The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Big Suey: George Pickens Plays Weird

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

Dianna Russini of The Athletic joins us to continue the discussion of the Pittsburgh Steelers' win on Monday Night Football over the New York Giants. Is it possible that TJ Watt is already better than his brother, JJ? The Cleveland Browns pulled off the upset of the weekend over the Baltimore Ravens with Jameis Winston stepping in for the injured Deshaun Watson. How did George Pickens not get his feet in? He plays weird, huh? Plus, we continue the discussion of littering with Dianna, Anthony Richardson was tired and Dianna discusses where Aaron Rodgers' future lies. Then, it was a baseball night for Stugotz as the Los Angeles Dodgers took down the New York Yankees to take a 3-0 lead in the World Series and there is plenty of blame to go around. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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No purchase necessary. 21 plus ends November 15, 2024. See rules at website for participating area and other important details. Sponsored by Diageo Americas, Inc., New York, New York. Welcome to the Big Sui, presented by DraftKings. Why are you listening to this show? A podcast that seems very similar

to the other Dan LeBattard podcast. I'm sorry, I'm not gonna apologize for that. In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging. I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries if they're just there. That hasn't happened to you guys? I've done it. And now, here's the marching man to nowhere, fat face and the habitual liar.

Next Tuesday is a giant day. It is, of course. Deadline day. That was not rehearsed even though it sounded like it was. We've got NFL trade deadline day next week and Diana Rusini is a senior NFL insider for the Athletics. Scoop City is the name of her very popular podcast i want to play for her some of the sound embarrassing sound from germane aluminum or uh... the tackle for the new york giants he said uh... in a game before he allowed seven tackles and two sacks i guess only two of the sex where his fault he j what had three any strip sack as well

this is what aluminum or had to say before the game or what you know who needs yourselves you look at a matchup like this for you you have a personal are you are you leaving best defense player in the nfl how do you uh...

much you know i mean i'm not going to talk about this uh... i think you see that in my play this year so i i i want to get out of the market I know there's a couple of guys that made that thing. You can see that through my play this year. So I love it. I want to be an honor with them all day. Diana, can you give me, and thank you for joining us, a history lesson here. Outside of Lawrence Taylor, there are a handful of these guys doing it now.

Miles Garrett, Micah Parsons, and this human being. But I have to go back to Lawrence Taylor to find a guy who's so unblockable that he continually gets strip sacks. TJ Watt as a player historically is what as a defensive player? The best player, the best Watt player, right? I think he's better than his brother at this point. Obviously, JJ is respected all around the league,

a future hall of Famer. I think we're at a point where there's no question his brother's better. And he's got his support because you see JJ last night on Twitter giving his brother all that love after. His brother, once again, is just winning games for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I always love talking to people around the league about what they think about star players. Like, man, what would he look like in your system? And he's one of those players, probably along with Miles Garrett and Max Crosby,

as just, they're just a dream. Those are the guys that you build your entire franchise around. So look, I can appreciate when a Giants player wants to at least show some confidence that, yeah, bring it on, let's do this. I wouldn't like it if he told the media there, like, yeah, I'm actually scared out of my mind. Our offensive line has been garbage for a century.

But that's not what he did. It's just the receipts. They kill you. Do you really think JJ Watt thinks his brother is better than him? Like he might say that publicly. He might put it out on social media. That's classic JJ. But in private moments, there is no way JJ is telling anyone that TJ is better than I was.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. He's doing exactly what he needs to do. I wonder if he'd be different though if he wasn't in the media now. You know, but he's just like playing his brother off, trying to get him every award that he could possibly win, get him more money I'm sure. But yeah, no, JJ Watkins, there's no way JJ Watkins, any human being is better than him. At anything.

Yeah, at anything, making children, fixing the backyard. Playing an entire football game with an eagle on your shoulder pad. Yep. Diana, I saw after the game that Daniel Jones said that the strip sack was actually his fault because he was supposed to send the tight end in motion to Chip and help out with the block there against Watts.

