Transcript of Hour 1: Bad Talkers & Bad Benny (feat. Jonathan Zachlowe)

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.

This is the Dan Levatore Show with the Stugats podcast.

Folks, listen up. You think you've got the boldest take of the week, or would you like love advice from Greg Cody? We want to do something fun for Valentine's Day with Greg Cody. If you have the boldest take of the week or you want love advice, send in those hot takes or send in those questions. Call 305-486-GOTS.

We're going to get to some Roger Goodell sound in a second, but I did find... I don't know that I'm going to say funny, but when I saw the ESPN headlines on espn. Com, and they put them in the order of interest and importance, Goodell colon, Belichick will eventually be a Hall of Famer, is, and I understand how and why this happens, but think about how silly it is that this happens. It is above NFL to look into Tisch's Epstein files connections. So you have an NFL owner who's in the Epstein files all over the place. I think, what were the movies he made? He made... Oh, man. He made the Tom Cruise movie Risky Business, for example. It was one of the movies- Really? Yeah, that Tisch helped produce. He didn't direct it, but- Great movie. Did he make Forrest Gump? I think. Really? I think he made Forrest Gump. Maybe you guys can check that for me- He did. To make sure. But it's because of the difficulty of talking in sports about anything Epstein related.

Also, Soulman. You remember that flick?

Yeah.

You know what that one was about?

Would never get made today.

Equalizer 2 and 3. Equalizer 2 is great. Equalizer 3 was fun, too. Based in Italy.

The larger point I'm making that Gidele saying that Belichick will eventually get into the Hall of Fame in no world should be higher in terms of news value than the other story. But good luck finding people able to talk in the media about the idea that the New York Giants, in the sports media, that the owner of the New York Giants needs to be run out as soon as there's a factor. You got to ask Adele about that. He was asked about it, among other things. If any of this is even any semblance of true, this has to be a scandal that engulfs the owner of the New York Giants.

I think so far, his explanation, and I'm boiling it down, don't take this as a direct quote, but that legal adult went off me, Coach, was basically his excuse. That grown woman was at play there. It wasn't some of the other stuff, which is a real Frank Reynolds It's Always Sunny excuse.

The Gödel sound from yesterday that a lot of people are noticing. See if you notice here what happens when Roger Gödel is talking about Bad Bunny's speech at the Grammys. Did you watch the Grammys, Greg? I did. What did you like about the Grammys? Was there anything in there that you liked?

I liked most of it. There were some weird stuff. When I saw Justin Bieber's performance, I didn't even hear the song because I'm just mesmerized by what this guy is or isn't wearing and why he's doing it. It was just bizarre. And then Lady Gaga's in a Wicker Basket helmet. I mean, there was just- Those were two great performances, I thought. They were great. They were and Gaga. They were memorable.

Why was Bieber in his underwear?

Laying it all bare.

Yeah, it worked. And the shots to his wife.

That's what he wore? Yeah.

It was literally a stripped-down performance. It's cold art. Yeah, it was pretty good. You should recreate that.

It must have been cold in there.

I think that was honestly Bieber's best moment in a really long time. I couldn't agree more.

One of the coolest performances he's had on an award show for sure.

Yeah, that album was a bit of a comeback for him, and that was a really cool moment for a dude that's It needed some positive stuff out there.

What do you think of Bruno Mars? He's also making a comeback.

Yeah, it's more the same. I like Bruno. Bruno is fun always. I like the Grammys. I think the Grammys are always pop culture encapsulations. I like being confused. Who's this person. I like discovering new ones. I embrace sometimes that I feel a little bit old watching it. It forces me to set my game up. I got other acts that aren't on the televised portion of the broadcast that I'm super into. I'm a big turn style guy. I saw that they won awards. I like the clips. I like that they had. Talk about the Epstein files. Although he knew that he was on a plane with Elon.

I am not the person to talk, given that I just made a reference that was more than 200 years old. But old guy watching the Grammys and saying as an observation, What are they wearing? Is just perfect. Like, What? Beaver, the artist. Yeah, the music. Why is he in his under?

Wears. Okay, I thought about that the same way I think watching the Met Gala. I get that it's performance art. I get all that. It doesn't mean that I can't make fun of a woman wearing a Wicker.

But you didn't make fun of it. It was your only observation when I asked you, What do you think of the Grammys? Those two people were wearing those things.

