The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - PFTO EXCLUSIVE: An Extremely Content-Brained Share & Tell with Domonique Foxworth and Dan Le Batard

Episode Date: October 6, 2023

What really makes coaches good at motivating players? Why does Captain America long to be a dog? And how infuriated is Domonique by Pablo’s case of Content Brain? Also: secret notebooks, celebrity f...riendships, and (figurative) ball-licking. PTFO-approved reading: https://theathletic.com/4926881/2023/10/03/alabama-football-nick-saban-coaching-style-players/ (Kennington Smith III) https://www.gq.com/story/chris-evans-october-cover-profile-2023 (Zach Baron) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to Pablo Tore finds out I am Pablo Tore and today we're gonna find out what this sound is in the article He's like I try to make a movie a year then my beautiful wife and I F*** around but I wish I was a dog if you want to be a dog Right after this ad You're listening To draft King's Network. Look at the grumpy moody arrogant face of Dominic Foxworth. And yeah, well, you're all ready.
Starting point is 00:00:38 You're too close. I was happy. I was joyful to see you and was about to serably express how much I love seeing you guys and how much joy it genuinely brings me that we're doing this together in this form on this platform. And you had angry black man face. You gave and don't and don't you say it's your face. It was it was you seemed better than the room.
Starting point is 00:01:03 I don't see color. I just see I don't see color. I just see anger Nah, you just see content. We'll get to know I do I do. I'm already wondering am I do I have to believe Dan saying black are we gonna have to like leave it up to the audience to decipher? What's that word was if you believe it it makes it worse so it worse. It's so much worse. What terrible, so much worse. What did he just call Dominique? Dominique's carrying on a notebook now, Dan. I don't know if you saw that before. Dominique has like, you look a moleskin notebook.
Starting point is 00:01:36 Why do you have a notebook now? I like the right things down. This is your journalistic effort. This is you. This is Pavolo Torre fine things out. Why do your journalistic effort. This is you. This is PavoloTory. Find things out. Why do you have a notebook? Why do you have water?
Starting point is 00:01:49 Because you're thirsty. I have a notebook. Because I like the right things down sometimes. Pablo. Why do you have on a sweatshirt? That's like asking me, why am I drinking from a goblet when all I need is water? And you're walking around with like a ink,
Starting point is 00:02:01 well, and a quilt. Because I'm dope. I answered the most questions you have. But is that dope? I was thinking you'd have a computer or something, just a no tap or something, you got to write it down by hand. He's an artist now. I get it.
Starting point is 00:02:15 I get Dominique's an artist. He's more writer than either of us. He's literally writing now. No, I will tell you what's happening. This is my theory, pop psychologist from over here. Competitive Dominique Foxworth, who loves to win and be better than others at everything, is writing down independent thoughts
Starting point is 00:02:31 all the time that other people in the sports media aren't having because he has independent thoughts that are more interesting than most. Nope, it's just me keeping school with everybody in my life. I'm on a Pablo page right now, and that's been a blowout for years. Dominate and you Pablo. He just, he just, he just, he just,
Starting point is 00:02:50 he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just,
Starting point is 00:02:58 he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, he just, just, he just described the score, the running score between me and him. Although you did, you did. I pay for a f***ing dinner.
Starting point is 00:03:06 You did, you pay for a dinner, you pay for a dinner. I believe that you only pay for the dinner because you knew that I was coming on the show and you wanted to be able to say publicly that you pay for a dinner because you, everyone knows that you go to dinners with me all the time and you never pay for a dinner. He's using you for content, he's using,
Starting point is 00:03:24 he's not even paying you, he's making you? He's using, he's not even paying you. He's making you do the work for his podcast and not even paying you. And then I'm always on the look out when I'm with Pablo where he's trying to serpitiously snap pictures for his goofy ass Instagram. Little Stu got one of course. Little Stu got two of you.
Starting point is 00:03:39 He knows that I know this, he knows that I know this. So he's snuck one in and I saw it later. It was a fake tag being in it. No, he does this all the time. No, he knows that I know this, so he's snuck one in and I saw it later. It was a fake tag being. No, he does this all the time. No, he's a fame f***er. He goes, he does this all the, Dominique, how many courtside seats have you seen with him and famous people?
Starting point is 00:03:53 Because he wants to appear cooler than he is. For the record. We have all of the fame f***ing is entirely consensual. So I feel like I should start the show with a sports topic, a sports topic that began with a short athletic story but gave rise to bigger thoughts. And so the title of this article is what's the best way to deal with Nick Sabin's fiery coaching? Alabama football players explain.
Starting point is 00:04:36 And I don't know if you guys saw any of the Alabama Mississippi State game last Saturday. It was generally uninteresting to me, except for the fact that Nick Saban on the sideline was doing stuff like this that you could see if you watched the Drafties Network or our YouTube channel. He's yelling at everybody. He is yelling at people,
Starting point is 00:04:53 he's yelling at his offensive coordinator, Tommy Reece. He's yelling at players like Terry and Arnold, a cornerback Dominique, a young cornerback, who was chewed out very publicly on the sideline. And during half time, Nick Saban was approached by the Euston reporter. And at half time, you know, Alabama had started slow. They got up 31 to 10, and Sabin was asked about how this all flipped around. And he said this.
