The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Michael Behind "Hey, Michael" Joins the Show | Hour 1

Episode Date: September 16, 2026

"What's with this cobbler bullshit?" Remember when James Franklin said "Hey, Michael," over and over again? We got the Michael. Michael Howes of the Baltimore Sun joins the show. That leads us to an important question: is it right for a reporter to refer to a coach as "Coach" during a media session? Plus, Greg and Dan share stories of tough interactions with Don Shula, Zaslow makes Tom Cruise the Derrick Henry of movies, and Troy Aikman contradicts himself. 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,

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We are at the point now where newspaper writers exist only to provide the sound of coaches getting mad at them in sports. We have an assortment of sounds from our rage-filled coaches collection. Let's start with Bill O'Brien. What's up, Trevor? That is, I want the whole sound, not just the end of the sound. I need the entirety of the sound. How about Davos-Sweeney? Do you have Davos-Swiny there?

Okay, that is also not the entirety of the sound. And then we've also got what happened with James Franklin, where James Franklin is being. with a reporter. Hey, Coach, Michael Howes with the Baltimore son. Hey, Michael. Hey, Michael. What do you remember about working?

What do you remember about working? What do you remember? Hey, Michael. How are you doing? Michael, how you doing? Can you hear me? Yeah, I'm saying, how are you doing? Good, how are you?

Good, good. So we have Michael Howes on with us. Now, hey, Michael. Hey, guys. Appreciate you having me on. What happened? What happened with James Franklin? Oh, man.

So I was on Zoom. So I can't see the podium when I'm on Zoom. And I say, hey, coach. He says, hey, Michael. And I'm like, all right, time to dig into my question. Like, I always have. And I hear, hey, Michael, hey, Michael. Hey, Michael.

And I'm thinking, is the Zoom audio tripping? Like, what is going on? And so, you know, I pause. And I'm like, can you hear me? And he's like, yes, I'm asking, how are you? And then I realized there's some sort of bit that Coach Franklin is doing right now that I'm just not in tune with. And what was the bit, do you think? Was he just trying to have a human interaction and showing that you say, hey, Michael, or you say, hey, coach, and I say, hey, Michael.

And then we begin a dialogue. So what I've learned is that he likes to ask the reporters, or he likes reporters to ask him, hey, how are you doing? I was not aware of that. I just thought, hey, coach, hey, Michael was enough. My bad coach. apologies. Did the coach or the SID reach out to you afterward

about the interaction? No, not yet. Not yet. Nothing from them. I want to ask you your perspective on calling coach coach. That's kind of controversial in the journalist world

considering he's not your coach. Are you willing to demote him to James now? That is a very good question, Trista. You know, I like calling them coach just because my dad was a coach growing up so i always just go to the coach but going forward i might have to go hey michael for coach locksley or hey james if i ever talk to james franklin again i think you need to double down here and next question like do not let him out of small talk like you need to hit him with how you doing and then when he hit you back with it what are you

doing for lunch today how's the weather outside like you need to over overdo it now with the small talk yeah how's the family right well i've had a bunch of people texting me hey michael since then so obviously that bits of Lebanon. But if Virginia Tech loses to Maryland on Saturday, a lot of people have been telling me I've got to go to Franklin's Presser and immediately ask him, hey, how are you doing and give him what he wants? Trista, I believe that it is not any kind of controversy in the journalism community that you call a coach, coach.

It's all you call a coach is coach. In fact, Amin still call Stan Van Gundy coach. It's not your coach. No, I agree with Trista. Absolutely. In fact, if I can give you a moldy... You didn't call Don Shula. Yes.

did. I called him Don. That's his respect. From the day I met him, I called him Don. And late in his life, I'm in his office. He's in his 80s. He's got like two years to live. He told me that's the first thing he made a note of was that everybody else is calling him coach,

and I called him Don. In your case, next time you talk to this guy, call him Franklin. Call him by his last name. All right, I'll note that. I'll do that. Thank you. I don't think he's going to do it. I don't think so either. But here's the funny thing about your father having pride about what he would do with Shula and call him Don. He would also call him

the cobbler. Nickname. Affectionate nickname. Why? Because his official nickname was Shoes, and so I took it one step further. It's like referring to a pitcher's mound, not as the hill, but as the bump. You refer to shoes as the cobbler. Trissa, who told you that calling him coach is controversial? I've heard it. People are saying, Michael, thank you for being on with us. He doesn't deserve a call from the SID. Why would he deserve a call from the SID? Somebody should apologize for a ridiculous behavior. Coach should apologize to him, not the SID.