Right, that's That's what stands out to me. When I think of the Grammys, I think of what visually stands out. One was Justin Bieber, what he wasn't wearing, and the other was Gaga's hat. Really? That's just me.

I thought Bad Bunny winning Album of the Year at the first ever Spanish language album of the Year, and having those moments. I also saw an IG reel that has me convinced he does indeed wear a bulletproof vest because of all the threats that he's been receiving, because he was moving, strangely, at that. The way that it was tailored, it was weird. And there's this whole IG reel that he's wearing a bulletproof vest now because of all the threats that he's receiving.

I thought it was interesting watching Trevor Noah try to get Trevor. Trevor. Isn't that his name? Yes.

But he's from South Africa, so I think they pronounce it Trevor.

No, he was trying to get Bad Bunny to perform even a snippet, which would have been against his NFL contract with the Super Bowl. Is that right? Yeah, and he finally did.

It was a bit. It was a whole bit he did where he's like, Hey, can you perform? He's like, I can't. And Trevor started singing his songs, trying to get him to sing.

And he sang two or three words of his song. So I hope that doesn't-Put it on the poll, please, at Lebitard Show, do you think Bad Bunny will wear a bulletproof vest during his Super Bowl performance because you would assume not.

Wow, that's dark.

Too much gyrating happening.

You can't wear a bulletproof vest while gyrating. But I'm surprised by what Mike's saying there and unsurprised.

Again, alleged. That's not confirmed. Yeah, it was a highly convincing I. G. Reel. And that's where 90% of Americans get their news these days.

Yeah, that's correct. And in these troubled times when Roger Goodell is being asked if there will be ICE operations around the Super Bowl this week, you can believe just about anything when it comes to safety and people being afraid for their lives. But let's get Roger Goodell's thoughts specifically on Bad Bunny having a politics in his speech about ICE at the Grammys.

Listen, Bad Bunny, and I think that was demonstrated last night, one of the great artists in the world. And that's one of the reasons we chose him. But the other reason is he understood the platform he was on, and that this platform is to use to unite people and to be able to bring people together with their creativity, with their talent, and to be able to use this moment to do that. I think artists in the past have done that. I think Bad Bunny understands that, and I think he'll have a great performance.

At the end, he cleaned it up. But how did he pronounce his name at the beginning? Bad Bunny.

To be fair to Raj, by the way, Benito's his name. So maybe he's introduced him as Benito. They're not going to introduce you as your stage name.

It's embarrassing. For sure, a A mistake he made that can be cleaned up that way.

Bad Bunny. His real name is not Bad Bunny? Bad Bunny.

He did get it right at the end. And again, I'm in no position to make fun of anybody getting names wrong.

Bad Bunny.

I can't believe I made an Ichabod Crane reference. I'm still reeling from that. It's the best part of the show, Dan.

Don't be upset.

I have in front of me Sam Amick. Okay, he's an excellent reporter as well. He says, As of Monday evening, the offers coming the Bucks way for the Greek freak were still believed to be so overwhelming in the eyes of rival executives and agents that this saga looked likely to extend into the summer. That reporting comes off of the heels of what it is that Zack Lo said.

Jonathan Zack Lo.

He's cooking.

I have no opinion on it. You get it? I'm warming up to it, though.

Thank you.

It grows on you. It grows on you. No, it was funny. Good stuff.

Jonathan Zacklo? Yeah. Have you checked out since you're back in my day? Because you really hit it- It's been a while. You hit it out of the park with your Back in My Day, and reputationally, over the years- Historically. Generally, once you... What Tony just did, now that was the hand coming down as a plane crashing. What generally happens if I go in my day too early in the show. What I get the rest of the show is something in the form of Jonathan Zacklo, and then you're amused with yourself.

Satisfied. Been 30 minutes past, he hasn't said anything.

It's just like a bonus show for him is what it is.

I got a material left. I could tell you all about Dick Hammer.

Go on.

Let's follow this thread.

Dick Hammer was an actor in the late '50s to '60s who portrayed the Marlborough Man on TV cigarette ads. Ironically, not really, Dick Hammer died of lung cancer. Not linking that to cigarettes, just presuming. Dick Hammer is the late great grandfather of Super Bowl quarterback Sam Darnold. How about that? I ain't making it up. You're going to look it up.

No, I know. We've talked about it before. You just wanted to say Dick Hammer.

I love that name.

We have talked. I mean, what is that sound? Is that the ghost of Dick Hammer?