Starting point is 00:05:18 What do you think changed in the flow of that game from slapping it still all the sudden? I don't know. You see me getting on him over there? Yes, I did. Well did maybe that's what you make that calls thank you coach oh he's not wrong coach Sabin got smoked for everybody in that first half so all of this made me think about how to be coached, how I want to be coached, how I have been coached, how I would coach, and how Dominique Dan is different from us. That part I know, but I feel like being an athlete
Starting point is 00:05:52 and responding to a Nick Sabin, I'm not wired that way, and it makes me self-conscious about how I should be wired because this s**t did per Nick Sabin's accounting, actually work. Well, I mean, accepting Nick Sabin's accounting is your first mistake and assuming that all athletes like to respond to coaching like that is your second mistake.
Starting point is 00:06:15 I'm shocked that you didn't show the Trent Dilford outburst from the weekend, you know, where he's flipping out on his coaches also for making a mistake, a substitution mistake or something like that. So I think many athletes respond to that. Many of them don't. It's probably, probably overrepresented in sports, people who can respond to that type of like coaching.
Starting point is 00:06:36 But I think a lot of coaches justify it by saying that they're pushing buttons. And I wouldn't say that they're wrong. Like you're pushing pushing buttons. And I wouldn't say that they're wrong. Like you're pushing different buttons just try to get a reaction out of a player that is potentially not engaged or not focused. So maybe it works sometimes, maybe it doesn't. It's not the way that I feel like I respond. Like I think I like retreat back
Starting point is 00:06:58 when someone yells at me like that. That doesn't make me want to get more locked in. I think of myself as someone who would rather have a real conversation. Like I'm not trying to mess up. You screaming at me. I have to make me try. Tom and I think like I remember the first time I thought about this. It was the very first time I considered it. It was Tom Coughlin during a playoff game with all the things Tom Coughlin represents, old military. I'm in charge. These guys can't win unless I toughen
Starting point is 00:07:24 them up and show them how to be leaders. And his field goal kicker had just missed an enormous kick in a playoff game. He felt bad enough. I assure you, without Tom Kofflin coming over and just lighting him up. And I looked at it and I'm like, that's not coaching. That's Tom Kofflin just feeling better about wanting control over things and he's just feeling Rage and he wants to get it out and that guy's Consuming it. I don't think that you would respond to that. I'm not sure you would want your your children coached that way that you would want them Treated humanly and humanly, but I also think that the ego of the position leads Nick Saven to believe no I got the better result because I yelled
Starting point is 00:08:05 because I made that player tougher. And I would say to you, and you can lose them just as quickly that way because that is not a caring ally that you see now that's coming up with the Mike McDaniels of the sport where they're like, no, how can I be a caretaker and an assistant and an ally and an administrative assistant? How can I be someone who just helps you? The thing is, this is about human psychology, what this question is. And I feel responsible as the football player over here and the most traditionally masculine person
Starting point is 00:08:36 in this conversation. I got plenty of Cuban, Cuban cavemen in me. No, no, no, no, I got three kids, and I play professional football. I'm not sad. I'm year two. I'm just saying, come on, get that facial hair together, Pablo. I'm trying.
Starting point is 00:08:51 So, as the most traditionally masculine person here, I don't like that. We would not be. Correct. Being traditionally masculine is not a compliment. I said, as the most traditionally masculine, my whole life was closed. It was extremely closed there. This is a compliment. I said, as the most traditionally masculine, my friend was closed. It was extremely closed there.
Starting point is 00:09:06 This is a compliment, my bad. Trit, it is a compliment being, I don't consider myself traditionally masculine. Like I think of myself as a more progressive version of masculinity, but I do believe that someone needs to speak for I'm certainly generally not a two sides person of the conversation, but I do think there's a reasonable side, a reasonable position on the side. When we're talking about human psychology, no one really knows how this works.
Starting point is 00:09:32 So there are people that I think probably do respond better in certain situations that would make us uncomfortable and we say that we don't like. I've had coaches try to get the best out of me when they thought I wasn't focused and try something like that. They noticed that it didn't work and they don't try it again. But there are players who I see like, yeah,
Starting point is 00:09:53 they turn that energy into something else. And the other defense of them is the time Kauffling yelling at the kicker, I think is, yeah. There's no argument for how that's gonna help. The kick is already kicked, he didn't do anything wrong, but I do believe in professional sports. There is an obligation and responsibility that you have to each other.
Starting point is 00:10:12 So, if someone flips out on a player on a pro football team, I would say don't do that, that's not cool, you're showing them up. But if this is a continuation of someone who is not participating in practice, not doing not paying attention in meetings, and then they make a mistake that's directly tied to that. Like, I do think that part of that is letting them know
Starting point is 00:10:30 that what you're doing is not just letting you down. Everybody else's money is riding on this too. Everyone else's reputation is a lot riding on this too. And maybe you can find a softer way to do it, but I do know in some of these traditionally masculine scenarios, you're not just coaching to them. That's a performance for everybody else too. So it's like, you know what?