So I guess my question is like a macro one. Like what do the Giants do with Daniel Jones now? What is Brian Dabble's hot seat status? Like it's a, it's a pretty bad mistake to make in a season full of a lot of really bad mistakes. I know Jess, it's, it's funny because I feel like we're seeing so much blame, people pointing blame when we don't normally see that, right? Like, or I feel like so many other teams are going like, look at Jerry Jones. He's like, it's the coach's fault. It's the play calling. So I think that was Daniel Jones. Look, some of that was his fault,

but I think that was also him taking the hit for something that, that, that wasn't entirely his fault. But look, just listen to Brian Dable after the game. I mean, how many times did he mention that Daniel Jones just was not good enough? Usually the head coach is up there saying, you know, we all gotta be better. We all need to do more. But it is very evident that the New York Giants are out on Daniel Jones. Obviously this was a decision this regime made.

Obviously Joe Shane, the general manager and Brian Dable signed off on the other ones who made this happen. The same people that moved on from Saquon Barkley. So they chose Daniel Jones over paying Saquon and now they're now they're living in it. And we know that they weren't sold on Daniel Jones in the offseason because we saw it on Hard Knocks. We saw that they try to move up to get a quarterback. So now I feel like they're just living in this hell of we don't really want this guy, he's tough as hell, he is, he's tough. I mean that is one thing people always tell me about him is just he stands in the pocket and he's just getting slammed around every week but he's still making mistakes that are costing them games and he's not able to take care of the football. In my

lifetime, Diane, I think there are only five that I have done this with watching football. I believe I thought on late drives Lawrence Taylor's about to do something. I have thought of Reggie White is about to do something. Defensive players. Ed Reed is about to do something late in a game. Aaron Donald is about to do something. And Mike Ryan late in that game last night is saying, there will be some time here where the Giants have the football and TJ Watt is going to touch it. TJ Watt is going to get his hands on the football here.

It's just such a rare thing with defensive players. It's, I can count on them on one hand. Yeah, there's just not that many that can do that and completely change the direction of where it's going. We obviously always point to the offensive players being the playmakers, the one to do it. But when you're getting double, triple teamed every single game, because I think that's another element to this that you forget when you're watching these guys, they're already dealing with more than what the normal defender has to deal with.

Every team is game planning against them. So obviously that is unique and special. And I don't know who's gonna be the Bill Belichick to TJ the way Bill Belichick talks about Ed Reed. We'll figure out who's gonna be that coach one day who just goes on and on and just seems pretty in love with the guy. But I can tell you in Pittsburgh,

he's certainly beloved by that coaching staff. So right on time, everyone last week called the Ravens the best team in the NFL. So right on cue, they lose to the Cleveland Browns. I'm curious, Diana, if you've touched base with your Cleveland Browns sources to see how they're feeling about things. Now, they didn't make just the Watson change. Their hand was forced there. Ken Dorsey took over

play calling to coincide with the move to Jameis. And I'm curious what they're feeling about this season. Is it still pack it in or do they actually think that they can go on a flaco-like run now with Jameis? Yeah, the Cleveland Browns are alive. They are back. They needed this win. I can't remember the last time the Cleveland Browns as an organization needed something to fall their way more than this game did not, you know,

from ownership all the way down to the players in the locker room. How many times did we talk about this on the show? Like, everyone knows what the problem is. We all know. We understand the contract that they gave to Sean Watson. But this team looked miserable on the field every week for a variety of reasons. So the fact that Jamis was able to spark some life. Play calling's been changed over to Ken Dorsey, which is allowing Kevin

Stefanski to do more with the entire team and sort of get his hands dirty in making sure that that different parts of the game are better The offensive line that was the best protection. I've seen from Cleveland all year That's been there Achilles heel without a doubt outside of Deshaun You know, so the ball too long though, too Like it's not just offensive line Deshaun Watson Isn't he guilty of holding the ball longer than any quarterback in the league is the whole sport moves to getting rid of it quickly Isn't he guilty of holding the ball longer than any quarterback in the league as the whole sport moves to getting rid of it quickly?

He does, but there wasn't a lot being done to help him in that situation too in terms of protecting him. And I think that's where this was becoming such a big problem because the offensive line wasn't doing what Stefanski wanted, knowing Deshaun Watson was going to be holding the ball so much. Now, Jamis isn't much better at it either. If you saw, there were certain times where you're like, Jam be holding the ball so much. Now, James, James isn't much better at it either. If you saw, there were certain times where you're like, James, throw the ball.

