The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Big Suey: You Okay, Greg?

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

Dan was upset by the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and we discuss what it says about the state of American political discourse. Plus, we discuss the impact of FS1's deal with Barstool and whether the speculation about Nick Saban's potential return to coaching is genuine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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A nice tan? Sorry, nope. But a box fan? Happily yes. A day of sunshine? No. A box of fine wines? Yes. Uber Eats can definitely get you that. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. Product availability may vary by Regency app for details. Welcome to The Big Suey. Presented by DraftKings. Why are you listening to this show? A podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan LeBoutard podcast. I'm sorry, I'm not going to 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. This episode is presented by DraftKings. DraftKings, the crown is yours.

Put it on the poll, please, Juju at Lebatard Show. Are you stunned that the Dolphins have not won a playoff game in the last third of Greg Cody's lifetime? Yeah, well you got me dying in five years. Hope to last a little longer. No, the third of your lifetime so far. I'm not killing you. I didn't say that. It's a little more than a third of my lifetime. I didn't say that at all. I said the lifetime that's presently in front of me. I wasn't exting that. I did not say that. Slightly more than a third of my life. I didn't say that at all.

I said the lifetime that's presently in front of me. I wasn't extinguishing it. Okay, all right, that's fair. A tenth of his life, let's say. Well, no. There you go. I don't wanna say that. It's far less impressive that way to save his feelings on that he's not gonna die.

I mean, if Greg lives to be 250, that would be very impressive. I know, it will be. Thank you, Billy. Notice I said it will be, not would be. Confidence, good thing. Confidence in science. You gotta believe.

When you slow yourself down, that's when your body slows down. If you're out there being active, doing things, why can't you live forever? At some point, everyone that's died thought, you know what, I've had enough. And then they die. Yeah, it's a good point by Billy.

He's right on the mark, as usual. How is that a good point by Billy. He's right on the mark as usual How is that a good point? And I'm as active as anybody so you know look at me You're not as active as anybody. He put out two books in the last like three years. Any bowls? Yeah, yeah every week and the third book is in the works. One of the books is recycled and I wrote more for it than he did Oh, that's not quite true. Although you you are long-winded with those forwards. Oh Wow, need an editor there. Who said that's not quite true. Although you are long-winded with those forwards. Woo, woo. Wow, need an editor there. Who said that? You know, but thank you for doing it.

I want to get to a story here from this weekend that made me sad. It made me legitimately sad. And I was surprised by the sadness. It caught me off guard because it's twofold, right? So Stephen Colbert was canceled and I was sad about this even though I probably haven't watched that show in six years. Late Night Television is dead. He had the highest rated one, but that only means fewer than 2.5

million viewers a night because of how much damage has been done to late night television by our instantaneous need to get everything and what streaming has done to late night television, on demand stuff. You don't have to be by your television for anything. Cannibalizing itself too, understanding the different trends and they create stuff for people to see it. If someone has anything worth a damn on late night,

you catch it online. And that's how Carpool Karaoke exploded. Fallon remains culturally relevant by these social clips. You know what? I shouldn't even say late night television is dead. It's just changed into something else. And what happened this last week was offensive to me on a couple of fronts.

First of all, that show has existed for 33 straight years, 22 by Letterman and the last few by Colbert, but that show introduced me to televised comedy? I didn't even understand what I was watching late at night with David Letterman. It was so different from everything else that I'd ever seen on television but also taught me all shit there's a dude on television who goes after his employer that guy goes back i makes fun of the people writing his checks and i'd never seen that and so here's the sound now

what's amazing to me is that cbs is willing to lie this flagrantly about it's strictly a financial decision when it can't be a strictly a financial decision it's the highest rated late night show like that is a bold faced lie even as programming tries to get cheaper all over the place as you see with f s one and barstool programming needs to get cheaper but you don't do it with the highest rated late night show and this is what actually got Stephen Colbert fired. They won't say this, but this was the monologue a few days before he was fired and importantly,

