Transcript of Hour 1: Amin's Method Acting (feat. "Kash Patel") New

Folks, I'm getting hungry. You know my favorite part of any meal snack or game day app? That's right. The GOAT, or should I say, the greatest of all time, Frank's Red Hot. It's got the perfect blend of flavor and heat that elevates all foods from wings to Buffalo chicken dip to even ice cream. That's right, I said ice cream. With a roster of flavors from Ogie to sweet chili, you can put that shit on everything. So make every dish the greatest and eat the goat.

This is the Dan Levatore Show with the Stugats podcast.

There it is.

There it is. There's the first goal.

That goal, didn't he?

Do something. No. Do something?

We got a goal. Keel McCart has tied the game. Enda has tied the game. You're tied at one.

Three and a half, filler light, Steve. Okay.

I think it's really good, but I haven't seen the whole thing yet.

How did that knock a win?

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. What the hell?

I did not realize face offs were a thing yet. How did that knock a win? Oh, my God. Oh, my God. What the hell? I did not realize face offs were a thing yet. How did that knock a Baldy McAvoy, just make that save.

Baldy, Matthew, and Hughes.

You think those three are going to start off overtime for the American? Remember, it's just three. The puck has dropped. Here we go, 19: 55 right now.

Wide open shot. Let's go.

This is one. What can you find?

Look who's here.

Dan Levatard has joined us from the Dan Levatard show. Dan, you got to see that goal.

What are you think? Good morning, Dan. What are you doing right now?

In Los Angeles. Let's Ethan. Say it, Dan. Say it, Dan. Let Dan talk. Shut up, Ethan. Go ahead, Dan. How does Ethan feel comfortable yelling what he thinks I'm going to say when I I neither saw him nor am awake enough to know what even happened?

Because I just texted you guys, What's the link?

And Roy wrote me back, The game's over, Dan.

Jack Eichel was your boy. Connor Hellabuck was your boy. I can't believe we do not deserve this, just like, morally, from just a diplomatic standpoint. We do not deserve this.

Oh, the irony.

But, boy, will I take it? Go, Saints. Go, Sates. Usa, Golden Generation. It's the end of the goal.

Ethan, shut up.

Ethan, shut up. I'm calling.

Well, it really has. It surprised me even the level of pride that Americans all over, Coast to Coast, seem to be feeling about this. And in fact, over in Milan, some Americans were celebrating not just Jack Hughes. He was carried around the Olympic Village by his teammates last night. They threw it on real good, I imagine. And did you see in the locker room, though, immediately after that the director of the FBI was in there drinking with him and singing and whatever. And Matthew Kachuk put his gold medal around Cash Patel's neck, and a lot of people react that Cash Patel is tweeting about it. A lot of people are angry about it. They think it's a violation of his position. What did you think about that, Mike You know, he's a known hockey fan.

He's been at Ovechkin's record-breaking performance. He said seven months ago that he was going to be there, and it wasn't an empty threat. He's a big hockey guy. And a hero.

No violation? Not any concerns about his- No, we're so well-being.

This one, whereas in previous years, that might actually be a news story of him using- Taxpayer money. Taxpayer money to get himself over there. It's just a Monday morning blurb.

Do we want to see clips of this in case anybody hasn't seen what we're talking about here. The audience here- Cash Patel in the dressing room.

Yeah, our video team is looking at it right here. This is just- USA, let's go.

Domen Larkin. Just...

I'm sure a lot of people that would like a certain segment of the population is sick to sports are going to be totally quiet on this.

Right. Separation of church and state and very many people. I understand you've been talking about this a little bit of late, Mike Ryan, that this has come up in your world, that sometimes people don't do a good enough job of separating sports and politics.

That's because this administration makes it incredibly difficult, too, to separate the two. They are very smart about how they use sports to normalize themselves as personalities and officials. And in that sport, in many other sports, you have to take it on the chin because you also respect your right to say things. And it's just a part of the deal. I wish it wasn't using taxpayer funds. And just personally speaking, I'm not super cool with how cool everybody is with the current situation and that person in particular. But it's just times like these in America that you just got to roll with it, I think.

Well, yeah. Why we're talking all around that we have him here with us as it happens this morning, probably still a little hung over. It's Cash Patel. How are you? Congratulations to the nation, not just to you.

