The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The "Chastise The Media" Stage | Hour 3

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

"Hey, Michael." Is Lane Kiffin going to get the LeBron-in-Cleveland treatment with his upcoming return to Ole Miss? Is it okay for Arch Manning to laugh at AI of Steve Sarkisian hitting Holly Rowe? Has Dan Lanning already been left behind in college football? Will Tony Romo ever work again? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My favorite part of the football season is the confidence everybody has before it kickoff. Zaslo already knows how the game is going to end. Tony has studied every possible matchup and Chris Cody is convinced his fantasy team is unbeatable. Then the game starts, everything immediately goes off the rails, and suddenly nobody remembers making any of those predictions. That's why a legendary game day starts with an ice cold Miller light. Whether I'm at a tailgate, watching with friends, or settling in for a full Saturday of college football, Miller Light is the beer I can depend on.

It's crisp, refreshing, and has a clean finish that hits perfectly during a hot South Florida game day. Miller Light is the original light beer with great taste, and beer lovers have trusted it for more than 50 years. Make game day legendary. Go to Miller Lite.com slash Dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. Game time is Miller Time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96, Kavanaugh. calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

Let me give you a true story. I was at my favorite bar. Guy working behind the bar, a good friend of mine, huge Bills fan. I opened up the game time map and a spur in the moment decision, let's go to Bill's Lions, home opener at the brand new stadium.

And game time delivered, as it always does for me. It makes finding tickets incredibly easy, even when I decide at the last minute that I need to be at a game, even if it's not even in the state I'm in. I can see a panoramic seed view before I buy. The price shown includes all fees. What you see is what you pay, period.

Game time also has zone deals. You choose a section, they choose the seats, and you save money. Plus, every purchase is backed by the Game Time Guarantee, including on-time ticket delivery and their lowest price guarantee. Get your friends together, get your tickets, and tell them, it's Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code Dan for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and use code D-A-N for $20 off. This is the Dan Levator show with the Stucats podcast. Do you guys realize how great it would have been if Drew Brees had played in that game? If you remember that game, Stidham made the one mistake Drew Brees never made in his career, which is he cost them the game by having, all he had to do was protect the football.

Stidham didn't have to do anything else the entire game. to make a play, just don't make a disaster play. If Drew Brees at 47 had gone out there and won a snow game for Sean Payton and gotten them to the Super Bowl winning a snow game, what kind of lunacy would that have been? I think we kind of forget, though, Drew Brees was kind of his last year. He's 47. Yeah. His arm doesn't work anymore. But all he had to do is not make the disaster play that Stidham made. I mean, Jared Stidham, like it or not, right now is better than Drew Brees. No, he's not.

Right now? No, he's not. No, he's not. No, he's not. Right now. You can never tell me. There's not been a moment in his life, nor will they'll ever be a moment in his life. Where Drew Breeze is living on this planet and is a worse quarterback than Jared's did him.

His shoulder doesn't work. He wouldn't have made the disaster play. Okay, so he's the Jamie Moyer of quarterbacks now. Oh, you're going to do this again. You shook me off. I mean, come on. I wanted to, I wanted an opportunity to ask Kyle Brandt. Hey, is Jalen Hertz the Mark Burley of quarterbacks?

And we were all so excited. excited to do that back here? See, Greg Cody loved it. And yet we'll never know. We'll never for all of our lives know whether or not Kyle Brandt thinks that Jalen Hertz is the Mark Burley of quarterbacks. And that's on you, Dan. I shook you off because I didn't want to hear about it again. I sure didn't want our audience to hear it. Hey, man, I've had the third worst day here, okay? Here we are. I mean, he's exasperating. And I wish the heat would let him go again. I wanted to get to three college football things. And I want to start with Joey Freshwater. So we've got some Lane Kiffin sound, we've got some Archmanning sound, and we've got some Dan Lanning

I mean, that guy, that guy I want to get to most of all because it seems fairly obvious that if you don't have Mario Cristobal's players, you're just not any good at your job. That's right. And you were super arrogant about it when you had Mario Cristobal's players. And so I want to talk a little bit about Dan Lending, but first let's go out to Joey Freshwater. I mean, I guess there's real safety issues and stuff, so there's people that have a plan for that is what it is. But I told the players today, man, you don't have anything to worry about as far as, like, attention on you all week and everything. There's just going to be so much attention, hatred, everything on me.