a few days before the the Sundance CEO, who is going to be a part of this merger. Skydance. Skydance, excuse me, was meeting with the FCC, and you now know what government institutions are doing. And so what Colbert did on television to honor, okay, not unlike what Shane Gillis did at the end of the ESPYs, where he's honoring Norm MacDonald,

on this stage in this time steven gold pick whole bear is hot the highest rate late-night show because he does stuff like this and this is what got him fired my mustache comes to you with a heavy heart because while i was on vacation my parent corporation paramount paid donald trump a $16 million settlement over his 60 minutes lawsuit. As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I am offended.

And I don't know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company. This settlement is for a nuisance lawsuit Trump filed claiming that 60 minutes deceptively edited their interview with then candidate Kamala Harris last fall. Paramount knows they could have easily fought it because, in their own words, the lawsuit was completely without merit. Now, I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles. It's Big Fat Bribe.

So, the corporate media has shown a remarkable cowardice in pushing back on a fascist, even though, even though it has F-U money, and now the fight comes to Rupert Murdoch, who isn't going to somehow be as weak as some of these other people tend to be, but Jon Stewart is saying he's not sure about the future of Daily Show.

He's not sure about the future of South Park. John Stewart, of course, got banished by Apple and is now not sure about the Daily Show. And the part that made me sad wasn't just the nostalgic memory part. It's the fact that Trump got 16 million dollars for something that was just a nuisance lawsuit that had no chance of winning and also got Colbert fired. To be clear to our audience, the reason why they pay that settlement as

long theorized by many people on social media is they have this paramount and Skydance have this massive merger and you need the FCC's approval to pass this thing through and Donald Trump could have stayed in the way of that. And we've seen things like this with law firms. We've seen it's not always a lawsuit settlement. We've also seen donations go to the presidential library. Some of the biggest tech companies in the world are doing that right now to curry favor with the President of the United States in what appears to be pretty transparent bribes and corruption. I love Stephen Colbert. Smart, smart show. I lean with him politically. I love everything about the guy but at the same... This is not, not, not an echo chamber.

At the same time I have to wonder, Stephen, you didn't think you might be fired by saying this? When you say the company paying my checks no longer has my trust, I mean, you're inviting yourself to be fired. To be fair, 60 Minutes had an editorial piece at the start of one of their shows shortly after the settlement, and they came out against it and he hosts a show as Dan mentioned where it part what's canon is going at the corporate bosses that is actually like a tent pole of late night Stephen Colbert has never shied away

from that Dan mentioned Jon Stewart who does host the Daily Show every Monday for Comedy Central under the Paramount umbrella, the South Park creators will also have a very famous show, a legacy show in South Park, for that same parent network came out and said this merger is a disaster, it's why you're not getting new episodes on time, but Bill Simmons, I saw a clip of Bill Simmons and he pointed to tonight's Daily Show with John Stewart as one of the more fascinating nights and late nights since the extortion attempt on David Letterman.

What was David going to say there? Because you have a guy in John Stewart who is one of the most recognized, if not the single most recognized personalities with that network, Comedy Central. He also just left a place in Apple because they tried to censor what he was going to report on. Colbert's career is tied to that show, the Daily Show, and Jon Stewart. So what is Jon Stewart going to say today? In this time where the court jesters have become the trusted newsmen because that tree is not just Colbert and Jon Stewart, it's also John Oliver and a whole assortment of other folks.

Yeah, it was a king-making show. And John Oliver also goes after his employer, makes fun of HBO Max, and these people are important, and the idea that in today's time, you can have the business come into the editorial to contaminate everything at a time. We need the press to be stronger.

We need voices to be stronger, to see corporate media bow, to throw $16 million. It's a nuisance lawsuit. I understand why they did it. I understand. It's simply a business decision. But the blatant dishonesty after that is something that makes people not trust corporate media.

