Transcript of Hour 2: Cheddar Fred (feat. Fred Warner)

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.

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This is the Dan Levatore Show with the Stugats podcast. We are going to begin our real Super Bowl coverage, for real, for real, in a few minutes here when Fred Warner shows up with whatever it is he's shilling. We make fun every year of the fact that these guys come on and they're shilling something. We'll find out together what Fred Warner is shilling. We We won't do this now, but can we do this later in the week? Can we alter Stugatz's annual Super Bowl question? Just throw in somebody's voice saying, Patriots and Seahawks, instead of what's the single most important thing that Stugatz always says somebody has to do to win the Super Bowl. You don't have to do it for Fred Warner, but for future guests, I'd like to establish the bit right now to see if anyone comments- The bears win or the packers lose? On the different... Oh, that's not bad, but we need the teams in Super Bowl. We need to see if somebody... Before the way that we've done the bit is, and it's always worked, Stugatz appears to be coughing something up, and no one comments on the fact that he sounds horrible.

They just answer the question of what's the most important thing somebody has to do to win the Super Bowl? I want to add an element to it by just throwing Patriots in there in somebody else's voice and Seahawks in somebody else's voice and see if everyone just answers the question or whether somebody stops in their tracks and say, Why was that question asked that way?

I believe given the recent Super Bowl history of that franchise, we probably only have to edit one of the team names.

That's probable, actually. So Fred Warner will join us here in a little bit. Also, Greg Cody, I can't believe that he revealed to me moments ago, Hey, Dan, the Winter Olympics start tomorrow. Did not know that. Was unaware that the Winter Olympics were starting the Olympics every year, fairly big thing. Everybody pays a lot of money every time to get any Olympics, even though I don't think the Winter Olympics are as popular as the Summer Olympics. I may have that wrong.

I think they are.

Are they in terms of ratings?

I don't know about rating, but I think they- How else would you measure it? Just general interest. Word of mouth. Yeah. That's ridiculous.

That's ridiculous what you're saying. Put it on the poll at Levitard show. Are the Winter Olympics as popular as the Summer Olympics, yes or no? Also put on the poll, is ratings the only way to measure the popularity of the Olympics? Because I don't think there's a second way.

Yeah, I think figure skating and hockey are the money sports for the Winter Olympics to me. But the thing that interested me is that the opening ceremony is Friday. They're in Italy, but the competition begins tomorrow. And so literally, the Winter Olympics are starting tomorrow, and everything is being buried by Super Bowl week, and to a lesser extent, by the NBA Trade Deadline. It's just a weird circumstance.

I think that happens every Olympics.

In the summer, too. That's stupid, by the way. It definitely happens.

It's stupid. Oh, yeah. We're doing the skeet shooting. But wait, the opening ceremony is six days away.

I don't know. No, I think there have been There have been times when the overlap hasn't been as great. I think there have been times when the Winter Olympics have started before Super Bowl week or after or something.

It's weird. What if you lose in your competition before the opening ceremony? It have.

It's happened. Then they trot you out and you're like, Waving your flag.

He's a loser. He's already out.

It's happened.

Do you guys think that Greg Cody is correct when he says, and he's not wrong about figure skating, but when he says the Winter Olympics or Is he as popular as the Summer Olympics?

He is wrong. He's wrong. He is wrong. He has to be wrong.

Somebody check the ratings. Somebody who's older than me. I didn't even know if it was happening.

Winter sports are not as relatable. All the summer sports are completely relatable to the general public. The winter sports, what the hell is that going on there?

When's the last time you threw a javelin?

No, I understand, but at least it's- But I'm watching Usain Bolt, right? And I'll be like, I can do that.

Yeah, right.

Figure skating, no. Where am I going to find the ice? Probably a little Haiti.

When's the last time you were in a bobsled?

Go to Sunrise.

I do think, though, that Greg is right, though. If he were to nominate figure skating as the single most popular Olympic sport, I'd go track and field, I'd go gymnastics, but figure skating would be up there, right? What else do you put in that discussion? Swimming? Less so. Swimming is very popular, I think.

People love the swimming. Yeah.

If I made you guys- Name our country's greatest Olympic hero.

Go.

No, it's Michael Phelps.

He's swimming.

