Transcript of A Massive Controversy In Greg Cote's Catchphrase Countdown List | Local Hour New

So I am in the company of a man who almost won a Pulitzer Prize by hiring someone who did later win a Pulitzer Prize. So congratulations to Dan Levitart. I haven't seen Dan for a couple of weeks, so I have all of this hubbub and hoopla about the Pulitzer Prize. I just wonder how Dan feels about it because, you know, you're— are you a Pulitzer Prize— do you get one of those coins? It's like a small gold coin. Do you get one of those?

I don't know. Uh, we are in the episode with Pablo, uh, Miamin, and Samson, but you do realize everyone who is full-time here won a Pulitzer Prize. Everything that we do here funds everything Pablo's doing in New York. So everyone here who is full-time and has a percentage of this company is a Pulitzer winner because they're the ones who funded— we're the ones who funded that work. So we didn't do the work. Pablo did the work, but we did the work in allowing the work to be done. So everyone here, I don't feel like you guys realize that you all are Pulitzer winners.

Like, that's what happened.

Well, I'm not full-time, so we're all Pulitzer winners just the way you guys would have been highlight champions.

Yeah.

Dan, you were a Battlecourt Fall Champion. You didn't seem to care too much.

Pablo doesn't really make it seem like I won a Pulitzer Prize, though.

Yeah, I'd like Pablo to acknowledge my contribution.

Yeah, and mine as a key twice-a-week temp.

Amin's really elbowed anybody else away.

He's unusually proud of it. He flew to Los Angeles as I was flying back saying, "We gotta go have drinks." He wanted like—

Amin is happier about this than anyone I've seen about this.

And Cody is one of the few people I've noticed who cares because I'm not joking when I say this, when I called Pablo to congratulate him, he had to do to me what I just did to you guys, which is, you realize this is yours too, Dan, right? Because I didn't do the work, he did the work, but we did the work that makes all of what Pablo's doing possible. I don't think the people listening to this quite understand the calamity that the media landscape is actually in where That show, it's very hard for anyone in corporate media to actually do that show because of how compromised everyone in corporate media is with all of their partnerships. Doing truth-telling shows, that's going to bother— you basically have in all of the 5 companies that are running America, they don't want to actually make anything interesting. They don't want to make anything that offends anybody.

No, it's a valuable honor that was won by the Pablo Torre Show. I just think that if, if I'm being honest, to say that everyone connected with Meadowlark Media has won a Pulitzer Prize is a bit much.

It's not though. Meadowlark Media is a Pulitzer Prize-winning media company, and Meadowlark Media is the one that paid for everything Pablo's doing. So wait a minute, so when, when somebody wins something, anything in sports, does the owner get to win something or not?

Let me give you an example, and, and none of it— none of what I'm saying is belittling this in any way, but to give you an analogy, the Miami Herald has won a lot of Pulitzer Prizes. I think 12 or 15 or 18 or something. I've worked for the Miami Herald during all of those Pulitzer Prizes. Does that mean I am a Pulitzer Prize winner?

If the Miami Herald wins a Pulitzer Prize, you work for a company that is a Pulitzer Prize-winning company.

Wait, so is Clay Bennett Is Benet actually the NBA MVP?

No, he is the champion.

He funds the operation.

He's the champion owner. He's not the MVP, but he's the champion. You don't win the MVP as a team.

It's an individual award.

You do win a championship as a team.

This feels more like an MVP. At least that's the way Pablo's making it seem.

Yeah.

This is the Dan Levatorre Show with the Stugatz Podcast. Juju, put it on the poll please. Is OKC going to be the first ever sneaky dynasty? Uh, the OKC is now, uh, in the Western Conference Finals again. They swept LeBron, uh, first time LeBron has ever been swept this early in the playoffs. And OKC has now made the Western Conference Finals in a third of their seasons. That's nuts.

Huh. That's really good.

Haha.

That's hard to do.

And they're not going anywhere for a while because they can go and get a second player and put them next to Shey Gilgeous-Alexander, and it doesn't even matter who the second player is. They'll just keep putting second players next to him and they will become whatever it is a second player has to become because of how strong they are. And it makes you feel, if you're the Miami Heat, like you're a million miles from the title because of how they're ransacking people. They've— they don't even trail. Like, they've spent very little of the postseason trailing. And I understand that the Lakers are missing a pretty important piece, but to just roll through both of the playoff entities and do it so assuredly that Dylan Brooks is sitting behind Sitting behind the basket.