You can't say that's strictly a financial decision. That is as bold-faced a lie as the pathological liar who's a criminal and a racist and possibly a rapist and felon and fraud. That's every bit the lie that he tells daily. And in Bolden now takes his victory lap on social media saying Jimmy Kimmel should be next. And then while not mentioning Jimmy Fallon also kind of touches on Jimmy Fallon.

And it just exacerbates this type of behavior. We saw it, it touched sports over the weekend, this kind of shakedown mentality, change the commander's name or else. And a lot of conservative friends ask me, what do you think about this commander's thing? I'm like, I think it's none of his goddamn business. What business is it to the president of the United States

what a team decides to call itself, and now he's trying to get in the way of a real estate deal. This is what an authoritarian looks like. It's no more his business what they're called to what colors that they wear on the field. That is a private enterprise. It's none of the president's business. Oh but I've told you before that there are a stack of executive orders and other things that they can just throw into the publicity machine to try and get rid of whatever the scandal of the day is. And he's having all sorts of trouble getting rid of Epstein

because his base has turned on him. And when I tell you that corporate media is failing, the guy he's presently sued is not failing. That's a fascinating dynamic because it, Rupert Murdoch owns a Wall Street Journal and owns Fox News, which is the largest megaphone that President Trump and his administration have had. It's tilted the pendulum when it comes to influence in this country.

It's propaganda and it'll be interesting to see if that ever goes to discovery. Maybe Donald Trump is playing himself. But yes, with the Obama hoax, with the commanders, he's reaching for any kind of popular diversionary tactic with his own base because that's where his popularity is strikingly dipped with his own MAGA base. Howdy folks, it's Mike Ryan. If you were listening to the show just a couple days ago, you know that Jeremy came up with the top five.

Breath of fresh air type of list, a really refreshing feeling. And on that list, Jeremy, help me out. I mean, that first sip of a Miller Lite at the barbecue on a hot day, crack it open, that sound, that sound ultra satisfying. And then that first sip, it hits. And yes, while it's hot outside as it is presently, your body down it hits a little different down here in South Florida but as someone that had Miller Lite north of the border and basically football tailgates as the leaves turn there really isn't a bad time to turn into Miller time. Next time we should do a top five times to have Miller time. I like where your head's at

because it's every time. That's right. Every time. Morning time, well, scratch that. Nah, morning time. Morning time if you need it. Morning time if you need it. If you're on vacation. If you're on vacation. If you're on vacation.

If you're in a morning tailgate, there's a noon game. It's Miller time somewhere. Miller Lite, great taste, 96 calories. Go to MillerLite.com slash Dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. Cheers to 50 years of Miller Time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company,

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It's a sweet summer twist on iced coffee. Your cold brew is ready at Starbucks. Don Lebatard. He called me on my own podcast, he called me full of shit, claiming that I'm faking interest in the solar eclipse. Starbucks. When I was 17 years old, Alan Sherry and I used to haunt the Bueller Planetarium. This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats. I mean, I expect CBS or any huge corporation to lie or touch the truth for its own benefit. I don't particularly trust politicians starting with Trump, but that's a different story than John Olof or Stephen Colbert doing more than...

He wasn't making fun of CBS by any means. He wasn't having a laugh with it. He was super serious and he did more than just make fun of the settlement or or derived the settlement he said i no longer have trust for my corporation and and that to me that was him going over the line in a way that he had to know that that was the line that's

all i'm saying uh... i think you're saying he should have been fired i i'm saying that he should have expected to be fired okay in an ideal world i'm'm not going to fire him. If I'm CBS, hell no. But knowing the reality of what he's dealing with, I think when he's flatly saying, and CBS ostensibly is in the trust business, they still have news programs, when he's saying I no longer can trust CBS, I think that's a death knell.

