sorry for me. I have two cell phones, and they're ringing all of the time. Like, okay.

Look, I think that on some level, the word newsbreaker is a vocabulary where we just got to change. Like, is this actually news? Are you actually breaking it? Are you being fed this by an agent or by a league source? And by the way, if you're going to use an anonymous source, so do I? That's cool. I do think it's worth sort of wondering, why do you need to use this? You know?

I think there's some justification, perhaps, if there is some threat to someone's security or the sensitivity of an investigation. I think anonymous sources are incredibly important. But the whole idea of league's source tells me that sixth man on the Minnesota Timberwolves is going to get a contract extension. I'm like, I don't think we need to deep throat this one. I think you might be able to even say who's telling you this and why in a way that is perhaps, inconvenient for the what's the way I want to put this the theater

of news as opposed to the actual breaking of it well uh people go over Nazreid I'm sorry I can't I've never Nasreid due to you Pablo I've been I've been trying to balance something like a serious journalistic identity and

and this guy with the Dr. Doom mask is just yelling at that two for two I'm being called Dr. Doom Wow. Is that not what we're doing? Yeah, no, no, he's like something from Harry Potter or something. I don't know, some dork shit. I want to know, the investigation and then Pablo goes,

but I'd like to know where Michael Lombardi gets those hats he wears. He wears them all the time. They're nice. They're very natural looking. They're kind of like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, they look. They're brown. They're always brown, you know?

They look, I can't tell what they're made out of. There's a metaphor in that hat. I think there's a metaphor. there. I don't be too a glib. I'm picking up what you're laying down. I do think there's something very perfect, cinematically about someone who thinks they're getting away with something

and absolutely is it. That's spot on. We'll leave it there. Hey, Pablo Tori really appreciate the time, man. Everybody's already checking your show out, but Pablo Tori finds out is one that is essential right now. Make sure you're getting in on board with that. Thanks for the time, pal.

Tell Bortles I say hey I will All right There goes Pablo Tori Very kind of him to take the time To answer my stupid questions That was great though right From his side at least

I was very intrigued that he's not really Knows anything about the JFK In fascination I figured that be right up his alley I like his origin story right It's kind of neat that it drove him into This line of work Maybe next he could investigate Who in the hell Bradley is supposed to be

because it seems like Dr. Doom. I don't understand what that... It's a death eater. I don't know what that means. Harry Potter. You have to watch Harry Potter. Voldemort? Yeah.

The followers. It's actually a pretty cool mask. I got to say, Bradley. It's not a bad-looking mask at all. All right, Dr. Doom. All right, let's say it's time, we're going to leave... I've never got a compliment for you before. Voice, the muffled tone.

Bradley, Dr. Doom, is going to sit this one out, and Gino, Mike and I'll get through the week nine countdown. We're going to go through the five games. In this case, six games. games that strike my fancy, and we're going to figure out which is the best direction. DeLean, if you're going to put a little money to make it a little more interesting. Here we go. Number five, the Minnesota Vikings against the Detroit Lions.

We finished up the pick six with a mention of Jemir Gibbs getting into the end zone. Detroit's at home, laying eight and a half. Total is 48 and a half at the time of this recording. I'm going to start with you here, Gino. All right. So eight and a half. Okay. So Dan Campbell has this thing where he likes to.

to punish division opponents, especially ones they can't keep up with this team, plus they're at home, so he'll probably want to put on a show for the crowd. That's my thinking. The over under here is about 48.10, Detroit, that applies, what, 3810, Detroit? That sounds about right. That sounds like a good ask. Well, but 3810, properly, it would be under then. Let's go 39.10, just for that. 39. 10. All right. There you go. Mike, how say you? Great bailout. What a team player, this Dave Damashik. I've never been a JJ McCarthy guy. I don't know why they reached for him so early.

A hard ball made it a point to not have him throw the ball when he was at Michigan. Gave it to Blake Horman a bunch of times. I just think we're off the rails in Minnesota. I mean, they look really bad letting Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones walk. Two guys are doing just fine this season. Kevin O'Connell probably should be questioned about that more than he is. But Detroit, they seem like they've got it together, and I bad, bad one o'clock window for Minnesota Vikings. Well, wait a second.