What are we doing? What are we doing? But the fact that he was able to create this much offense. And guys, it's one of these things where, when you're around teams and you hear about leadership, I never really got the feeling being around the Cleveland Browns, that James was this outstanding leader

that was giving and supplying answers to this locker room. He was loud. I don't necessarily believe that everyone was signed off in following him. So by, I think getting a win like this for Jamis, I think they now were gonna start following more. He needed to back up a lot of those words. So I just think overall for what we all saw on television,

you know, the producer of Scoop City, she is the wife of a player on the Browns. And she told me that that was the first time she left the game and sat in bumper to bumper traffic. And I said, well, what do you mean? She said, well, think about it. We're so bad. Everyone leaves early. He's like, people stay to the end of the game. Right?

If that doesn't tell you just how great things are in Cleveland, they're psyched about traffic because that means maybe they're winning. I will say this again, by the way, because the stats are jarring, right? Given the contract that Deshaun Watson has, that's the first time the Browns have scored 20 points this season and he threw for more than 300 yards Jamis Winston did Deshaun Watson hasn't done that in a Browns uniform right it's it's a no interceptions as well it's a bit stunning he had a fumble because he does hold the ball too long he had a fumble that could have cost them the game because of where it is that it happened Diana where

where are you on what the fallout should be with the way that Chicago Bears game ended? In terms of how do you defend the Hail Mary that way? I mean, to me, when you're a player- What was that? What just happened? Hail Mary. What just happened? Well, not just, just what was the,

what should be the fallout? I hear people talking about firing people and- It's ridiculous. When you- It's never gonna happen people. It's ridiculous. When you- It's never gonna happen again. It's a Hail Mary. It was a lucky play. It's how any veteran would say it.

Yeah, yeah. Look, so I think one of the things about that, and I did that on Sunday, where I was just reaching out to people around the league to just try to get an idea of like, what happens in preparation on a football team? How much are you actually practicing defending that? And I guess a lot.

That's what I discovered. I didn't realize that this is like part of things that you do during training camp. And we're seeing how Mary's pretty frequent this season, last season. So this isn't that weird or abnormal for the Chicago Bears to see. It's not some trick play that Dan Quinn or Cliff Kingsbury stole

from some high school varsity football team in Boston. You know this is a play that you are expected to know and even understand how to defend it from early years of playing football. So the fact that that wasn't executed well, the fact that they didn't call a timeout, the fact that they didn't rush more than three, there were so many parts of that that are being shown to teams around the league, or at least teams are showing it, as, hey, don't do this. Don't do it this way. So they went from being a team that was close to winning to now being the poster of what not to do.

Dana, where do you stand on the one foot double tapping versus two feet down versus one knee is two feet versus one butt cheek is two feet versus one elbow is two feet debate? Oh, dumb. That was so dumb. I can't wait for the off season actually. I normally hang out outside the competition committee

meetings because what you do is you just stand out there and you wait for them to come out and you bug the people on the committee. Mike Tomlin's one of them. And you just try to find out what they're discussing. They are going to be discussing that. There is like, like if I had a guess, like, and I want to see how this is going to be

sort of taken care of, because how is that not a touchdown? That was so clear. And the fact that left foot, right foot, in my opinion, they need to change that role. I also don't understand how George Pickens gets thrown 15 yards out of the end zone before his other foot goes down, basically.

Like, his first foot hit the paint, and somehow he can't get another one down before he's out of the back of the end zone. Billy, next time the Steelers play, don't get distracted by any other parts of the game. Just watch George Pickens. He's doing weird things all the time, like in piles after he gets tackled.

I noticed it more or less night than ever, where I'm like, how did his leg do that? I think he just plays weird, but he makes plays and he's obviously become the most- I don't think that's great, Diana, I don't think that's good analysis. No, it is. No, it's 100% accurate.