I think he had to know that I am saying something that might get me fired. You say that, but I will tell you at the end at ESPN around some of this stuff, I never expected to be fired. Never. And wasn't going to be. Because you don't take the hit on that. But the times have changed. And what has changed on Colbert is the times, because that show's always been allowed to do that. And you're right, when he went after, he did go after them hard, but he has a lot of reason to believe

as the highest rated show in late night that there's very little possibility that he's going to be fired for making fun of his employer. What I don't understand is they paramount paid the president off with this settlement. Shouldn't that have stopped the problems? Did they not want their biggest late night talent calling this to attention?

But 60 Minutes has just let Colbert do his thing. And now it's become totally outsized with the announcement that you're letting him go. Because now people are focusing on the message. When it's a message that he could save for years on end. The only time that that's ever been canon apparently for CBS with their parent company is when they're trying to push through a massive merger. You said he made it worse. They've made it worse and they have but temporarily, right? The

decision is a fascinating one to take the publicity hit at the front end that you're going to take right now, lie about it, try with a calculated fashion to say nothing bad about Colbert. You're not telling us it's about anything else. You're saying strictly financial decision and that makes no sense. I mean, you're pissing off Stephen Colbert. We wait with bated breath to find out

what they do with Jon Stewart. These are all taped shows. Are they gonna muddle that message? You add Matt Stone and Trey Parker to the mix. This is not a dilution by degrees. You are ripping away what is actually an audience driver for you. Things that make part of this merger really appealing.

That was a massive deal that they cut with John Stewart that saw him executive produce and bring back to life the Daily Show with him, including him hosting once a week. Apple ran off John Stewart and I want to go back to a conversation that we were having last week about the difficulty that mainstream sports media is having finding young audiences and how they don't know how to do it. That the people in charge are old, the people in charge were not ready for any of this streaming old, the people in charge were not ready for any of this streaming stuff.

The CEOs who met with the writers during the writer's strike didn't know what they were doing because the new ages arrived and they don't understand what's happening. And all the people in charge are old. It's one of the reasons I found fascinating what FS1 did. Because, and I mean this as no indictment of Barstool when I say it's cheap programming. Roy Wood Jr. told me, our friend, told me that

something that he watches in comedy. Comedy is a very hard way to make a living. There aren't a lot of employers. You know who the employers are. Specials are easy to do, but all other content costs a lot of money in comedy. And keep in mind, this guy's been grinding, hustling, touring, trying to make a living, still has to grind, even though he's one of the famous ones, because it doesn't usually come with health insurance or employers, you're always a solo, you're an independent trying to find work.

He told me that what he looks for on television and entertainment, when he's looking to see where the money's gonna go in comedy is he watches sports programming because he knows when that gets cheap and it's super cheap usually, when that gets cheap, he knows that his industry is headed for some trouble. And what Fox just did is what ESPN is doing on ESPN2 where everyone realized during the pandemic,

oh, we've been doing TV all wrong. We could just do it on Zoom. And we don't have to pay people $7 million since most of them aren't actually ratings people. And the thing that's smart about what FS1 did is it's not merely cheap. They're gonna finally do it the way they should have done it from the beginning is you don't try to beat ESPN and being ESPN.

You got to make fun of ESPN. If you're the rival, if you're the challenger, if you're Fox when you're doing Tracy Allman and starting with the Simpsons, what you have to do is married with children. You have to do things no one else is doing. So what they did at the beginning to establish credibility is to try to be ESPN and they failed and so now they're gonna go to a brand that will lure young people not just because it always does because for sure they're not going to respect the way that it's done and the way that it's done with their rival and it's a very smart move on how to get young people because most people in media do

not know how to get young people. It's still being reported on what we know about the weekday block I think it's two hours of barcel programming. We don't know what that looks like if they're just going to repurpose something existing, which would be more cost effective for Fox, or if they're going to throw some money behind a newer concept. But one thing is for sure from working over at ESPN, we know licensing these shows is more, usually more cost effective for these parent corporations than building out the studio hiring around that hiring writers producers talon and the entire crew and the budgets behind that so it's a smart movie i think it's an inspired move for a lot of the reasons that you outline and