Thank you. And I don't see what the big deal is. I was on FBI business in Milan, and it just so happened they had a hockey game going. So you can bet on that.

It was at the bottom of that beer bottle, the FBI business?

Well, I have to drink because I am thirsty, and that's all they had in the locker room because they won. So you can bet on that.

I wonder if this will be a plague on six months, six years from now that Matthew Kachuk put his gold medal around Cash Patel. Do you think that history will remember that moment well? For Kachuk.

If you think that's the only moment history is going to remember, just wait till I get to Miami and go to 11: 00 tonight for the party that just happens to be next to some totally real FBI business downtown Miami, that I have to do.

You're in Miami now, though, right?

You can bet on that.

All right. I was making sure because didn't know you might be drunk and didn't know where you were yet.

Sometimes looking at a map can be confusing for me.

In terms of it aging poorly, like you're asking about, Dave, these people don't know. It's already aged poorly. You know what I mean? Anyone who's sitting here yucking it up and laughing at jokes that the President's making about, Oh, I've got to invite the women's team to the White House, too. Those sensibilities aren't going to know that the things that they're doing right now are going to age poorly in the eyes of history.

There's a women's team? I didn't bet on that.

We do have the clip, if you want to play for the audience of the men's US team talking to Trump in the locker room after the game. Let's play that.

Let's see it. We'll get the cash and we'll get the military to get you guys over.

I'm going to go. Let's go.

Boys are going to the State of Union. The nice thing about being President is I can tell you, you don't have to worry about the weather or landing. We don't care if it's snowing, if it's the worst blip, we sail into an end.

You just like you did in the ice.

Thank you, Mr. President.

We'll do it at the White House, but it would really be cool. We'll do the White House the next day.

We'll just have some fun. We have medals for you guys.

I must tell you, we're going to have to bring the woman's team, you do know that.

I do believe I probably would be impeached, okay? On the podcast Cynophobe, Zack Harper, Emino As an Anthony Mays, they have a repeating bit called the Doc Rivers Press Conference laughter, which is when someone says something that is only mildly confusing, but everyone who is beholden to them laughs hysterically like Eddie Murphy in his prime. I do believe that was the Doc Rivers Press Conference laughter, and you can bet on that. Jeremy, I'll see you in Valhalla, brother. Okay, I got to stop doing this. My eyes are hurting me.

I don't think the camera does it justice.

The best Doc Rivers laugh that you get is on NFL pregame shows when they're talking about a matchup and they're like, I think that the ex-running back will say, I think the guy who's the ex-factor in this one is the star running back of that team. And then they go like, You would say that as a running back.

So true.

I always debate running back.

I love that, man. It's jocular, right? It's just the boys. That's the point of those shows. It's like, Hey, imagine the locker room if it were on TV, even though it's nothing like the locker room. But that's what people want to believe. They want to believe that this is exactly what locker room culture is like. I've been very fascinated with this concept of people wanting to believe stuff because I watched Begonia yesterday, finally, with my dad.

What did you think?

Loved it. That's a movie. Don't talk to me about one battle or when. Oh, That's a movie.

Don't start. There's no reason for you to take a shot at the better movie. Begonia was very good.

It was not a good movie. It's not a better movie. I'm going to tell you why, because it's not a bad movie.

It's not a bad movie. It's a great movie. It's not a great movie. It's a great movie that five years from now, 20 years from now, Amine and everybody else will be talking about the greatness of the enduring classic that is One Battle After Another. I found it to be- It's like Boogie Nights. No. It is going to be one of those movies. No. There's no way. There's no way, Dave. The more you You stay with it- 20 years from now, we're going to remember Jack Hughes.

We're going to remember One Battle After Another, please. No way. He's making good points. Thank you.

Wait, to go all the way back, Tony, we're not going to remember Jack Hughes? I didn't even remember his name. I had to look it up. That's a good point. Tony Hughes. You didn't remember it from yesterday?

Is Jack Is Jack Hughes a good hockey player?

Yeah. Is he young?

A baby.

Where does he play?