It's the only explanation I have for him not putting that other foot down. What are we doing? Put the other foot down. What is this? Okay, so this is a real thing. I think some athletes, they are not as clean with their bodies when they're in that moment,

when they're dealing with pressure, literally, literal pressure and trying to make plays. Some are just flimsy and floppy and gumby like. Truthfully, I was like that as a soccer player. And you can get away with things like that at times and it makes plays happen. But like we saw last night, that sloppiness hurt him because obviously having just one foot do it which think about how hard that is but try doing that today when you're walking

just double hop on one foot that's hard I don't think that it's easier to put your other foot down I don't understand why he didn't do that but yeah the takeaway is he plays weird but he's damn good he also just jumped up and like elbow dropped someone trying to get over them on a tackle. Did you see that? I did see that. How was that not called? He just does crazy things The rock it's the rocks finishing move What I'm saying you guys think I'm acting nuts.

He plays weird. Yeah, he does. Diana, we were discussing earlier, Chris left a coffee cup at a stairwell, and I'm wondering, do you think it is littering if you do it inside? Was there coffee in it? Yeah, a little bit.

Yeah, and then it got kicked over. If it makes a difference, it's tea, not coffee. Okay, it got kicked over, and now there's brown juice all over the stairs. Because I maintain you can only litter outside, that's it. It was also, to be fair, it was there because it was raining two weeks ago. Right, it was raining.

It was boring. And he didn't want the cup to get wet. And then he came back, and he saw something growing, so he wanted it to be a science experiment. Always fair, Billy Gill, that's right. Science experiment. So essentially, it was like, there was no garbage can inside, and he was too lazy to go find one, so he just put it on be a science experiment. Always fair Billy Gill, that's right. Science experiment. So essentially it was like there was no garbage can inside

and he was too lazy to go find one so he just put it on the stairs? Exactly. Mm-hmm. And it was raining. That's disgusting. Yes, it is disgusting. By the way, why is there so much litter in that stairwell?

Good question. Exactly right, because I- I'm gonna get to the bottom of this. The litter is outside, it's not in the stairwell. I employ an assortment of savages is what the problem is. People who have not been taught anything. There's also a church here. So I have a question for you.

The other day I was driving and I was chewing gum and I didn't want to chew the gum anymore. I was about to like sip my coffee or something so I wanted to spit it out and I didn't have anything to put it in but I didn't want to put it in the console. And I just had to make a decision. Do I open the window and throw out the gum or do I just stick it on the side of my door until I get to? You can't do gum because you can harm birds

and stuff with gum, but I'm willing to make some exceptions for biodegradable things that feed animals that don't qualify for me as littering. I'm willing to make some, if you take a piece of a banana, not the peel necessarily, but a piece of a banana and throw it in the grass, I think of it as less littering than other kinds of littering. Thank you for going out on that limb, Dave.

Really, that's how you justify it. That's pretty brave of you. You need to be careful with the banana peel. This is the true story. I was walking with my son. You can slip on it. Oh, Doyle rules. My two-year-old son slipped on a banana peel.

I'm like, no, that doesn't really happen, but it did. So you have to be careful. But what about, like, if you, I've done this before where I'm peeling an orange in the car. Mm-hmm. Is the skin, is the peel, is that, is that fair? I think that's less, I think that's more dangerous than the pulp.

It happened to me leaving the train. No way. Four months ago. How do you know? Yeah, we talked about talked about I slid on it Tony story I was like well how about this in Kristen story it's actually a thing I have what do you think that sorry Diana I didn't mean to interrupt you I have one more Steelers question before we move on the special teams coordinator Danny Smith he's having a moment this year and I wanted to nominate this sound for the club. This was him last week at a press conference. I'm cut from a different cloth. Yeah, that was good. So he's like

beloved in the league for years even before he was in Pittsburgh. Everyone loves Danny. Like he's just he's all energy. He's obviously from what you see and what you heard. He's older, cut from a different cloth. But he has that unique ability. But by the way, they're winning on special teams. That's what makes them even better, is the fact that that unit is, become really successful this season.

I mean, they're always decent, but this year they're really good. And he's just one of those. Do you see him on the sideline? How many special teams coordinators are standing next to the head coach as much as you see Danny? Right, he's just one of those. Do you see him on the sideline? How many special teams coordinators are standing next to the head coach as much as you see Danny? Right, he's in it.