i'm pretty interested in saying what parcel does with the opportunity billy mentioned last week that uh... because you guys were talking to me i was saying I'm just really surprised that content companies in general aren't better at making their own content and one of the things that Billy said is that we've been doing this for years that John Skipper tried to hire Barstool years ago, not Barstool but Big Cat and PFT and it lasted one day. Billy do you know the story of why it only lasted one day? Do you know the whole backstory on this? Because John Skipper was no better

at attracting young people than anyone else. That's why he got us. The reason we were hired is because they needed to farm that out. They weren't good at doing it for themselves. Do you know why, do you know everything that happened there? Like some of the backstory? I mean, I know what was reported

is that there was outrage of the connection between the Barstool brand and ESPN. There were a number of on-air talents that were not comfortable with that connection and that relationship, and they spoke out against it. And then it was determined those people are more valuable to this company than the partnership with Barstool is,

so we're gonna end it. But the step that you're missing there on why it is that old people and old media doesn't know how to connect with young people is that yes, all of those people were outraged and said so, but John Skipper did nothing about that. And then someone sent him a pumpkin that looked like a vagina that Barstool was using,

and that's what ended it and that's how you lose. Like that's how you lose. That didn't hurt ESPN that they didn't get them and it didn't hurt I mean it didn't help ESPN to have them for a day and it didn't hurt at all Barstool or pardon my take help their brand that they that they were too hot for ESPN. It's the reason it happens. It's a bunch of old people in charge. You don't get to be in charge of any of these things that decide what's popular for young

people unless you're old. You can't get that power young. Well, you know the inner workings of this topic more than I do i admit that but in in this case is it smart of fox or is it desperation and cheapness if you'd rather have uh... on big noon if you'd rather have uh... date portnoy the nicks a man that's ridiculous

all the wrong hope but you could say that you're wrong but they're they're picking up ground and in today's age where the currency is, this is exactly why ESPN got Rush Limbaugh. Like, you get the guy who brings attention. You don't care. You do not care how you get that attention. It's Fox. What's the standard? Like, you don't care how you get the attention. You lost Skip Bayless. You've fired everyone else, the place has been a dumpster since Jamie Horowitz left and it was a dumpster before he left as well and now you bring in something that will at least bring you ratings. Okay, just answer this with one word if you would. Who's better for ratings if you're

a college football pregame show, Saban or Portnoy? I don't think that's the decision that they're making it's not like I mean they have Urban Meyer there I would look by all means try to get Nick Saban next to Urban Meyer on Big Noon But he's employed by he ESPN in part because Corso was leaving and that that's where the offer came in I think if you're looking for a comp, it's what McAfee brings is a crowd is energy early in the morning like what McAfee does really well, they lean into there. And I think part of what hurts big noon

is not just that they're married to the new time slot, is if they're ever in the same place as college game day, the crowd usually goes to college game day, and it seems like a lesser experience. You wanna see energy from the crowd, Barstool's gonna bring people to those places. goes to college game day and it seems like a lesser experience. You want to see energy from the crowd? Barstool is going to bring people to those places. They're not just going to do that, sorry Billy, they're not just going to do that, but when I think of both pregame shows and Big Noon is making up numbers on what

has been the standard, only the ESPN show produces the viral moments and they're usually McAfee that everyone sees. Fox has been able to make that climb without any of that. Like they don't have any of the controversy, so they're welcoming the controversy. You're making it seem though like Dave Portnoy is like Prime Howard Stern, and he's gonna come on big noon

and like turn it into like this circus and this zoo with like not safe for work content. Like he's just going to come on and be himself. I don't think that it's going to have this like taboo impact that you think that they're going for. I don't know how they plan to use him. I do think he's going to be a little bit more reserved. I don't think he's going to do shock jock stuff, but I do think he's going to be able to have takes that you don't necessarily see on Network Fox. I mean, and they've tried this before, not to this degree really tapping into a young base, but they've had provocateurs on that

on that show, to put it as politely as I can, with Clay Travis in the early days of that show. They do try to reach out and do some different things with their talent. I disagree, Billy. We'll see. It probably won't happen early because there are going to be some nerves involved But I would say that's the only reason he's there like why put that person who doesn't have any particular Expertise on college football. He just gambles on it. Why put that person in the center? That counts. What's the what is the reason you think they're just putting him there for gambling like why is he there? I mean he's a huge sports fan And when he has the opportunity to go on, let's take what Barsal produces usually.

