The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Postgame Show: The Hard Knocks Curse (feat. JuJu Gotti)

Episode Date: August 5, 2025

It's been all fun and games today, but JuJu Gotti wants to make sure we use Hawk the right way and take advantage of his football expertise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Juju's back, which means that it is the end of another great Tuesday. Thank you, Hawk. Oh, my pleasure. Having you as a running mate today has been a pleasure. I like them. I do. Having the whole room here, Juju's joining us. And I believe, and I could be wrong, I believe he has a specific question just for you, not

for me, not for Chris, just for you. Juju, what do you got? What's up, y'all? Great show today, you feel me? But we didn't necessarily dive into your professionalism. We dove into a lot of Lenny Kravitz-isms and you being a scary black man, even though you're just sitting there being a handsome guy and not straightening at all. I don't know, I have it. Pearl white veneers, I paid a lot of money for it. I'm just the scariest thing David's ever seen. Go ahead, Juju.

Militant. He said it, not me, Juju. The Buffalo Bills hard knock season starts tonight on HBO Max. What do you predict with the Bills this year? I'm a Bills fan, so I'm always thinking that, well, Hard Knocks showing up, this is gonna be our worst year ever.

We're gonna be jinxed. What do you think, bruh? Yeah, I would agree with that. I do think it's gonna be a bad year in your context. I hate to be the bearer of bad news. When Hard Knocks cameras around, it's not so much the veterans, well some of the veterans as well,

but the young players do play into the camera. Because it becomes this opportunity for superstardom that football players typically don't get unless you're the quarterback. Because we have helmets on and nobody notices us and no one knows our faces. And now your storyline could be something that someone follows throughout the season.

So when Hard Knocks came to Cincinnati when I was there, people couldn't get in front of the cameras enough. It almost felt like acting in the middle of training camp. They never put those clips, I bet that happens a lot during these Hard Knocks things where another guy's like, look at that guy playing up to the camera. They probably cut that stuff out because they don't want the perception of that out there,

but that has to happen every year. So in television, as you guys know in entertainment, when you're extra on television, it comes across as normal. And when you're normal on television, it comes across as boring. So those moments when you're watching in camp and they feel like, man, that's great content,

they're typically probably being played up by the player or whoever because they know the cameras are rolling and everybody's putting on a performance. So I don't know how that bodes for your team. If you can withstand that, if we come out of hard knocks and you're like, yeah, nobody was actually playing up. Juju, you could be like, yeah, this is a good team. They're probably going to the Super Bowl

because this is a good early test. She cured out a couple of weeks though with a high ankle sprain. That's tough. Exactly. Yeah, but Elijah Moore. Your boy. Be on the lookout for Elijah Moore

I think he's gonna have a good season with them and he'll be able to take some of that pressure off of Shakira in the slot and he his skill set fits with Josh Allen because Josh Allen is so good at buying time and Elijah Moore is best when he can kind of do all his crafting in the middle and good thing Matt Collins is gone because you know, they would have played that out Oh there they would have like had him in like an there. They would have had him in an actual igloo. Like look, he lives in an igloo now. They would have hired Taylor away from the Metal Art Company specifically to create all the storylines

around Mac Collins. How much higher is the Bills over under win total than the Dolphins? I believe we talked about the Dolphins are seven and a half according to DraftKings latest. Are the Bills, are they three games better than that? Like 10 and a half or are they even higher? We're on it.

Yeah, I like the Dolphins more than seven and a half though. Then you should pound the over. I may. Yeah, now that you said it though, I think that because when it happened, I was like, damn, why did we get rid of Mack? That was a good contract. And he provided some good catches in the playoffs.

But when you put it that way, yeah, they probably was playing in the head for this hard-knock run. They like, my boy ain't put on a pair of shoes since Obama now, so that was a good call. Juju, how do we do with polls today? How do we deal with polls? You had a good poll that I was able to catch on to,

ayo, but the one that I got that I was able to catch on to, Ayo, but the one that I got that I was able to hear, cause the first poll was, I didn't know how to word it. It was like Magic Johnson, 16 year old, right? I didn't get the wording right. But this one was one that I got right, the only one. Do you need a separate ethernet cord to get on the dark web? That's a great one.

62% of the audience says, yes you do. Separate Ethernet cord to get on the dark way 62% of the audience says yes you do Got it wrong And that's I can't I can't talk to my guy on the phone no Cuz we're doing a show no no doing a show cuz he doesn't do phones Just to him, but he was like, I'm on the air. He doesn't do phones. I have to kind of do things differently with this guy. Can't do WhatsApp. Yeah.

Before you come back at some point, will you try to find your guy? Because we need to know the answer. Oh, I know exactly where he is. The problem is I can't call him. But you can go visit him? Yeah, I can visit him in person. He does in-person stuff.

There was a store in Beverly Hills when I lived in LA, like eight years ago, on Rodeo Drive, and they were like expensive cell phones that were completely off the grid. So they're on Rodeo for like rich people to come buy these phones and these services, and they're completely untraceable. They were like $7,000 a piece,

and at one point I went back, I'm gonna get one of those phones, and they had shut down. They quit. In and out. Like luxury burner phones. They have those still. For they're incredibly rich.

Talk about Darkway. Did you run with two phones when you were a player? No, that is a, you're typecasting me still. No, what? One for your agent and one for your friend. I feel like you're, I've had the same. I've had the same. I'm the same size who have two phones.