Oh, I like him.

Blinged out.

Oh, you like him now?

Oh.

Because he's just laughing and looking—

No, I'm an ultimate player hater.

I like him. Well, I also like him because I think he's a winning player. Like, I think he's proven that in his career. Like, he could be a pest. He's certainly dirty at times. He could be a huge nuisance. But he's very clearly a winning player.

Right.

And that stuff to me is important. I like Dylan Brooks.

Such a change from where he was in Memphis where, like, he couldn't shoot. They cut him outright because he was a terrible player.

They blamed him for everything.

Yeah, I agree. But he was also not good.

No, they were wrong for blaming him for everything, is what I'm saying.

I agree, but for, for that time where he was the play— into the regular season, the playoffs, he was shooting like 12%. Like, he was terrible.

He's a good player now and big-time player.

I thought that, uh, they got rid of him basically because they thought he was a bad influence on Ja Morant and also that he couldn't shoot at the time. But I remember at the time that the Rockets gave him $80 million, I really thought he was going to have to go play in Turkey or something. I didn't think that he had— never mind winning player or a, an important starter. I didn't think that he had a legitimate future in the NBA after everything that happened in Memphis.

But for him to sit where he sat last night, under the basket, in very expensive seats, blinged out, and just laughing at LeBron as he's on the free throw line, that is just some classic player hating that you do not often see, especially of someone who's a legend. Dylan Brooks is legitimately the only guy in the NBA, willing to disrespect LeBron this way. There's no second place on this. In fact, whatever second place is, is a distant second on a peer mocking LeBron James.

No one would have done that to Michael Jordan.

I mean, someone did blow in his ear.

But there's not a single player would have done that to Michael Jordan. Like, Michael Jordan's about to retire and somebody's gonna show up disrespectful like that and sit under the basket laughing at him in what could be his final game? You know what we really missed out on though, Dan? Is if the Lakers would have won last night, the possibility of Dylan Brooks following the Lakers around this series so he could be there for LeBron's last game.

It is cute you think it's his last game though.

Oh no, I don't.

Uh, nobody thinks that.

Nobody.

Regardless, we have a special 6-part series that we're going to begin airing today, just sort of talking about the majesty of LeBron, because when he says the season was a success, it lands differently with me after a sweep than when Joe Joel Embiid says the season was a success. LeBron James, uh, these stats from Tom Haberstroh— I don't know if you guys have seen the stats on Haberstroh, uh, on LeBron James, but, uh, so he's got 232 points after the age of 41. All other 41-year-old players in NBA history have a combined 212 points. He's got 73 playoff assists. All other over-41 players have 22 assists. All-time NBA— I'm assuming all those numbers are for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Bar, because obviously it's a bit of a rhetorical trick. Nobody plays NBA basketball until they're 41. Go ahead, give me the third guy you guys think have played basketball until he's 41. I'll give you LeBron, Kareem, and give me a third guy.

Kevin Willis.

He did not play until he was 41 with those short arms.

Anybody?

Can, can you guys remember anyone playing, uh, NBA basketball in their 40s other than those two? Because I'm assuming what Haberstroh— this looks like comprehensive research by Haberstroh. I think he just looked up Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Jabbar's postseason stats, and those are the ones he's using.

Did that say Kevin Willis?

Yeah.

He would play till he was 44.

I know. What?

I got Vince Carter.

Robert Parish.

The Chief, also 43.

I'm dominating.

Vince Carter, 43. Dirk at 40.

Kevin Willis played in the NBA until he was 44?

This large language model says he played until he was 44.

He had them T-Rex arms.

Wait a minute.

He also wore leather everywhere. All his suits were leather.

Some of them red leather because—

He's a fashionista.

Like Eddie.

He was a good player.

Not at 44, he wasn't. Go ahead and give me all of Willis's stats post-40. Just give me all of the stats he had post-40 years old.

I'll find that.

But I got it.

I got it for you.

Hickey, 45 years old, oldest player ever.

Kevin Willis retired in 2005 and came back in 2006 and played 5 games.

Comeback.

You have it in front of you. You're going to give us some Kevin Willis numbers here in the local hour because those were, those were heady years for the Miami Heat. When Kevin Willis— when they traded for Kevin Willis. Terrible trade.

Terrible trade. Louis Chevelle, Billy Cunningham, what are you doing? Uh, in San Antonio, at 40 years old, Kevin Willis averaged 4.2 points per game. He appeared in 71 games at 40 years old. How about that?

