Transcript of Hour 1: Shut Up, Paul Maurice Is Talking (feat. Paul Maurice)

This is the Dan Levatore Show with the Stugats podcast.

Two-time Stanley Cup champion Paul Maurice will be joining us here in a few minutes.

That bore.

The preseason has begun, and the Panthers don't seem to be taking it terribly seriously. Matthew Kachuk was going to jump into the pool with Matt McAfee, Matthew Kchuck. Everyone speaks highly of Matthew Kachuk. Everyone likes everything that guy's about.

He gets it, man. And he's been such a great ambassador for the sport. Last week, I said, including LeBron, name a more impactful sports acquisition in this pro market. When you apply the context of where the Panthers were as a franchise, it's not even particularly close. The impact, the game-changing impact, franchise changing, altering impact that Matthew Kuchuk has had. And from observing him and hanging out with him some, I've always known he's been a great ambassador for the game because he's a good talker. He's always eager to do these interviews with everybody. But to see, UM fans, Miami is an event town. Miami still has a long way to go in terms of being a hockey market. There are a lot of people that are going up to him just curious, what is this big hoopla? And every child that goes up to him. It's not just a pat on the head and a picture that would make somebody's day. It's a sit down conversation, make sure I give you my time.

He was happy to to everyone.

The guy knows. He just gets it. What a great ambassador for South Florida sport. He's the first ever hockey player to make pics on College game day. He's a star. His play deserves being a star. But his attitude and his approach to fans and the sport and making people fans of his and the sport, I can't say enough good things about the guy.

I think he's perfect. I think he's everything you want. If I'm Gary Bettman and I ask him, Who do you think or who do you want to be the face of your league? I pick Matthew Kachuk. He plays for the two-time Championship team. He's engaging. He's arguably the best American player in the league. He's exactly who you want.

I told him. I wanted to make sure. I mean, somebody's told him in the last couple of years, but I wanted to make sure he heard from me. And I told him, You have any idea how horrendous this franchise was for my entire life before these last couple of years? I wanted to make sure he knew, Dan.

Is it weird for a 50-year-old to be saying that to a 27-year-old?

I'm not 50, number one. You're how important you are to be. I didn't say it like that. You mean so much. I've been around athletes before. You mean so much. There's no star struck here. I didn't sound like a jerk like that. Get out of here.

I'm so happy.

My kids beat me up. You know what?

Will one's here today, right? He could just come and smack you across the head.

He's not the one that will challenge him.

Yeah, that one's not old enough.

He's not allowed to. Why? You don't think you could take him? I think it'd be a fair fight, sizing two of you up.

There were some people that were a little disappointed in Matthew Kuchuk being the game day picker. I guess they wanted Dwyane the Rock Johnson or some superstar. But to have that guy go out there decked out in UM gear, holding up UM hockey jerseys and then be like, No, I'm going to go to the game. I'm going to pull up with a huge Panthers cooler with about six of my teammates. Hey, this is Anton. Let me introduce you. Go up to a tailgate, listen to all sorts of Bad Bunny, and just throw them back and just enjoy the day. That dude has a VIP treatment waiting for him at a Hard Rock stadium. No, I'm going to talk to the team. I'll be right back. I'm going to need to leave my cooler here. I want to be amongst the people. These guys are great.

We're going to get to Paul Maurice in a second, but first, I got to make fun of me. I myself and Chris Cody. I will again remind you that while giving you betting advice a while ago, Orials starter Trevor Rogers was going in the game, and Chris Cody bet against the Orials only because it was Trevor Rogers. My only analysis is you throw that guy out there, you're going to get an ERA over five. Since then, go ahead and play the stat of the day music so that people can hear just how good Trevor Rogers has been this season. Start of the day, start of the day.

This is start of the day. Start of the day, start of the day. This is start of the day. Start of the day, start of the day. This is start of the day. Start It is the start of the day. It is the start of the day.

It is the start of the day.