He's swimming. But it's because he got us to wrap ourselves in the flag and care. He was swimming it. Gold medal in it, too. He made us feel like winners, and so therefore we cared about swimming. If somebody was doing that in any sport, if they were doing it in ski shooting, we'd like... That's our guy. If America had the most dominant ski shooter, we'd be like, I love ski shooting.

We all love ski shooting. We do. Remember the guy that was... You sat there, I don't know, the Turkish guy or whatever he was with the gun, and he just sat there raw dog, no eyewear, no nothing. He would just shoot. If that guy was American, that guy would be amazing.

He might run for President. I like that guy.

Don't forget the pommel horse guy.

I already forgotten.

We all love the pommel horse Billy Gill pommel horse.

When Snoop Dogg-We all got into pommel horse.

Not all of us.

We can't relate to summer Olympic sports any more than we can winter Olympic sports. The pommel horse is a good example. Nobody does all this stuff except athletes, right?

Well, the thing that is funny to me, the pommel horse is one form of gymnastics that is interesting. But remember the other day when I was talking to you guys and I said to you, the squirrel suit that people use, they put a GoPro on their forehead and then they just jump off a mountain and they just slide next to the mountain for a lot of minutes, just falling to what could be their death at a high rate of speed. I asked the question, How do people get good at that? Because you got to get that right the first time. You don't get a second chance to practice that. The gymnastics of running, hitting the beam, and then doing several flips and landing correctly-Sticking it? Yeah, I've never understood how people get good at the first parts of that because it seems like it would be something that would injure you on the way to getting great at it, that you would just have to fall with a great deal of violence. Today's the day, we're going to try it. Today's the day, that's your explanation for me. Got to get out there. Today's the day.

Give me the most popular Olympic Sport, period. You have to pick one. Put it on the poll at Lebitard Show. Most popular Olympic Sport, period. Figure skating, track and field, swimming, Gymnastics has to be there. Or gymnastics. Track and field. Those are the four. I go gymnastics. You go ahead and select from among what it is that you want. I wanted to get back to before we get to Fred Warner here, this quote from James Harden in September. What do you Of 2024. So that is a year and a few months ago, a quote from James Harden. I'm home. I don't plan on going anywhere else. I want to leave a legacy on why he resigned with the Clippers. And I understand why Zaz is complaining and why it is. Most sports fans would be like, You have a contract for this year and next year. How is it that you could possibly already want out of there and want an extension. And yet I'm surprised at what is the new normal, even though it's James Harden. I'm surprised that we're already here with this when that's the quote in September of 2024. Like, your words don't mean anything at all.

You don't actually care about anything that resembles the professionalism of this. And I ask you guys, does he have to? If a player sees Jimmy Butler set the precedent of, No, just go ahead and make a mess the year before your contract comes up, even though you're under contract because the end result is, and we can't question this, okay? Jimmy Butler won here. Jimmy Butler got what he wanted for throwing the temper tantrum. It was rewarded. He got to cash his guaranteed money right before his body broke down, and he feared that Pat Reilly and the Heat organization was going to make his body break based on how it is that he had to play in the bubble and elsewhere because the playoffs were taking a great deal out of him.

James Harden gives off that he is completely comfortable with what his legacy will be. And as just Joe's sports fan, James Harden is a cautionary tale of what can happen if you lean too hard into mercenary, if you don't care to play defense, if titles aren't a thing, you're always going to be brought up as a dude that is careless, especially on one end of the game. And he seems happy with it. He's got his jersey retired at that gentleman's club in Houston. He did it. Half a billion dollars. He's made a lot of money. And he's been a joke in terms of playing in this era that was defined by its supersource and the chase of trying to take them out. He never really figured into the equation. And it's disappointing.

You say he's a joke Okay, but an MVP has never really been one of those, generally. Until now. Okay, but hold on. When he says, I want to leave a legacy, okay? I want to go back to the conversation that we were having about imperfect measurement systems, Because James Harden played in a game seven that would have defeated those warriors. As much as those great warrior teams were challenged and took on all comers, there was a game seven that the Houston Rockets played at home against those warriors. If not for the fact that that was the one day that somehow they went something from three that never happens. They play a million different games, the Rockets of James Harden, and they don't go from three what they somehow went from three in that game. If they just make five more threes in that game that they would normally make, what were they from three in that game?