You don't send a minion out to apologize for you. You apologize for yourself. Thank you, Michael. Appreciate you guys. Thank you, Michael. Roy, get me the fuller. Get me the fuller sounds, please. Vern Fuller.

I was one of the ones I gave the Kyle, by the way. Did he do any of them? I'm still waiting to hear back. but I sent him Fuller than Vern Fuller. So Kyle Brandt was making a bunch of appearances this morning on ESPN and on his program. He is looking very. His suit looks better than all. Jeff Saturday, Mike Greenberg, and is that Arlofsky here?

I can't tell with my eyes. No, that's Palmer. Rogers. Whatever, I don't know. It's Jordan Rogers. Who is Palmer? Man, he does look great, though. That's a great suit.

Who is Palmer? Jesse Palmer. What is Joseph Stack? What has Jesse Palmer ever been on? Get up. We just went through random quarterbacks. You just did Palmer. I did Orlowski.

Who's the guy who had six starts that ESPN is using for their football commentary on a Wednesday? Wasn't Palmer? Do I have this wrong? I think this is one of the worst named action movies of all time. I think there was an action character named Palmer. I legitimately didn't know what you were talking about. Parker? Parker is what it is.

Yes. When you said, who are you referring to with Palmer? The guy on the screen. I think he meant Carson Palmer. No, I meant like maybe Jesse Palmer. Jim Palmer. So wait. He looks like a Palmer, that guy.

So you were referencing a contestant on The Bachelor who now does local furniture commercials. No, that's it. He does color and analysts on college football games. You're wrong. ESPN's number three or four college team analyst? Yeah, he works. He also does The Bachelor of The Bachelorette. He's the commentator there.

Good-looking. Very good-looking guy. Also, rooms to go. That's your description. He does local furniture ads. National respect. That was disrespectful to say local furniture ads. Why?

He doesn't do Rana furniture. Are there local furniture? You know that. Come on. They're local furniture. Retan Shack. He doesn't do Retan Shack commercials. I've told you guys before that one of my favorite.

things about listening to local college football on the radio is how they sponsor the 20-yard line with Bill's Sofa Palace. It's a great way to experience college football. Something happened to me yesterday listening to baseball on the radio that's never happened before. Unbelievable. Listen to baseball on the radio. Well, listen to this.

I still don't know what actually happened. Okay. I'm listening to a raise-A's game on the radio. Always a raise. And they can't tell what happened. And so the announcers say, well, he's out and they're not going to replay. And I don't think he actually tagged the runner who was going to first with a throw by the shortstop that pulled him off the bag. And then what they said was, I'm pretty sure that they tagged the batting gloves that were flopping out of his back pocket.

And that's part of the uniform. Yeah, that counts. And that is therefore an out. and I just think that that player will now cease wearing or putting his gloves in the back pocket that way. Will he not? If it costs you a single out, do you then eliminate the fact that I could have been safe? I mean, if it's the only time it's happened in his career, I would imagine he's not going to change it. Only time in his career, the sport is its most historic.

It's never happened before in the sports history. What do you mean the only time in his career? It's never happened before. Right, so why would you change the way you're doing it then? I'm with Zaz. You just assume everything goes to plan and it won't happen again. You guys look up for me when Tim Raines had a big drug problem, it is reported, but I don't know if it's true, that he used to slide on his stomach stealing second and third base because he had the vials in his back pocket and he didn't want to break the vials. Roy is giving me a thumbs up, but I prefer to have factual representation.

Tagged him right on the vial. Roy knows. No, no. It was said in Kim Burns' baseball documentary. It was said in Jeff Pullman's book as well about the Mets. It's just off the dome for Roy. That's impressive. Two sources, Dan, for your ass.

So let's play the sound again, because I do want this to be a recurring thing during the college football season, to just find a reporter every week that a college coach has been mean to, and then just interview that reporter for no discernibly good reason. Let's play the sound again, the longer sound of Bill O'Brien. Coach, I'm wondering, do you be a message to the fans, obviously losing to a Notre Dame Catholic school rival, one and eight down in the season of the BC. I've heard from a lot of fans. I just really...