Dan, to make this even worse for me, my exact quote when I talked about Trevor Rodgers months back was, If I know anything in this world, it's you bet against Trevor Rodgers. No pitcher in the history of Major League Base has had 17 plus starts in a season and allowed fewer earned runs than starts. 17 starts, no one's ever had fewer earned runs than starts. Trevor Rodgers has a chance to make history this season. With his 17 starts, he's allowed 16 earned runs all season. And I said months ago, If I know anything in this world, you bet against Trevor Rogers.

Are you aware of just how long baseball's history is and how many pitchers have thrown baseballs in that sport? For that to be what haunt us following that analysis. You understand how many people, how many arms have thrown baseballs without being as good as the left arm that Trevor Rodgers has had this season.

I don't get it because he wasn't that good with us.

No, he was terrible.

I'm not going to lie, I haven't watched the single star with the Orioles. What's happened?

Since the 1880s, people have been pitching.

The Orioles are also a team that I told you would be great for 10 years because of their farm system. They've been betrayed by pitching. This year. And also, at least the Braves have injuries to look at.

I'm making excuses for them.

They suck. The Orioles ran into the Yankees this weekend, and there was a baseball storyline that I was actually into because of the local times, because Giancarlo Stanton hit his 450th home run of his career against the Orioles. I didn't know he was that high. I didn't know that he was up to 450.

He's going to sneak into the Hall of Fame.

He's apparently the fifth youngest to reach that number. I Obviously, you're talking about all-time greats. In terms of modern era, it's just Maguire and Aarod. Aarod was played when he was 18 years old. That got to that number quicker than John Carlos Stanton. I know the production later in his career here, and he's been hobbled by injuries. I don't know if this is a guy that could be in that conversation, especially given where he is in age. But I would love to see him have a healthy go at it because he still got an incredible pop.

I think all 500 home run guys are in the Hall of Fame. I don't know if the sport has changed so much now that that might change. No, there's a lot that aren't.

Is that right? Yeah. Jose Kenseiko is the- Is it Arod?

Gary Sheffield.

The leader of Who's Not.

There's a bunch. Yeah, how much of that is- Raphael Palmero. But all that is steroid speculation. And John Carlo being built the way that he has, but he's had the benefit of playing in this era where they have all this rigorous testing, rigorous scenario quotes. I mean, I don't know. But he's never... Remember when he was approaching that home run record, everyone's like, Finally, this is a legit one, potentially. That's why the Maris family was there. He's not a guy that has steroid allegations following him like the others you just outlined.

Yeah, I think he's a Hall of Famer. And keep in mind, he's done a fair amount of time on the injury list. He would be over 500 if he were healthier.

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Swipe Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Download the Game Time app today. Don Lebatard. Florida claws back from down 2: 0 because they were getting their asses handed to them by Toronto, to then get lit a fire underneath them by their head coach, Paul Maurice, who did the thing. Remember how the run was sparked last year? Stugatz. He called him a bunch of P's and B's. He did the thing again. He called him a bunch of P's and B's, and then, boom, five unanswered. You win the division. This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugats.

There he is. Does it make you happy to see him, Zazlo? Does it make you happy? Look at this man. I love this man. He has brought champion. Look, Zazlo. He's whispering your name. Hey, Coach.

Look at what-Yeah, the man who travels. Awesome.

There you go. That's my guy right there.

That's my Coach. We appreciate that. That's commitment, my friend. That's casual and all. That's the guy who cuts his vacation short to root on the home team. That's something. That's props to you.

Oh, man. Props to you. What do you mean, props to me? Props to you. You brought so much joy into my life, Coach. Thank you.

Yeah, it was nice. Nice of journalist- Stop talking.

He's saying nice things about me, Greg.

Sorry, you're right. No, we all share it together. That's the great part of these runs, right? Everybody's got a story, and everybody's story is important. Families get together. Families ostracize somebody who can't win a game when they're in the room, so they stick them upstairs. That happens at my house. I got a young kid that has to watch it from the bedroom upstairs, can't watch it in the main floor. We just can't win. So we got our priority set.