Something horrific. Dan, I pulled up the box score. The Warriors won 101-92. James Harden himself went 2 for 13 from the three-point line. The Rockets in totality as a team went 7 for 44.

I think at one point, they missed 25 in a row.

It was like a joke at one point. It was like, Oh, they can't make a ball.

The thing I wanted I'm going to ask you guys about imperfect measurements as it applies to this, if for some reason they had made five more threes in that game and one and then won the championship, is Harden's legacy any different?

Yeah, because he's got to have a title, too. This is not a tiny thing. Five more threes is not a tiny thing. That's not an isolated game either. Did they have a lead in that series, too. No, his legacy is a guy that maybe could have been a champion, but very clearly didn't care enough to do the things either physically or on one side of the ball to help his team get better there. It's like, win with what I'm giving you. I'm not going to tap in some extra reserve. You're not going to see it on my face. I'm not going to be a meme. I'm James Harden. I play at my pace. I do what I want. And that's his legacy, which is why I think he's going to be a cautionary tale for superstars. Yes, absolute superstar. Yes, Hall of Famer. One of the greatest players of his generation will never be talked about in a flattering fashion.

And has been an especially poor big-time postseason.

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Don Leverard.

He has been great. He's made great hires.

I said all.

We've said all. We've said all that. We've said all that. We've said all that. We've said everything. First time I heard any of this, Greg. Everything you're saying-It's all been said. It's all been said.

Okay, you got to understand one thing. Stugatz. Me, Maximum. That's right. Until I say it, it hasn't been said. Boom. Okay, understand that. You're the mayor. Until I say it, it hasn't been said.

Me, Maximum. This is the Dan Levatard Show with the Stugats.

If I'm I don't want anybody to feel badly about my legacy. I mean, he's one Olympic gold. He's one of the best shooting guards in history. 11 or 12 All-Star teams. He's going to be a Hall of Famer. Filthy rich, maybe at the top of the list. That's fine. Not everybody can be a champion.

Okay, but I just want to frame this conversation slightly differently because he didn't make those five threes, and they didn't make those five threes. But if Trevor Ariza had made them 12 for 44 from three instead of seven for 44 from three. The thing that I want to frame for you about James Harden, when the quote is from September of 2024, I'm home. I don't plan on going anywhere else. I want to leave a legacy. The thing I want to frame for you is, do you realize if five more threes go in and possibly the Houston Rockets win the Championship that year, that you'd be saying that his legacy is a joke, even if, because I do think he'd still have a legacy that was a joke, even if he was a champion, an MVP, and then the third one, the Holy Trinity of how you leave a legacy. And also entirely changed the game with how it is that he played because He's the centerpiece of we're now going to take 53s. Because when Mike D. Anthony got him, he said to James Harden, You're going to take a bunch of threes and you're going to have to 15 assists a game.

And James Harden looked at Mike D. Anthony and said, Coach, be tripping. He There's no way that I'm going to do what it is that that man is asking of me. Do you know how rare it is to be a joke with that as your resume? Those three things.

Yes, which is why it's a provocative talking point, because he is. Who doesn't need a Trevor Ariza to be great? Dwyane Wade. That's who we're competing against. Most sports fans of this generation might take James Arden at shooting guard over Dwyane Wade. And give me Dwyane Wade's career a million times over this guy.

Everybody needs role players, though, Mike. Shane Badier and Mike Miller had in those finals that if they didn't make those shots, the heat wouldn't have won, and Dwyane Wade would still be a champion.

He had three championships.

Okay. And Kobe as well. Kobe would have other championships, but he did need Ron Artest to bail him out when he was 6 for 24 in a game seven against the Celtics at home that they would have lost if Ron Artest hadn't bailed him out.

Right. And he saw as a three-peat.

No, that's correct. It's just like he doesn't even make it. Okay, big insult. James Harden is not Kobe Bryant.

He doesn't make it to the final.

He doesn't make it to the final.

He went early in his career, and we were saying all those guys, like, well, if they keep this together, now they didn't. But quite honestly, I think he's third of those triplets that they had in OKC. I think he's third in terms of what they've accomplished and the legacy they'll leave behind, because they won't say the same things about Russell Westbrook that they'll say about James Harden. They won't. That guy was a dog on the court.