Yeah, I'm really glad. You know, I'm glad you're down. I'm not down. Nobody's down. We're fighting. We're competing. You know, it's the second year of this program, Mike. You always come in here with these down questions.

Like, you show up like once a month or something like that. You come in here with these down questions. I'm not down. I don't know what year you graduated from BC, but this is a program that we're building. Nobody here's down. We're positive. We're going to show up and play our asses off against SMU.

You can go out there in your dark, clouded world or whatever it is and do what you want to do. We're not down. The sun is up and we're fighting. That's my message to the fans. What's up, Trevor? Thank you. Let's play, it's longer sound, but let's condense it as much as we can and just play Dabo. And this is going to be a theme this year, Dabo being mean to a reporter.

That was a caller, I think. That wasn't a reporter. That was somebody calling his radio show. I wanted to circle back for a second on something that Cody said. Do all of you know what a cobbler is out of curiosity? Because calling... Something to do with Peach? Don Shula.

Shoemaker. Calling him the cobbler instead of shoes is ridiculous. Yeah, Don thought so as well. I remember Harvey Green, the PR guy, came up to me at practice, after practice once, back when I would actually attend practices. And he said, hey, coach, he called him coach. coach wants to talk to you for a minute and Shula sidles up to me gives me that sideways glance of his and says what's this cobbler bullshit?

And it was weird trying to explain to Don Shula why I was calling him in print the collar. I'd never called him that face to face. Well, coach. How did you explain it? Let's recreate this now. Imagine that the very intimidating Don Shula. So intimidating.

I can play Don if you want. Hey, hey, Cody. What's with this cobblower? Bullsh. Well, Don. People call you shoes. And so I figured, you know, I'd make a nickname for shoes. And he just...

I don't like it. No, he looked at me and didn't even say anything and just walked, walked off. It's not even worth a response. He did not say a word and just walked off. And I think I retired the nickname at that point. I don't believe I... That's real power from Shula, where he walks off silently. and just retires, ends Cody's creativity on the spot.

Yeah. Well, he only had two years left in his life. No, no, that was afterward. That was in his office. The only time I'd ever been in his office, palatial. Two Super Bowl trophies, mimic trophies. I imagine it looks like the way Nick Sabin's office at Alabama looked. I would think so.

This is how loyal my father is. I've told you the happiest time I've ever seen my father was when he was a Matt's fan in 1986 and the ground ball trickled through Bill Buckner's legs and he was dancing around the living room in his tidy whitties in a way I will never forget. It's imprinted. It's seared. But the second happiest time I've ever seen him was when Don Shula was fired. He was literally dancing in the street and the reason for it was I had written something about how Jimmy Johnson should replace Don Shula his coach and I was summoned to Don Shula's office. And so I came to his office and I hold my hand out over his giant desk and he just stares at it and stays staring at it until I look at him and I just ask, did you just really call me in here so that you could do that to me so that I would hold my hand out and you would just stare at it?

And my father never forgave him. And so when he was fired, my father danced in a street because he never forgave the cobbler. I like the idea of your dad just like rooting for all your columns. Like you write something, it's like, yeah, that's what we're doing. Your father would love if you read any of his. I know. I was kind of rooting for some of the ones I read. What did the cobbler say when you said that to him? I mean, he was mad. He was mad about the entire.

He thought the whole thing was disrespectful. And I wouldn't have actually written any of that if Jimmy Johnson hadn't been the one who was available. He's like the one person in the world that I would have written that about. There was literally not a second person that I would have written that column about, but it was very controversial at the time. And also, I don't think I was wrong. Did that stuff make you feel any negative emotions? Like when you were writing columns that you then had to be in front of people who were very upset with you that would not even hold your, you know, shake your hand? What are the emotions that you deal with through that?

Oh, I just think that that's almost precisely the job, that you have to show up and make sure that they can see you. Like, I think that some of the contaminations that have happened in sports since then have been corrupted by sports radio and then birth first take and things like it, where you can give your opinion and then never see the people. Never have to actually deal with the people. So if you don't have to deal with them, you're going to be cruel or you're going to be meaner. They're going to be less human and stuff. Like it's almost or it was almost part of the job. I guess that part is also dead, right? Right? If we're living in a click economy and an attention economy and you have to have a take that's further than the next person's take, then what gets dehumanized is the athlete and the coach that is just there for criticism, right? It's all content now. It's all sport.