And I don't know where this falls into the Fox deal, but Barsal does a good job with their own traveling road show that goes to college football games with good energetic crowds. And they put out great social clips. And Dave Portnoy is there. He's a sports guy. He just loves sports.

I mean, he'll have some brash takes here and then, but ultimately that guy wants to talk about Michigan football. He wants to talk about the Big Ten. It's actually right to the core audience of what Fox does. He'll poke Urban Meyer because he doesn't like Urban Meyer, like, but it's not, what are you going to say the F word? He's good at being controversial. You're not particularly controversial. Like it comes to him naturally, so I don't he's good at being controversial. You're not particularly controversial like it comes it comes to him naturally So I assume that he will understand that if he has to be there he has to fit in but also

He has to make his worth known While there like McAfee found his footing for a while like it took him a couple of minutes And it's gonna take Portnoy a couple of minutes But it's a strange thing to have in the the, nothing like him has ever been on the center of one of these things other than Rush Limbaugh. There's nothing, there's nobody- Bill Simmons is a decent comp. No, but a politically polarizing person.

Like, Bill Simmons is not a politically polarizing person, but that is a good comp. If you think Simmons was there to just be a fan, I don't think Portnoy will be there to just be a fan. I think he will be there to bring attention and he knows how to bring attention and he's good at it and he doesn't. And at this point, if he gets fired doesn't matter. He doesn't need the job. Like you can, he doesn't need what is there like that. He could go do other things. He doesn't need the job, but he's also not like, you know, a 20 year old.

He's the head of a very successful company. He's not gonna blow up a relationship with Fox and now with FS1 over doing some stunt on Big Noon Kickoff. And I don't think he's gonna bring politics into Big Noon Kickoff. I don't think we're gonna get into any debates there. No, he's fairly traditional as a talent when the central focus is CFB. Now we'll see how

it turns out. I'm sure he'll say something that'll garner attention, which is really I don't see the downside at all. If you're trying to make up ground, I mean what's the downside? He's not good and then you ultimately learn from that and maybe you reduce the amount of camera time that he has. But still, ultimately, you got into business with Barcell to bring eyes and hopefully they bring that attention there. I'm with Billy. I don't think he's going to jeopardize an entire network wide deal by just trying to be shocking. That's also not really his thing. Whenever he's shocking, he's shocking pretty organically. It doesn't come off as a put on with a porno. I'll give him that much. Yeah, I was going to say, you could agree or disagree with what he says and what he thinks You're shocking pretty organically. It doesn't come off as a put on with Dave Poirnois. I'll give him that much.

Yeah, I was gonna say, like, you could agree or disagree with what he says and what he thinks and believes, but he seems genuine in those, like it doesn't seem like it's a shtick or like an act that he's going on and saying things to be controversial. I mean, maybe he'll turn it up from time to time, but like, it seems genuine. I don't dispute you guys.

Like this is the part that you guys aren't hearing me on. I don't think it's inauthentic. I think he gives off asshole on purpose and he's proud of it. And he doesn't back down from it. Like I mean, two peas in a pod. Game recognize game now. It's a mirror. Don Lebatard.

It's all about me. Stugats. Wee. This is the Don Lebatard show with the Stugats. on the Libertar Show with the Stugats. The other thing that I wanted to talk to you guys about is, you okay Greg? Yeah, that's why I pressed the cough button. Yeah, he nailed that one too. I'm a pro.

Good one. I'm a real broadcasting pro, Dan. Hope Awful Announcing includes that in the clip. Yeah. Him coughing at the end? Yeah, I didn't hear it. Well, that's why I clicked the cough button. I pressed the cough button.