Wow. 4 points though, right?

But that's a guy who played 71 games.

It's still crazy, and congratulations, Zazz, on getting that correct. How do you guys feel about Miami Super Bowls? Because I think the Super Bowl should almost always be in Miami just because it is such a great tourist city and everyone appreciates the weather in a way that perhaps they don't when the Super Bowl is in Minnesota and Mad Dog is the only person in the world who's saying that that's his favorite Super Bowl site. How do you feel about everything going on with Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and the idea that he would appear to be angling for public funds because he doesn't think that the stadium is up to Super Bowl, you know, demands at the moment?

I mean, it's up to the demand of F1 and it's up to the demand of professional tennis. The fifth major, the Miami Open.

The national championship was just here.

The national— yeah. What is he talking about? It is up to Super Bowl standards. He's just looking for an influx of, of money that he's not spending. But, but I also think that he's got so much else going on and making so much money on ancillary stuff besides the Dolphins. That he shouldn't— he feels like he's not going to beg at age 86. He's not going to go begging for a Super Bowl if the NFL doesn't want to put him in the rotation to its own benefit. He's not groveling. That's the way I look at it.

Yeah, I don't think he cares anymore. I think because he has those other things going on— F1, the tennis, the World Cup is going to be here, the national championships clearly in rotation— he's making so much money from these other events, and they've had a ton of Super Bowls. I don't think he cares about it anymore.

It's a bummer. I like having the Super Bowl down here as a fan. I liked whenever it was in Miami, even though I'm local. I know that there's a bias attached to that. I think Miami does a great job with it. And just come out and say that we have all these other things going on. But I mean, Dan said definitively he's looking for money. We're left to only assume he's looking for some kind of public handout here because the reasons that they gave us, which I think he kind of co-signed with Goodell because Goodell made similar comments about the Cleveland Stadium.

They always do this. They always try to get— strong-arm the country and the cities. Everybody wants the Super Bowl, so they always do stuff like this where they try and get public money by using the Super Bowl to get it.

Give me the reason that we have Formula One here and the Miami Open and we're trying to get other events and it just doesn't fit with the calendar because of when Formula One's here and when the Miami Open's here. Don't tell me that we don't have the necessary facilities around a pristine sports facility. Do not tell me that we cannot house the temporary hospitality tents because our permanent hospitality structure for Formula One has gotten in the way. El Palacio has been there the entire 40 years.

Right there.

Don't all of a sudden tell me that in 2026, that's not enough hotels. You're trying to get some public land for a hotel. Something's got to be up. Because the reason that you're telling me we cannot have a Super Bowl down here just simply does not add up. We have made this stadium too nice?

Uh, Zaslav brought up El Palacio, which is— it is, it's a funny name for a hotel. I used to call it El Palacio's Friendly Neighborhood Crack Den because, uh, it isn't quite up to Super Bowl standards, which is why they had to rebrand.

It's no longer El Palacio.

Stadium Hotel, Dan.

Well, uh, it is the Stadium Hotel, but it's also a decent distance from the hotel. I thought of I thought about this the other day as I was driving to the airport because Inter Miami Stadium is so bright and the hotel that is there would make it really unpleasant on game nights. The amount of light coming into your room, there's simply not enough.

There's not enough vision impairment or, you know, light-blocking curtains that you can get to block how close the stadium at Inter Miami is to the hotel at the airport.

I have faith in the curtains.

Seriously, really more.

Really would be more concerned with the sound of the planes overhead.

That too. That too. But I'm telling you, I do not have faith in the blackout curtains at that particular hotel. I think it's a Sheraton. I don't have faith that the stadium lights— they're too close. There's simply no way that it's blocking out all that light.

When you book an airport hotel, you know that you're by an airport, so you know you're gonna get the planes overhead. Like, that's part of it.

Every time I go to Vegas, I'm like, how's this curtain gonna stand up? And guess what? It always delivers.

Yeah, but the, uh, the hotel and the airport or the hotel and the giant stadium lights. They're usually not quite as close to each other as this hotel is with this stadium.

So that's what they say, Dan. I'm not going to get into this with you. Fine. The curtains don't work at the Sheraton.

We'll move on.

I thought as I drove past it, I thought that's way too close to the stadium lights for that to be something that is comfortable sleeping for anybody involved.

It's way too close to the stadium. It's way too close to the airport. That's what it's way too close to. I don't care about the lights. I care about the noise and jet airliners. Guys, it's an airport hotel.