Starting point is 00:10:52 You wanna be a mother, a fucking, that doesn't do this, that we expect to view, then we're gonna embarrass you here. And not that it's right or wrong, that maybe it doesn't get the best out of that person, but it can be cathartic to everyone else on the team that's looking like, see, that's what happens,
Starting point is 00:11:07 that's what he deserves. Otherwise, you get your ass beat in the locker room, which happens to you. Well, accountability, right? It's interwoven with Dominique was just describing there, right? Because you are maintaining this delicate ecosystem, which I think an office also can feel
Starting point is 00:11:20 although in a less traditionally masculine way than a f***ing NFL locker room, but I will point out that there's this, I mean, again, to make this, to be a classic, um, untraditionally masculine person. I'll say there is a spectrum to all of this, right? And so there's a spectrum from Trent Dillford on one end to even Nick Sabin somewhere maybe like, you know, not on the other end, but somewhere in the middle because Terri and Arnold, the corner back in question, said post game, quote, I feel like I have a relationship with
Starting point is 00:11:47 him to where he knows I can take coaching like that. It's hard coaching when you choose to come here. You never know when he could chew you out, but people always say you should be worried when he's not saying something to you. Now look, in that power dynamic, and we should also distinguish between college and professional, right? There's a power imbalance inherently. But what I'm hearing is that every coach, every teacher, every parent, every motivator is kind
Starting point is 00:12:11 of like a locksmith. And they're trying to figure out, okay, what's the combination to this safe? How do I pick this lock? Even if they don't want to give up the thing inside of them that feels like potential. And I know for me, Dan, this is why introduced this topic the way I did. I know that the way that I have been motivated, coached up, elevated is different from the way that Dominique has explicitly asked from his actual producers doing our job in our business. Like I in that way have objectively softer in a way that's shame. No, but no, no, but the I told the story before of going in to ESPN and the former athletes were amazed. Yes.
Starting point is 00:12:53 That the insecurity in the room because it gets, it gets weeded out. It cannot be in a locker room. Just simply shocked that anybody would get in their feelings about being yelled at once. But you bring up Nick Sabin and in his defense, Ricky Williams was always an artist trying to work within the restrictions of the army. The only coach who reached him who pushed the right buttons on a self-described weirdo was indeed Nick Saban. Nick Saban found a way to reach.
Starting point is 00:13:21 So maybe he does have some secret formula that changes player to player, and it's not always yelling. But my experience with people of Nick Sabin's age and successes, they are control freaks who once that ball is put in play, actually have about 10% of the control over what happens. And when they lose or lose publicly, they appear like they want to show others they're in control. When their college kids, they're going to make mistakes.
Starting point is 00:13:51 And I think they're obsessed with control. I think Nick Sabin has been rewarded every turn for that control. And I've asked Dominique, what percentage of coaches do you think really new and understood the human being well enough to know, no, I can yell at Dominique Foxworth, no, I can't yell at Dominique Foxworth. I think that's their job. I think they do know. There's certainly so like, it's impossible to say one coach is never actually angry. He's always performing anger. But I think all coaches probably do lose their cool sometimes and it's a genuine reaction. But I think all coaches probably do lose their cool sometimes
Starting point is 00:14:25 and it's a genuine reaction. I also think that all coaches sometimes don't know what else to do and they're like, all right, maybe I can fire this person up. It's not golf where it's about being incredibly focused and locked in where a spike in your adrenaline is gonna be bad. It's football, so it probably does help sometimes
Starting point is 00:14:44 to like fire somebody up in whichever way you can. So like I do find myself defending them in that place. I wouldn't like it. I don't need it, but there's no formula. I don't think that I think the formula that you're looking for is just about care. And the idea that players, some players feel like it's okay when certain coaches yell at them, is also how like I imagine your parents have yelled at you and maybe even hit you growing up. You don't hate your parents because you genuinely believe that they care about you and they want what's important. So that trust is hugely important if someone's yelling.
Starting point is 00:15:22 Well, do you believe that this person has your best interests at heart, right? Do you believe that they love you? Do you believe that they can be trusted with your actual physical vulnerability as well as emotional vulnerability? And do you believe that you deserve whatever is having? Yes, yes. And now we get into like some sort of victim blaming thing and you can say, no one ever deserves to be talked to like that.
Starting point is 00:15:45 But if you let your team down in an important moment, you deserve something. And I don't know what it is, but being yelled at tonight. You equivalent though of being hit with the immigrant parent slipper, right? As you are, I don't know. Nothing. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Flowing across the room, the way that an Aaron Punt would,
Starting point is 00:16:05 you know, like that part, it does. Sorry, I thought that we were clear about this, is there are different things. Like, dropping a punt, like trying your best and making a mistake, like the Tom Kaufland thing, a guy missing a kick, that's entirely different thing than doing the wrong thing. Like actually not executing. So I feel like it's different when it is also when it's tied to
Starting point is 00:16:30 your preparation. We have to do that. We have to have a misfield goal. Tom Kaufflin comes on the field and throws a chunk of it at the kicker. That would be so much better than just yelling at it. He is deep for me. Please, please make that a thing. But by the way, the generational distinction here is real, right? Because we're also in 2023 and all of the jokes we've made about the traditional aspect of anything masculinity and otherwise. Sabin's close to 80, right? Sabin, where's he going to connect with the 20 year old cornerback?
Starting point is 00:16:58 Like maybe, maybe, but that's going to take some work and it's going to take it from somebody who better be hungrier than somebody who's close to 80 and has had a whole lot of success. I work the odds against Nick Sabin being able to connect there with every 20 year. I disagree with you. I think Nick Sabin is not just random 80 year old man. Nick Sabin is someone who has built up a tremendous amount of respect and cash. And I think Nick Sabin has a better chance of connecting with a 20 year old cornerback than frankly I do as a 40 year old former cornerback.
Starting point is 00:17:29 I think when you show up there, the relationship dynamics and the value that he offers you is so clear. And his track record is so clear that, yeah, Nick Sabin yelling at me. And then I look at the history of players that he's yelled at and what's happened with them.