But what they won't say about Russell Westbrook that they will say about James Harden is he can shoot. Change the game, revolutionize because he was playing something that was not esthetically pleasing, but absolutely changed how everything was done in the NBA because 53s a game starts with James Harden and Mike D. And Tony.

We're looking at it through a prism of James cares about what his legacy is. He doesn't. It's a moot point because, D. Wade's better than you. Okay, fine. What did I do? I made 625 million dollars. Okay. That's how he lives his life. I'm good. I don't care about where you see me.

Totally comfortable. He's totally comfortable with that. I do think that people will look like, you don't want to be that superstar.

Well, look, rare is the perfect legacy, right? If you ask me, Is James Harden an all-time great? Of course he is. He's an all-time great player. Is his resume perfect? No, it isn't. But if I'm James Harden, I got no problem with where I'm at in my career right now.

You guys say this, though. You say he doesn't care about his legacy, but the last words of the quote I just read to you was, I want to leave a legacy. Legacy. In 2024?

What age am I in? And then the most recent thing that I know is, Get me out of here so I can get two more years.

And that's the legacy. Fred Warner has sat down and I just saw a photograph. This made me happy. I just saw on the camera. It wasn't just Fred Warner, I saw a block of cheese that looked suspiciously like Fred Warner. I want to know where that block of cheese is, what you're doing with that block of cheese. I want to welcome you to the show. These guys were talking about, these guys were raving Talamuk cheese. Big Fred Warner. I can't have that. Well, Fred Warner, too. I'm a big Fred Warner guy. You were raving about Fred Warner, but you got caught in the air there because you didn't know I was going to say you were raving about Talamuk cheese.

I'm a big Talamuk cheese guy, too.

Hey, aren't we all, man? We love Talamuk cheese around here. It's my go-to game day snack, man. Of course, you see here, we call this Chetter Fred right here. Chetter Fred. This is insane, man. I'm actually seeing this for the first time myself, so I will say this is unbelievable that they were able to pull this off right here. But yeah, whether it's my My favorite cheese burgers, of course, dips, nachos, my son.

Is your mouth watering? I hear your mouth. Is your mouth watering right now?

You know what, man? I don't know how long this has been sitting out, so it'd be tough to really take a slice out of this one. But I will tell you, my son, God bless him, he might turn into a block of cheese with how much he eats on them little sharp cheddar- Those are fire. Slices of cheese.

Oh, yeah.

The little cheese sticks. My wife loves the vanilla ice cream. Tilly Mug, man, It's amazing, man. We love it.

Does that block of cheese, let me see it again, please, look more like- Yeah, take another look. More like Fred Warner than Dwyane Wade's statue looks like Dwyane Wade? It does.

Anything does.

Yeah, right. It looks pretty good, man. I love it. I love the dreads. We got a nice little smile on there. Looks great, man.

Are you carrying it around? How does this work? Are they taking it from place to place for you?

Just like this, man. Just like I'm at a five-star dining restaurant, man. I carry it around on the Silver Platter.

What more can you tell us? Because I'm always fascinated when we start Super Bowl week of how it is that some of these partnerships start. Can you take us behind the scenes on where it is and when it is that you get the calls of, Hey, Fred, we want you to go around the Super Bowl, and we know that you're probably better at what you do than just about anyone in football is at what they do. We would like for you to wander around with a block of cheese that's 20 pounds and very much looks like you.

Well, man, you just mentioned it. When you're the best of the best at what you do, you want to work with other people that are the best of the best at what they do. And that's why Tillamook is the best of the best at all dairy products, whether it's cheeses, different sour cream, butters, all the different little things, man, they are premium in everything. So only working with the best.

I have a number of different questions to ask you. I associate your team with toughness, and I associate you specifically with toughness. Can you please give me an example of people not possibly understanding what your pain threshold is?

It's hard to really verbalize because when you think about everything that we go through, not only on game day, but in my situation, you go through a horrific injury. Something that I saw throughout the league, even growing up, guys sustaining this type of injury. It's like, oh, gosh, it's just such a... One that you never think will happen to you until you're actually in it. But the mental toughness to make it through something like that. You see guys all the time, they tear the ACLs, they tear their Achilles and they got to come back, and they're expected to be better than they were before, man. And having that toughness to be able to grind through injuries, being able to grind through a 17, 18-week game season. So these guys are true gladiators on the in the field, man. And so it truly is an honor to be a part of the NFL.