So you stay at the airport and then you go to the hotel. It's right there.

That's the point.

That's the convenience of it.

Yes. But usually I put it on the poll at Levittard Show. When you get the airport hotel, are you expecting stadium lights on your balcony? Yes or no?

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Miller Lite! Uh-huh.

Those beautiful white cans, or on draft, or the bottle if you prefer.

Oh, when you open that with the can though, and you—

one of the best sounds on the planet. You pair that with the right game, You take that first sip, we both look around. It's not a bit—

I have goosebumps thinking about the first sip.

We take that first sip, we open it up, and we're looking around. Ah, there's just that 5 seconds of almost eerie silence where you're just soaking it all in. Like, man, did we make the right call or what? That's why we reach for Miller Lite. It's clean, refreshing, easy to drink, brewed for taste with simple ingredients.

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I love you, Miller Lite.

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Dan Lebatard!

This is the quickest it goes! Hey, this is the quickest it goes! Stugatz! Everybody, this is the quickest it goes!

Yeah!

This is the Dan Lebatard Show with the Stugatz!

You guys mentioned MJ. How does everyone here feel about the fact that as it relates to, uh, his involvement with broadcasting and NBC, he's been on all-season load management?

When it comes to working for NBC.

They interviewed him for an hour before the season and they never got him again after publicly shouting to everybody, hey, we've got MJ. I'd love to see that contract. Did he just give them an hour of his time and allow them to have all sorts of press releases because he gave them an hour of time before the season and then just used that interview all season?

And unless I'm not remembering it correctly, when they announced their broadcast team, NBC, for their first year back with the NBA, they made it sound like Michael Jordan is part of their broadcast team. Like, when I saw who's going to be on the broadcast, I was envisioning Michael Jordan is going to be on the desk with them like Gretzky throughout the season.

You thought it would be like Gretzky?

Exactly like that.

Because usually that level of star isn't in broadcasting. Gretzky and Brady are, uh, exceptions, and they're relatively recent exceptions. I've told you before, ESPN can't get the good broadcasters who are Hall of Famers, so they get Emmitt Smith and Jerry Rice and Scottie Pippen, the guys who were good at, you know, sports but not good at broadcasting. Generally speaking, the all-time Hall of Famers will just give you an hour of time before the season and you can use it all season or you will not get the all-time Hall of Famer.

Everyone was really excited, right, when we heard Michael Jordan is going to be a part of it. No one would have had the reaction that we did if it was a sit-down interview.

I asked you guys though, after like 6 weeks of that where they just kept playing the same interview and you guys were fine with it, especially, I mean, as long as you got, you know, the mystical figure to sit down in front of the cameras one time, you guys were all okay with it 6 weeks in.

I think there has been some sort of pivot, uh, on the Michael Jordan deal.

Yeah, it has to be.

Yeah, but also, Dan, I think you're applying a logic from years ago. Like, we're presently in an era where Wayne Gretzky and Tom Brady are there for months on end.

I, I mentioned that those are the exceptions, but you got to pay $375 million to get one of them. And Gretzky was famously bland as an interview— both of them were. The entirety— in fact, all of these guys are. Michael Jordan as well.

They're not interesting broadcasters. They're interesting champions, but they're, they're interesting players.

Fox's baseball has Jeter, A-Rod, and Poppy. Those are faces of an entire baseball generation.

Yeah, and Pedro too.

I would liken Michael Jordan to Lionel Messi. When Apple TV TVs signed up to do MLS, I think they probably assumed that that means access to Lionel Messi. They're lucky, they were lucky if they get a 30-second post-game interview with Messi. And Michael Jordan, if anything, I think it adds to his mystique, the idea that he's going to give you 1 hour and you're going to use it any way you like, but you're not going to get a mic in front of me again.

Greg, I want to side with you and the local media because they they've, they've said this about Messi, and they seem really upset that Messi is not pulling his own when it comes to his media avails. Can we be happy with what we got? Like, we got— he, he won literally the award for best player on the planet while he was wearing an Inter Miami shirt. He was months removed from his crowning achievement at the World Cup. Like, he has been incredible to date, the single best MLS player ever, just based on form. Still to this day, you can watch Inter Miami against Toronto FC and you can watch Messi bossing a game. We got to be okay with that.

I see your shirt there. You're wearing a Lionel Messi shirt, and, uh, I'm offended by the shirt that Zaslo is wearing.