You pressed the cough button. Nobody would have known if you hadn't mentioned it. Yeah, Dan. I would say very few people occupy the sports media space that you do. You are a bit of a unicorn. I don't know whether to thank you or no. A coughing unicorn.

No, it's a compliment. OK, thank you. There's a lot of redundant skill sets. I haven't really seen anyone in the industry replicate what Greg Cody brings to the table. Thank you very much. I do take that as a compliment. That is. That is a sincere compliment. Okay. Two things that we mentioned there that I assume that you have that you have commentary on is one

Trump getting in the Washington football team's name business. Yeah. And the other one was the idea of Saban returning to coaching. Surely you have thoughts on both of those things. Well, I would mimic what Mike said on Trump just having no business whatsoever getting into the business of personal. An echo chamber. getting into this is the business personal echo check a professional personal team owned by a guy

in having nothing to do with the government why is trump even bothering trump doesn't have enough on his plate politically in a time when his ratings are taking the only one of us come on i'd already told you what he's doing there it's not that he doesn't have enough things on his plate he's clearly not sleeping in's in giant trouble because his own base is turned on him and Murdoch's not afraid of him. And so that's clearly not what's happening here. He wants the Epstein stuff out of the news and he's only got so many moves to get it out of the news. Okay, but this is just so silly that it's not gonna divert attention from the

Epstein stuff. It's just everybody's looking at and laughing like, come on Trump, really? Back to Indians and Redskins What are you doing? I mean, it's just further polarizing and dividing the country It's just so stupid if I may that's exactly what it's doing and it's working and you're giving attention to it You're giving it oxygen as it is so clearly a distraction, right? It is so clearly an intentional popular move with his base to get them fired up and it's a diversionary tactic to get them to look away and it is working. Is it? Yeah, we're talking about it. Because we're talking about it? Yeah, and if we're talking

about it, his base is talking about it and really that's, I mean he called them stupid to their face last week. He needed to make up ground with that base. And Obama hoax and Washington team name, these are very popular culture war type of things that are core principles to the MAGA base. And yeah, he's stoking those flames. And stop telling me how to be politically correct when I'm a white person. Don't tell me how to talk about black people, gay people, Native Americans. Don't tell me how I can talk black people, gay people, Native Americans. Don't tell me how I can talk about those people. That works.

I always find the logic behind the Washington commanders that he gave to, it's the same kind of logic that he had with renaming some of these forts after former Confederate soldiers. And so he's like, we have to protect the heritage and the legacy. People were proud to come from these places

Apparently that legacy and heritage did not apply to the USS Harvey milk I guess with that we don't need to protect that legacy. It's very clear what they're trying to do, which is a literal whitewashing Okay, so when does the White House start flying the Confederate flag? Is that the next step because no no you got to go slowly there First you go you bring back your way into it. The Negro leagues, you bring those back, Trump will want to have only one team name that he's responsible for there. He'll bring back, and then you climb up to that. Oh, okay. All right. I didn't get that straight. Sorry. Saban? It's tied to Donald Trump. It's tied to his looming, what's reported on rumored executive

order to cap compensation and NIL for football teams, I think. And Nick Saban is heavily involved in there. I think he has an official position, or it's been floated out there, that Trump is leaning on Nick Saban heavily to craft what this will look like. And if that's the case, and Nick Saban gets to dictate what the rules are,

and if the Big Ten and SEC are essentially the people that are enforcing these things, then Nick Saban's advantage? It's back. Oh, the parity, it kind of goes away, it's diluted. If I get to make the rules, then yeah, I'll come back. Cody's talking about him returning to coaching. That's exactly what I'm talking about. Nick Saban is thinking about coming back, and I believe the reports because he gets to design the rules of the game because he has a president's ear. If the president is indeed going to do this executive order that caps what players can make in NIL deals,

which is basically capitalism for the top tier, socialism for everybody else, yeah, Nick Saban will come back. If he gets to draw the battle lines for this, that further incentivizes it, no doubt. Nick Saban coming back is not a given under any circumstance, is it? I mean, his own daughter goes on Instagram and says,