He could be the head coach sometimes, the way he behaves on the sideline. He's so in on every single play. I think that's that juice that the guy's like. Chewing his gum and going, ha ha ha ha ha. You left us on a cliffhanger there, Diana. We don't know what you do with your gum. I have a suggestion for you if you want,

because straight gum that you step on has somewhat become an endangered species in my life. Like, I used to step on a lot more gum than I do now. It just doesn't happen anymore. So I don't know what you did with yours, but I have an idea of what you can do with it in the future if you're in this situation again. Please share.

I was thinking, so if you were getting out of your car, you could either, you said put it on the side of your car, or you could spit on the floor. What if you put it on your tire? Because it doesn't really matter if it's on your tire, right? And then no one will step on it. You'll just drive over it and it just sticks to your tire. Who cares?

My thing is, where do you put it when you're in the car though? Because that's my issue, right? You're driving, I'm not pulling over to throw my gum out. So where can I put my gum? That happens to me on planes. I keep the wrapper though, like inside my pocket just in case, but I don't know what kind of magic trick it is with gum.

It never fits back in the wrapper when you go to spit it out. The wrapper's always too small for the ball of gum. What do you think the most common thing is that people throw out their window when they're driving? Pugers. Cigarettes. Put it on the poll please please, at Levitard Show. Has Gum You Step On become an endangered species at Levitard Show?

Among the results from Sunday, Diana, the- I just really need to know what she did with the gum. Yes, thank you. The most interesting one was what? The most interesting of the results from Sunday's. I'm just going to go ahead and segue. Once Billy gets to boogers, I decide to go a different direction.

She was telling a gum story. That's real. Okay, most interesting result from Sunday was blank. You only get to pick one. Billy, I swallowed the gum, just for your knowledge. Oh, wow, dangerous. You'll see it in seven years. Like Woody.

The commanders, just the fashion that they want in, the way they did it, what that team's been about. It just, every year we see it, there's a team where the breaks fall their way and they just have something special about them. And I can't believe it's Washington. Usually it just seems like the gods skip over that team and now they're all in.

So the fact that they were able to win that way. And just that moment and seeing what that stadium looked like, seeing what the sideline looked like. And to me, my biggest observation is just someone watching it on television. Just the fact that their quarterback was so even keeled about it. I know he's got that cool California laid backness

about him, but I think that to me, when you can show poise and almost calm in the high moments, you're gonna be able to do that in the low ones. And so I think to me, that was such a win from just the way he was carrying himself and the way he was talking around about the play. Because how could you not go nuts after that?

I mean, every person lost their mind watching that game, whether they cared or not. Just because of the fashion in which they won. And so the fact that the man that threw that ball and completed it and won the game for the team was just acting like it was just a normal run of the mill day. I think that's just nothing but great news for this team.

I saw a ton of investigative journalism being done about the amount of uncrustables that are consumed by the people in the NFL. So good. Love those. 80,000 uncrustables a year. What? The Broncos are 700 a week.

700 a week the Broncos shove in their face. You have kids, Diana, are you shoving uncrustables in their maws? Yeah, I am. I think teams use them the same way parents do. It's just easy. They're made already, they're wrapped.

I just found out they're not healthy, so I'm a little upset about that, but they get the job done. Peanut butter and jelly, classic. It is a favorite around here. What are the saints doing? Only 50. That graphic was actually predictive analysis for the Thursday night or two weeks ago. Jason Jenks is the writer and he did that story and

on our internal communication space at The Athletic, you know, you can see what everyone's working on. I remember being like, what is that story going to be? And I love Jason. He's great. He's a good writer. He's creative. I'm like, hmm, dud. We'll see what that story is. That thing comes out. That's probably the best story the athletic has done in the last six months. Everyone's talking about it.

So it just goes to it was such a moment of, man, you're just out here digging on trying to find out what's going on with ownership in the New York Jets and the New York Giants building. What direction are these people going? Readers don't care. They wanna know about what the guys are eating. I need to chill out and start tapping into more of those fun stories, you know, Dan?