Uh, whatever. I went to school here. Be offended all you want.

It's my school nearby.

That's— I, I don't know how I can— you know what, I'm going to take a picture of the degree that I earned.

No, I don't even—

you think I know how to use AI?

I don't have a clue. Yeah, that's what someone—

I'm gonna take a picture of the degree I earned from the University of Florida and I'm gonna show it to you. Why are you offended?

You're a proud Miamian and you're somebody who's a voice for Miami sports and you're wearing a 2025 national champions University of Florida Gators basketball shirt.

Enemy. Enemy shirt.

What? Yeah, I'm the best Hurricanes fan you'll ever meet. I went to the University of Florida and I still love the University of Miami.

Put it on a poll at Levitard Show. Is the best University of Miami fan you'll ever meet allowed to be a graduate of the University of Florida? You know what?

You're very comfortable saying these things to my face. I hope the next time you see Udonis Haslem, you say to his face.

I have said it to him.

I'm not going to say to him every time I'm in his face, but I have said it to him that the whole thing is bogus, that you can't go and be playing at the University of Florida.

You know what? Florida and then be the proudest hurricane.

You know what? If I'm on the side of Udonis Haslam, I'm on the right side.

He says he made a business decision going to Florida. Did you make a business decision going to Santa Fe? Sure, sure.

You confirmed it. I just heard it confirmed. You just said sure after he asked you the question.

No, you didn't know what I was gonna say after that. I, I was probably gonna say surely not.

Santa Fe, sí, sí.

Don't call me Shirley.

He just Bugs Bunny'd you, man.

CC Santa Fe.

Yeah, SFCC. That's Santa Fe Community College. Everybody knows that.

Oh, I would not know.

The idea that the Gators are still Miami's biggest rival, I ask it with a question mark. I don't know if that's accurate or not because they don't play enough in, in the sports you would wish to have them play at the very top of championship deciding. But, uh, who would—

Notre Dame thing is climbing.

What is, what is the list? What, what are the University of Miami's biggest rivals?

See, we've, we've had this conversation before about FSU.

There's not hatred there with FSU and Miami.

There's not really hatred.

The players are competitive and they have their own rivalries because they went to, uh, you know, they, they played in Florida in high school.

Florida State's not a hated Miami rival, and to be a rival at the top of the rival food chain, you have to be hated.

There has to be hatred there. And Florida has residual hatred. It's generations ago. It doesn't feel like there's very much recent to choose from in that rivalry.

And yet I'd still put it at the top of the list.

Do I have it wrong?

I have Florida, Notre Dame, FSU.

I think for the FSU thing, there's a weird mutual respect thing there a little bit. So I think right now you can make a strong case for Notre Dame. Now, Miami occupies this weird place in college football in which they have other rivals, but none of those rivals would point to them and say, that is our chief rival.

It's the Mad Men elevator.

Yeah, well, I don't think it's— they don't think about us at all. They think about us plenty, especially if you sample social media. And also Miami hasn't been very relevant over the last 20 years. But with the USC rivalry, rivalry on ice for a little bit here because of scheduling with Notre Dame and USC, Jeremiah Love, he takes all season long thinking about Miami. Every interview he says something about Miami. Reuben Baines composition book where he says Notre Dick. Kick in it and the games and the fact that both these teams are super relevant, super good right now. You look at that November 7th game, primetime in South Bend. If those teams handle their business going into that, you have game of the century type hype because of everything that happened with the playoff. Miami versus Notre Dame head-to-head was a discussion all season long. It's got a lot of juice.

Here's why the FSU rivalry doesn't have a lot of juice beyond the hatred, because A, Bobby Bowden was very likable and just had a charisma when they were doing the absurd and spending 14 straight seasons in the top 5. They had a coach that Miami fans couldn't help but also like and respect. But then the other thing there that makes it less of a rivalry is Miami won all the games. Like, you've got to—

the other—

the opponent has to win some of the memorable games for it to be a rivalry. And Miami was always winning the game. So You get grandfathered in some Florida losses from the '80s. Like, you get—

they—

I think Kosar's championship season, they lost the first game of the season to Florida. And so you're, you're literally going back 30 years to grab a rivalry because go ahead and try and remember it.

Give me all the games recently that Miami and Florida have played that have conjured anything in the form of hatred.

Hatred?

Oh, I mean, the one this year was pretty good going into this game.