That's the glass half. view of KOC, the glass half full view is that the two frontrunners, even though we don't talk about MVP candidates this early in the season and at the halfway point, is still not late enough in the season to be debating MVP. Still, it's Daniel Jones and Sam Darnold is in the conversation. I think you could say that, well, they learned that the knee of KOC and they sent out a better version of themselves into the football, into the football world, right? Yeah, but you probably could have cut Daniel Jones for really cheap, and you could have held on to him, which means he didn't realize a talent when he was there. I think that's the play. Then you avoid all the

Carson wins. Sam Darnold, he had to pay, right? Because he had the best season of his career. He wins you, what, 14 games, right? Well, once you burn a high first on J.J. McCarthy, you can't then give the big long-term deal to that's where all the mistakes started. You should have probably cut bait, try to get something back for J.J. kept Sam Darnold, kept it rolling. because of the injury, and I think a lot of people announced J.J. McCarthy is a bust way too early. I mean, he played that one game where he had the great second half against Chicago. Then his wife or his girlfriend, whatever, has a baby before the next game, and he doesn't look good in that one. That's understandable from the human side of things.

And then it's Carson Wentz and all the rest of it, and the Vikings are hard to figure out here. I'm inclined to ride with KOC, even what is veering into a lost season, except for another QB whisper, and that's a short list, is Kyle Shanahan, and he has his exception that proves the rule named Trey Lance. Who knows at this point of J.J. McCarthy is going to be that for KOC. I'm going to take the Lions here to win by double digits. At home against the Vikes, they understand that they are in a heavyweight division, and they have to keep up with the Green Bay Packers who are playing very well themselves.

At number four on the countdown, instead of one game, I love these two massive numbers, and I want to see what you guys think about these. Rams are laying 14 at home to Tyler Shuck and the Saints and the Green Bay Packers, a meager 13 and a half against the Carolina Panthers. Mike Fuentes, would you bet either favorite here? No, I kind of like Carolina. I know it's going to be Andy Dalton,

but Andy Dalton has proved to have been servicable before and he can't possibly be as bad as he was last week. So I like Carolina. The thing about Tyler Shuck, I'll never say his name right. What is it? How do you say it? Shuck. Shuck. Like shucks?

Shuck. Like shucks. Like, shucks. Like, by you. Like, shuck. Yeah, like that. Go ahead. Okay, yeah.

Well, he's playing the Rams. He's traveling all the way out to L.A. That's a tough place for a rookie QV to start. So I could see that getting away from them and him just not being really able to do anything. So if I had to pick one 13 and a half point, 14 point favorite here, it's probably going to be the Panthers. You know, I would go. I just turn my nose up at these massive numbers. They just, the supremely gigantic number in NFL games doesn't usually pay off.

The Rams, though, against a rookie with that pass rush, that should add up to a big win for the Rams. Gino, how say you? I think the Rams are going to cover here, but I think Andy Dalton, I mean, he looked really bad in the first game, but he's a vet, and I'm sure they've been figuring, trying to figure stuff out. They may not be close, but I could see some garbage time closing of the gap there. which is going to just ruin people's anyone that went over. So I'm going to say Carolina in Carolina versus Green Bay and the Rams in the Rams versus. Interesting.

Well, Andy Dalton, for what it matters, and it could factor insignificantly. It depends which side you think this favors. Matt LaFleur and Andy Dalton are no strangers to each other, understanding each other's tendencies who that favors. Probably the Packers. At number three, the Indianapolis Colts, the AFC frontrunner.

paying a visit to the banks of the three rivers, the Steelers for the second week in a row, a home dog plus three. Egan, yuck, fad, and double fed. Gino, how say you? So 50 and a half point total here. There's going to be some points scored here, is what they're saying.

They're saying the Colts, the one weakness they have is that they can't really cover people, and so I think DKMEC is probably going to have a big game here. I would take the Steelers in this case, the spread, even though I think they lose by like one or two points, possibly on the last second field goal. Oh, wow, you're really finding a tight middle there. You know, I talked to my pal, Kent Brown, the yins are Kent Brown, and he did make a

good point. I mean, I'm down like most Pittsburgh Steelers fans are. I get it. People look at the team. They're four and three. They're playing well. They're in first place in that division. Yeah, I get it all.

But they are not playing well. Mike Tomlin just before the season said or suggested at least that this defense had a chance to be historic. In the meantime, it got disgraced by the decrepit Joe Flacco and then again by Jordan Love in front of the national audience last week. I think I'm not somebody who advocates to see other grownups get fired. I certainly don't think the straw man argument. What do you think they should fire Tomlin right now? Not before week nine. No, I don't think they are going to fire him in the middle of the football season. I do think this one feels different. After the Russell Wilson experience last year, in which he was supposed to be the missing link, as sort of portrayed by

Mike Tomlin. Now we have the expected amnesia to then embrace Aaron Rogers, who has not been the problem this year. It's been the defense, aka Mike Tomlin's specialty, his hand-bick pieces for that defense. I do think if they don't make the playoffs this year in a year that was sort of held up as a year to try and get over the hump, the weird standard that, is we got to win a playoff game. Okay, great. If you win in the wild card round, the stink is off at that point. I don't understand.