I'm not hitting anything.

That's creepy. Is that the ghost of Dick Hammer?

Might be haunting us.

You've got to admit that you just wanted to say Dick Hammer. If his father or his grandfather had merely been the former Marborough man, that, too, would have been interesting. But you just wanted to say Dick Hammer.

Hammer time.

There's a couple of interesting things about Sam Darnold. Just none of them are Sam Darnold.

Well, Mike McDonald is the world's least interesting person.

He might be the most boring. We've done it. Ladies and gentlemen, we found the most boring dude.

It's a boring off. Who's more boring? We got to be able to find somebody more boring.

Like, Vrabel's got some juice to him. I like that. But Drake May, pretty boring.

Sam Darnold, Mike McDonald, combo, quarterback coach.

Wow. I mean, Belichick, Katie was pretty bad. But at least Katie had his face.

In terms of talkers. We saw good looks.

But talkers as talkers.

Not this bad, though. At least Belichick would at least, We're on to Cincinnati. He would at least give us something that we would replay.

You think Mike McDonald is appreciably more boring as a talker than Bill Belichick?

I think the defense that Bill Belichick would play against press conferences was interesting.

Whereas Mike McDonald- After 20 years, because you got so bored with everything he was doing, that after 20 years, you're just... You can't say Mike Belichick.

Mike McDonald is actually answering questions, but it's just like nothing I want to listen to. There were some clips of Mike McDonald from Radio Row, Their Media Day last night. There's nothing.

I can't believe it.

Even remotely interesting.

It's staggering. It's staggering that he doesn't say interesting things outside of the fact that he doesn't see his son outside of 30 minutes a week. Wait, damn, that one. That one was interesting, but the way that he delivered it wasn't exactly-It was an accident. Yeah, it was a mistake, and he's learned from it already.

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Yes.

I'm a married man. I don't cheat on my wife despite that gratuitous line back in my day.

Stugatz.

I wish you were here, my wife. I really miss her. No, I don't. That's the thing about being married. You're not allowed to say, I don't miss my wife. I've been gone two days. I haven't been gone long enough to miss my wife. I'm sorry. I call her. I'm on the phone with her for 30 seconds. What am I? Hello. All right. All right. We'll see you. All right. Then I'm going to see her in two days. How's jumping Charlie? Good.

This This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugats. The most interesting thing about Mike McDonald to me is that the Scottish surname McDonald, he doesn't capitalize the D in Donald, not unlike the great late comic actor, Norm McDonald.

Mcdonald. He didn't capitalize the D in Donald either. Very unusual. But here you have two guys choosing not to do that. It interests me.

See, even the stories about him are boring.

The etymology of not capitalizing the D in McDonald interest me. To my knowledge, the Seahawks coach has never been asked that in a press conference.

Well, Zaslow, I see you smiling, and I think I know why you're smiling. Can you tell the audience? I want to write it down. I'm going to write down why I think you're smiling, and just we'll see if Greg Cody is in any way embarrassed by this. Go ahead.

I just find it interesting that, Greg, you don't even pretend to listen to this show when you're not here.

I said that last week is what I wrote down on the piece of paper because Zazlo was smiling. So he's come with Dick Hammer, and McDonald spells it with a small D. A little D, yeah. So it's recycled stuff that we've said a week ago.

I missed that show. I apologize. Normally I listen to every minute of the what, 6, 7 hours of the show you do every day.

We were really interested in it when Zaz said it for the first time, and we all learned it together a week ago.

He gave us a Norm McDonald comp, though. That was more than what Zaz said. I think he did that.

Just like Zaz said.

Zaz said, Isn't this peculiar? And didn't add anything to the conversation.

You leveled up, my friend. I think I did the Dick Hammer thing a few weeks ago, too.

What are you doing there? Because if we're doing ghost stuff, I think we should go-I'm not doing anything. Okay, well. Look at that. Look at that. He's right. Look at that. He's right.

He's the preview monitor.

Look, you don't need to listen to the show when you're not here, Greg, but you need to listen to it while we're doing it. You pointing at a monitor that is a screen that hasn't been put on our televisions yet because it's a lion, a seal, and terrible artificial intelligence because Louis has a toy is not the way to do the show here.

Hold on, Greg, you've been here a lot longer than I have. Do you know what each monitor here means?