You thought it was a dud. Can you explain to me what the Jordan Love injury was? I haven't quite seen what happened there where he's walking around and then he just collapses on the sideline. Yeah, so obviously you know that he dealt with that knee injury earlier in the season. So the fear was that he re-injured it,

but the good news out of it, it was the knee. So good news for the Green Bay Packers and good news for the Green Bay Packers as a whole with trading for Malik Willis with the Tennessee Titans, a trade that I don't really think any of us were going, wow, that's the move of the century. In fact, I think most of us on the other side, or most of it we're looking at the other way going,

you think, you sure? Cause we saw Malik in Tennessee and then wasn't that great? Well, that may go down by the end of the year as the best move made this last year to supply some depth and obviously some answers to the Packers knowing that Jordan's knee isn't a hundred percent no matter what because he just hasn't had time to heal. Diana, is Mike McCarthy going to make it this season or will he be back next season? What do you think is going to happen there?

You think there's a chance he's coming back? I'm asking you. Is he gonna make it the season? How soon, and where's Belichick gonna end up? Oh, okay, so Michael McCarthy will make it through the season, and I think it's because that's just Jerry's way. Jerry said it to my face two weeks ago.

I'm not doing that. I'm not, I don't believe in it. Could he change his mind? I mean, John Merrow the other day said, Joe Shane and Brian Dable are safe. I mean, I've seen the Godfather too. I know the kiss of death. Like, and by the way, Marrow's done this before, right?

He did it with Joe Judge. He did it with Ben McAdoo. He's come out and been like, nope, we're sticking with these people in two weeks, you know, two, four, six weeks later, they fire these guys. To say that your head coach and GM are safe before it's even Halloween is ridiculous. Like, I think that was a wild move by the Giants. And Jerry's hasn't said a word about Mike's future.

It's basically just been go perform, AKA, you know, you're a lame duck coach, you haven't gotten a new deal for a reason, because you need to go win a Super Bowl. And by the way, this Dallas Cowboys team is running the ball and even defending the ground game. I don't see that happening. What happened with Anthony Richardson? Was he tired? He was sleepy. I, man, that one's a hard, hard one because I just, I've never seen that before. And I think the reaction to it has been pretty wild. Even my co-host, Chase Daniel was like, lie, you idiot lie. Why would you ever tell the media you're tired?

And I understand that. And look, today I'm actually expecting it in a few minutes here. They're meeting about discussing a change at quarterback because obviously we know Joe Flacco is there. So I look at it like this, you're Anthony Richardson. You've got the owner, you've got the GM, the head coach, you've got teammates all believing in you and confident that you're the guy. They love him in Indy.

But you also have a weapon on your team that I know probably 15 other teams would love to have them on their roster. And that's Joe Flacco. So to give any room, any space to make, to allow Joe to take over your job to me is just dumb. And not appreciating the moment and not appreciating this opportunity that you're getting to be the guy. I think that was just a, I hope that's a really good learning experience for him. But that's going to be a tough tough situation I believe to sell in the locker room especially

to your offensive lineman guys that are just putting their bodies on the line every single day to protect you. But you're going to take a play out because you got to catch your breath. That's a that's that's a tough one. If Aaron Rodgers wanted to play sorry to cut you off. If he wants to play next season, how many teams would be interested in signing Aaron Rogers? It's a good question. It's funny. My instinct right there was going to be like non zero, but that's not that that's not the truth because look, you know, Tom Brady

didn't have a great market and Tom was coming off, you know, obviously there was a fall off there at the end of the season with him or his last few years in New England and it obviously was not working, but there was definitely people poking around in Brady's market, but everyone expected that to be way more robust than it was.

So yeah, I guess my instinct on it would be not that many, but there's always that one owner, that one coach who will go, well, you know, the Jets never know what they're doing. They messed that up. I still believe in him. He's a four time MVP. It's still Aaron Rodgers.

He's still probably the smartest football mind on any field that you put him on. It's just unfortunate. To me, the question, Stu, is, I'm asking it, but I actually kind of think I know the answer is, is he coming back next year? You know, like, why would Aaron Rodgers come back next year? Why?