Starting point is 00:17:47 It's a whole different scenario, I think. And assuming that throughout the week and throughout the year, he's also doing the things, and at least that I've heard from players who play with Nick Sabin is that he does for the most part, try to do the things. He's not dabble-sweeney who says that players don't deserve to get paid. He's at least in last decade. So been someone who said that players should get paid and it appears as progressive minded, even in the way that he
Starting point is 00:18:15 coaches his team and the offensive development. Like he does seem like someone who adapts and he's never been the one who's made the, the, the, the huge mistake with the way that he talks to his players or he treats his players. I do love the idea though of insecure Nick Saban who's like memorizing like Lilliyati lyrics to show up at work the next day. We've seen it. We've seen video of him doing dances in people's living room. That man desperate for a baller just like the rest of me.
Starting point is 00:18:44 He would do whatever he can to get your black ass to escort and touchdouse. He will learn the latest dance and also depth. It's so sad. I wanted to bring you guys an article from GQ Chris Evans is having second thoughts and below that below the headline it says some of the things that the reluctant leading man has been contemplating lately include humanities tiny place in our vast galaxy. Autumn's in New England, whether it his dog realizes he's famous and how well, maybe being a movie star isn't the best occupation for a guy who's so prone to
Starting point is 00:19:29 thinking about absolutely everything. And the reason I wanted to put this in front of you is because I remember when Tyson Fury, who descends from decades of fighting in the street with his relative street fighters, bare knuckle fighters, lifetime fighters. He gets to the heavyweight championship. The dream title that any fighter would want immediately descends into cocaine and gains a hundred pounds because what the top looked like or what he thought it looked like wasn't how it felt. There was still an emptiness there at arriving at all of his dreams. An emptiness made worse if you're an overthinker.
Starting point is 00:20:06 So I ask you, Dominique, to tell me when you have arrived at something, this happened to me with the sports reporters in Times Square. I thought it was the top of the profession and then I go in there and it smells like urine from the night before because it's in Times Square. It's at the ESPN zone. People have vomited.
Starting point is 00:20:23 I just love the idea that Dan is relating to Captain f***ing America. That's right. Because you hung out with Michael Lupica. That's right. That's correct. Well, that was the top of my dreams. I dreamt smaller. I'm sorry. Not all of us dream as big as you, Pablo. My bad. Not all of us hang out court side with whatever glover it is you were hanging out with. Chris, yeah. Yeah, that's it. No, my dreams were, I get to talk about sports on television and Times Square. Why does that table at the center of this that I learned from, how to be a sports writer?
Starting point is 00:20:53 Why is it 40 years old and covered in coffee stains? Because this isn't the top of the mountain. At 30 years old, I've arrived in a lonely place that doesn't look exactly like I thought it would look the top of my profession. Has that ever happened to you, Dominique, because you've gotten to the top of things? Yeah, I mean, I think, absolutely. I think there's no top is, I think, what I've come to realize
Starting point is 00:21:15 and accept is that thinking of it as like one climb and thinking that when you get there, that everything's gonna be all right as a mistake. And I think the way that one of the most interesting things about this article itself is that Chris Evans just talks about looking at the world differently at different times, which is something that I can relate to, and maybe that means I'm an over-thinninger,
Starting point is 00:21:38 or maybe everyone can relate to it also. There are times when I was at top of the mountain, so to speak, where I was like, this is awesome, I'm at the top of the mountain. And there are times when things weren't that great. And I felt good about life. I think it's just the way that you look at the scoreboard. And we all tried to like,
Starting point is 00:22:00 I think we want to make life as simple as movies or make life as simple as a sporting event. Where it's like, okay, this is the goal. And when we do it that way, we always end up being somewhat unfulfilled because nothing is ever that simple. That's what I've found. But as a young person though, right?
Starting point is 00:22:19 Your voice changes because what you think of or how you define success is different, right? So it does depend on what age you get to it. Like, you getting to the top of football, professional sports had to feel to you like the top or not know where it was. No, it wasn't. I mean, it changes because you don't, as you, and maybe it's different when it's a quick thing.
Starting point is 00:22:42 And because I was so young, it might feel like a quick thing. But I decided I wanted to be a professional football player when I was six. So by the time I'm 22, that's a long process. And that's a lot of commitment, a lot of sacrifices. And it's also a lot of learning. I think we've had this conversation before. It's like having it be revealed to me what professional football is
Starting point is 00:23:02 was a slow process where I got a better understanding of what was actually happening. And then being a first round number one overall pick, maybe that feels like the mountain top. Getting your name called in the third round, and then going out to Denver and fighting for a job and getting a check that is a respectable check, but ain't life changing money,
Starting point is 00:23:21 it's not, doesn't feel like the mountain top. It just feels like you got to a plateau, and it and money, it's not, it doesn't feel like the mountain top. It just feels like you got to a plateau and it's like, oh, sh**, there is an even bigger mountain. And also, there's a grizzly bear chasing me because if I don't get to the top of this particular mountain, all the other things that I did leading up to this were mistakes that set me up to like be unsuccessful in life. So, like, it doesn't feel like a mountain top to me.
Starting point is 00:23:45 I mean, the animal stuff I want to bring in the part of the story that I related to despite also not being Captain America. Because Chris Evans is saying some stuff that resonates. He said, he said this, I want to read this quote, it's our self-awareness that separates us, but also what causes our suffering. We think it's what elevates us.
Starting point is 00:24:04 I'd say that's actually what makes us inferior. And then you go on to talk about how he sees his dog. His dog's name is Dodger. And he looks at Dodger and he feels something like envy. Envy because the dog is not self-aware. Envy because the dog is ignorant. And in ignorance, there is this freedom from caring about the stuff that has to do with being human, right?