I said, you just get to go play. And I said, really, the pressure's on them. They're the team that, and we won seven games last year. They won 13. They return, you know, to Heisman candidates. How often does that ever happen in the same backfield? We had it one time with Matt Liner and Reggie Bush and second longest winning streak in the country. So you guys just get to go play and the pressure is not on you.

Just so we're clear, Lane Kiffin, who left Ole Miss because he has a better chance of winning championships at LSU wants you to know that team over there. They won 13 games, all right? That's a great team. We only won seven last year. So the reason that he left Ole Miss, now it's the opposite. They're really good over there. They're better than us. Lane Kiffin looks phenomenal.

Do you ever look at his biceps and say, wow, he's really done some work? He looks good, keeping away from the sorority song. Yeah, he does look good. Joey Freshwater is doing a smart thing there, I think, just putting it all on him and also putting in perspective that if he wins at L.S. He's not wrong. He inherited a bit of a disaster over there, and he made Michigan better than LSU last year. And Trinidad Chambliss is more highly regarded than any of the players nationally that he has. He's not wrong about what he's saying. They're going to win. LSU. Like, they're going to win there. And they're going to, they're going to hate him so much. Oh, my God. It's going to be a, it's not going to be LeBron returning to Cleveland in a Miami Heat uniform levels. but it's going to be quite the circus there this weekend.

I feel like, though, we see time and time again that this is what Lane Kiffin has done. So I'm not sure why people are upset at him doing exactly what he's always done, which is go to a better opportunity. Yeah, I agree. And I don't think that psychology 101 he's playing works even with college kids. Where all the pressures on them, not really. Well, it doesn't matter, right? The game has to be played.

It doesn't matter who the pressure's on. a great deal of pressure on him, though, and I wanted to ask you guys as a lifestyle choice, okay? My brother used to talk all the time about the gypsy curse. May you get everything that you want. It may not feel how you think it feels. I want to talk to you guys about the idea whether you're Lane Kiffin or Stephen A. Smith. Stephen A. Smith has said recently that it's been a very hard year for him. And the question I want to ask you guys is, do you think that there is a heavy sort of effect? No matter how much you pride yourself on being someone, I don't care what anyone thinks, I don't care whether you like me or not. To have everyone hating you, like just to walk

through life, all the money, all the power, the job you've always wanted, but you're walking through life and everyone hates you with an intensity that even if you're comfortable being the villain, do you believe that that's an energy you would want on you? Because I would not. I don't mind not being liked. I have a strident, obnoxious problem with the way I deliver things in tone, because I don't mind not being light, but I don't want to be hated by everybody. I don't want to be in the present news stream and everyone in sports is looking at you and saying, oh, you're just about the money. All you care about is the next opportunity.

The things that you come out of your mouth don't even mean anything because you're that comfortable being a villain. I don't know many human beings who are actually comfortable with that. I think that guy, though, might be one. He might be. Like, he, I'm not trying to be funny. Like, I think he might be a little bit different. It's not very human, though, I will say.

It's not like to welcome being hated by everybody in exchange for money or power to make that kind of a transaction that consciously. I don't think most of you talking about this or me or anybody knows what the sacrifice actually is when every time you decide to interact with social media. It's just everyone saying you're an ass and here are all the reasons and all the ways that you're an ass and I don't think that there have been many people. in the history of sports who are actually comfortable with that. I think Draymond's a lot more comfortable with it than Lane Kiffin is. Draymond keeps choosing it again and again and again. But I wonder how that'll feel to him when he doesn't have Steph Curry and isn't winning all the time. Because I don't think that the transaction is a healthy one for a human being.

Well, as opposed to a guy like Draymond, Draymond will continuously defend his actions, right? He's still defending the Jordan Poole punch. I don't hear a whole lot of Lane Kiffin defending. his actions. Am I wrong about that? All I hear is hatred from every corner except for his little local corner in LSU. Well, they will love him for being that. Like this is a, they have a chance at LSU to be the most wonderful thing where you all hated us and we still kick the respect out of you.

Like we still were so good at what we do that it doesn't matter that your hatred is your hatred because at the end you're going to have to respect me because I'm really good at what I do. I don't think anyone who's online, unless you are just completely tuned out of social media, you are comfortable being hated by everyone. I don't think you feel good doing that. I don't think you can be immune to that. I don't think there's anyone arrogant enough that doesn't feel the pain of that.