I mean, the, the week 1 game at the Swamp, that was a moment that, that's going to be a huge feather in the cap. And even though that, that Florida team wasn't very good, you can point to that team wasn't very good because of what Miami did to them. And that was really Mario Cristobal stating it's different from here on out. Cam Ward immediately became a Heisman contender. They've had a couple of good games with nothing teams. Kadarius Tony, Jeff Thomas muffing the punt in a, in a great week 0 game in, in Orlando.

The game you're talking about, Florida, is the introduction to, oh, Cam Ward's good.

Yeah.

Like, and then henceforth Miami shall be, if they keep getting this position right.

But otherwise, it was 20 years ago. You had the Sugar Bowl, you had the game in Gainesville after the national championship. You got to go back a while ago.

But it's indisputable that at one time and for a long time, Miami and Florida were the rivals. And now Florida also had FSU. But it was Miami and Florida.

Can you guys name a third person other than Udonis and Zaslo who has both allegiances?

Because my dad went to the University of Florida and the biggest Canes fan hates the Gators.

You're going to tell his father that he hates the Gators?

He hates the Gators. You don't hate the guy.

Okay, well, that's weird.

Yeah, well, he hates the Gators football team.

His father would not wear a University of Florida 2025 national champion college basketball Wouldn't be caught dead in a Florida Gator shirt.

Wow.

Dan Lebatard.

I've never stepped foot on that campus.

I—

if you told me right now your life depends on it, go to Santa Fe University and just, just take a picture.

Stugatz.

I would die. I don't know where it is. This is the Dan Lebatard Show with Stugatz.

You mentioned the national championship game being played in Miami and the Indiana football team that just got got done with maybe the best college football season ever and probably the most improbable college football season ever. They went to the White House yesterday, but Fernando Mendoza did not go to the White House. I saw there was a, uh, an issue of Esquire magazine that did Mavericks in Sports, uh, and they had Fernando Mendoza as one of the Mavericks. And I'm like, that is the opposite of a maverick.

Fernando Mendoza is the very opposite I would choose of a maverick American sports.

I mean, he's not even the maverick on his own team. Signetti, more of a maverick than Fernando Mendoza.

I'm not kidding when I say, if you tell me, give me all of sports, what's the opposite of a maverick?

I want to play this game. The opposite of maverick.

I mean, Fernando Mendoza, he's got a LinkedIn.

Mavericks don't have LinkedIn. What publication was that?

Esquire magazine featured like 6 people. Look up for me who were— uh, Shams was one of them, a maverick of journalism. There were 6 people, but they go to the White House yesterday, everybody but Fernando Mendoza. Uh, Cignetti is sitting right, or standing right next to Trump, and Trump doesn't seem to know it. But let's play the first clip here from Indiana going, and look at the people behind Trump.

You tell me, just looking at the people behind Trump, you go ahead and tell me based on this visual Is this the greatest college football team ever standing behind Donald Trump?

Starting quarterback Fernando Mendoza. Now, the reason he's not here, he was so nice, he called because he has actually— JD is a big fan of ours. You wouldn't believe it because he didn't show up. I'm not happy, but that's okay. The reason he didn't, because he's at spring training, right?

Correct.

And I actually said, you know, You really can't let him. He's got to win. And I think he's going to win pretty early, Coach, right? You think pretty good?

Time will tell.

He's going to be a good one. A lot of people said they're going to win, but I think he will. No, he's been great. And he said spring training, like his first day or something. I said, you better go there. But he became Indiana's first. Otherwise, if I didn't do that, believe me, I wouldn't have even talked about him. I would have not if he was not here for other reasons. Like he didn't like Trump or he didn't want to come. I wouldn't even mention him. I'd go through the whole— I talk about how great— I wouldn't even mention the quarterback's name. But he's a great guy, actually.

Yammering knob. But let's listen to the most powerful person in our country and perhaps the most corrupt not know that Signetti is right next to him.

Kurt, who's Kurt? Kurt Signetti. Where is Kurt Signetti?

Oh, come here.

Come here. Kurt Signetti has turned out to be— I believe— I think he's the coach of the last decade.

This guy leads the league in looking for people who are right next to him. Last time it was his wife.

Signetti, his body language cramped up as soon as Trump grabbed him. I am told the president of the United States does not smell good because of that diaper. So you don't want to be too close to him.

And now— and now we have a clip of Signetti looking for some NIL money.

No, we'll let you keep the trophy for an NIL country.

I'll do that for NIL. Boy, oh boy, did the court screw us up, huh? It's all right. It's whatever happened. It seems to be working for you.