Starting point is 00:24:25 Which is to say, he is unconcerned, Dodger is, with all of the stuff about how people perceive him and the measuring. So the scoreboard idea is seemingly irrelevant in the animal kingdom. It is the part of the story that makes me think, I also want to be like Dodger. You could have just said ignorance is bliss.
Starting point is 00:24:48 Mother's, if you don't do any thinking, there's no self-loathing. Like there's no room. If you're not doing any judgment of yourself, animals do not do self-loathing. They don't cast gate themselves with not forgiving themselves on things. There is no aphorism that I am less likely to accept.
Starting point is 00:25:05 Ignorance is bliss less likely to accept. Ignorance is bliss, runs counter to everything I have wired in me and that I aspire to, enlightenment and awareness. Self-awareness specifically, I will talk to you endlessly about how it's a virtue, how the people who are unself-aware are the pro-ofloos. No, but both of you I would think suffer from this same affliction. I think I may have this wrong Because I suffer from it the illusion of control that the comfort of my mind allows me is just an illusion of control
Starting point is 00:25:33 I trust my mind implicitly. I've only I've only recently learned that trusting the heart is something that matters a lot more I thought because my mind did not bring me ultimate happiness. It did not It brought me the illusion of control and nothing else like it's a poison as much as it is a blessing. Your mind, depending on how you, I would treat you. I mean, I think that the way the aphorism that I would use is nothing in life is free. And I would use that because I believe that the mind, all the bad things that come with it, there's an equal and opposite, like reward. So while yes, the dog can never be like self-aware and feel all the insecurities and challenges that we may feel as a result of the self-awareness. But he can also never feel the level of joy and fulfillment that we feel like.
Starting point is 00:26:23 Oh, look at balls. And he can see a balls. And he can do all sorts of things that seem to make him plenty happy. And ways that's been happy. Which is all physical. And they don't have access to something that we have access to. So I get Chris Evans' point in your point that sometimes when I'm stressed about my kids' future or when I'm stressed about how we're gonna be able to do this next thing or how I'm gonna be able to make
Starting point is 00:26:51 enough time to fit in all the f***ing podcasts I got a record from my friends and other ones. It's just nice to be like, oh man, you know what? I'm just gonna be a cat, go eat it so lick into. It's so interesting, man. You Pablo, I'm sorry to interrupt you Dominique, but one of the reasons that I think you're so much touched. I trust your judgment.
Starting point is 00:27:13 You interrupted me, and it's not going well. Well, I know I'm only doing it because something you said was so fascinating to me about how much tougher you are than we are in every way. If the mountain top is not third round pick getting to the pros because you have to live your life of, oh, there are carnivores out here trying to take my family's money. If I don't stay in this league, like, of course, you're going to be tougher than us. Like, I don't know what it's like to be competitive like that for dollars.
Starting point is 00:27:38 Hold on. I think part of the underlying through line here, which I see Dominique generously providing here, is that we're all impressed by the thing we didn't do. So like you, Dan, fetishized Dominique's life because he is football guy. Chris Evans fetishizes in this article, the guy doing pottery, listening to music, unstressed by the stresses of Hollywood. And me too, I am also now clearly fetishizing a dog. And I mean, I think most people fetishize Chris Evans' life.
Starting point is 00:28:13 Yes. And I think as an, as an athlete, that's something that I'm familiar with. It is kind of annoying, which I imagine Chris Evans as straight white male. Captain America. Superstar lead actor millionaire. Yeah, most people like, yeah, give me that life. And he, I'm sure a lot of people who read this article are probably turned off by that.
Starting point is 00:28:33 Absolutely. Because no one wants to hear that Chris Evans has stress. In the article, he's like, I try to make a movie a year. Then my beautiful wife and I, it's such a great dog. It's such a great movie. I wish I were a dog. It's such a, you want to be a dog? The f*** to the rest of us would have been.
Starting point is 00:28:48 Can you imagine? I like this so much more, not as the actor, but as the actual Captain America. The, the Gloom Superhero just burdened with, do you know how much responsibility it is to be super human? I want to put him in the costume and have Captain America hate himself so much that he wants to be the dog, that he doesn't want to be super human or human. You know, he kept America is the perfect analogy for this because it is, I guess maybe Spider
Starting point is 00:29:14 Man is even better because it is like the idea of great power and great responsibility. And that responsibility is hard. And the thing that I think about often when I get the idea, so people know like I'm a professional athlete and know that I do like a pretty fun job now and get paid enough money and they're jealous of me and say things that are like, I'm not allowed to complain. Or you hear about athletes all the time.
Starting point is 00:29:37 Like, oh, you can't pay so much money, whatever. And I hear Dan defending them. But I never really bring this up, but it always crosses my mind that it's just about who you compare yourself to, because the distance between superstar athlete or Chris Evans and the average American person is probably similar to the distance
Starting point is 00:29:54 between average American person and poor person who does not live in the western part of the, or the western hemisphere. So like, it is all about making comparisons, which is why I guess you probably just wants to be a dog because they aren't smart enough to make comparisons. They're just happy because they got a meal and then made some. But I'm not I'm not fetishizing though the idea that you at one point at one point you were earning money for playing sports. Like that was the goal, like that.