New Jersey. Okay. Yeah. He's not the better of the two brothers, but he's- There's another Hughes? Yeah. Quinn Hughes was unbelievable this tournament. Wow. Okay. He's the one that sees Ghost.

And very, very drunk. Who's the guy that would have gotten left off the team if Goudre was still with us? That's what I was doing when I saw all that stuff. Kyla O'Connor. I was doing the cynical thing of, is the last guy on the roster sitting there being like, wow, I wouldn't be here.

Damn, bro.

That's crazy. My brain did not go there at all. Why would it?

Mine did, Chris.

When you're celebrating- Chris, mine didn't, but now that you said it, now I'm thinking about it.

There's a Team USA roster, and they're bringing a guy in.

The last guy on the roster has to be like, Oh, I guess I wouldn't be here. That's just wild.

There was a replacement guy? No, the guy passed away a while ago, right? Yeah, long time.

He was killed.

They're probably an accident. Thinking about Seth Jones more if they're the last guy on the roster, right? They replace Seth Jones. So maybe the second to last guy. Second to last guy. Well, the Defender. The worst defender is definitely saying, I'm only here because Seth Jones is forward.

That's probably a better conversation to have.

It's just a natural thought.

Yeah. You got to think about it. Sometimes you think about stuff like that. Don't do this to them, guys.

The thing with Jack Hughes that Thank you. It was exciting for me personally as a left-leaning Jew born in Florida who loves sports, I got to see myself in the Olympic gold medal winner, Jack Jack Hughes because this guy who has been pretty publicly open-minded, was very supportive of pride nights in the NHL, Jewish kid, scoring the gold medal winning goal, the golden goal. It was a special moment. Probably the best moment for left-leaning American Jews in sports since Sandy Kofax. Mike, you know I have one rule to live by, right?

Don't place parlays on multiple long shots. Don't say a game is one when it hasn't hit triple zero.

Always drink your Jägermeister ice cold. That's the rule. Everything else is merely a suggestion.

Everything else?

Everything else.

Wearing clean underwear every day?

Well, that's just a personal decision.

Brushing your teeth?

Obviously smart, but not a rule.

Never PP on an electric fence.

Okay, maybe there are two rules, but the one that is 100% that I insist on completely, Jägermeister must be drink ice cold. Or don't drink it at all. Damn, that's cold. Exactly. You're finally starting to get it.

Drink responsibly. Jägermeister Jägermeister L'Core, 35% alcohol by volume, imported by Mass Jägermeister US, White Plains, New York. It is time to talk to you, kind folks, about one of our best partners, one of our longest tenured partners, Miller Light. We've been with Miller Light for about half of their illustrious existence, and I couldn't be more grateful. We often ask you to support those who support us. So the other day, I was fully in stay at home mode, had the turns on, relaxing on the couch, long day, sweat pants, remote in hand, already planning which sporting event I was going to flip to next. Then a friend texted me, Nothing big. Hey, why don't we just have a small hang? And I said, Come on over, pal. I got the Miller lights on deck. I put out a bucket filled with ice cold, beautiful white cans of Miller light, and we had ourselves a Sunday. Next thing you know, the race is tight. Everybody's yelling at the TV. We're toasting our beers, and we look at each other, we take a sip, and we know that we made the right call. Cheers to the legendary moments with Miller Light.

Great taste, 96 calories. Go to millerlight. Com/dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Light pretty much anywhere. They sell beer. It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3. 2 carbs per 12 ounces.

Draftkings Sportsbook puts you in the middle of basketball's biggest star-driven moments. Bet player props, bet live. And when a game turns fast, DraftKings has your back with early exit. If your player gets injured any time in the first half, your bet stays alive. And once it settles, you still get paid in cash. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code Dan. New customers bet just $5, and if your bet wins, you'll get $200 in bonus bets instantly.

That's with code Dan.

In partnership with DraftKings, the Crown is yours.

Gambling problem? Call 1-800 Gambler. New York, call 877-8 Hope & Why or text Hope & Why. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.

Org.

On behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas, wager tax pass-through may apply in Illinois, 21 and over in most states, void in Ontario.

Restrictions apply. Bet must win to receive bonus bets which expire in seven days.

Minimum odds required. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng. Co/audio. Limited time offer.

Dan Levatard. World Rar 3.