No. No chance. No, No shot. What are you kidding? No, don't learn anything. I'm not a technician. No, don't learn anything. What I was beginning to say- It is a little tough. Got to be honest. Go to the sound, please, because when I think of ghostly stuff, I want... You guys did hear, right, that the NFL is now signing up Madrid long term. The Dolphins went to Madrid. The Dolphins had a ghostly sound emerge.

I don't have a ghost sound here. It's just happening.

Let's go Dolphins. Yeah, Chris, it's a different ghost, not the one you're pretending that you're not playing. He's not playing.

I don't know what you're talking about. There's a ghost haunting the show.

They're playing Which is more ghostly?

The Spanish Gallian, Dan Marino, for sure.

Are you sure? I think both of these things are pretty ghostly. You think that Dan Marino, as a peg leg, coming through the fog. Thank you, finally. We talked about this. Coming through the fog in a haunted 1820s, where Ichabod Crain is- He's reading Ichabod Crain.

It just came out.

There's a fog there, and I feel on that, physically, who do you imagine being on that pirate boat filled with haunting ghosts, because I think Jaime Haka has to be on it as a conquistador, right? Just physically, the way that his face looks like, he's got to be on that boat that's making its way through the-Let's go, Dolphins. Why are you smiling, Zazlo? What's so funny?

I mean, he played in front of crowds for 20 years. He doesn't understand. He's never heard the chant, Let's go Dolphins.

It is really easy, right? It is an easy chant to do. What do you make of the fact?

Probably the easiest.

Do you think he regrets it at all? Do you think it stays with him in any way that he went out there? No, you guys are just shaking it.

He doesn't even know he did it.

Let's be honest. Wait a minute. He's 60. He's not 160.

It's not about that. I think he thinks he nailed it, doesn't know we ever mocked it. He thinks it's just perfect.

No, come on. You think these guys are surrounded by so many yes people at all times?

Good job, Dan O. Good job, boss.

That's going to catch on, Dan. Dan, the man.

That's what you guys think.

You're so right, Dan. You're not doing that, Chris.

You're not doing this. Big pat on the back from Conjemi.

Greg, what the hell are we going to do with the How do you fix something that doesn't appear like it can be fixed? When Roger Goodell is being asked, he's saying, We've got a lot of work to do. It's been 20 years that they've had this rule, this cycle. Now, I would understand how anybody listening to this, would say to themselves some form of what? Every cycle, I have to hire a minority, I'm obligated, or this is going to come up? But the commissioner is putting his voice on, Yeah, I know this is a problem. I know we have a lot of work to do. I know I know that the thing that... I don't think he's doing it just because of optics. I think he is trying to figure out how to fix this. And what just ends up happening every single time is a white owner ends up getting into interviews with people he either knows or commonalities, or most of his circle is also other white people. And so what ends up happening is the recommendations that come from people who just have commonalities. It doesn't have to an outright racism as much as it is just a problem that keeps a race from getting into a position of power more often because so many of the interviews are clearly bogus.

It's just bullshit interviews that honestly are insulting 20 years in to people who are going in when they know they don't have a chance whatsoever to get the interview. So the only reason they take the interview is so they can practice interviewing.

Right. Which in and of itself is not a terrible thing. And another advantage of it is if you're a minority candidate for head coach, for example, and you interview in this cycle with two different teams, let's say, a year from now, you have that on your resume. You have been interviewed for the head coaching position, which increases the likelihood that you'll continue to be interviewed because you've had that experience before. So in the long term, I think it does help even when you're over 10 hiring a minority minority head coach in this particular cycle, you've given the opportunity to be interviewed to so many minority coaches that in the long term, that doesn't hurt. That helps.

Okay, but it's not good enough, right?

It's not good enough.

If Goodell knows it, do you think he's just saying... I believe him. I am in a position where I tend to be just generally skeptical of all power, period. But I do believe that he's looking at this and he's like, Yeah, I've got a problem. I don't know how to fix this. I can't fix it. How do I fix this? It's obviously a problem. And 20 years in, it shouldn't be this problem where last week you're on with us and you're telling us ridiculously that Mike McDaniel ends up satisfying the Rooney Rule quota because one of his parents was Black.

Really, I think the only way that it gets fixed, and it's not really a fix, it's just reality, is the owners like It's these owners, it's all older gentlemen. These owners have to essentially go away and give way to a younger generation of owners who have had more interactions with minorities. Until that happens, I don't know how it gets fixed.