I could possibly see them. I suspect my hypothesis is that the reason Art 2, the current owner of the team, who is Dan Rooney's son, who is Art Rooney's grandson, the streak of Art Rooney and the Dan Rooney who picked Chuck Knoll and then Bill Cower and then Mike Tomlin, that is a streak that has yielded three head coaches since 1969. I don't know if you've ever heard about that before. I think R2 understands, if I get rid of Mike Tomlin and then I'm responsible for hiring his replacement, what if I make a mistake and hire someone like Adam Gase?

I will have destroyed this great familial streak. I think that probably, and I would be worried about that, too. All that being said, I'm going to take the Steelers. This is a Mike Tomlin special when you think they're all down and out and there's nowhere. The bottom is falling out. I think this is the kind of game he wins. Mike Flentes. The Colts, they're riding a high, right?

They're seven and one. Nobody expected this from him. Jonathan Taylor, he has 14 touchdowns and eight games. He's not going to keep this up. It's almost impossible. And like you said, this does seem to be one of those weird games where the team you don't expect to win somehow pulls it off. Chris Boswell is probably my favorite bet every week over one and a half. So I can see them covering this game and also winning by a field goal at home.

It's probably one of those games where Danny Dimes looks more like the Danny Dimes that we're used to and not so much Indiana Jones. But then also, what the hell do I know, man? Indiana has been blowing out everybody. I can see Jonathan Taylor getting two games. Michael Pittman getting in the end zone. Warren getting in the end zone. And Indiana Jones looks amazing.

And, yeah. I don't know what Mike Tomlin knows. He's the one talking about how great this defense was going to be. And everybody who goes up against him is the best version of himself. At number two, Broncos, Texans, the two best defenses in the AFC. Texans, surprisingly, to me at least, laying a point in a half here, total 39 and a half, Mike Fuentes. How say you? I have no faith in the Houston Texans. That's basically what it comes down to.

Fair. Yeah, I think C.J. Stroud, we crowned him way too early. Every time, you know, I feel the same thing about Jaden Daniels, to be honest. Like, J. Daniels found himself in the NFC championship game, and yes, he's been hurt this season, but even before that, he wasn't really a world beater like we thought he was. So Denver has this thing where Bo Nix tends to play out of his mind when you need him to, and I'll take him over C.J. Stroud, even if it's on the road, only one and a half point spread. so I'm going to take Denver to cover in this one and try to keep pace there with the Kansas

I'm spooked by the Broncos being a dog I just think that the specific matchup at the line of scrimmage the defense of front of the Broncos against the non-existent O line of the Texans seems to mean Denver and I'm going to take them Gina. The only reason I can think

that this line exists the way it does is that Pat Certain is out that's the that's there's no other explanation to me. It looked like the Texans figured something out the last game but they figured something out against a hobbled San Francisco team. So, I mean, I think it's the line of scrimmage, like you said, Dave. I would take the Broncos in this one as well.

All right, and number one, the clear-cut most important game you would think for the AFC. It's the Chiefs at the Bills. The Buffalo Bills are a home dog catching two and a half. 52 and a half is the total. Gino, go. This is going to be a fun one. I'm going to bet the over on this one, even if I don't think that's the case, just because we already have, what, two touchdowns predicted in our pick six,

for both Allen and Mahomes. So I'm going with the over here. I'm going to say the bills because they're at home and it's the regular season and that tends to be the case between these two teams and then in the postseason it's the Chiefs. So I'm going to go with the bills here. Usually these games come down to who needs it more in the moment, two high-end

teams. And I don't know that either team needs it more than the other. They're both chasing the one seed. The Chiefs are coming on, obviously. The bills typically prove something to themselves and their fan base against Mighty Kansas City. And they get it in the regular season, the Chiefs are coming on, and they are the best team in the

conference. I'm taking them. Yeah, I agree with you, Dave. I think the Chiefs, you know, now they got everybody back, they got Worthy back, they got Rice back. Kelsey seems to be like the old Kelsey again. He's playing out of his mind. They got all the cylinders firing. They're tired of hearing all this shit about how the bills are the team in the AFC now. They're going to go in there. They're going to make a statement, and they're going to cover. They're going to win in Buffalo this time around, and then they're going to beat him again in the playoffs. We'll be back on the other side of NFL Week 9 to break it all down and try and make sense of it for you. Until then, for Gino and Mike Fuentes and everybody here in Miami and Bradley

and that stupid Doctor Doom mask up in New York City. Thanks so much. It's a death eater. Thanks so much, Football Americans. It's been a thin slice of heaven. Sheesh. Thank you.