Starting point is 00:30:25 You were right, that you couldn't enjoy it because there was too much, there were too many bears chasing you. Doesn't change the fact that you did the hardest thing. Dominique, you did the hardest thing. Right. And then the hardest hardest thing was actually getting to the second contract. That was the one that, that was the time when I was like,
Starting point is 00:30:42 oh, and it wasn't like joy. It was more like relief, was you had to get to that second contract. People don't understand that about athletes, Dominique, that you're playing a game for a living, you're making a lot of money, and you don't get to joy until it feels like relief, because now the burden of the expectations of my body
Starting point is 00:31:00 needs to make me money for a long time to feed a lot of people. Like that's a burden nobody actually wants. And the point that I wanted them, that I tried to make at the beginning of this is it depends on how I'm looking at it. Because I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy being in NFL at any point.
Starting point is 00:31:18 I didn't enjoy playing, I didn't enjoy the things that come along with it. And I didn't at any moment in that time. There were several times in there before the second contract, and even in college, and even in high school, where I was like, God damn, this is great. This is awesome.
Starting point is 00:31:32 This is awesome. But then those are like fleeting moments. They're like pieces of candy, whereas during a normal day, it's the stresses that come along with it. And that candy is never enough to, I think, is a better way to explain it, because I don't, I don't want people to think during a normal day, it's the stresses that come along with it. And that candy is never enough, I think, is the better way to explain it,
Starting point is 00:31:47 because I don't want people to think that I was just walking around moping like, man, I gotta make this team. I gotta do a second contract. No. This is part of what Dominique is, it's a great point. It's part of what Chris Evans is trying to say. And I hate that I am referring to Chris Evans as if he's fucking Nietzsche or anything.
Starting point is 00:32:03 But he pointed out, he pointed out that when he thinks small, when he thinks about the thing in front of him, he suffers, when he looks at himself or his life under a microscope as you just described an athlete doing, it is suffering. But when you think bigger, when you try to truly abstract yourself and sort of put yourself in the perspective,
Starting point is 00:32:21 you talked about comparisons. Compare yourself to the fucking galaxy. Compare yourself to the f***ing galaxy. Compare yourself to the sweep of human history, and at that point, you'll realize that, okay, nothing here matters. And in that knowledge, which I think is, in some ways, is the opposite of ignorance, but in the true knowledge of how small we are,
Starting point is 00:32:38 because everything else is so big, maybe there is actually some sort of relief. Yeah, I mean, I think that some of that comes with age and experience, but it also comes with as I was reading this article, I was waiting for the drug reference. He got to it in the last pair of reference. So I was like, Oh, yeah. And Chris haven't spoke a lot of week. But sometimes that does allow people to open their mind up to see the things that that they otherwise wouldn't see. But the funny thing is, your points you're making and a much more verbose way than necessary is.
Starting point is 00:33:09 Okay, you can get so smart that you get to the simple place or you could be so dumb as a dog that's in a simple place. The point is we all want to get to the simple place. That's right, just ignorance is bliss licking your balls. I think we can all agree that we approve it in this segment. I take it back, hold on, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Before you close it out, as you always most wonderfully do, because I do miss that about you.
Starting point is 00:33:28 I do want to point out that, hold on, one thing, I am no longer the most traditionally masculine person here. It's definitely Dan, because all he really wants is his balls linked. That's right, nothing gets more traditionally masculine. And there you go. I was threatened by your traditional mass. And anybody who thinks that we humans cannot lick our own balls,
Starting point is 00:33:50 replay this segment. Oh, no. Replay this segment. I love, I love working with you because I do believe that you do a great job of tying things together. But as we all so established in this segment, there's a price for everything. And the price that I have to pay when I work with you is just sometimes you're gonna make some weird, sex stuff, weirder.
Starting point is 00:34:12 I still work for ESPN. So you maybe, maybe you want the fuck to say whatever you want, but I still work for Disney, so can we chill? All right, so the article that I'm bringing is a Hollywood reporter article about, it's kind of a short article based on Idris Alba doing a podcast where he talked about his workaholic nature and how it like infests his life in a great deal. In my therapy, I've been thinking a lot about changing, almost to the point of neuro paths being changed and shifting. And it's not because I don't like myself for anything like that.
Starting point is 00:35:01 It's just that I have some unhealthy habits that have just really formed. And they, you know, I work in an industry that I'm rewarded for those unhealthy habits. I'm rewarded for that, you know, reverence to be selfish or to be, I'm a workaholic. I'm an absolute workaholic. That isn't great for life, generally. Honestly, this was a reverse search. I wanted to talk about something and I found any article that was tant- loosely tangential to my feeling about- Wait, that the opposite of reporting, a reporter goes in, it doesn't know what his story is.
Starting point is 00:35:42 Well, you said you said that you wanted to talk about something and you loosely tied it to an article to keep it to the flimsy conceit of we're bringing something here, but it's really just Dominique now wants to talk about something. I'm bringing something here. I'm bringing beef. That's what I'm bringing here. I'm wearing beef with people who are my friends,
Starting point is 00:36:01 but Pablo specifically has been infected with content brain. And it's ridiculous. The thing is the workaholic nature of Pablo and many people like him is weird because being a workaholic as each of you are Alba puts it and he's an actor is one thing and it's dangerous for him to go and leave his family and go work on a movie and develop a whole brand new family and then cut it off and then go back to be with your family. I understand that in general, traditional workaholics, I can understand how it can be detrimental on your life in ways that aren't connected to your job.
Starting point is 00:36:35 But what I've found with some of my friends, Pablo, specifically, is that it's so detrimental to your life that it infects the way that you treat everybody in the relationships you have with people where Pablo and I used to talk. We used to text. Not only time I hear from Pablo is him trying to get me on this stupid ass show. By the way, I got a stupid ass show too.