But don't you think also there's more bias that comes with having to humanize yourself and your opinions because you have to see them? Don't you think that distance sometimes is a good thing? Well, that one's interesting, right? Because I think to be more decent and human and compassionate and fair, us having to be held to some sort of responsibility standard for the things that we say actually forces us to be careful with how critical we are. But it would dilute criticism in certain spots. I mean, I would say that what Greg is saying about the intimidation of Don Chula is that behavior was largely rewarded for all of these coaches. Even, look, Kyle Brandt told us yesterday in sound we couldn't hear because the audio was bad that Bill Belichick birthed a bunch of these guys who have learned that if they intimidate you, they will soften up the questions. Because all of these people tend to be a great deal more confident than the people covering them. Like even Pablo, okay, who's at the very top of his game, you can hear the nerves in Pablo having to ask Adam Silver a question in front of everybody. Hey, Adam. Pablo from Pablo Tori finds out. as much as he likes the attention,

it's much easier to be adjacent to the arena than it is to be at the center of the arena. And these people tend to be a great deal more confident than our business, which is filled with insecurity. My favorite part of the football season is the confidence everybody has before it kickoff. Zazzo 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 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. Dan Levatar! I want to address Tony and all men who would wear that shirt in public. Great Cody! Don't do it. This is the Dan Levitar show. I think somebody like Pablo, though, gains a lot.

lot of credibility for showing up, for being there, for looking Adam Silver in the eye, for asking a question directly. And the infamous Trade Marino column, I would not have gone to camp that day the next day ordinarily. But because I'd written that column and it was instantly controversial, I went to camp that next day. And I made sure that Marino saw me there because he was asked about the column I'd written and his terse answer was he may be right. That's all he said about it. One of the things that Stephen A. Smith holds onto and that I've always admired about Stephen A. Smith. And I remember the first time that I noticed that I was in the heat locker room and he had been crushing Eric Dampere. Eric Dampere, obviously a giant of a man. And we're in the locker room.

and I'm across from Stephen A. Smith, and Eric Dampere is walking by near us, and I just sort of nod at him and signal to Stephen A that Eric Dampere is nearby. And without ever breaking eye contact with me and while knowing that this shadow of a man is near him who basically played basketball as if he was playing in flip-flops, Stephen A says a little bit louder, what? He knows everything I've said about him. He ain't afraid of any of these people, and he goes to, or he did, I think he still does it, goes to the locker room, he's not hiding from any of them. Yeah, I mean, remember he got into it with LeBron not too long ago about what he said about Brony James and him being used and him filling some kind of way as a father and how it's putting him in a tough spot. But I think, though, when you go to these practices as much as some of the beat reporters do, I think, think it kind of breeds sycophants as well. Like you see people not just be soft, not just pull punches, but carry water for ownership, front offices, coaches, because that buys you access.

Yeah. In some very small way, that's why I don't refer to coaches as coach. Right. It's too familiar. It makes it seem like we're buddies. We're not buddies. Or that he's your coach. Yeah.

I can like you personally and you can. be fond of me personally, but when I'm in a professional situation, I call you Don, I call you Eric, I call you by your first name, not coach. I totally disagree. It's like, it's a status that he's earned. He's the coach of this team, and you, like,

you didn't run into him at a restaurant. You're talking to him in his place of business, and he's earned that title. None of his players call him by his first name. I'm assuming they all call him coach. I mean, I did 12 years on the Heat Radio broadcast, meaning every game I was doing the coaches show. And I had a relationship with Eric Spolstra.

Always called him coach. I think it's a sign of respect. Let's rummage around, though, in this bin, because when you guys talk about some of this stuff and the ever-evolving media landscape, do fans really and actually in the sports arena want tough questions? Like I know journalists want tough questions, but do fans care? Because I've been telling you how all of this is going to change even more because now there's partnership with all the streamers. And none of the streamers are interested in tough questions. Why would they be interested in tough questions? They're partnering with an all-powerful league in order to have more customers because of that all-powerful league.

They want to be good to that league. They want to be good partners. So who's clamoring for tough questions? I think fans do. I think fans want Adam Silver to be held accountable. I think they want to know whether Portland is going to be moved. You know, the Blazers are going to be moved. I think fans want the things that are on fans' minds to be answered.