Forgive me for pressing on this, but I don't feel like I have a better understanding of just how tough you are. And it might be a bad question because I just don't think you're a normal human being. I think that your team is filled with lunatics, and you have some strange culture there that allows you guys to be more violent at a violent sport than others are. I really do crave a understanding of how you became that way.

Man, I think you talk about everybody who is in the NFL, they all come from different upbringings, different hardships that you have to endure when you're growing up. You have to have something a little off upstairs to be able to go out there and say, Hey, I'm going to willingly go into multiple car crashes every single play, every single week. How does that develop over time? I don't know. Everybody has this edge to them about different things that they went through in their life that now they're able to get out of themselves and onto that field. So it truly is just a melting pot of different guys who have gone through hard things to make them tough.

Is everyone in your locker room a little afraid of Trent Williams?

I'd say so. Yeah. Anytime you got a guy who's over 300 pounds and has the feet of a ballerina in the midst of a grizzly bear, you definitely don't want the things getting on you. I'm glad he's on my team.

Your mother is of Mexican descent. Do you have much Mexican culture in your childhood?

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. All my Mexican family is in LA, and we would go up there all the time and have different parties and stuff like that. My grandmother, she is French, Canadian, but her husband, who is my mom's father, is from Guadalajara. May he rest in peace. But he passed when my mom was really young in a car crash. My grandmother was the one who had to instill all the Mexican culture into us and me and my siblings.

Your Spanish is okay? You speak Spanish?

It's poquito. It's poquito, más o menos.

Okay. I was not aware of that. You were drafted in the third round. If I sidled up next to you then and said, What do you imagine your career is going to be? How big did the dreams look, and have you exceeded them?

Oh, my gosh, have I? I My dream was to make it in the NFL. Let me just say, that was for sure the dream. I think when I got here and I realized I could do it, then it was like, All right, well, how far can I take it truly? It really just took a bunch of dedication, commitment, the hard work, and I just continued to see different doors open for myself on the field. You asked the question, Have I surpassed that? Absolutely. But the thing is now is I feel like there is no limit. I feel like I've I've never made it. I feel like there's always another thing to achieve. There's always another step to take. And so I'm always just trying to grind and be at my best at all times.

Do you have a point that you remember on remembering when and how you figured out you could do it? When did you go from, I just want to make it into this league to, No, I belong here?

I think making it through my first training camp. I came in and I was probably third on the depth chart. And then I looked up and it was week I won on the road in Minnesota against the Vikings, and I was the starter at Mike Linebacker with the Green Dot, with the responsibility of getting everybody lined up. I had guys like Richard Sherman out there at corner and DeForece Buckner up in front of me. These guys are in the huddle, and they're looking at me dead in my eyes. And these guys have played high-level football, Richard, and won a Super Bowl. I'm the one that's tasked with giving them the call. And so it just meant the world to me to even have that responsibility and being out there that first game, making a few plays, I'm like, Okay, I can do this, right? And I think that was the moment that I realized that.

Is it weird when the center is always pointing at you and shouting pretty snap and yelling that you're the Mike?

You ever try to hide from them?

Yeah, exactly. I'm like, No, I'm not the mic. I'm the will. Or I'm the Sam. But yeah, it is a little different. You're right. Yeah. Dan Levatard.

What is the worst part of the life, Stugatz?

The worst part of the life of what?

This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugatz.

Fred, the difficult question has to be asked here. The cheese sculpture of your head, will that eventually be eaten or is it meant just to be perpetually enjoyed visually?

I think the latter. I think the latter. I think the longer that it sits out, just like most dairy products, you don't want to partake. But it is a beautiful, beautiful replification of me.

Aren't you tempted, though? Aren't you tempted to just take a little piece of it?

Replication, whatever that word is.

I'm glad for that mispronouncefication. That was fun. I appreciate that you did that. You didn't need to correct it.

It's early.

You end up going to B-Y-U, but the hopes and dreams of making in the league, once it is, you get to highest paid linebacker in the league last Is there any specific emotion that you associate with that the day you signed and became the highest paid linebacker in the league?