It's not very human to think that there's someone who's so comfortable with the defiance of being a villain that they're in that role all the time. And every single time, I told you guys, I had to check out on social media. It just had to leave because it was, I'm feeling. 57 and I've been pretty comfortable all my life with the hate letters like at the from the beginning of my career at the miami herald i'm 57 and i had to check out on no thank you i don't want to hear all of the things that are thought about me or any of them really i'm not i don't want my day impacted in any way by what somebody anonymous on the internet who may be angry who may be lonely

who may only be there for the fuel of who else can i hurt because I love that the internet offers me the access to be able to hurt people. I don't want to play in that particular sandbox. But when I say to anyone listening to this, hey, in our business, do you think you want to be Stephen A. Smith or in Lane Kiffin's business? Do you think you'd like to be Lane Kiffin? Everybody says, yeah, give me that power, give me that money, everything else. But I do wonder about the idea of just everyone hitting you every minute of every day on, you're a dip I don't like you I don't like the things that you say and here are all the angles from which I don't like you everybody just a chorus of everybody saying it to you every day all the time yeah it's funny because in the in the world of pro wrestling right that's the persona that you develop and that you play off of and you embrace go on and and in real life in real life with Lane Kiffin with Stephen A. Smith and guys like this you have no choice but to play it for all it's worth and turn it around in your favor.

It's Stephen A. Smith's role, right? That's his persona. But I just think, is to be the guy you don't like. I just think when he says this last year has been really hard on me, it's because you don't actually know the sacrifice you're making until you're making it.

Because he's gone into another sphere, right? He's gone into politics, and now he's got a whole lot of black people saying you're only doing the criticism of black people to hold us down and all of the things. Like, once you go into politics, Once you go outside of the sphere of sports, where it's just a silly debate show, he's getting consistently clowned by the people in the media who he'd otherwise crave their respect, I would think.

You want your peers to respect you. You can't be fighting with everybody. Like, without it being an energy drain, you can't be fighting everybody all the time. Every different community. It's black women. I'm not just talking about Stephen. I'm talking about him and Lane Kiffin. And I just think that we underestimate the mental strain of that, no matter what it is that you're being paid for.

But that is the transaction. You're being, that's what the money is for. Maybe boxers like Devin Haney said that he gets off on being hated. Floyd Mayweather was like that as well. But the modern age of how divided we are right now on every single subject, I do wonder the inviting of that. How many villains do we actually have in sports? Most people want to be liked. You don't get into sports to be disliked.

Yeah, I'm trying to think of villains in sports. I mean, basketball is where you look. Like, the basketball players lean into it. Dylan Brooks leans into it. Dremont, for the most part, as well. You could find it in basketball. In the other sports, I don't know that you get guys who are outwardly trying to be villains. Especially quarterbacks, right?

Like, you're supposed to be the leader. You're supposed to have the franchise on your back. You're supposed to always say the right thing. The whole point of that role is to have a good decision-making. So has there been a villain quarterback? My favorite part of the football season is the confidence everybody has before a kickoff. Zazlo already knows how the game is going to end. Tony has studied every possible matchup and Chris Cody is convinced his fantasy team is unbeatable.

Then the game starts, everything immediately goes off the rails and suddenly nobody remembers making any of those predictions. That's why a legendary game day starts with an ice cold Miller light. whether I'm at a tailgate watching with friends or settling in for a full Saturday of college football. Miller Light is the beer I can depend on. It's crisp, refreshing, and has a clean finish that hits perfectly during a hot South Florida game day. Miller Light is the original light beer with great taste and beer lovers have trusted it for more than 50 years. Make game day legendary. Go to MillerLight.com slash Dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. Game time is Miller time. Celebrate responsibly.

Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. Dan Levitar. Imagine if someone told you you couldn't have a Corvette. I'm a grown-ass man who's not filthy rich. I can't afford a Lamborghini. Greg Cody. Well, I probably can, but that's what. Hey.

Hey, Greg. This is the Dan Levitar show. Football General. doesn't produce many villains. Like Terrell Owens would be the, like Dion Sanders, whatever. Like, it's been a minute. Football doesn't do very much. I was looking at a list of, like, most hated athletes.