And sometimes those are tough questions and sometimes those aren't. And I think part of the responsibility of being a journalist is to represent what you think the fans are wondering. I'm not sure, though, that's – I'm not sure how much fans actually. actually want journalism with any of this. Yeah, I don't agree. Like, it used to be everything you guys just said. And certainly that is or was, oh, no, still is the responsibility of the reporter is to be a conduit for the fans.

I think media, I think other media want the tough questions being asked. I don't think fans do it all. Fans have been, it's been ingrained in their heads for the last however many years, five, ten years. and obviously you could do the math on when this started, where the media's the bad guy. Like, the fans don't care about the tough questions anymore. I think it's other media members who are the ones who want the tough questions.

What about the fans who are booing their team because things aren't going right? What if your quarterback is Tua, who's always getting a concussion and who apparently is not the answer after all? You don't think fans want the media who have that access to ask the head coach, What about Tua? Well, let's talk about this for a second, okay? I don't know if you guys saw this, but Tom Cruise has done his first long-form interview for GQ in like 20 years.

They call him Hollywood's most reclusive star. It's rare for him to do that sort of thing. And I don't know why he would do it. I don't have any idea what interest he would have at this point in his life of doing a magazine interview where you have to sit with somebody for hours. But when you say that the fans want that, access from the media, they kind of do all the time now without the media. Like the teams don't need us anymore. Tom Cruise doesn't need that magazine reporter. And if Bill O'Brien or James Franklin

or any of these people want to say something, they don't need our help to say whatever it is that they want. And so you get a more honest, less packaged version of the truth if you have someone asking a tough question. But why would any of them sign up for that if all of them are looking at this as I don't really need you anymore for any real discernible reason. I'll just go to my public relations department or my social media channels and talk directly to my fans. What Greg was saying, though, it's an obligation that comes with the rights deals. Like when you do these billion dollar deals with ESPN or Turner or whoever, like what comes with that is media coverage and you have to be there standing in front of a press conference booth

at this time and this time and this time players, coaches, and that's a part of the deal. And without that, maybe the amount of money that you get is way, way less. A good point, but for how long, right? How much of this is going to keep changing so that the leagues have so much power over the streamers and the fans that they're like, nope, we're going to package it ourselves, and we don't have to have these responsibilities where, I mean, I cannot tell you how bored those NBA coaches are with talking to the media twice a day, every day by contract, and answering, you know how bored Eric Spolstra is sitting there talking to Zaz?

Pretty bored. No offense, Zaz. Not caring not to be bored. No, but how bored twice a day? How excited Zaz is? It's funny. Twice a day, every day, stand in front of microphones and try not to say anything interesting on purpose so you don't get anybody in trouble. Don't get anyone on your team mad at you.

It's sort of an exercise in gymnastics that makes all these coaches feel like the CrossFit or who yourself, just where you stand in front of people and you're showing. It's actually three times a day. shoot around, pre-game, post-game. It's a lot of talking to media. For how long? Not long. Well, Trista's right, though, that all of these contracts baked into it is we will have access to your players and coaches.

And more than that, we want more than ever. We want to have the outfielders mic. Do we want to talk to you during the game? We want to talk to college players when they're running out on the field. Like, more and more, we want more access. We're addicted to the access. But I do wonder, when I ask you the question, about Tom Cruise. Seriously.

What does he get out of doing a magazine interview for GQ in the age when no one's reading magazines anymore? Was the last sit down he had when he called Matt Lauer Glib? Was that actually the last time? It's been a long time and that was a

television interview. That's a good question. Because he got a lot of controversy for the amount of arrogance in that and I don't know if he does very much in the way of sit down other than that, but that's television. That's not magazine. I'm speaking specifically of magazine.

In the modern age, what does Tom Cruz have to gain from doing a magazine interview? I imagine he thinks nothing. I imagine that's something that's negotiated in by the production company. When they get him to do this new movie that's coming out. He could say no to whatever he is. But I'm just saying it's a couple extra million dollars on top if you do

one hit with like, because they're trying to promote the movie. I imagine that this is something that's negotiated in. Well, and to your point, he was also in the box at the Chiefs game next to Taylor Swift. And, and And I don't think that was a coincidence either. They were showing preview trailers during commercial breaks, coming back right to show him. So, yeah, that's all.