But there's progress. Yeah, of course. It doesn't feel like it. I'm sure everybody imagined with the introduction of the Rooney roll, some more minority hires would have happened. But some of the incentives that they put in place for these teams, those are really working. They're draft picks, right? Yeah. Look at what the Niners and Rams keep doing. Now, they're blessed to have the guy at head coach that crowns the next guy, right? King-making head coaches. They are making some of the most progressive hires because when Rob Salah gets hired, I get a third-round pick. I'll replace him with Raheem Morris because people want the dude that stands next to the dude. Sean McVay, the very same way.

I don't know the answer to this, but what also hurts Black candidates from getting these head coaching jobs is They're always defensive coaches, right? There's never the black offensive coordinator. Are there any black offensive coordinators? I saw Eric Biennemi- Byron Lefwitch was. Right. I saw Eric Biennemi just got a job, but he's never called the plays for cancer. He's always been Andy Reid. Essentially, what I'm saying is it's really only 50%, you're cutting it in half. There aren't black candidates on the offensive and defense side. It's really only the defensive side.

That's weird, right? I'm not sure how weird it is, given that the offensive masterminds, whoever you associate with that, Andy Reid or Shana Khan. I'm talking about Mike Shana Khan, not Kyle Shana Khan. Whoever you associate with the people who teach offense, none of them are black. The people who have had that power have been white. But the point Mike's making is a super interesting one because do you realize how bad a problem has to be in that sport when you're salary capped, all right? And everyone is looking for any they can get anywhere because everyone is equal under how much money you can pay. They're incentivizing. We'll give you draft pics. It's like the most valuable thing. We'll give you draft pics. Just do this. Please help us here. And they still can't fix it. You still got the Commissioner of the League. It's a fairly extraordinary gesture for a Commissioner of the League to say, I'll give you draft pics if you just hire some minorities. And It's still first day of the Super Bowl week. He's giving a press conference where he's like, I can't get this fixed. What do I have to do to get this fixed?

What more can I do? These people are looking for advantages everywhere. These people will cheat to get a draft pick if they know they will not get caught. All of them will cheat if I give them a valuable draft pick for free. It's incentivized and it's still a problem. That is a bit crazy, isn't it, given how competitive these people are? And that McVay is known as gaming the system because he's like, Sure. Look at their staffs, their position coaches.

They built this into their talent acquisition. They have less respect for the cap because they know that every once in a while, we can count on one of those third-round traffic. They're doing it right. Now, you need that prolonged success. You need to have a head coach that has that reputation. But I do think there are some really good examples of it working.

Don Lebatard. Surely every time you're watching this, you recognize that your wife is laughing that she married Larry David.

I do, yeah. One of the great characters in the history of television, in my humble opinion. To my credit, my personality- In my humble opinion, followed by to my credit.

To my credit.

It's amazing. My personality does predate Curve your enthusiasm. Stugatz. Oh, wow. I'm not going to say Larry David patterned himself after me.

All right, put it on the poll, please, Jude. You did Greg Cody, Copyright Being an Asshole, long before Larry David. This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugatz. When you say that, though, Mike, I don't think people totally understand how rare it is for someone McVay's age to have the stability of confidence of, Yeah, I got this job for as long as I want it. I know I got this job. I know I'm good at this. I'm not on a hot seat. I'm never going to be on a hot seat. Everyone knows I'm good at this. I can hire whoever I want because I know I'm good at this. So I've had no shackles on me whatsoever because I'm not, Oh, shit, I'm going to lose my job in two years. Oh, they just blew out my GM. I don't have any support. There are so few guys in that sport. It's what you need leadership to have in order for this to be possible. So you have the of incentivizing with traffic, but you also need to have the young leader because older guys are going to be influenced by they came up through the system and they do it the way that everyone else has done it.

The institutional stuff is going to be embedded in how it is they do it because it's how they learn to do it and all their white coaches from beforehand are always the guys who they're learning offense from because the black guys aren't the offensive coordinators very often. The idea of that is crazy to me. But getting back to what it is that Mike was saying before about Mike McDonald. In a Super Bowl where we love the sport by itself, but you need story lines in order to make the week interesting. You need personalities you care about. You need... Sam Darnold's got an interesting story. I don't know that as a quarterback, he's someone necessarily that you're super interested in hearing talk or perform. The centerpieces of this Super Bowl in terms of stardom, given that the Patriot skill position guys we learned about this year. Smith and Jigba, we learned this year is the best receiver in football, but we don't know much about him as a personality. When you look at these teams, interesting stars are not something that you see a lot of. I'm not saying there aren't good players, and I'm not saying there aren't good stories, but just somebody is a personality that you got to check out at Media Day.