Starting point is 00:36:54 Dude, we gonna promote that. You ever been on my stupid ass show? No, let's preserve our relationship. I do some of the same thing. I've done some of the same things. Do you Dominique has dragged me back a couple of times? There's like, I can hate it though. Can we just be friends?
Starting point is 00:37:08 I'm glad Dan's in here too. Finally, tears me to step. Yes, it's not fair. It's not fair to Dominique, but what has happened here, and I think this is super interesting, and you will recognize it. Pablo sees in front of him an opportunity of a lifetime to make something specifically tailored to his life
Starting point is 00:37:28 specifications as a career in his voice and personality for the rest of his life to raise Violet and to and to give a great life to his family and in the obsession of the opportunity You're gonna say is a lack of balance that makes him rationalize, that he's buried in work and not tending to things at home that a workaholic has to also pay attention to, but I recognize it because what's funny about, not only do I recognize it, I'm actually proud of part of Lobside at Pablo
Starting point is 00:38:00 because he used to be lazy. I saw when he was lazy. I saw when he didn't care about something that it was his own, that he was fooling around on television and it was easy for him as Cotton Candy. I saw when he wasn't making his own thing, how he could be your friend in a way that wasn't worried about the content.
Starting point is 00:38:18 But now he's got his own risk, his own opportunity, his own grown up responsibilities, and so it becomes an obsession because it has to succeed. So for a fray, just hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Hold the f***ing on. opportunity is own grown up responsibilities. And so it becomes an obsession because it has to succeed. So for a fritter, just hold on, hold on, hold the f*** on. No, I just, 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, no and try to improve your show. All right, so I'll look right down what you were going to say and let him be the artist. Let me take out my notebook. Am I, am I the devil on your shoulder or the angel on your shoulder? That's just stealing my point. Dan is definitely one.
Starting point is 00:38:52 Okay, so Dominique and I unfortunately, stealing and I did it better. I have a, a double on Tondra metaphor here because what you just did was obviously sink your content brain, which you deny having with my content brain, which wanted to point out that if you're watching this on the draft Kings Network or on my YouTube channel, public. I find out. No, my show Dominique Fox, our show we're on YouTube at ESPA also follow my podcast on the one shoulder.
Starting point is 00:39:19 I know what shoulder is Dominique Foxworth alleged angel. And on the other side is Dan Levittard, the content-brained devil who is texting me encouragement because he sees how obsessed I am with making my show better. I wanna make this sh**, you better not make this sh**. And my point about Dominique and the merging of our content brains is that there is nothing more content brain than turning content brain
Starting point is 00:39:45 into content. That is what you sir have done here today. And so this is what this was your big get you knew I was going to bring a content brain. You just couldn't wait to try to act like you turned it on me. You didn't turn it on me. No, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that you have content brain aspirations and you're afraid. I don't give in.
Starting point is 00:40:03 I don't afraid to give in Dominic. He's afraid to give in. I'm not afraid to give in. I don't afraid to give in Dominique. He's afraid. I'm not afraid to give in. I'm not afraid to give in. Well, this is interesting. Let me start. Let me start. If I may alpha. If I may just I've seen sir from over here. I do believe Dominique has an incredible life balance. He is good about putting his priorities where they belong and when he needs to be present to the shot. When he needs to be present, he is present. However, I believe that notebook would reveal evidence of content.
Starting point is 00:40:32 That's right. I believe that that notebook is you carrying around ideas for what you wanna do that might come to you in a moment. Why are you carrying around that notebook? Because I need to write down notes. It's not about the show, it's not content brain. It is nothing to do with any of that. You wish that you had a big catch a moment, but it's not a big. I just know. I'm giving up on the catch a moment yet. I just know, Dominique, this is what we're dealing with is Dominique
Starting point is 00:41:00 trying to have it both ways. Yes. And I'm just telling you, I'm just telling you, as your friend who will admit that I've been a worse friend because I've been afflicted with late onset content brain, is that I have noticed that you want to do some stuff in the world of writing, in the world of media, in the world of entertainment, that is wildly ambitious. And... Don't say I want to do stuff.
Starting point is 00:41:32 Like I don't get that sh**. You're not going to do sh**. He's doing it. Everything I want to do, it gets done. All right, all right. He's doing it for a seat. Proper respect. Go ahead.
Starting point is 00:41:40 But this is my point. Is that what you see as content brain is my evolutionary adaptation to try and get stuff done. And you're doing it in a way that is, I think, in this way, it is less honest than guys who is worse at texting now because you're in the shadows doing stuff. You know, dishonest. The point that I am making to you Pablo and the reason why I yell at you and even dance sometimes to about the content brain
Starting point is 00:42:14 is not because I think that it is all bad because I do believe nothing is all bad and nothing is all good. The fact that it matters, you're lying to yourself and you're trying to justify it and pretending like you're not aware that there is a cost for it. You're not going to lose me as a friend. I'm going to be your friend. But be honest with what you're doing. You are paying a price to. That's all I want you to know.
Starting point is 00:42:34 I also think though, I think if I can, and he's not going to let me have this one either, I do believe though that Dominique thinks himself and rightly in most instances so singularly unique that nothing would afflict him exactly the same way to flex you and me Pablo that he would be a puppet. How is it that you fall for this handsome? He did say that you're such a bad listener. He said that's what Dominique wants him to think.
Starting point is 00:43:00 He's not saying that he thinks that also shut up, host man and let the man talk. Proceed, Dan. Yeah, I just I believe that he thinks himself also shut up, host man and let the man talk, proceed, Dan. Yeah. I just, I believe that he thinks himself so unique. And I've seen a lot of evidence of him actually being balanced, actually having his priorities in order, actually measuring success different than other workaholics I have met. He wants to succeed. He wants to achieve.