I happen to know he ain't coming back. And yet you have Paul Feinbaum. She happens to know. I mean, I would think she does. You have Paul Feinbaum just gratuitously floating out, he ought to go back down to Miami and take care of that issue down there. Because he coached the Dolphins in 2005 and 2006

and very well by the way if he hadn't left for Alabama he might still be the coach they didn't fire him or push him out by any means but it's it's just so purely speculative if I'm a betting man right now I'm not betting that Nick Saban comes out of retirement are you? I don't think I take the bet but I will say with him getting the ability to shape the policy, the executive order, I'd say it makes it a hell of a lot more likely than it was prior to. Nick Saban's daughter happens to know? He happens to know. I would think she does. I would think she does. I mean, you know, she has an inside source.

It's her dad! You know, you don't think they've had a conversation? Why does she go on Instagram and say, he ain't coming back, people? Well thankfully he's never lied on the record. Yeah, right. Or changed his mind. Fair comment. Touche.

Is that all you have on Nick Saban? Do you have any other thoughts on Nick Saban? I don't have any other thoughts that Merritt's stating right now that are on course with this particular topic. I just think it's always ridiculous when we, and now all of a sudden the poor Alabama coach at the SEC media days has to speak about the Nick Saban rumor, and of course he's all polite, you know, in saying that he's done so great he should be able to do whatever he does, parentheses, but not take my job, I hope. So I just don't put any credence to it. I think it's a, I hate to say it, I think it's a media contrivance at this point. You can say it's a media contrivance.

What Mike says suggests it's tempting. I can't imagine what it is to go through your life Getting your identity from what it is that particular person does how lopsided you have to be to be that successful and then all of a sudden you're off to the side of the game, but Nick Saban's timing on retirement was as Impeccable as Bob Iger's was the first time. And Bob Iger, I assure you, regrets coming back because shit got a whole lot harder

and Disney's in the dumpster and Iger got out. Iger got out as if he knew the pandemic were coming and cruise ships were gonna go down and amusement parks in China were gonna go down. He got out at the perfect time and then he came back and he should not have come back and nix a benn we were mentioning this uh... last week so over the last few years it's been

alabama ohio state clemson and then ls u has gotten in there a couple of times with less miles with ed orgeron originally. Originally, you know, Nick Saban built all of that, but there haven't been that many teams that have actually been great. And he won at the end, got knocked out with a team that was probably one of his worst in the last 10 years, but still made the playoffs,

and then got knocked out. But no one will have a bad thing to say about the ending for nick saban and any team would immediately want him he'd immediately go back to coaching and become the highest paid coach in the sport but he's almost eighty right and he was saying that he was tired like that he would be that he was just going into work and not enjoying it at least in part because it can't be fun to not have any control over any of the rules well he's not that all but he will be seventy four in october you know so that's a factor i mean that that is not irrelevant in the least to to the idea of him

making a comeback did you find the correct happened to know sound roy or did you just uh... do you get chris cody has left in a large by the way jason our director was also at the Backstreet Boys concert in Las Vegas and took a red eye and got in at six o'clock this morning. Was very proud of himself. What a warrior, dude. Yes, he was very proud of himself because-

Thank you, Jason. I appreciate it. Unlike Chris Cody, he made it back. I did not know that we had so many Backstreet Boys fans around here. It's the sphere, man. It's a combination of two things. Tell me why.

Unfortunately, I've been left in an alert stand by Chris Navin here. Didn't I title this? So you couldn't find it and it's not anywhere to be found. The only thing that was in the library was the least funny of all that happened to know. Okay, good work by Chris Cody. Glad for all his efforts. Now's a good time to remember where tequila's story truly began. In 1795, Cuervo invented tequila. Cuervo.

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