Paul, when you got to South Florida, what did your greatest dreams look like, and have you already exceeded them?

This is so far beyond that, and it's beyond the winning. And I don't want to be hypocritical or full of it. You win a Stanley Cup, everything is going to be pretty good, right? You can probably get through anything that's not real good if you're winning the Cup. But beyond the Cups, the Professional experience here is fantastic, right? These men are incredible to work with. They work hard. They don't mind being pushed. They want to win. They take care of each other. They're good. You know what? They treat each other great, but they also treat everybody else, right? The equipment guys, the medical guys, the flight attendants, everybody. They're very appreciative of the situation that they're in, and that makes Coming to the Rink a lot of fun.

How unusual is it? I see them vacationing together with their families. How unusual is what looks like love to me among your players? How unusual is that?

Well, I do think it's part of the culture of our sport. So the demands of the game drive men together, if you It's an 82-game schedule, full contact, high-speed sport where you play with pain, right? You don't lay on the field, you get up and you play with it. So there's a connection that happens with them. And because there's 82 games, there's an awful lot of highs and lows. And I think that makes the wives and the extended family close. And then you add in just great memories. They're just fun. The guys are fun to be around because they won together. So I think we have that, but we have that on the road, too. They They have big group dinners. They spend an awful lot of time with each other because they love each other.

Last year's team better than the original champions?

Probably a higher talent level through a better depth. And possibly better role definition when you look at what happened to our team when Greer, Nosek, and Gajovic came back into the lineup there, a defined style of play, which is different than everybody else's. So we had texture is the word in my head, but we had a different look on each line, a different feel, so we could play the game in a bunch of different arenas and a bunch of different styles and be successful.

Coach, we've seen the clips over the few years that you've been here where you're not afraid to grill your guys during the game, to yell at them during the game, to motivate them the way that you do during the game. You don't see that in the other pro sports here in this country. What is it about hockey players where you're still able to coach them like that?

Yeah, that's a great question. So it's part of maybe even the fun of it, right? First of all, I got a tremendous amount of respect for these players, and they know that by the way I treat them, and I know that by the way they treat the cold coaching staff. But you get into those games now, they're wired, too. You've had way too much coffee by the time you hit the bench, you're wired, you get into those playoff games. So it's not a personal assault to them. We're trying to get the whole group to another level, and they're all smart enough to understand that's what's going on. So they're in on it. They're feeding off here. There's times where you're just trying to reach the energy level on the bench, or now We're at a point that we've all agreed on playing the game a certain way, and when it's not being played, you don't have to jump on them right away. We talk about it, we talk about it. But you hit a threshold where you need to get their attention back on the game. I don't do it nearly as much as maybe I would have done it in the I don't need to.

But when it's done, it's done. So when they come back to the rink the next day, that's over. We'll deal with it and move on. There's no doghouse. There just isn't. We're here to perform every single day. We're not hitting that mark every day. We're going to have our failures, and we need those. So when you're having your failures, maybe let them go a little bit because you know what they've done and you've seen it, but you just can't let it go too long.

Paul, can you give us an idea what the last few years have meant to you on the most personal level, beyond hockey? Because when you got here, you were the most accomplished, longest serving coach, the winningest coach in the NHL history who had never won a Stanley Cup, and now you've won two in a row. What does that meant to you on the most personal level?

I don't even know that I've fully sorted that out yet, right? That will be a backward-looking thing. I can tell you, I'm trying to... I answered the question earlier, and I still don't have a great answer because I'd be lying if the Stanley Cups didn't make all the difference. They made a huge difference. But where you get some joy in your life is doing something that's possibly... That has some value outside the game. So just being around these players and seeing a different look of pro-sports. We have about eight or nine guys who took less money to play here. You just don't see that. It just doesn't happen. And there's a reason for it because you got to look at the Florida Panthers as the total compensation package. It's not just about the money, but they have friendships, their brothers in there, they care about each other. So they get to come to the rink like that every day. That's part of South Florida. The weather is great. Mr. Viola treats us great. We're in this incredible practice facility. The staff here tries to move them forward, make them better. There's not a lot of conflict about getting better.