And it's like, you see Mike Vick on stuff for, like, the dog stuff. But, yeah, you don't, there's not a lot of good examples of quarterback. Well, football will scrub the personality out of just about everyone. But we've got somebody at Texas who's got the quarterback chromosome, handed down from, from his brothers. And Archmanning announced himself in the last. game against Ohio State. And for some reason, we talked about this earlier, the Sarkesian Holly Row moment became something unpleasant at the end of a really fun, interesting game. And I guess

Arch Manning, what was his response? He was asked about Sarkesian blowing off Holly Row. I've seen a few AI edits and stuff, but that's about it. I saw AI edit of Sarx interview. you. You all see him that one? How's a good one? Of him slapping Holly Roe. What's crazy about this is this AI edit was a backhanded slap of Sarkesian to Holly Roe. It was not a funny video by any means.

And as disappointing as it is to hear Arch Manning speak like this, which is disappointing on its own. He's a 22-year-old. He's not a child. It's the way that it was positioned. It's the laughter by the media. It's the tweet from Evan Veith, who was the guy or Weif, who tweeted out that he asked this question. He tweeted the quote, I saw the AI edit of Sark slapping Holly Row. He said, I asked Arch Manning if he'd seen any edits on TikTok or Twitter after the game, and his answer is gold.

What about that is gold? There's nothing about that that is gold. It's a kind of disgusting video to watch, even, even though. it's AI, even though it's fake, ha, ha, ha. There's nothing funny about a head coach hitting an interviewer, a head coach hitting a woman and this type of behavior and discussion around sport. It's just gross. Didn't we play AI video of Mario Cristobal hitting somebody at Midfield? He knocked him out. That was funny. That one was funny. I think that we stopped using AI after that. I don't believe that we have used it for anything since then or we shouldn't be. I've made that order,

but nobody listens to me around here. I'd like to do the whole thing where it's like, ah, he's a kid, what does he know? But I don't know, you kind of got to know. You kind of got to know that it's... Oh, but you say he's a kid. He's a kid grown up on the internet. If he's around, not just the locker room,

but the manosphere, like, that's the whole vibe on the internet. If you're raised by the internet, now it hates women. Like, that's what... I'm not going to say that's what exists for, but, like, it's a very strong acid undercurrent. A bunch of lonely men being given the permission to be angry with, women. I don't think Arch is one of those lonely men. Well, there was a golf company just a couple of

weeks ago that got in big trouble for a commercial that's right. We don't say that golf company's name. That had a male golfer fairly violently pushing a female golfer onto the turf. And that was not AI. It was a commercial. I underestimated, though, how many young men are listening to the poison on the internet being raised by it and becoming a different kind of young man. and the ones that were raised pre-Internet because of what the Andrew Tates of the world are doing, how it is that the people like that are making their money? Well, I think it's really interesting, too, not just the fact that it was done and that a quarterback did that, that's 22, but you're talking about you were a part of the pedigree of the Manning family,

like Archie's grandson, you're related to Eli and Peyton. you would think that you would be trained to not be red pill. But for him to have that, the way that the smile looked actually to me was more offensive than that he thought it was funny. It was giving frat boy. It was giving, oh, I don't know. I didn't know she was asleep. Like, she seemed into it.

It was very weird. The reaction was interesting to me, but I also want to get to some sound here because I thought it was weird, right? We don't have to get to this. We don't have to get to the Dan Landing sound. We don't have to get to it. Sure do. How do you feel about Oregon having trouble with Boise State and then losing to what I thought was the worst big school power in the entire sport last year?

I thought Oklahoma State, I'm not kidding you when I say it's the worst football team I saw by miles last year. And they brought in 91 new players. And they didn't just beat Oregon. They kicked Oregon's ass. Like that wasn't fluky. They took North Texas's roster and they beat Oregon with it. And Dan Lannning, I would assume, is in trouble because he gives off a whole lot of arrogant coach

for someone who hasn't accomplished a whole lot. Do you believe star quarterback should speak to media after tough losses? And what was your reaction when Dante chose not to? Well, I don't think he chose not to. Did you know he's getting an IV? He was getting two IVs after the game. He's dehydrated.

I think that's, I mean, this guy, he'll be speaking to you guys tomorrow. Any question that you want to ask him? You can certainly ask them. But I don't know if you ever given an interview while you're getting an IV at the same time and getting treatment? Yeah.

Yeah, but does that make a little more sense? Yeah, that would make a lot. And then there's a bus and a flight you're trying to catch as well. But Dante will be here tomorrow. You can talk to Dante, right? But he's cramping up on the field. I think the first thing that we're going to do post-game is get treatment, right? Have any of our players never, like, not been available to talk?