Because this is not the way he wants to end his career. That would be my only guess, and I think he will come back next year. It's not gonna get better after this. I think that ship has sailed. I think he's fine with going, this didn't work work. I mean how much longer can he do this? How much longer can he deal with ownership and the carousel of coaches and he's gonna have to deal with a whole new coaching staff, most likely a new GM, and try to find another way to go

through this again? I don't know. I just, I, if he comes back, then he must love pain. Scoop City is the name of the podcast. She's the senior NFL insider for the Athletics. She'll be with us the entirety of the season. Thank you, Diana. Good talking to you. Good seeing you again, as always. Thanks, guys. problem. New DraftKings customers bet just five bucks to get $200 in bonus bets instantly. Every point counts with the DraftKings Sportsbook. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code DAN for new customers to get $200 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks. Only on DraftKings. The crown is yours.

Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. In New York, call 877-8HOP-NY or text HOPE-NY 467369. In Connecticut help is available for problem gambling call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boothill Casino and Resorting Kansas, 21 and over, age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Voighton, Ontario. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources see dkng.co.uk. Don Lebatard. Go ahead Billy, ask him your question. Is gymnastics possibly corrupt? Oh wow. Stugats. I got some phlegm in my mouth, yeah.

It's okay. Is gymnastics possibly corrupt? This is the Don Lebatard Show with the Stugats. Stugats, I believe that you alleged last night that last night was a baseball night for you. It was not a football night because you were not interested in watching the now 6-2 Steelers against the Giants. Unfortunately, and this bums me out because I wanted to see the entirety of a tense dramatic series. I wanted New York's hard to be crushed in the most dramatic of fashions, not swept away

very quickly. Right now on Netflix, Metal Arch Media has one of the top ten things on Netflix with the only time in sports where a team has rallied from a 3-0 deficit. It was against the Yankees. It was the 2004 Boston Red Sox. Now the Yankees find themselves down three nothing against the Dodgers. Nobody but Soto has done anything

in the World Series for the Yankees. Their offense, this is how their post. Well, Verdugo hit a home run last night. Okay, very little has been done outside. It's not an important correction. In fact, Joe performed last night also. Yes, he did. I like that. For some reason. Well, you say for some reason. I like that ice cube entrance at Dodger Stadium. It's not an important correction. Well, Fat Joe performed last night also. Yes, he did. I like that.

Well, you say for some reason, I like that Ice Cube entrance at Dodger Stadium. Did you not? Oh, what's that sound? What's that sound? You didn't like the Ice Cube entrance? That's fine for your demographic. Not mine.

Ice Cube wasn't standing all over the mound though. The ground screw had to be freaking out about that. Fat Joe was like tap dancing on that mound before they get started. Yeah, and Tim's rude question. Do we think Fat Joe was the first choice? Jay Z was clearly the first choice. Jay Z would have been the first choice,

making the Yankee cap more famous than the Yankees did. My demo is the only one that likes Ice Cube coming out at Dodger Stadium? Well, Verdugo liked it. He was jumping around, he was excited. We were worried that Verdugo was gonna have a big game too, and it was gonna be Ice Cube's fault, right? Is that not what everybody was thinking?

No. I saw what he was talking about, I saw it all over the interwebs. He was dancing as Ice Cube was singing, there was talk, there was scuttlebutt around the baseball communities that maybe Ice Cube coming out was gonna have the opposite effect

that it was intended to because of how intuit Verdugo was. It ended up being, you know, not a big deal. Verdugo didn't have a big game. Yesterday he had a better game. But I think people were also talking about the Ice Cube curse because Shohei Otani got injured to the extent that yesterday

he was in a sling in the introductions. Now he still played, but he was in a sling. Something or nothing. Always a good, Look at me, Louie. Always a good game to play, something or nothing. But if you're in a sling, you're showing off to everybody that you're in a sling. You are. You're telling everyone you're hurt.

He's batting 0-91. In the World Series. Yeah. Best player in the world. And he's still great, and it can happen over a three-game stretch. And they don't, they don't. One for ten over the World Series. Yeah. Best player in the world. And he's still great, and it can happen over a three game stretch. And they don't. One for 10 over. Not to him.

One for 10 over three games. And they don't need him to win the World Series. They don't need him to win the World Series, and now there's talk that they're just gonna go and get Juan Soto also. Yes, that's right. Here's the thing that I don't understand, Dan, because I'm like you,

I don't like to see the Yankees succeed. I hate the Yankees. I'll even say I hate the Yankees. Growing up, I did not like the Yankees. They would just go out and they'd buy championships and they were in the World Series every single year and it was always bought and it was like the Yankee way, the Yankee way, this, and they'd just outspend everyone.