Stugatz. We're going to get that off the ground.

World Rar 3, colon, Our group chat has a pretty good feeling about this one. This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugats.

It's funny you say that because it does seem to me that the argument always swings back and forth about, Can't you just leave politics out of this and just stick to sports? This is what Mike Ryan has been talking about, obviously, for the last couple of weeks, quite a bit, and has been in the news for doing it. It always goes, whichever side is doing it, you don't like it. The rhetoric always becomes that you only like free speech when it's free speech you like. And I, Sacherin or otherwise, that is what should be great. The big takeaway from this should be that Jack Hughes is talking about why he supported the gay pride movement in the NHL a couple of years ago when a lot of guys weren't, that he's a bar meets Vo and all the rest of it. And then the right wants to celebrate the way the K'Chuck brothers want to celebrate MAGA. There is room in this country for both things, right? Yeah.

It's not a great situation, which you see that moment and you scour the Internet to see if their ideology aligns with yours so you can feel better about it. It's just an unfortunate state of where we are, especially when politicians themselves are injecting themselves into these events.

It's the attack on. I did see some people, Sorry, Libbs, you hate this. Who are you going at? Who hates this? Who is upset by what just happened there? But it is the unnecessary unforced attack on some portion of the country as though you're getting us. I do think that when you push back that it's inappropriate for Cash Patel, which it is in terms of what his position is in the country, It is directly inappropriate. On a piece of paper, you should not be doing that. But it is you're soft, you're a snowflake, this is what you care about, and all of that. And you feed into that conversation and entrench the sea. This is what they're worried about. They're so unpatriotic that they can't even let this guy enjoy his moment.

Part of the joy that I had in finding out some of what Jack Hughes' politics were was how proud he was to be American representing the United States on that stage. Just because you're not caping up for Cash Patel being in the locker room afterward or excited about the words that Donald Trump is sharing with that team and them yucking it up afterwards, I love being an American and to have someone who lines up politically, ideologically with me, express that patriotism. It feels like the right hijacked the concept of patriotism. It was to see someone on that stage who happens to line up politically with where I am, at least on a couple of things, by the way. I don't know his full thoughts on everything, but it was nice to see someone who said, Hey, I was raised in a household that supports pride nights, that thinks it's great to be an American on that stage.

It speaks to how effectively the right has co-opted being a patriot and the love of the flag. It's so true. And how the left hasn't really done a great job in fighting that punch. They've just allowed for one segment of political beliefs to be more American, to feel more American, relatively unchecked, which is weird because I love this country so much. I love supporting them in international sport. I am willing, more than willing, to look over political leanings and be happy for whoever is representing that banner. Within reason, I don't think any of these guys are overtly political, and I was able to enjoy for what it was. A sporting event in a time where we all have our mixed feelings about where the country is. It was cool to have one thing that was a rallying cry, left and right and alike. I understand why we're there. I'm part of the reason why we perpetuated, because it's very difficult for me to separate the two when politicians are directly involved. But it's sad because the miracle on ice, geo-politically, there was a bunch going on. We were the good guys. It was a great story.

And everybody was aligned with that. Like anything these days, this one's a little bit more complicated.

We haven't talked about the real bad guys in this story. The security people at the arena who let this dude in with no credential? You're just going to let a guy waltz arm cash without who the hell cares, man? This is team staff only. You can't just waltz in here. You got to have a credential or something. Hell, you saw the women's team, they sitting in the stands, they got their credentials around their neck. It's not just like, Hey, I want a gold medal. I should get in anywhere. No, you still have to I have some access and stuff here. And these guys sleep at the job, just let anybody in. It could have been me with this hat and this jacket. They would have been like, Well, they said he was Cash Patel. Who are we to say no?

We should send a mean in the Cash Patel costume to somewhere the Cash is going to be and see if anybody can tell the difference.

Well, he said he was going to be at 11: 00 tonight.

There you go. That's right. Yeah.

I'll do it for that for him.

The FBI jacket is a little on the nose, though.

Well, you know, I got to let people know.

You wear a USA hockey sweater?

With the FBI hat, though?

I see what's happening here. I need to let people know them. It is actually him method acting the Cash Patel bit because he is trying to make going to 11: 00 part of his job. What?