Yeah, that's one. And he was getting two IVs, right, after the game. Got one, and then he got another one. That's a product of being in a tough environment in great heat. He was cramping up on the field. So sorry he wasn't able to give you an interview. you could ask him about it tomorrow. That information wasn't really late.

Yeah, what should it be? What should it be? So, right, before you write your article, they should say, hey, just so you guys know? Yeah, so we don't misconstrude it. Well, you misconstrued it. You could always ask me. Good job. Weird.

Good. So we're at the portion of Dan Lanning's career at Oregon where things are not going well, so he's going to chastise the media. That's officially where we're at. So, and you know what? Good on the reporter for going back at him. Because should you be told? Yeah.

Yeah, we should be told. told when the quarterback of the team after the loss is not available to media. Yes. Yes, Coach, we should be told. I don't think we should have played that clip. Like, I think that was probably unnecessary. Because? Insults injury. You know what I mean? Like, this is the second ranked team in the country. We were clearly frauds. I don't know why we were ranked that high. I saw it. I was baffled. Of course, Boise State always gives us a hard time. The decision making quality, go for it on fourth and what, eight at your own 33? Like, Dan Lanning has been awful.

He's been terrible. I'm really sorry. He's a Christobal merchant. I'm really sorry that I said so many mean things last year about Mario Cristobal. Clearly, I was salty and in my feelings. Clearly, he has the ability to recruit in the trenches in a way that Dan Lanning does not. Clearly, Dan Lanning has feasted off of Mario Cristobal recruits. Go on.

And I don't know how I can be an Oregon fan, given the way that our team consistently collapses, not just in big moments anymore. But in really small moments. Renounce your fandom. Why did you need to do that? I mean, I feel like... I'm challenging her to renounce her fandom. Well, I feel like she just did.

Were you not listening? I didn't hear her renounce her fandom. It's hard for me. I didn't hear that. I didn't hear the renounce. Not listening to the show. Wow. I was listening.

That felt like a renouncing of her fandom. In Greg's defense, she didn't say the word renounce. Last year, she was on here, and she was telling us, she was laughing at Marie. Cristobal and she was telling us how wonderful you can leave please show yourself out so you're no longer an Oregon fan then uh you have to go ah that's not an answer uh you do have to go okay but that was not an answer to please show yourself out sorry it wasn't okay I wish the mcclatchy company could lay you off every day by phone with their chief revenue officer on your birthday uh on your birthday

I'm waiting. Tony, you know that moment at a party or a tailgate where everything just sort of clicks. I know it well. It's usually when I show up. Everybody goes crazy. Yeah, you usually take all the credit for it. But it's because Tony usually walks in with quervo. Walking like this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Quervo is a thing that turns hanging out into this is the night. It has that effect on people. It does. You usually take the credit for it. But again, it's the quervo effect. It's like that moment in a big game where everyone in the crowd just starts staying. ending up, hooting and hollering.

Keep it quervo. Keep it quervo, baby. Down lebatar. Is there back in my day? There is, actually. Hey! What? You're not going to tell anyone?

In Tuesday. Wait a minute. You guys. Guys, it's a Tuesday. Greg Cody. Here's your guide. Greg Cody. With back in my day.

Okay, I hope I am. Okay, here it is. Sorry. adultery. Oh! We are back. We're waiting for this one. This is the Dan Levitar show.

Trist, I do want to talk about this for a second because Oregon was the first of the schools that allowed the billionaire to turn college football into a playpen by allowing Nike founder Phil Knight to run his own program in college football, call plays. And Oregon has not won. always fun. You struggle with saying the word or. You say it different every time. Always fun to look at as a team. Always good uniforms. Always good athletes since Phil Knight has been there. Never wins a game that you remember just as a program. And Dan Lannning specifically.

No one. We won the wide out at Penn State last year. That we won. And we won in double overtime and we won on an interception. That was the biggest game. In a year, Penn State fired their coach. Well, I mean, they were ranked at that time. We were the reason that they collapsed. We're probably the reason that James Franklin got fired. Hi, Michael. Let's examine, though, Dan Lannning when it comes to the nature of Trista's apology here. Hey, Michael.