They want to get better. We want them to get better. So you get to have this completely different pro-sport experience. And hopefully at some point, that gets emulated, that this is looked at a way that you can win. We want to work harder than everybody in the league, but we also want to have more fun than anybody in the league. So we laugh, we joke, we enjoy our days here. And that, for me, has been... Again, I'll go back to it. When you win, you get to enjoy your day a little bit differently. So I'm aware of that impact it's had. But the players first. The players have had a greater impact on the coaches, I think, than the coaches have had on the players.

To restate Stanley Cup final, you basically played an extra season of playoff games. How are you going to work around this wear and tear?

Yeah, we're not going to try to. I'll give you an example. Our veterans haven't been on the ice yet. So we pushed training camp for those guys one week back. And it will probably be viewed from the outside that you're trying to get them more rested, but that's not the case. What we're trying to do is get another week of training time. So we go hard here. So the first time that we hit the ice on Thursday, they can't individually train anymore. There's nothing left of them. So we gave them in another week so they could train, and that would be the piece that's missing. But our season ended a week earlier last season, right? So we finished on the 17th instead of the 24th. So we get another week of training. I understand. They're not training that week. They're celebrating, but That has to happen. Then they have to recover and rest, and we got to get all the injuries taken care of. And then they start training. So we pushed Training Camp back a week. So we got another two weeks of training for them. The early routine returns on their fitness level is outstanding.

We think we've made improvements, and it's hard for these guys to make improvements now just because they're at that marginal rate. None of our guys are getting 10 % fitter. There's not 10 % left for them to get more fit. So they've trained harder, and then we're going to go roll hard, and we're not going to spend any time worrying about fatigue or overuse because everybody's tired in January. Everybody is. So you just got to get used to it.

Coach, who's the craziest guy you've had in your time with the Panthers? I'm thinking back first year, Radko Goudis. You had Lomberg, seems like a wild man. Gajovitch last year. Kachuk seems like he's got some screws loose. Who's the craziest guy?

Yeah.

I can't pick a dude. So what's great about what you just said is you mentioned a bunch of guys that aren't here anymore, but their personality state, they're still part of the group. We still tell stories about those guys. And then even we've got this... I'm almost like a weird bunch of guys. We've got an incredible bunch of different personalities in that room. And we encourage that. We're not trying to make them all one player. We're just to get them to all play one game with their different personalities. But in Northern Parallel, we got some beauties in that room.

Goalies are strange. Do you coach Pabrowski or do you leave him alone?

Yeah, I talk to him. He's an incredibly interesting guy. You want to talk about an interesting life and things he's been through. The way he trains, I don't know anything about goaltending. I know a little bit about body language of goal tenders and what they go through. They carry a different pressure than anybody else. Other than a shutout, they don't get the same payoff. They don't get to score a goal. They don't get to score the game winner. So it's a completely different mentality in that. I just try to get to know them, get to feel what they need from the coaches. We had a guy named Robbie Talis here who was the goalie coach, and he's brilliant. So I just leave him to that. Robbie, the last two years has basically laid out the regular season schedule And other than one or two games on illness, we haven't made an adjustment to it. We go into the coaches office in between periods. I don't do this to Serge anymore because he's just been too good. But you complain about a goal or two, and then the goalie coach gives you a knowing nod and say, Okay, you've had your say.

Now move on. It's a nice... Robbie does a great job of telling me I have no idea what I'm talking about without making me feel that. So that's all that.

All So your answer was no, I don't coach him at all. I talk to him.

Copy. If we hit each other at the coffee places, we'll talk how the family is, how the kids are.

Fill in the blank for me here a little bit rapid fire. The toughest player I have is blank.