They said that they were good friends on the broadcast. They said that Taylor and Tom Cruise are good friends. And that struck me as odd in that I don't have a great many good friends that I'm 35 years older then. Is he the biggest movie star ever? It's two days in a row with this. Derek Henry, Best Running Back Running Back Ever. I mean, we're just... Dan Marino of Sports Media.

I mean, the idea of the movie star in general is dying. Is it not? Like just the whole idea of it Is he the last movie star In terms of now you Now you can check out He doesn't have any of these straight to streamer things Like Ryan Reynolds

And all of these other All of the other people that you think of As the big of Clooney biggest stars Tom Hanks ends up on Apple with a movie That you're like really? He's got a blockbuster But Tom Cruise doesn't do any of this Straight to Streamer stuff

I think he's probably the biggest movie star ever And it's so interesting too Because he's totally Teflon right Like, you have the Scientology thing behind him, and you would think that how involved he is in that would affect his career in some fashion? But nope, not at all. Like, he is untouchable. I mean, he's badass. The fact that what he did with Maverick, I kind of forgave him for all the Scientology stuff.

What a movie. What a movie. Do you know about what the filming of the Maverick? sequel was like? I think there was a 60s western called Maverick. Well, this is Top Gun 2, the Maverick. Oh, okay. And he made all of the actors go through training. They had to actually be in those planes. Doing the twists and spins. There was no

CGI. They were in the canyons. That's one of the best. He does all of it. He demands to do all of his stunts. Oh, I would, I'm stuck on the algorithm. Go ahead and look up the video on YouTube of Tom Cruise just doing that motorcycle scene where he does the cliff jump himself and did it several times. He's just dumping motorcycles into a canyon again and again because he's doing this death-difying stunt. That's why I think that he's a badass.

I don't understand why he would do all of his stunts. Wasn't he really hanging off the cliff in that opening scene? I think it was Mission Impossible too. I think he was actually hanging off the cliff, right? Which, you know, seems dangerous. Not only that, he did a stunt where he broke his ankle from jumping from one building to another building and then continued doing the take because he's like, I like how that turned out. He was running on a broken ankle. Tony, you know that moment at a party or at 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 Quarevo. I'm 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 Cuervo effect. It's like that moment in a big game where everyone in the crowd just starts standing up, hooting and hollering. Keep it quervo. Keep it quervo, baby.

Down lebatar. Can't trade Marino. Nice hat. It's what he's most known for. It's like I'm holding onto it. Greg Cody. Nice hat. They went Hinen, too. But it's Marino. And then the next time we saw Marino, after Greg Cody trade him, he threw for five touchdowns. And he was being the man on the cover of Sport Joe straight. You can't trade Marino. Nice head, asshole. This is the Dan Levitation.

You say Teflon, Zaz, but I think people might be forgetting that Tom Cruise's career was in a great deal of jeopardy after he jumped on a couch with Oprah talking about his love for Katie Holmes. The myth of the movie star sort of fell, saw a little bit too much of Tom Cruise. And I believe he had to be in Tropic Thunder at the end in a movie when people didn't even know that, as a Les Grossman, a disgusting studio executive, he was in such a fat costume that many people

left the theater not knowing that Tom Cruise had been in the movie. His career was in jeopardy before that. His name came on the screen during the credits, the closing credits. I said to it, where was Tom Cruise? I had no idea he was in the movie. Put it on the poll. Did you recognize Tom Cruise in the movie Tropic Thunder? Stunt people must hate him, huh?

I think they would admire him. No, he's costing them jobs. There's got to be one stunt double out there that looks exactly like Tom Cruise. Like, come on! Oh, no, there's a very good. There's a good. You guys should get me a cameo video of the Tom Cruise impersonator who's on cameo. He's pretty excellent at doing Tom Cruise impersonations.

Here's his explanation. to GQ on why it took him so long to sit for a proper magazine cover interview. And this might just be because his new movie, Digger, has been underwhelming so far. It's called Diggler? Digger. I don't like any of that. No, I don't either. You got to be very careful.

You went face first into it, though, Dan. No, well, it's scared. You didn't dance around it. Here's the quote. Good job, Dan. I don't think it was a good job. I'm still scared of it. I'd like to move on.