I just assumed that you guys would want me to do something for the show, and I would sacrifice myself.

Nobody's asked him. He's taking it upon himself to do extra work.

They told us that having a great motor and initiative- You should take a private jet there.

Initiative.

There you go. That's the word.

I really have no issue with- Me going 11? Nick Bosa, except for... I guess I can express some issues with it, but in a vacuum, at least. Nick Bosa is welcome to tout whatever political, whatever presidential candidate he wants on Sunday night football at the end of the game, as long as I'm allowed to push back with my opinion or other players are allowed to push back with theirs. And that's really the core issue is that it's a cartoon version of patriotism. It's just not cartoon. It's great to just get behind it unironically. Usa won a big time sporting event against the team that was considered to be the best in the world, and we won and all of that. It's equally patriotic, though, to raise a fist with a black glove because you're allowed to do that in the United States or representing the United States. Somehow, you're the bad guy if you're doing that and not doing the cartoon cartoon version of USA, USA, endlessly. That is why the right wins over the left in that argument.

On a serious note, can I just make this distinction? Team wins a gold medal. President calling them on speaker phone and congratulating them, saying, Hey, we're coming to the White House, whatever. That's normal. That happens all the time. The director of the FBI chugging beers in the locker room? I've never seen that. Not Republican, not Democrat.

I've never seen that. But the perception is you're a snowflake if that's what you're complaining about. He just loves hockey and he loves the USA and he's enjoying it. You would do the same if you were in his boots is the logic that's applied to this.

So the counter to that isn't about what I would do if I were in the same position. It's position meaning they're available with the team. The counter argument is the same position, which is the job that he has. The job that you have as a high-ranking person in the US government is you have to comport yourself with some modicum of decorum. Even if they're all doing it, you got to go like, Ha ha, good job, guys. Even if you want to, because it's the same thing. If President Obama, when 2012 in the London Olympics, they won the gold. If Obama was there in the locker room shaking everybody's hands, okay, Obama was in town. He was like, That's a good job. If Obama chugs a beer, that's not a good look.

But beyond just that, that no matter when it happened in any era in the last 250 years, it would be inappropriate. The extra layer of it here, though, is what's specifically happening in this country right now and what you're embracing and who you're embracing. That connects with the Josh Pate interview of the President, that it's not just a garden variety. This was a great moment for our country. If you can't get behind that, what Patriot are you? You're embracing. You know who you're embracing right now, Matthew Kachuk? If you were taking a picture in January of 1974 with Richard Nixon, you probably didn't want that photograph floating around by the mid '70s. By 1980, you were probably ashamed of that. I do wonder, is that going to be a thing two years, five years, 20 years from now?

We talked about this on the show. What if Watergate had happened today? Nixon would still be President. Oh, my God. That's the difference between your example and the example of these guys, the K'Chucks doing this, right? Wow.

The T really gets in the way.

It does. The reality is the idea that they will feel shame at a future date only works if you are operating with the 1970 mores of, Oh, yeah, we realized that someone has done something wrong, and we all agree that was wrong. Now, everything is denied, denied, denied, denied, denied. It'll be 10 years from now, these people can be convicted and sent to prison, and these guys are still going to be like, It was all a vast left-wing conspiracy. They're not going to come back and say, Wow, I was really on one back then.

We'll see. With this president, it's already swung. Remember, after January sixth, Coca-Cola was putting out statements about how that display was un-American and wrong. He was already cast aside by Fox News, and then it took two years, and he found himself back into the conversation, and all of a sudden, supporting him wasn't as third rail. But there was a couple of years there where post January sixth, you wouldn't touch this guy with a 10-foot pole.

But that was all within the climate, I think, of post-2020, which is this racial reckoning. And so all the brands... Because that's all it is. The brands don't care. Coca-cola doesn't care.

Right, but they're riding the climate. They're doing this. It's going to swing back. Based on that, it inevitably does swing back, right? I don't- Then what do you say when it swings back? Not just in like, Yeah, the other party is now running the country. It's not going to be that. It's going to be, Man, these trials are grim. I mean, potentially it is like, Oh, man. Under his watch, that's what was allowed. That's why those files were never released. You definitely want the photographs of you yucking it up and chugging beers That guy? Six months or six years from now?