There's a toss-up in between Sam Bennett and probably Aaron Eklat, but here's the problem. I got four guys on the back end who separated shoulders last year in the playoffs, right? Over Grade 1 sold her, and they never missed a game. So if I give you one guy, I'm being disrespectful to Sam Bennett, who played an entire play off around with a broken foot and didn't tell anybody. That was a grade two knee sprain that Sam Reinhardt suffered. I don't know who the toughest guy is. Whoever the most injured guy in our room, that's the toughest guy we got because he's probably still in the lead.

The best leader I have is blank.

The best leader?

Yes.

About an 18-inch steel one for Pike Fish. You guys don't freshwater fish. Yeah, because it goes back to the strength of our room. There are different leadership styles in our room, but it's the guy that we need that night. That's the best leader.

What was your reaction when Bill Zetel told you that we got Brett Marsh? What was your reaction when that happened?

Well, I'm desensitized to it now, so I'll take you back. The summer that I get the job, he calls me and he says, I think I can get Matthew Kachuk, but the price is going to be pretty high. And I got off the phone. I thought, You're crazy. You're not getting Matthew Kachuk. It's just not happening. And then he calls back 15 minutes later and says, I just made the trade. So now, over the course of the years there, we've added these players Seth Jones would be the next one. He started firing out Seth Jones' name, like in the summer, last summer, there might be a guy that we could... And I'm thinking, there's no way you're getting Seth Jones. So when he says the Brad Marshawn one was unusual because it's a half hour before the trade deadline, and I'm packing my office up because It's over, right? There's nothing else going to happen. That one surprised me, to say the least.

Did you dislike him before that?

Oh, of course. Yeah, absolutely. I don't think as much as Matthew could Chuck. I think I I like Matthew more than Brad. The reason I didn't mind Brad as much is when we played them in the seven-game series and beat them. He gave an interview about game five to a Boston reporter, and it was perfect. It was incredible leadership things that he said. He was very respectful for how hard we played. He wasn't complaining. He wasn't whining. It was a full on brutal series. It was a battle. There were guys going after each other, but he handled it like such a leader, such a man. So I had a little more room for him. I didn't fully appreciate, believe it or not, how good he is. So I don't think that you fully... I mean, you watch the games, but you almost need to see in practice every day to see the skill set that they have. And I don't know that I fully appreciated how good his hands are.

But Chuck wasn't a leader, what you're saying before he got here. He was just like a scumbag that he hated.

What are you doing?

Yeah, I'm not going to attach myself to that word. I'm going to leave that one to you. No, but for all the reasons, right? He's in Calgary. I'm in Winnipeg. We play each other an awful lot. We played each other in the playoffs. And he has that ability to get... He has an incredible ability to sense what a game needs. And he'll get through a lot of nights very quietly. Now, he might score, but he's not starting any fires. But if he needs to, he has a great sense of when and how.

Coach, my final question is, I love you.

I love you, too.

I love you, too, Coach. Thank you.

I love you.

Okay. I appreciate. So the question says, there's medical help for that, Phyllis. There are good professionals out there. You guys can go see. They can help you. Thank you so much.

They love you, too.

You love him now. You have you told him to his face the way you told him to check it?

Don't worry about that. Everybody's allowed to be wrong once.

Don't worry He called you the murder of fun when you first got here. The murder of fun.

That would be accurate. That would be fair. Thanks, Coach. That would be fair. The first part was we had to get to a whole bunch of hard things, so there wasn't much fun. I had that exact meeting in January that year, and there was a little bit different language, but you're not allowed to have fun in the NHL when you play like that. So you're right. I did kill him with the joy. You were 100 % right.

I knew it. Good seeing you, and congratulations, Coach. It was nice talking to you.

Don Lebatard.

Our Panther Group Chat, we're confident against the lightning. This is a different team. You're a Panther Group Chat, though. No, I think... No, but dude, you're so wrong on that. We've been terrified of this team forever. And I think there's a different energy where the Panthers, they want the lightning.