Mac Collins, Diggs has some interesting stuff around him.

Certainly some controversial stuff stuff around them, too. Has Cardi B as a partner. Is that an illustrious career? But no, usually the Super Bowl have a little bit more juice, more star power.

I think that's part of the issue that you have of people being slightly less interested in the results of this Super Bowl, I think it's at least in part, because it doesn't make sense to me at all, that you would have two teams with longer odds than any that you have ever seen in a Super Bowl, 60 to one and 80 to one before season started, and that people would be less interested in that. I thought the underdog and the surprise was one of the best things about sports, both of those things. Sam Darnold is an underdog. The Patriots, obviously, aren't as an organization, but this team is.

Usually is. Usually is. And that's always what they sell you before every season. Like, your team has a chance. We have parity. But this is a league that has been highly dependent on four faces for the last 30 years. Like, Manning, braided, Belichick, Rodgers occasionally gets in there. Mahomes was able to get it handed down from braided, matched up in a AFC Championship game, matched up in a Super Bowl with him. And this is a league that is in transition right now, trying to find the next spaces that are going to run the place.

Well, are they actually the underdogs? It's the number one seed and the number two seed.

Oh, But I'm just saying 60 to 81 odds. Three season odds. Eighty-one odds before the season. There are two teams we didn't expect to get there. You could do one seed and two seed, and you'd be right. But in having no stars, in having, I guess, not enough story the football has to carry you. But when I think of the best things in sports, the top of the list to me on that is patriotism. Not regional identity, but national identity. It's why the World Cup is such a giant. Patriotism, to me, around your sports makes it the best. It's why the greatest upset in the history of United States sports is the 1980 Olympic Hockey Team, because it had both things. It had patriotism and the second thing. I thought underdog or surprise was the second best thing of what do people want with their sports. You guys can nominate something else if you've got something else to nominate, if you think that there's something else that you put second. But I thought that was the order. If you want me to get swept up in something where I'm emotional, where I am doing something in front of my television that I don't do in normal life, I'm jumping up and down, I'm crying, I'm excited.

I think patriotism first, and I think, give me an underdog story that totally knocks me off my feet. I'm surprised. I wasn't expecting that. I guess I'm putting these together on the second-place line. I'm putting underdog/surprise. I'm making them the same The equal or synonyms. But what else would you put up there?

Well, in this case, I don't think New England is a classic underdog, even though they went 4-13 the past two seasons. But that's a blip.

Aren't they the 80 to 1, though? Aren't they the biggest underdog in the the history of the Super Bowl by preseason odds?

Yes, because they were coming off a 4-13 season. But they just got done with a dynasty. They just got done with Belichick-Brady. When we talk about the patriots of all teams being on the cusp of perhaps another dynasty, everybody outside of Boston is going, Oh, God, not this again. But if they pull this upset and Drake may leads it, coming out of this Super Bowl, Drake May at age 23 is going to be seen as an elite quarterback, coupled with Mike Vrabel leading a new dynasty 2. 0 in New England.

This Super Bowl has to drive passionate fans of certain teams. Insane. Insane. To see both these franchise is up there. The Seahawks, in terms of the NFC and playoff in Super Bowl appearances, they've made it the most... They're tied for the most out of any franchise in the last 25 years. They went there with Hasselbeck. They went to two with Russell Wilson, and here they are with a whole new core, yet again, fourth Super Bowl in the last 25 years. That's really impressive and hard to do. Patriots just tore down the greatest pro football dynasty of our lives and are back a couple of years later.

Was this 11th of the century for them?

Chris Collinsworth, I think, is called Six Super Bowl. Five of them are Patriot Super Bowl. It's nuts. If I'm a Dolphin fan, if I'm a Jet fan, I'm pulling my hair out. It's not good. I think another thing, too, that people will tune in to Chase is Chase for Perfection. That's another thing that's a bit of a novelty where it's like, All right, you're not the underdog, but you're the 2007 Patriots. People are going to watch just to see if something that they've never seen before happened. Ucla from the early '70s that went undefeated. All these teams have this lore behind them. You're like, All right, if they can do that, obviously, we don't have that in the Super Bowl, but that, to me, is another thing that I'll go watch.