Because I think everyone owes Mario Cristopal an apology on if you've got the talent to get the best skilled players, you're the most valuable coach with the most valuable ability. Like if I, if you give me one coach, any coach, and tell me, what do you want that coach to be able to do more than anything? Get the players is the very top of my list. Yep. I will tolerate anything else. And Dan Lannning being exposed this way, right? You start the season and oh my God, you were able to hold it together because of what he left you.

But it's falling apart now because you can't be barely squeaking by Boise State. and I'm telling you, Oklahoma State just said, Gundy, get out of here. We're getting 91 new players. And they put together a hodgepodge team where they just take North Texas and like, this is what we're going to play. For that to catch up to Oregon in a year,

you've fallen behind. Well, and I think he probably just sucks, too, as a coach. And we've changed offensive coordinators, changed defensive coordinators. But this was the number three recruiting class in the country. They had four or five stars. They had 14, four stars.

Like, this is a team. that sometimes looks super ready to play and sometimes look very unprepared to play. And the way that it went at the end of the game against Oklahoma State, I was watching on FaceTime with someone who was watching it on a laptop because you can't get it over there in the Bahamas, I guess.

Anyway, it was a disaster, and I feel like Dan Lanning should probably, I don't know, be on the hot seat. Do you guys think it's overreaction for me to say that after Dabo, in terms of things falling apart, you've fallen behind, you can't catch up from here, Dan Lannning is right behind Dabo on that happened pretty quick and I don't think you're going to recover from it. You've been left behind by the others in the sport.

The new sport is we'll get 91 new players and beat you and we'll do it in a year. I think that he's going to be afforded quite a bit of time to get this thing going in the right direction. I mean, they were 13 and 1 going into a game that they lost to the national champion. My question is more about, my question is more, look, I remember. this happened with Dave Wonstead, okay? Dave Wonstett was the first few years of Jimmy Johnson's players, 11 and 5, 11 and everyone was shouting, hey, it's deteriorating, hey, it's deteriorating, and then it gets to 4 and 12 and everyone. Oh, yeah, of course, it deteriorated. You've got to be quicker now. The money's bigger, and the timeframes for these coaches is less and less.

And so I don't know whether it's unfair to do this to Dan Lannning, but he's fallen behind. You start this season with those two losses against, I'm not going to say nowhere programs, but not playoff teams. Just one loss. The other one looked like a loss, but it wasn't. Felt like a loss. Yes, forgive me. It smelled like a loss. I got it wrong, but they've gotten worse in a way that's obvious because those aren't playoff teams that they're struggling against,

and they're supposed to be a top five team, and that's not a top five team. And they play in a conference where, like, you have the best schools. And the conference keeps getting better and better. And they've ducked Ohio State. So I think that's a big piece. I think it's worse to have a top three recruiting class and be this bad. If it was just about the raw materials and he can't go into the room and get the best guys and there's the change in NIL era, which Nike money is going to pay for a lot of players, that's one thing. But you've got top three recruiting class and you do that.

That means to me that you don't know what you're doing on the field. Well, offensive line play is another thing with Mario Chris. that I think kind of matters there, and I don't know how you feel about their offensive line play. Maskskicks ass. But Lannning, you can have a time. I don't know, so answer this question for me. Are those recruits on the offensive line? Like, is he, because Oregon has always been finesse football.

It's always been speed and athletes. I don't think of them as how's their offensive line play. But when they had Christopal, they had good offensive. line play and Christobal now has good offensive line play. So when they've got these top recruiting classes, are there offensive linemen the ones that are on it? Well, two offensive linemen that were five stars. This kid, Emmanuel Iehanacho out of Bethesda. And there was another interior offensive linemen too. I mean, none of it makes any sense. This is a team that has consistently just gotten athletes after athletes. And that's why we got Mario is to build in the trenches and be big

bruisers because that was where we lost all these games was against bigger, stronger players. I mean, it's one thing to be as speedy as they were. And then you get to the big game. It's why they're not as good as Ohio State. Right. Safe to say there won't be a worse loss this season, right, than Oregon losing that game to Oklahoma State. I don't know if you guys saw Oklahoma State the first week of the season when they lost at home to Tulsa. But I didn't – Oregon was a 24-point favorite.

in that game. I'm telling you, they were God-awful last year. They lost 12 straight FBS games, Oklahoma State. Like, that's the precedent. There wasn't a worse big school in football last year. It's why they fumigated the place. And if you lose to them, it's not just that they lost to them.

Got their ass kicked. Yes. Like, we're coming back. Not competitive. We're going to, well, I wouldn't say not competitive, but we're coming back and couldn't. Because. Yeah, they couldn't stop them.