Still Stugats. I want T-shirts made for this Panther Run. What could be this Panther Run? Our Panther Group Chat, We're not afraid of the lightning.

That's a tagline for World R 3.

This is the Dan Levatar show with the Stugatz.

He said some stuff there that I have not heard.

He called it Chuck a Scumbag. He didn't say it.

He did not say that.

He actually distanced himself from it. Put it all on you like a real pro.

That was not what I thought was interesting from what it is. I had not heard that stuff on K'Chuck, on Marshawn. I was not aware of the acquisition and how that went down, because it sounds like it went down the same way that Tyreek Hill went down for Mike McDaniel, where you're getting a call, and as the coach, you don't believe that something is going to happen, and then 15 minutes later, it actually happened.

Did you guys get that pipe fishing?

That went way over my head. It was funny, though.

It's on the real, you got a leader.

He said leader. I was thinking liter, like T.

No, that's the metric system.

Exactly. That's a cliché. I'm trying to figure it out.

I was just like, great answer, Coach. You're so funny and charming. You're funny.

What other sport does the coach, specifically, not know how to coach a certain player on the team?

I bet that's common with goal tenders, though, right? Right. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. I mean, they're a whole different ball game, those guys, especially when they're Russian, they don't speak the language.

Well, the language is part of it. Frank Robinson one time told me while he was managing the expos that he didn't even speak to Vladimir Guerrero because he didn't want anything to get lost in the translation. So he just left him totally alone and just let him hit the baseball and didn't want anything to be misconstrued in texture or tone when he was talking to him because he thought he might be feeling reprimanded when he's not reprimanding him.

Bob speaks English.

Yeah, he does. But still, that position, though, is just different.

Yes, everybody will tell you. It's like closers. They're just like certain positions that there's an accepted level of idiosynchrosies.

But the baseball manager knows about pitching.

I think they know the basics.

I'll take a word for it. I just nodded along to a fishing reference I didn't get.

We're not fishermen around here. I believe that Jessica is the only accomplished Fisher person that we have around here.

Roy, you got an award.

Yeah, and he used to wear a hook on his hat. That's right. His friend Tom gave it to him.

Congrats, Roy.

Dad, you're Salt Life, too, aren't you? I am.

Yeah, Greg is Salt Life. I fish.

Boat shoes. I've been, Halibut fishing in Alaska, that thing. You chartered a boat one time? Sure, I did. A couple of times.

Over the weekend, Bill Parcells was was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame at the age of 84 years old. And during his speech, he articulated that he wish he had done some things differently. I saw this recently with Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones, where you get to your '80s all of a sudden and you start reexamining both your mortality and the life it is that you've led and where it is that you let some small grievances get in the way. So it's nice to see some of these folks put down their petty. But I did think it was interesting that Bob Kraft personally inducted Bill Parcells because that's usually done by vote with the Patriots, and the fans had voted in Edelman. Edelman, one of the most amazing stories in the history of football, a seventh-round pick from Kent State, having those kinds of numbers. But I did think it was interesting that Kraft decided to do that with Parcells, and I wonder if he will do the same with Belichick. And I wonder how much putting Parcells in has to do with the pettiness going on right now between Belichick and Kraft, as Belichick loses 34 to nine this weekend to Central Florida, and his team has no chance at any point in the game.

Well, Kraft has said that he's going to build him a statue once he retires and he's no longer an active coach. So I think that he knows he won that situation, and he's going honor him at some point in time. He's just still coaching.

People are enjoying what's happening to Bill. I love it. And not just Bill. I love it. But also Mike Lombardi, who has often- People hate Mike Lombardi? Oh, Mike Lombardi has made some enemies. Mike Lombardi, when he thinks he's smarter than you, he lets it be known. He took a lot of shots in Miami this offseason, too. John Gruden, today on the Barstool program on FS1, gave this quote when being asked about Jordan Hudson being on the UNC sideline. I've never seen anything like that, Mel. Mike Lombardi works for North Carolina. I've heard him criticize me several times. I'm sure he'll produce a TikTok today explaining exactly what's going on over there.