Well, that's also part of this, right? So not only are you used to seeing these uniforms there, but you have two preseason underdogs, not a preseason underdog against a juggernaut. If the Seahawks or the Patriots, obviously same conference as the Chiefs. But if you had the Chiefs there, yet again, the great dynasty, and then one of these teams that wasn't supposed to be there, you could create that drama. But you have two teams that nobody considered. So no matter what, it's, Oh, cool story. One of the teams won that wasn't supposed to win. And yet you're also so used to seeing these uniforms in the Super Bowl that you don't even feel like they're underdogs.

You can't be both Seahawks. You can't be underdogs, and you're there every other year.

Well, despite the preseason odds, I don't think you should consider Seattle or New England a classic underdog. Now, if it's Jacksonville, if they had made the Super Bowl, if Houston had made the Super Bowl- But wait, what you guys are doing, I get what you're doing organizationally, but also in this conversation, I'd put it right up there with history.

If I'm saying top five things that people loved about sports or love consistently about sports, it'll make them get attached to something. Because stars is Not in my top five, although I think stars helps a Chief's Eagles Super Bowl because people like stars. Gambling. Well, yes, of course. Taylor Swift. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Fame and gambling, yes. But I'm just doing generic things that would apply to everybody in the history of sports. And up in my top five would be, Nobody believed in us. If I've got a regional identity that I've tied up in my team, Patriot fans, for all you think of, man, they've been hogging logging the championships. They're going to be able to yell, This year, Nobody believed in us, the way they haven't since they played the greatest show on Turf with Tom braided in his first year. And Sam Darnold, Nobody believes in us. Nobody believes in me. Usually, these are the ingredients you need is what I'm telling you. And I feel like people are saying, No, stars. Give me stars. It's got all the other ingredients, and they're like, No. And Smith and Jigba is better than everybody at what he does, but not He's great at football.

But do you think people would recognize him in a grocery store outside of Seattle?

Jackson SM.

Which is why you need the biggest star on the planet to bring me the eyes. Bad Benny.

I thought Chris was going to play that for you there. I was going to say Bad Benny in front of you instead. You guys are just using gratuitous shots of Bad Benny, putting him up on the screen because you just want to game the algorithm to try and get anything going around the Fame of Bad Benny, who is the biggest star at the Super Bowl. Bad Benny. He'd also be the biggest star if anybody in sports other than LeBron James was playing in this Super Bowl. Bad Benny might still be bigger. Put it on a poll. Messy. Put it on the poll at Leventard's show. Who's a bigger star? Bad Benny or LeBron? Put it on the poll as well. Who's a bigger star? Bad Benny or Lionel Messy.

If you had to bet, where does this rating peak? I'm in on halftime. Bad Benny.

Really? Well, not if the game is close.

That's quite the qualifier, though. If we have a one-score game with three minutes left, that always reflects in the ratings, always. But if we're anticipating a home-home game, this number peaks.

I was saying there are a couple of things that have been really interesting to me about the evolution of football. I was telling you about the Wullen call in the Seattle game that the referee made, how stunned I was that everyone yelled at woolen and no one yelled at the referee that we've changed and whitewashed the entirety of what it is. Used to be guys, woof, guys trash talk. It's a normal thing. You don't penalize somebody in that situation for that call. It seems like a million years ago that Super Bowl's were just always terrible. I expect this game to be close late. Why? Because football. Because football lately, everyone's close late. I don't even know how it's going to happen because I think Seattle is better. But something's going to happen with Sam Darnold, and something's going to make that game close. I just used to always think as recently as, I don't know, fewer than 10 years ago, the Super Bowl is going to be bad. The game is not going to be close.

Right. I covered about 15 or 20 Super Bowl's in a row. It seems like I covered a lot of 38 to 10s when Buffalo was losing big.

Denver was always getting blown out.

Yeah. I mean, there were some really lopsided Super Bowl. But you're right, the league itself is now so parody-soaked that every game is close in the fourth quarter.

Yeah, we had a pretty good three-year run. When you look back on it, it might be the best run with the two Chiefs' Eagles, a Chief's Niners, Ram's Bengals. That's a pretty solid run.

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 drunk ice cold. Or don't drink it at all. Damn, that's cold. Exactly. You're finally starting to get it.

Drink responsibly. Jägermeister L'Core, 35% alcohol by volume, imported by Mass Jägermeister US, White Plains, New York.