I'm sure there are some players in that locker room that feel some type of way about it and wish they weren't put in that position.

But you can't say anything about it. That's what I'm getting.

The implication is you have to let Cash Patel in. You have to roll with it, even if you're not comfortable, because being against it causes a scene. Then what you're hoping for it to not be your situation, you've just projected onto your teammates, onto the general manager, onto all the staffers that probably really love this.

That's also the difference between what happened at the beginning of the Olympics, which is all of these American Olympians expressing concern about what's happening here and getting on by the vice President of the United States as individuals individuals. There is a big difference between standing up in a team environment when, say, 75% even, if we want to be generous toward the group of guys who wouldn't have been so happy with what's going on there, say it's 75% of your clubhouse, your locker room, is cool with what's going on. It's tough to be the dissenting voice in that situation after you've celebrated, you're with your teammates. You don't want to be that guy. But it is when you listen to... It's not just, Hey, the President is calling. Of course, the President is going to call. That makes a lot of sense for the President to call after a big moment like that on a huge stage in a rivalry game for something that hasn't been done since 1980. It's the fact that halfway through, he's cracking jokes about having to invite the women who probably he doesn't want to invite because he thinks they're too old.

And they have the better tournament. They played exceptionally better than the US men. They only allowed two goals during the entire tournament. And, Oh, I'm going to have to invite them to the White House. Otherwise, I get impeached?

No. This goes back to the Doc Rivers press conference lap. It's like this is someone who of power and authority who we've got to be on good terms with. So I'm going to laugh even if the joke isn't funny.

But I'm telling you, man, when it is about wrapping yourself in old glory, and if you push back on that, while it's a completely valid thing to observe, Roy, that, man, that's a weird crack to make against the women who are a dynasty in their sport to make that crack. But if you bring that up, you're going to hear from people about, Why are you such a snowflake, Roy? Why can't you get behind? This is a great moment for the country.

I want to go back to the- Is the reaction.

I'm not saying... I'm living in the world that exists. It's not the one that I want to- They now have to deal with it.

I'm going to surprise you. For me, this one didn't even register on the threshold of like, wow, the politics is really ruining this moment. Maybe it's because the moment was so unprecedented in my lifetime. Maybe it was something that we were chasing for so long. I truly... Or maybe it's because I built up a little bit of a callous. Like, Cash Patel, it ain't going to really register with me. Now, Chelsea Club World Cup on the stage, Donald Trump being there presenting the championship and being in team photos, I'm like, this one's making it difficult. I think when you consider the balance of how much politics has been injected into sports, yeah, I wasn't crazy about the looks of that video, especially the shot that he took at the women's team. But all in all, I'm like, this one, we can survive this one. We can enjoy sports still. And it's a shame that I understand why a lot of people don't feel that way.

I agree with you. Obviously, I agree with that sentiment. What I'm saying is, is it going to put a stink on those guys given what may go down in the next year or three?

I don't think this administration is going to age particularly well.

It's not like Obama was in the locker room yucking it up. I can't believe I was with Obama after what we now know about Obama.

It's part of the Josh Pate thing that we discussed last week. I was just like, as a Josh Pate fan and as a fan of that show, I'm also a little bum, like, Dude, are you sure you want to do this? You want to sit down. But you know why he's doing it? You know why? I know what his intentions were. I know what he said, what he advertised this interview in terms of what it was going to be about. It was going to be an NIL discussion about college football, and the President certainly has opinions there and has power to do something about it.

Mike, it's not about that. It's not about that. It's the same reason all those comedy podcasts had them on before the election. It's not about... A lot of people falsely say, Oh, these guys are all mad. I'm like, They're not. They just want the views. You have the President on. It is a massive boost, regardless of whether people love them or hate them, regardless of whether your fan base loves that president or hates that president. It is a massive thing. We live in a time where that economy of attention is more important than ever and reaches to a grassroots level. It used to be there were the gatekeepers, and we always talk about gatekeepers in a bad way. Stop gatekeeping. But the reality is it also insulates the individuals from that impulse of just anything for attention. But now that we've removed the gatekeeping of broadcast television networks and all that stuff, and it's literally any guy with a camera and a microphone, if I have the right connections, I can get the guest on, and now my show can be a thing. At that point, your boy Josh Pate is not thinking, Oh, wait, am I Sports Washington.