Absolutely. I mean, that's another one of those dreams of yours is to achieve something like that, to be outright, I guess from a paid standpoint, the best in the league, and I think in league history as well. So it was something that was a huge marker for me and my family to help provide for my family, my children, children, in future children that may come, and just to have that security as well, playing for the best organization in the world, in the San Francisco 49er, for them to have that trust in me. It truly happens not just by my own my own efforts. It's a group effort. The players that I've been able to play alongside, the coaches that I've had the opportunity to learn from, and different mentors, all of that goes into account when things like that happen. It's not just the person who is receiving the contract.

Fred, I think in the history of the league. Fred, I think. Fred, I think in the history of the league.

Yeah.

You know in the history of the league, you know very well that you're the highest paid, you were the highest paid linebacker in the history of the league. Was there a... Where is the gratitude in that emotion, given that that's the... Look, everybody plays for different reasons, and it's clear from the way you play, you play because you love the sport. But to arrive at, I'm one of the best, and this league is being forced to value me in a way that proves it and is historic, I would imagine that the gratitude of that, given the entirety of the journey, could move even a tough man to tears.

Yeah, and I will say, I was blessed with the opportunity to be highest paid twice in my career. I got to sign the highest paid contract back in 2021, I believe. It truly was moving to tears both times. My gratitude is through the roof in both instances It's a culmination of everything. You see your light flash before your eyes of everything that it took to even get to that point. You sign the deal, and then now it's like, Man, it's right back to work. That's where I'm at, and that's where I'll always be, regardless of the situation.

It was reported by many people that you were very close to coming back for the last game of the 49ers season. My response to that was, There's no way he can be coming back. How in the world could he be coming back? How close were you to coming back?

I was a game away. The idea all along within our building amongst the trainers and team staff and everybody that was involved in my recovery process was that the safest, I guess, safest way to not be safe, which would be coming back early, but the safest way in doing that was to come back for the NFC Championship game. We were one game away. Unfortunately, we couldn't get it done in Seattle, and they've gone on to be in the Super Bowl this year. But the fact that I was even in that position to ultimately make it back only a game away was, I think, a success in itself. The fact that I was on that field and in practice on on that Thursday, the week going into that game, and I'm asking them, Hey, is there a chance that I can play in the divisional game? The fact that those were conversations being had, I think that is a huge blessing in itself.

If the next game had been a Thursday night game, would you have played in it? Were you days away, literally days away from being able to tough that out?

Yeah. I don't know if Thursday night, Saturday night, Sunday night. I don't know the logistics of all that, but it truly was just a week away. I think they wanted to just try to hold everything off as long as possible because every single day mattered a ton when it came to healing from my injury.

Seattle, because you guys had just gone to Philadelphia, Seattle ends up smoking the 49ers who... You were broken at that point, physically, a lot of guys. Do you have an opinion, given how close the games were between the the Rams and Seattle, when it is that you look at Seattle in the Super Bowl, do you see an appreciable difference between who's better between those two teams?

Between the Rams and Seattle? Yes. Well, of course, Seattle is better because they won that game, right? At the end of the day, these games, especially in the playoff, it's not about who's the better team. It's who plays the best for 60 minutes in that ball game. I've had plenty of instances where I thought we were the better team going into a certain game, especially in multiple Super Bowl, and we just, unfortunately, weren't the better team for those 60 minutes. That's just how this game is, man. There are no seven-game series, best of seven situations. It's one game.

Has Sam Darnold surprised you?

Yeah, I think so. I think he surprised a lot of people. I have somebody telling me that I got to go. But yeah, man, this is what I'll say about Sam Darnold real quick is I'm proud of him. He's obviously a 49er at heart. I know he is, even though he has to wear that disgusting blue jersey now. But all respect and love to Sam. I'm super happy for him and hope the best for him this Sunday.

We have to wrap.

Okay, thank you. We appreciate your time. Tillamuk cheese is an excellent cheese. I'm not allowed to have because it's got dairy. We have to wrap. I have dairy. I know. I got it. Fred, thank you for being on with us. We appreciate the time. Thanks, guys. Yes, sir. Appreciate it. Yes, sir.

Dan, is the quarterback of the defense, I wanted to see if the defensive play calls are as challenging as the offensive play calls. Then I saw his white Panda of Rolex, and I wanted to ask him about that. We have to wrap. Exactly.

That's what happened, right? He had to go. I saw Cody chomping at the bit. He wanted to get in Yeah, I was going to...