Did you guys see the AI version of him kissing? That almost got me for a split second. Someone did an AI video because it was Jordan and Bill Belichick on the sidelines. Someone made an AI video as if her jumping on him on the sidelines to give him a passionate kiss. There was three seconds where I was like, Sheep. Then I was like, Oh, that's clearly AI.

What threw you out that it was real when you saw that the score was 34-9?

His face changed Reunaged midway through.

That's a hint.

These AI videos, though, these pictures, they can do crazy things. They're scary, aren't they?

People are enjoying that. What people aren't enjoying is that Barstool Wake Up show on FS1. It's got the lowest ratings in the history of FS1. Takes time.

Takes time to start something.

I mean, but they've been starting stuff over there that has never started with the lowest ratings in the history of FS1. How is that possible?

How is that possible? They have a massive audience. It's lowest thing they've ever done?

Because I think there's a difference between how people consume things, and I think there's a gulf of difference between how the mainstream tries to get young people to watch things and how young people actually watch things. They're not watching things on television anymore. That part seems obvious. It seems that young people are simply weaning themselves off of what is traditional television. I don't know if the rest of you have felt the way that I do. Any time I watch the graphics on football, around everything that CBS does, it looks older to me.

Well, CBS was doing a thing yesterday.

No, I don't mean yesterday. I mean every time. I'm not talking about That was a wig.

Burleson side burns in it. Seem off to you.

I'm not talking about yesterday. But in general- Yesterday was the throwback day. Was Mosberger on yesterday?

He was. He was there. He did the- You're looking live. He did the voiceover at the start, and then James Brown welcomed him on the dais.

Mainstream television in general has a problem in that they've got a lot of old executives who are trying to figure out how to lure young people into old media. And Pat McAfee is a response to that. When you give someone the ability to use your platform, but you're just renting him, you have no ownership over him. He's not your employee. He is somebody who's got his own business and you're borrowing it. What we are seeing happen, it's not just at Fox, You guys have seen what has happened to ESPN2, right? They're just taking podcasts and putting them on television because it's just cheaper programming. It's just easier to do. And what you're looking for there, Zaz, when I say lowest ratings in the history of FS1, it almost doesn't matter because it's the late night model. You just want viral clips. You don't care what the... I mean, you want to have daily ratings, obviously, but you'll take a daily ratings hit because you just want stuff to spread on the internet because we're not doing the measurements on this stuff the way we used to.

Which I think they're finding out. They're interviewed today with John Grunin's doing numbers. I think there'll be more of those because the show as it stands doesn't seem like it allows itself for plenty of viral moments. I cannot believe that Chris Cody thought this video was real.

Yeah, we have on screen what Chris thought was actually happening.

Hold on, take it again, guys. Get the full screen. I don't know it's fake yet. Don't know it's fake yet. I don't know it's fake yet. This is about right here. I'm like, he couldn't have been doing this. You should be embarrassed.

How about now?

This is where I was sure it was fake.

I'm embarrassed for you right now.

For the first part, it's just a little kiss, a little kiss before they go. All right, this is a bit much. They would never do this. They know this would go viral.

All right. This is also during a time of the game, it seems like it's just pregame milling about.

All right. Incredible. Didn't know the camera was on them.

People were enjoying, though, again, Even though it happened much more quietly than week one, losing at UCF 34-9 when you're just a small underdog in that game, and I was confused as to why it is they were a small underdog in that game. Losing 34 to 9 to UCF, I don't even know how it is that that gets fixed this season. It's not something that can be fixed this season. They're going to be bad all season, and I haven't looked at their schedule, but they're not going to be even a bowl team, are they? No.

I don't think so. They entered that program with a lot of talk.

They have a get-right game, though, in two weeks. They got Clemson. That's right.

Which afterwards, we'll find out exactly how old Dabo is then, and how much time, and how expensive it would be to fire him.