And here's the problem, is that the Dodgers are the exact same thing. So I find it hard to root for the Dodgers over the Yankees. However, I still hate the Yankees because I hated them as a little boy and I'm not gonna grow out of that. I'm always going to hate the Yankees even though the Dodgers are just as bad as the Yankees

and the Mets are worse than all of them except they're not paying the right people and it's not working out for the Mets. They're literally paying, I think, more money for people to play for other teams presently than they are for people playing for their own team. It's wild. It did work out.

They went to the NLCS. They did not, no, no, no, no. When you're spending $300 million a year on payroll, you're not the cute little, oh, but we made it to the NLCS. This is a big thing. They pulled Chris Cody. No, that's not, when you spend $300 million a year, you need to go further than we made it to the NLCS.

Unfortunately, Stugatz, that's what your loser fan base has become accustomed to is, this was a great season, we just made it to the NLCS, we're the Mets, look at us, go get them, Tiger. But that's not how it works. When you're spending that much money, you need to win. You're not paying for Justin Verlander to pitch for other teams.

You're not paying for Max Scherzer to go win a World Series on other teams. That's not what you spend $300 million for. Steve Cohen needs to get it together. Those two weeks though, what a nice little story it was. I've watched all the games this series and I don't know why I thought it was fixed, but we're still getting balls and strikes wrong. Because that was a bummer.

You have Juan Soto on deck representing the tying run, and Torres gets called out on a ball. On a terrible call, you don't get to Soto, which is what you want to see. I had leaned up from my bed, I was like, okay, here we go, this is the moment. Yankees, Dodgers, Juan Soto representing tying run at the dish, this is great. And then I was like, what the hell was that? That was at his chin. This series has been an utter disaster for the Yankees. I don't know how you do it,

but I also don't know how you keep Aaron Boone after he gets you to a World Series, but he makes the boneheaded Aaron Boone. I tried to warn you guys about Aaron Boone three years ago when I was in Detroit and I said, you should have fired him then and no one listened to me. And now look what's happening Yankees fans's happening. They're in the World Series. Yeah, they're in the World Series and he cost them.

They don't have the starting pitching. You need Garrett Cole to win you the Garrett Cole games and he's taking Garrett Cole out with 85 pitches. That's such a great point. Which is an absurdity. Aaron Judge, you can't expect to carry your team the entire postseason and he hasn't done anything in the World Series so far.

And John Carlos Stanton, who at a point had like five straight hits as home runs, obviously that's not a pace that you're gonna keep up with. He doesn't know how to run. I don't understand the fundamentals and the lack of fundamentals on this Yankee team. He's just slow to begin with. They have had base running issues the entire season.

But the way that he got thrown out yesterday is like unfathomable. How, he slid almost like halfway between third and home for some reason. He's slow as molasses. I don't understand this team. They're a bunch of keg softball players and they fool their poor old announcer,

John Sterling, who's calling the last two games. He's another one. He's another one. Let's play the sound, just shut up for a second. And the breaking ball there it goes deep left center field and K Oskar is there to make the catch. Oh did I get fooled on that. What with that swing and the ball majestically going to left field. Susan I actually thought it was going to be out and it wasn't close. He quit on this team earlier this

season. Yes he did. And then they just like, yeah sure, I think he's Mac Brown, like what are we doing here? Guy said straight up like retired in the middle of the season and then everyone's like panicked because like when an 80 whatever year old he is just retires like, oh no, like this isn't good, no he's in perfect health and it's like okay well I guess we're just moving on and they're

like well we're gonna do the World Series like, hey I'm back Jack and it's like no no you're not quitter. Howdy loyal audience it's Mike Ryan and we're getting down to the nitty-gritty of football season which means you've probably enjoyed more than a few tailgates and right by your side at that tailgate is that beautiful white can of Miller Lite. From defending your favorite team after a bad loss to obsessively checking your fantasy lineups, football fandom is bigger than just Sundays. Miller Lite knows the passion that comes with rooting for your team, like the debate that sparked in 1975. Great taste versus less filling. So what's the best thing about the original

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