Maybe this is not the right question, but I had to ask him about the speculation that 49ers injuries are linked to the electric substation. On a scale of serious to silly, how does he process that?

I feel like if we had more time and I was able to ask one more follow-up, I could have gotten him to say the Rams are just as good as the Seahawks, maybe even better. It was a two-point conversion, and If Seattle in the second game doesn't get the two-point conversion at the end of the game, it wouldn't have been- Keep going.

Damn right.

That would have been a better question, actually.

It would have been, yeah. You could have followed up with them. They didn't.

No, that was-Four more journalists. I regret. We asked a bunch of questions about the cheese. I asked a bunch of questions about him crying. Finally got one. We finally got one. That was big. Huge. A little awkward there.

Fred, I didn't like that answer to this question, so I'm going to reask the question.

Keep asking. That's what we do over here. Well, the question that was most awkward, though, was the four follow-ups I had on, You think you were the highest paid player in the That was a withering- We did that, strangely.

I'll ask you four times how emotional that was for you.

Long pause there from Fred.

That was a withering stare that he gave to me. I thought the connection had dropped. It's just that And then he plays the Trump card of, well, I believe that happened twice. I believe I was the highest paid player in the league.

Replification.

See, Chris Cody told me, he whispered in my ear, I have that for you at the end. I'm like, Have you not seen where it is? I want to be careful here. Chris Cody had something. This is the same guy.

He called himself out for that. He would have had fun with it.

Replification.

Do you I think.

Maybe. He was disciplining himself. He's like, Why'd you make that mistake? You said a word wrong.

His inner monolog.

Replification.

Chris Cody.

Radio Row, baby.

Yes. Well, Chris Cody- I love a handler being like, We got to go.

We got to go.

Chris Cody showing the same judgment there that he showed earlier in the show when we played the face that he and Jeremy made when they walked away from Shaquille O'Neill. Just delighted because Shaquille O'Neill said, not joking, serious face, not fool around at all, I want to kill Dan Lebitard. For some reason, can we get that sound again just so everyone can see how it is that Jeremy and Chris Cody, both of them, delighted in something. You understand how that this is serious. This is a real thing. How would you feel if you were me in this situation and all of this was happening? These are human beings that are paid for by Metalark Media to help support me in whatever it is our endeavors are around here. The most giant man that they've ever seen, Jeremy, both of you have never been in the presence of someone this size before, even though both of you have been in basketball locker rooms before. This is the biggest human being either one of you have ever been next to, correct? Yeah.

For me, the closest thing is Embiid, and I know in Chris's experience in the locker room, it probably is similar.

I think he's about 50 to 75 pounds heavier than Embiid. Although he did. He had Pat Reilly come over and he goes, Hey, you can check body weight percentage. That was a fun little moment that we didn't get in the video. Isn't If I had to guess, I'm going to guess. How much does Embiid weigh? 275? You think 300? He's got to be close to three.

He's a three-bull guy. He's a three-bull guy.

I got them at 280. Got to be three. Per Google AI, which means it's probably wrong. Well, having stood next to both of them, Joel Embiid is not, to me, as physically- Shaq is definitely bigger than Joel Embiid. No, but it's not just that he's definitely bigger. I think he might be 75 pounds bigger.

Joel Embiid would probably hold the mic if I offered it to him.

I want to play this for the people here as the closeout here. Again, Zaz, I want to ask you, am I supposed to be okay with Chris Cody and Jeremy because of how delighted they are? Shaq's serious. That's not a joke that Shaq is making. Okay, hell yeah, man.

I love that. Our boss, Dan Lebitard, thinks that you hate him. How right is he?

I do hate him. However, I will never disrespect him. If I've seen him with his family, I'm going to be like, Hello, Mr. Dan. But if we're in a place where we can go at it, we can go at it. And Dan, I can kill you when I see you.

There's a little nervous laughter going on there.

It's infuriating. It's legitimately infuriating.

I'm a little scared, too, actually. We're both scared. He's going to kill our boss. That's not the face of fear.

Look at the two of you. It was pretty delightful. Look at you. That's so charmed, man. That's so charmed, man.

That's the happiest I've ever seen, Jeremy. 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 L'Core, 35% alcohol by volume, imported by Mass Jägermeister US, White Plains, New York.