You saw that on game day, people in Miami were wishing for nick Saban to come back for the return of nick Saban. Did you see this? I guess you didn't from the look on your face.

No, I did not. No. I mean, please.

It wasn't on TV. This was fans interacting with Saban while he was on one of the sidesets just screaming at him. We have the video here if you want to play. You can hear the fans interacting with him.

All right, let's play that.

Come out to the Dolphins. We forgive you. It's fine.

You're good. We need your help.

Come on. You got this. One more.

He gave just the hand gesture of like, No, that's not happening.

He's got a fresh coat out there, and I'm not talking about the Blazer.

How old is nick Saban now? He's over 75 years old. He looks fresh and dapper and painted in his commercial.

I guess 47, 48, based on the hair.

When did he get red hair?

Geographically, not geographically, whatever it is, biologically, he says 73 years old.

I'm two years away from the Big Five.

Look at the grin on that face when he hears Miami forgives you. Miami forgives you, says a child not old enough to offer that forgiveness.

She doesn't speak for all of us.

My favorite part about that is how quickly he dismissed it. First off, son, that someone in Miami had something good to say about him, so he drops his little pointer. I mean, two of us on this roster. Want to natty with him? No, don't even. No, thank you. Not at all something I ever want to consider doing with my life.

I saw him recently interviewed where he calls Tua, and I just am so out on Tua right now that this angers me. One of his favorite players he ever... When I was talking about best-Wow, that's high praise. Who's the best players you've coached? He's like, Julio. He starts naming these monsters. And it's like, and Tua. And I'm just like, Oh, that's so infuriating.

Because he's bad. I hate Tua. Tua is bad. One of the quarterbacks that he did some winning with helped... Cal Shannon is doing that thing again. They're 3-0. They're super hurt. It looks like they've lost Bosa for an extended period of time. They're without Kittle. They have white position players everywhere. They have their backup quarterback. Their backup quarterback is Mac Jones, who we know is not good.

He's also hurt.

Even while winning, though, death taxes in a Mac Jones safety. Dude.

I wish I could bet on that. Mac Jones was so injured in that game. That dude was limping the entire time, and he got super emotional. It was actually pretty cool to see because his career has not worked out the way that he thought it would. If he's out, I don't even know the third string is. He was legitimately limping painfully that entire game, and he cried when Piniero hit that winner.

It's a nice cheat code that the league has where you play nine games at the same time, and you're almost guaranteed, given how that league is, even though you'll get your occasional Seahawks-Saintz game or Vikings-Bengals game. If you play nine games, your witching hour is going to have three or four games of crazy at the end. It just erased what I was saying earlier. Go ahead and name the games worth talking about from yesterday. Name them. Go ahead.

Bucks Chats.

I think Niners, Cardinals is interesting to talk about because of where the Niners are, and they're going to do that thing where guys start coming back in December and they're going to be a pain in the ass to eliminate.

Now, wait a minute. You can't make 49ers Cardinals a game we're talking about if Jags Texans isn't a game we're talking about. Backings, backings. What you're going to do?

What you're going to do in It was a battle for the top of the NFC West, Dan.

Both those teams were undefeated entering that game.

Rams, Eagles.

I cannot believe Philly came back in that game, which is a weird thing to say about a reigning Super Bowl champion, but the way that they did, it just impressed me even more.

Broncos, Chargers.

Do we talk about Bearers, Cowboys? No. Bad injury to CeeDee Lamb. I guess you understand that. I guess it's encouraging for Chicago.

It's funny to hear you say, though, that a team that has won 19 of 20, that you're surprised how they won, but I am, too.

Super surprised. It was 26-7, wasn't it?

I mean, that's exactly how you were supposed to beat the Philadelphia Eagles with a team that we all think is like, Well, that's one of the teams that can maybe be a problem. They did all the things. I'm shocked.

Play that music again, please, because there were only four or five games we're talking about. What you going to do when Dan charges you?

Bad games, bad games. What you going to do? What you going to do when Dan charges you?