And you're going to—

he stayed awake, at least. NIL.

It is funny that he goes after Sleepy Joe at every turn and he's the one actually falling asleep during meetings.

Narcoleptic president.

I— college football just decided we don't care about your executive order. It's just he did a whole thing and, and everyone's like, well, is this a rule now? And everyone just kind of agreed, no. And we just move on.

NIL.

Tony, do you have for me the 6 Mavericks who Esquire featured?

And you tell me, no one's going to do better in terms of being the opposite bit of a maverick than Fernando Mendoza. But give me the list of people that Esquire magazine decided to feature.

So Esquire profiled a bunch of people, Fernando Mendoza being top billing. Then we've got Tommy Fleetwood. Is he a maverick? Tommy Fleetwood?

I'm in on this list.

He's got long hair.

Sabalenka, also part of it. Marcus Freeman, maverick? Is he a maverick, guys?

Yes?

No?

Aileen Gu, Maverick.

Okay, she has a question mark in her last name, Maverick question mark.

And then Shams is the other, uh, Maverick.

You guys have no reaction whatsoever to Shams as a Maverick?

Why is he a Maverick?

Who's Gu?

What do they— how did they explain that? I'm serious. With Fernando, it has to be the Cuban-American heritage, which he was the first of that lineage to win a Heisman, but that doesn't Doesn't make you a maverick, just makes you Cuban. Right.

And his personality type though, we would go—

if you were doing Esquire magazine's straight-laced issue or, you know, a little bit goofy.

Yeah, or nerdy.

I went goofy, it's less pejorative.

Goofy I think is less pejorative than nerdy.

I love nerdy. I think it's more pejorative.

All right, put it on the poll @LeBittardShow, which is more negative? Goofy or nerdy?

Nerdy gives off, I at least have an outside shot at success because of my brains, whereas I'm a goof, not a great outlook for me. Yeah, nerdy gives off intelligence.

He's a smart guy.

Nerdy's a positive in my opinion.

It's not a positive.

Definitely not a positive. It's more positive.

It's an insult to call someone a nerd.

I'm an adult nerd. I mean, I grew up a nerd.

Nobody would say you're a nerd.

I grew up a nerd.

Nerds don't wear pantyhose.

Okay, but that was 700 years ago.

Okay, that's fair.

I should have seen you at age 15. What, when horses and carriages were roaming the earth?

No, when Paul Rand came over. We played cards and nothing inappropriate happened.

They played Stradimatic.

Stradimatic.

Thank you.

He was 12 years older than me and it was a normal friendship. Between me and Paul Radke.

Wait, what?

My platonic older male friend.

Tony is just learning about Paul Radke.

I wasn't here that day.

He was how much older?

12 years, that kind of thing.

That day. You say, you say that day. Paul Radke is a name that is making Greg Cody laugh because for a long time we have made fun of Greg Cody about the fact that he was a young boy and a, a boy or a man 12 years older than him would come and play Stratomatic with Greg Cody, and he says they were just— he says they were just—

those are good memories. I was about 12 or 14. Ratke, uh, was college age, or maybe just out, maybe a little bit older.

He was 26.

20-year-old with nice firm chest.

Now Ratke was a little heavy. He ain't heavy, he's my friend. What?

I think he's not heavy, he's my brother. I don't think he's not heavy, he's my friend. This song is—

it ain't heavy, it's my— whatever my dad says.

I said it to myself in the car today. I said, "He ain't heavy, he's my traffic," because the cars going over the causeway were particularly heavy.

What is that, number 28 or something?

I don't know what number that is.

I can't remember.

Are you ready to do your catchphrases? I heard there's some controversy around the— it's The Greg Cody Show featuring Greg Cody. He is counting down his top 50 catchphrases of all time. It has been a successful months-long joke. What is the controversy surrounding your catchphrase list? What is the issue?

Issue.

It's, it's big. The controversy is that based on quality demand, the Catchphrase Countdown has suddenly increased from a top 50 to a top 60.

What?

That's right, and it's controversial.

Of course it is. You told us it was a top 50, and we told you, we told you it was, we told you it was something you were making up as you went along and that you weren't going to get the numbers right. Right now you just changed.

He botched it to such a degree that there are so many good ones left that we're just pushing all of them.

I knew that was gonna happen though. That's exactly what we were saying.

Your brain beat me.