I've had the same cell phone number since I originally got a cell phone in 2002. There were some, like Hanley Ramirez would change his cell phone number three times a season. Yeah, I won't change it because actually you're doing the opposite. So now, because I'm not the same person I was when I was 17 and I have more,

people just assume that I've already changed my number. So when they text me or try to reach out and I don't wanna respond, I'm not like you. I'm not gonna answer and say on air. I'm just gonna ignore it. But it says delivered. There's going to assume that I changed my number anyway. But it says delivered. So it might be to somebody else. Yeah, spoiler alert.

Yeah. I'm more of the idea of David whenever he answered the phone and was like, I'm on air. I love the fact that whenever somebody call me no matter what, if I see it, if I see the phone, I'm going to answer it no matter what. Even right now, if I see the phone, I'm gonna answer it no matter what. Even right now, if my girl call, I'm gonna answer it, but then I'm gonna let her hear

what I got going on right now, so she'll hang up eventually. I wouldn't mind that, Juju. That makes sense. But it was just the unfortunate timing of you telling Hawk how distracting him touching the table was. And then created the most distracting environment

I've ever been in in media. I'm gonna tell that story for 20 years. One time I was on air and somebody answered their phone in the middle of my sentence and then acted like I was distracting them from moving the table trying to get closer to their conversation. It's ridiculous, man. It really truly is.

Like to officially apologize and tell you that it will not happen again until we sit next to each other again. One more question for Juju and you David. When you answer the phone to acknowledge that you're on air and you won't let it just go to voicemail, why do you do that Juju, why? Because I think that I'm an old school guy.

I prefer talking to you for two minutes versus text messaging because people's tone, you can't digest the tone during a text message. So I like to have people know that, bro, I care. I'm here for you. If it's an emergency, I'm gonna always answer. But at the same time, you hear me,

I'm online right now with Hawk and David Samson. So text me if you need it right now. That's kind of my point. So it's a way to tell them you care. Like you don't want them to feel like you're just ignoring their call. So I'm gonna ask you David, why do you answer the phone? It's the same, Juju and I are completely aligned.

I want people to- Completely aligned. Now you care that people- Now he cares what people think. Wait, I won't answer- Cause he doesn't want them to think, he's ignoring them. Hark? Hark?

Did I get him? Did I get him, Chris? I won't answer an unlisted number not on my phone. But it's still a person that you care about. You care what you think. But if you're on my phone. So you care what people think. It's not.

You just say I'm on air like a different voice. I'm on air or no. You didn't try to. Actually what I'm gonna do from now on is watermelon paperclip. Then you'll have no idea. Yeah, mouth it too so I don't hear it. But I'm actually saying.

Speaking of don't care, not caring, how do you feel about Jerry Jones' handling of Michael Parsons right now? Like, is he foul, is he over the line, or is he just being Jerry? I think he's being a business mind. I think like we've done, we've gone through this song and dance so many times with Dak, with C.D. Lamb,

with Zack Martin. Over the years, Ezekiel Elliott, Emmett Smith, I think he understands the marketing dollar's value of this being the number one story on every platform. And so he's like, every time we have a big contract, even if I wanna pay them, we're gonna draw it out because it's gonna help continue to build the business brand of the Cowboys,

which in some ways is genius. It's uncomfortable, yes, but we all know the players will get over it the moment you give them the money. You think he's selling tickets? We had this conversation yesterday's show, maybe, where the thought was that Jerry Jones, this is what he does.

Yeah, no, it is. To draw it out in order for people to be like, we talk Cowboys either way. We don't need him to fight with Michael Parsons. Right, but you gotta realize every time you talk it, every year, that demographic of fan who views him as America's team gets older. And eventually, it's no longer America's team

if you don't continue to use the same tactics, much like baseball. When we were young, baseball was America's sport. And they didn't do a good enough job of continuing the next generation thinking that way. And now football is America's sport. So for the Cowboys, every new person that the kids know and love,

I gotta make an example out of because we need them to understand that Cowboys are America's team. So when they get in your seat 20 years from now, they will still be talking about the Cowboys the same way. I'm gonna wanna end this show because I wanna go watch War of the Worlds. Juju, are you going to watch that movie or not?

Bro, Saturday night, I had the exact experience of people online. I saw it. I opened up Prime. I seen Ice Cube, War of the Worlds. I'm clicking it. Say less. I'm talking about five minutes in when I realized how it was going. You know how you can scroll over the actual runtime of the movie and you can see pictures of what's to come? When I saw that it was all an online broadcast or some type of virtual event, I said, nope.

And I actually, I ain't even get 45, man. You watched the movie through a collage. That's crazy. Can you rate a movie? I would just say that it's still a 3.2. It was when the day started. So it may still be a 3.2. If you haven't watched the whole thing, why do you have a right to assign a number to it?

That's a good one. That's a good one. Right, because I'm not assigning a number to him. I'm assigning my time is too valuable for me to watch Ice Cube battle the world against the world. It's an I, incomplete. An I? Yeah.

You stop after five minutes, it's a straight I. What channel was channel I when you grew up in New York? I have no recollection, I only know channel J. Juju, thank you. Speaking of channel J, also before I get out of here, the Alley-oop right now, we're doing WNBA coverage. I just interviewed my sister Roscoe on Wude. It's on, at DLS Hoops.

It's not a part of the Leviton Show, excuse me, pardon me, Paige. You know how they do us. So they threw me over there on DLS Hoops. So I need your support, man. Please, if you out there and you care about me having a job, please subscribe to DLS Ho support, man. Like please, like if you out there and you care about me having a job, please subscribe to DLS Hoops, man. Because if you don't, I'm outta here.

That's good, man. I know Zazz will do it because he's heard of every single podcast known to mankind and women kind and people kind. So you've got a bunch of subs here. Thank you, Juju. Juju, you the man. Thank you, y'all.

Take care, Hawk, I like you. I appreciate it, David. Likewise, brother.