No, they couldn't stop them. And they've got a physicality problem. Like they've got, as they usually and often do, because they're never Ohio State. Ohio State doesn't have a physicality problem. And the quarterback has not looked great. Well, because they've got a physicality problem. Like, they've got a Heisman candidate a quarterback.

Top five. Top five picks, supposedly. A dolphin candidate. Damn right. Did you guys miss or notice that Tony Romo wasn't on your broadcast week one? because the thing that I was wondering is if Tony Romo is going to be back, because once he released the statement, I'm in constant debilitating pain, and I've got a problem with alcohol that I developed because I had a problem with pills.

That statement, the revelation in it, he didn't have to do any of that, and now football marches on without him, and I am genuinely curious. Did anyone miss him this weekend? Football came back with a roar. Was there any kind of clamoring for I miss that broadcast team? I did make note a couple of times like, ooh, that's JJ Watt with Jim Nance.

Just hearing another voice with Jim Nance. I did notice it. I didn't, you know, it takes time to build the chemistry. I'm not going to judge them too hard, but it was just almost jarring just to hear a different voice with Jim Nance. I'm probably the wrong person when it comes to this because it makes extremely little different. to me, you know, unless you got someone who's completely incompetent in the booth.

I thought JJ Watt was good. He didn't bother me. And it's like I'm not sitting there missing Tony Romo at all. I'm asking you guys the larger question, though, of is he going to be back, though? I think he'll disappear. Forever. He won't come back from this. This season or ever.

I don't think he'll come back from this. It's either Nance or nothing, right? There's no shot he comes back and they're like, we're going to put you on the third team now. Oh, no, it would be so embarrassing for him. No way. So, yeah. because I feel like that's what CBS would want to do if anything. So I feel like we might be done with Romo.

You guys couldn't see him go through like either using CBS or another network, maybe go through not this season, but go through either a studio show or the college route for a minute. Do the personality stuff that he's always done and make his way back because like I was talking with Tony earlier this week and we were having a conversation like I kind of missed Tony Romo and his personality. Like you're right. J.J. Watt made no mistakes. and he was perfectly fine, and maybe that's what we want out of our broadcast. But some of those silly moments, some of the ones, whether the analysis is great or not, the passion for it, there's not a lot of guys left like Tony Romo. Well, I want to talk, though, for a second about sort of the management of the career.

It's a decision to volunteer right before the season starts after there's been an embarrassing video, and there's total chaos at CBS. Do you know how hard it is to embarrass CBS at this point, given everything else happening at CBS? The video of Tony Romo that then requires the public splying of your soul, a decision made by whoever protects your career, I'm going to tell everybody that I'm in constant debilitating pain. And I'm going to tell everybody that I've got an alcohol problem because I had a pill problem. It's a fairly amazing decision to make as a public relations move. why? Isn't that a money thing?

I think right now they're arguing about how to get out of that contract and negotiating some of the settlements that come with can we fire him for breach because of the behavior. But that only happens if your bosses don't support you on the front end because they're not happy with the work you're already doing.

An executive could very easily just protect you in this spot if he or she cares to and it would seem given the public relations nature of the choice Tony made to volunteer constant

debilitating pain. Someone told him to say that. Give me my money. Someone told him to say that. It's also for public perception. Totally. Sympathy. On top of that, Tony Romo at one point was the highest paid broadcaster when he signed that deal, right? I think, or at least like top three.

He makes 17 million a year. I mean, I don't think there was a broadcaster who was praised more after their, you know, debut season, then Tony Romo. And CBS is hemorrhaging money. So they have an out and a reason to fire him, regardless of whether they like him or support him or not. So they're firing him people that they like left and right.

So if Tony Romo puts that out, it's because I think Zaz is right. He's trying to keep. It's a fairly stunning and fast downfall, is it not? That's one of the prime positions. You could have had that for 30 years. Totally. He's one of the most charismatic people I've ever interviewed in my life.

Well, there is very little in sports television more valuable than the announcer who gives an accent of enthusiasm to what you're watching, that voices the enthusiasm of the fan. JJ Watts's not going to do that. It's not possible for him to do it, and you didn't miss it at all, though. I don't think there was any... We might have a little bit. He's going to vanish more quietly than I thought, and it's one of the great fumbled bags in the history of sports media. if we don't see Tony Romo again.