How did this happen? What was the ruling? What did the committee get together and decide? How did it happen that it got expanded? Now no one's gonna complain about this because more catchphrases is great, but we told you this was gonna happen and we told you this was a sloppy list by you.

The others, they all learned from me.

No, I looked at all the, the, the catchphrases remaining and there was only 14 left, but there were like 20-something good ones.

So I'm like, thank you, let's go.

So what— wait a minute, so how did you do it though? Are there now, uh, is there now a new list, 50 to 60, or what are you doing?

Everything that's been said is just like what was 50 is now 60. There were 14 left and now there's 20.

So we're not in the top 20 anymore?

Now we're at 23 and 24.

20 of the countdown and now we're at 24. I'm telling you, they're bangers though.

They're just Bangers list.

There's nobody that's actually upset about this development.

Come on, you've got to honor the list.

I'm telling you, I got a peek. I don't know the exact order, but I got a peek of what the top 10 looks like, and it is just banger after banger.

Yeah, Yeti hated it. He's against it.

Yeti thinks that we should just make him live with the world he gave us.

Should—

I mean, I asked you several times throughout this whole process, have you thought this out? Have you planned out the list? You know that there are 50. You, you kept assuring that you have it all under control.

Driver comfort is paramount.

Wrong. You know, part of the beauty of me is, is a, you know, a bit of serendipity, a bit of—

you're the kind of guy—

and so the same is true with this list, okay? Whenever you do a countdown, Zazz, bank this information for your future. Whenever you do any sort of a countdown, controversy is good. You want somebody to say say, "That sucks, that should be lower," or, "That's—

wow, I can't believe that's not higher." So wait, so what used to be 50 is now 60? So we've gotten fraudulent rankings up to now? All the number— all the numerical rankings we've gotten up to now are all wrong?

He can give you the updated, like, number 60, he can give you the update of whatever.

I know, but they're all— every previous incarnation of this that we have given the American public and internationally has been wrong.

I would say adjusted more than wrong.

Adjusted.

Maybe to Greg's credit too, I've never heard of a top 60.

Thank you.

Well, how do we know it's not going to end up being 62 because he's going to think of 2 more on his way home because he didn't plan any of this out?

Never be 62. It could bump to 65. It would never be a number.

We would obviously go in 5s then.

Here's also the thing, this is a big question of mine. So you, you have left 10 out, which, which is why you are expanding it from 50 to 60, but the 10 that you left out are automatically like, like they're in the top 23, you're saying top 24.

But I'm telling you, he left bangers out, right? This had to be done, guys.

Yeah, it had to be done.

Like he says, again, it doesn't have to be done if you're dealing with a responsible person who plans it at the beginning as opposed to just making everything up as he goes along.

No, listen, and we're in the sports business, we should know this better than anybody. Rankings always change. And when I was born, everybody, everybody Agreed. Babe Ruth, greatest player ever. Not so much now. Randy Paige.

That was what I was growing up.

It was a hot debate. Everyone agreed though. Babe Ruth. That young kid's got a future.

It was an argument back then on sports radio. Tris Speaker or Babe Ruth?

That's right. Lou Gehrig was in play.

Let's telegram in your thoughts.

We're going to get to this list and we're going to get to Luke Thomas. We're going to do it in the next hour because we have to give plenty of room here for what is an ever-expanding list of catchphrases.

There's no way. If you had to take a guess, there's no way it's going to stay at 60, right? They're going to be— what's going to happen, he's going to think of one more and then he's got to come up with 4 bullshit ones because he just wants it to be— it's not even a— it's 65 even a round number? It's not— 65 is not a round number. I don't know why you're doing this by 5s.

Well, 60 is a beautiful number.

Yeah, but you're gonna have to add— I put it on the poll, is 60 a beautiful number? And you're gonna have to add. You know this is gonna happen, right? If you've already added 10 since the last time I saw you.

Right now we're committed to 60. Um, for now. And by the way, let the record say Levitard over here was a naysayer.

Yep.

Levitard never thought I had 50.

Playa hater.

He's right. You didn't have 50.

I had 60.

That kind of thing.

Thank you. Thank you.

We look great today.

Huh?

Look at us, so cute. Like that old man in Up. Up was a movie, it was an animated film, don't worry about it. Last movie we saw was Swing Vote.

He does, he does look like the old man in Up though. The old man in Up has—

Mr. Fredrickson?

Oh wait, no, no, no, the Elton John movie, we saw that.

That was all right.

Yeah, yeah.

The old man in Up has a bulbous nose like Cody.