I looked right at Roy when you said it. Don't do that. Here's the quote. I've been very busy. When people see a movie, you wanted to look easy, and there are things that I want other artists to know. People ask me, what do you do? Cruz indicated that he has been more focused on actually making movies

than talking about them at length in recent years. I just haven't had the time with the amount of things that I set in motion and decided I was going to do and looking back on those things that I felt worked. I went for competence. I went for skill, for whatever level that was, of learning something and being able to go. go, oh, this is what I need to focus on. I think Zaz might be on to something, though, with Tom Cruise being the biggest of movie stars

right now, but we've diluted all of that, have we not? Like, it's not, if I asked you right now to name 10 movie stars, do you feel like you would be able to classify and define them all as movie stars the way that you would with, you know, Paul Newman and Robert Redford? and whatever was the glory day of the movie star. John Wayne, that era. Ryan Gosling's one. Yeah, Ryan Gosling, Denzel Washington,

Leo, Leonardo DiCaprio for sure. Matt Damon. Maybe Ryan Reynolds. Is there a distinction that you guys are making? Affleck. When I say the difference between doing it as just a movie and doing it on the streamers, like is there any distinction when Scorsese and some others

lament the idea that the streamers are diluting the big picture experience. Like, Tarantino and Scorsese can be very precious about this stuff. They want it on the big screen, and they think anything less than a movie that's on a big screen isn't a movie, that it's not a film if it's on Netflix. It's not a film if it's on Amazon. It's not, do you guys think they're being too precious about this? Well, Scorsese did a Netflix film, The Irishman.

I want to get to some sound involving Troy Aikman here, because, this has now been noticed by more people than just me. Troy Aikman had this to say once upon a time on the Kelsey podcast. The one thing I do remember from when I was playing, I would be watching a Sunday night game or a Monday night game, and a quarterback would make a throw, and the analyst would say, he's the only guy in football that can make that throw,

or he's the best guy there is at that position. And then the next week, another quarterback, would do something and say he's the best that and I'm like there's 31 other quarterbacks that can make that exact same throw you know I mean and so I I never have been and maybe at times this

this is not good but I've never been prone to hyperbole like I just yeah if I do say something that's really strong I mean it's because I honestly believe that that's the only player that could have done whatever that was you know I mean I just think it's I think it's

disrespectful to all of the other great players in the league, if you're only trying to sell that moment for television and not really being totally honest about the league overall. The timing on that is somewhat unfortunate. This Denver team, I still think they're a really good football team. They're as talented as anyone in the game. I think this roster in general is as deep as any in all of football. I'm not sure as anybody. This is as good as secondary as a secondary as a lot of.

There is in all of football. As good as they're in all of football. They play as much man as anyone in football. He's as good a person as anyone. Corland Sutton, he's as good as there is in all of football. I think they're as well-coached as any team in football. I've never been thrown to hyperbole. Trent McDuffie, he's as good as any in the game.

He understands as much as anybody. I understand as well as anyone as talented as anybody in the NFL. Banged up last year, but had as good a camp as anybody for the Broncos playing against one of the most accomplished players in football in Patrick Certan. I'm as curious as anybody. I've never been prone to hyperbole. That was just the first two quarters. I didn't even listen in the second half.

I don't know how much more there was in the second half because I was busy re-listening to the first half. When I heard that old clip of him on New Heights, and he's just like, as a player, I used to hear these announcers, and I would hate when they would do it. Oh, so good. I think we have to establish a betting over under for how much he does it on Monday. You think he's going to keep doing it? Because, look, we all have our verbal crutches, me as much as anybody in the game. What are yours? Oh, I've got so many.

Across decades. Oh, I've never seen you do that. I've stopped with across decades. As soon as Mike Sherman. You haven't heard it for me since. As soon as Mike's shirt, well, I don't think Troy Eggman's going to keep doing that as much. But what would you set the over under on next Monday on him saying? Because I'm going to go under a half.

I don't think he's going to do it again where he says anyone is as good as anyone in football. Because you think that he's hearing us talk about this. Not us, but now other people are writing about it as well. And that stuff all gets to them. Like they'll put it in front of him. And by the way, I am guilty of some hyperbo. the same kind of hyperbole that I accused him of because in a couple of the cases that I was talking about yesterday, he said that I made the mistake of saying as good as anyone in the game and he was just saying a couple of times as good as anyone on the Broncos a couple of times. So I am guilty. I owe him an apology for being as hyperbolic as he was.

But where would you set the numbers as like if you had to? I would set it at two and a half and I'm going to go over. Wow. Yeah, I agree. Same. Yeah.