Starting point is 00:43:21 He's confident. He can do those things. And he is doing those things. I just think he wants you to think and us to think that he comes by that as easily as he did his harvard business degree and corner back in the NFL that it was effortless for it may was not a diction it was a choice because this man is so alfa he is not controlled by any of his addiction there it is don't forget that i have written on scripted television shows to i do it all as it has a very I was referring to it. I wanted to do it.
Starting point is 00:43:45 It's really done. That's the key to being cool. But Dan left it out. But Dan left it out. But it's why we'll never be cool because we can't be, we can't be as confident as you. It's just not possible. It's not that, so I recognize if we're going to be honest here
Starting point is 00:44:01 and I'll drop the Elfa Man performance for you. Yeah, I've come to a different place to you. It may not be a better place, but what happened was I had made enough money and it's like a retirement age experience that I was fortunate enough to have in my late 20s that most people never have or don't have to lay in life. I imagine that before Dan started this company where he also along with the pressure of having a successful company carries with it, the pressure of succeeding for your friends because they don't have the security that Dan has. I imagine that if Dan had met Valerie
Starting point is 00:44:39 and been all comfortable and happy in his life when he had money and did not have all these pressures. I imagine Dan would have come to a similar place as I have come, but I was fortunate enough to be able to take a second when I was 29 and I quit at the NBA Players Association. I looked at my bank account and was like, that's enough money.
Starting point is 00:44:57 How do I want the rest of life my life to be? And I looked around and my wife had a bunch of lifelong friends and I didn't have none. That's what it came to. And I was like, all right, let's see what I actually care about. So that deathbed moment that lots of people have or you talk about having where you start assessing things, I did it at 29.
Starting point is 00:45:13 And I was like, all right, when I'm 80, well, probably more like 72, I'm a black man as we've established life experience, it's very low. When I am 72 and I am dying of heart disease or hypertension or just general racism, then I will be like, hey, what did I do with the last 50 years of my life
Starting point is 00:45:31 when I had an opportunity to fill my life with things that are gonna be rewarding, I kept chasing this bullsh** that doesn't matter. And all I'm saying to you, Pablo, is I want you to be aware of it. I'm not expecting you to be to change. And I understand that your financial situation and your position in life is all very different.
Starting point is 00:45:49 But just be aware of what you're doing, the decisions you are making, and when you make it to 80, 85, 90, then you can look back and say, thanks Dominique for snapping me out of that. S***. I gotta go pick up my son from school. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ At the very end here, Dan, we're gonna do a very unique finish to the show because Dominique Foxworth is gone.
Starting point is 00:46:21 And we are left to hear his echoing words of wisdom. And at the end, I am curious if you found out anything, big picture because what I found out truly is that I do need to text Dabindicmore. I have been sh** about that. He's just exposed you as a shitty friend on your own podcast, which is master work. I have found out in ways that are making me genuinely uncomfortable.
Starting point is 00:46:47 But in all seriousness, though, Pablo, in terms of what kind of friend he aspires to be and wants us to be because he has learned some of the important things that need to be learned in life. He has been hugely helpful throughout the last couple of months reaching out only and Exclusively to be a friend because he knows I am in pain and he knows what the important things are after the loss of my brother And won't let me talk will not let me get to the business stuff because he's forcing me to sit in the friendship I remember the first time the first day I spent any time with Dominique He was putting on a backpack as he was leaving my apartment
Starting point is 00:47:26 And he said to me and when do I get to help you? You know, he had just started highly questionable He's like when do I get to start helping you and ever since then it's all he's been doing like he lives his life in the right Space there eager eager to be a good and loving friend. Yes, he is in that way far more advanced than we are we We sat down after after your brother passed away then and you brought in to the office, a bottle of tequila, four glasses with the intent of let's do a show. Let's make this content.
Starting point is 00:47:57 Let's make your grief content because that is your safe space. That's your comfort zone. And I in my content, was down for it. I was like, yeah, I think that would be good. I think we can get to some places. As you suspect, that would be real and genuinely compelling.
Starting point is 00:48:12 I still like to do that. I'd still like to do that. I'd like to explain. I've been isolating from people because I don't want to do that. I'm scared to do it. Like, I don't even the people who care about it. Right.
Starting point is 00:48:24 And I get it. And I would listen to that. I would participate and I would listen, but Dominique was the one at that table who said, we are not f***ing turning on a microphone right now. And we sat there and we talked, and it was an amazing afternoon that I have now betraying for content reasons on public time.
Starting point is 00:48:40 Yeah, and, and wow, Andrew denying them the actual content, because it would have been good content, like your neck conversation, people would have wanted to hear that conversation. Please like and subscribe. We're all sickos is what was just informed in my ear. You know, we talk about love languages a lot in the world of relationships, and that was our love language. Believe it or not, me, Dan Dominique loving each other by sounding like maybe we don't
Starting point is 00:49:23 love each other, but that's because we just love each other that much. So, until next time, Pablo Torei finds out is produced entirely despite David Samson, basically, and the people spiting him are, Michael Antonucci, Ryan Cortez, Sam Daywig, Patrick Kim, Nilly Lomon, Rachel Miller Howard, Carl Scott, Ethan Shryer, Matt Sullivan, Chris Tumonello, Studio Engineering by Brady and Tech, Post Production by NGW Post, and our theme song by John Bravo. And I'll talk to you next time. . you.

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