He's thinking about, Oh, my God, this is it. That's right. This is how we crack all with Pardon My Take and Levatard Show and Bill Simmons' pod. That's how I break through.

And football America.

Don Levatard.

No one else here is willing to do a Trump or a Biden. That's not true, Dan. Okay, Tony, you can- Man of a thousand impersonations. That's not bad, man.

That's not terrible. Finally.

Pretty good.

Stugatz. Yours is terrible.

You just got to get a little redder, a little pinker. You're right there, man. Yours is not that you're biting me. What do you mean? Oh, his is good, Dan. That's actually not bad. This is good. That's not terrible. That's not terrible. We got to come together. A little Southern twang there. A little George Bush in that one.

This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugats. I get it, and I understand why people applied that scrutiny on the front I wanted to believe Josh Pate when he said, This is not going to be a political discussion. I'm going to ask him about NIL and college football and how we shape that. I listened to the interview this morning on my way. It was shorter than I thought. Pate actually explained why. The President. He said things changed with the schedule. And I will say that it wasn't a political discussion. I think Pate, and now I don't know how much was edited, but there was one moment where Trump patted himself on the back about the job that he did with Venezuela. But even for Trump, who meanders and rambles a lot, he didn't inject a lot of that into the conversation. There also wasn't college football. It was actually really embarrassing because there was one soft toss to the President, What would you do about this? And he started rambling about how the gamecocks are good in the NFL kickoff rule, and it was just bad.

He's really hot on that NFL kickoff rule.

All he talks about.

He was playing his football hits. But then the very next question is, would you talk about on the golf trip? And he blew up Urban Meyer's spot. We said it was a bipartisan conversation about college football. Instead, Trump was like, No, they were asking me about Iran, which was funny. But there was nothing there in terms of substantial N-I-L opinion, reshaping the sport? Did you think there was going to be? I thought so after Josh Pate taped it and said that's what the conversation was going to be. I have the full list of nine questions here. It was more like, Hey, how do you hire the people that you hire? What have you learned about being President twice. The Lincoln Bedroom story. Tell me about that. So at the end of it, we got an interview that no doubt will raise Josh Pate's profile, a profile that is ascending.

Well, I am curious that because, like I just said to Roy, you've got to live in the world that exists, not the one you wish were true. I feel like a lot of the people that I've seen online going at Josh Pate in advance of this, we're hoping this were hoping, This is going to damage your career, man. He also dismissed- Like Amin just said, Oh, no. Josh Pate understood this is going to enhance my- I never heard of Josh Pate until this came up.

Pate also dismissed the critiques that he got from people on that side of the aisle saying, How are you normalizing this person? He dismissed a lot of those criticisms as criticisms generated by bots, which wasn't the greatest look. Also not how the bots are working lately. But yeah, Trump got what he wanted, too, which was a sports platform, normalizing him and bringing an audience to Josh Pate. And all in all- And you're a snowflake if you complain about that arrangement.

That's my point. You cannot make noise about that or Cash Patel or otherwise, or be attacked by a large percentage of the country as being soft or a snowflake or unpatriotic.

But it didn't achieve anything other than that. It just maybe and to the skepticism that Amin is applying to it. Maybe that was the goal at the end of the day. But it was a bad interview with a rambling, meandering interview subject that actually didn't know anything about college football and didn't have anything to say on the matter. And Josh Pate didn't accomplish what he set out to do in terms of the gamut of we're going to have an NIL discussion, and that's why you take the president on. This guy is very powerful when it comes to reshaping the sport, and you didn't get any of that.

He could have shown himself for 22 minutes, literally. As long as he said, I got President Trump on, that's all it is about, man.

And by the way, Trump does get something out of that beyond that, like all the broadcasts, the comedy broadcasts from last year, two years ago. He did to the people he wants to play to, specifically in Georgia, talking about how Gunner's a great QB, and he loves Gunner, and he loves nick Saban, and he loves Herb. Well, mission accomplished then. I love Herb. He played the greatest hits there. Yeah.

There's a reason why they picked the varsity in Atlanta, Georgia, playing in that state, which is an important state for the midterms. And there's a reason why they picked Josh Pate's football program.

But the bottom line, what's most important, though, is that we make sure we separate sports and politics. Do you see the last 10 minutes of conversation have fed entirely what the stated thing, You people, with your taking a knee during the night. Why can't we? We want an escape, don't you know, from the real world. That's why we watch sports in the last 10 minutes of this show and a lot of the conversation since that gold medal game is about Cash Patel's presence in the dressing room and so on.

This is a lot of politics on the show today, even for me.

Am I to believe that they did this at the Varsity on North Ave? They did believe it. Let me tell you right now, as a Georgia Tech alum.

I don't think it's the one in North Ave. It was in Rome. It was in Rome, Georgia.

That's Atlanta Metro, guys. That's probably worse.

It was not on North Ave.

It was in Rome. I went to the Varsity at North. Everyone who goes to Georgia Tech as a freshman, you got to go eat at the Varsity, That's what we do. You go, you're like, Oh, my God. I got to go eat at the Varsity. You eat at the Varsity. And then you realize your bowels are JV because you are going to be shitting your sofa days. Not good? It is not good. It's bad. Sorry if you work at the Varsity, my bad. But no, everyone knows.

It's just close by.

You go once, you go once, and you never go again. Everyone I went to school with, you go once, you never go again.

Rambling rap from Georgia Tech. Hell of an engineer. Hell of an engineer.

I I'm a rambling, gambling, hell of an engineer. Hey.

Bruce Daurimple, Mark Price, John Sally, right?

Give me a little Lethal Weapon 3 there, if you can. Can you? Can you give me a little Lethal Weapon? No? Bobby Cremens. Kenny Anderson? No? No.

Dennis Oh, Kenny Anderson is... I don't know why we're talking about this in February of 2026. Kenny Anderson is still in the conversation for the best single season I've ever seen a college basketball player have.

Of any player?

He was so- Or point guard?

That you see with your own eyes? Because Pete Maravich had three seasons.

I didn't see Pete Maravich.

I didn't know how old you were.

I'm not 81 years young. My goodness, Tony. Pete Maravich. Sheesh.

What was Oscar like at Cincinnati?

Now, that was a basketball player. Triple, double every night.

Except back then, we call them three twos because we didn't have words like triple or double.

What are the great college basketball seasons in recent memory? Jeremy just said Kemba.

Kevin Love. Kevin Love that one year. Michael Beazley.

How recent is recent? What are the rules? 25 years? We're talking about '22.

You know it, then you see it. This century. Melo. Melo is Obviously, right at the top.

Ben Simmons had an incredible season. He was just not that good. The team wasn't good.

Iverson, yeah. Iverson's sophomore year was a couple of century. Chris Jackson. Oh, that's a good one.

At LSU.

That's a good one.

That's one of those ones that when you look back, it's like when you look at some of those Clemson teams that never got over in football. Lsu had Stanley Roberts, Chris Jackson- Shaquille O'Neill. And Shaq. Why was that? Why did they go undefeated? Why didn't they just beat everybody by 98 points every night?

It was crazy. Because Dale Brown was a bagman, not a coach. That's why. Shout out, Coach Brown.

I can think of one more. Sally Antutaj.

It's going to win MVP of the day, of the year.

I thought we were wrapping up there. I'm sorry. I was looking at the clock there. I thought saying Sally on two shoes was a good way to go out. Nailed it.

Sag mal, Nikola, hast du auch immer dieses Gefühl, bei der Steuererklärung mit einem Bein schon im Knast zu stehen?

Boah, nee, gar nicht. Wieso Steuer ist so die Steuer-App, mit der ich wirklich nichts falsch machen kann. Wow. Das heißt, damit ist alles sicher? Ja, genau. Wieso Steuer ist die Steuer-App, die dich versteht. Weil Steuer betrifft ja dein ganzes Leben. Arbeit, Kinder, Partner. Du kannst nichts falsch machen.

Stimmt. Nice. Fühlt sich gar nicht wie Steuern an.

Steuern erledigt?

Safe.

Mit Wieso Steuer. Jetzt kostenlos testen.