Transcript of Hour 2: The Dime Experiment (feat. Tom Bogert)

This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugatz Podcast. All right, the first one is definitely out. Like, we— Jeremy, we don't want—

you want to talk about Octet?

Not even close. Like, that got no traction. We, we turned down topic number 2 as well. Olivia Rodrigo, we're out on that.

Goat.

We are going to give you some runway here. On, on the new Fockers movie. Go ahead, Jeremy.

All right, so I didn't want to like this. I didn't think it was going to be good, but the, the, the first preview—

why wouldn't you want it to be good?

Because I just didn't. They've deteriorated throughout, right?

I don't think I saw— was the last one Little Fockers? I don't think I watched that.

Terrible, terrible. Like, not good, not entertaining.

No one else watched it either.

But now they've come back with Focker-in-Law. Interesting premise, which is Ben Stiller in it with his daughter-in-law, so they're the ones that don't like each other. You normally see like You know, son-in-law, father-in-law dynamics. Interesting.

So Ben Stiller now has a kid who's married, who's marrying Ariana Grande. Okay. Why are you looking at me like that, Roy?

This is going to lead to a movie called Grandfucker, isn't it?

Oh, I love that.

Or Motherfucker. But ultimately, the thing that really blew my mind here is like Ariana Grande—

greenlight that—

is such a chameleon. She just sinks into whatever it is that she's doing. The way she speaks is different. The way that she looks is different. And then I had a realization as someone who can do comedy, can do dramas, can do musicals, can do musical impressions with the best of them. Ariana Grande is this generation's Jamie Foxx.

What are you— what do you—

what? Yep.

Ariana Grande is this generation's Jamie Foxx.

She acts and she's—

she can act. She can sing.

I've seen her do impressions doing the impression.

She's funny.

She's great on SNL.

All right.

She is good at everything.

A little bit of a fake Panther fan though, right?

A little bit of a fake Panther fan, but from Boca.

Boca girl. Yeah.

And the fact that she can kind of have a fan base in any given dynamic, she is going to crush this. And the one thing I'll add before we wrap, Robert De Niro said of Ariana Grande, and I quote, "The funniest scene partner I've ever had the pleasure of sharing the screen with." Well, that's a lot.

Okay, great. That's awesome. What are her thoughts on Trick Williams?

Yeah, Trick Williams is on First Take.

You guys suck.

I think he's promoting WrestleMania.

He is.

Let's bring aboard Tom Boger. Tom, the legend from The Athletic, as Inter Miami fired their— fired— I mean, they're saying he stepped down for personal reasons, but I don't know that that is actually the case. Tom, thanks for joining us here. What can you tell us about Javier Mascherano's resignation from Inter Miami.

Thanks, guys. Your skepticism is fair, though he did step down. He chose to step down for his own reasons, but it wasn't just things that happened out of nowhere. From what sources told me, there was some sort of argument in the locker room after the club's disappointing 2-2 draw with Red Bull New York last weekend. A source said that there's kind of been growing discontent since the club was eliminated by Nashville in the CONCACAF Champions Cup, a team that you may remember they beat very, very easily in the playoffs last season. At Miami, the pressure is very, very high. Javier Mascherano and Lionel Messi and some of those guys, what I was told by sources is it's normal for them to get in heated exchanges because they are so close. And these are kind of the athletes at the very highest level. That's how people converse and solve problems. But another source said, like, yeah, how much can one person take?

Tom, I want to shift over to the World Cup a little bit because there have been a couple of World Cup stories that have been out there that it seems as though FIFA and the United States is a corruption marriage made in hell, and some people have had their tickets moved. So first, let's tackle the ticketing before the tailgating. What has happened with the tickets? There were people complaining online that had purchased a certain set of tickets, and then they got their tickets and it wasn't what they bought.

It's—

it is so difficult to not be cynical and upset and disappointing every time that there is a new update. It is bad. Every time there's a new update, it is just— you think you find the bottom level of— they can't go any more greed. There can't be any more mismanagement. There can't be any more of squeezing out every single penny possible. And then there's a new story every single time. So, you know, there's going to be a halftime show with a Coldplay concert because of course there is. Why wouldn't there be a 30-minute halftime at the World Cup? The ticket fiasco is just an absolute joke. They— there's a reason why there were so many lotteries for the tickets in the first place is that the first lottery wasn't for all of the tickets. It was, let's do a segment of the tickets. Let's see how much we can pay. Oh, there's a lot of demand. Then we can go more. And the way it works is you go in the lottery and if you're lucky enough to get to beat out some scalpers for tickets, you get your category. If it's category 1, you could be in, you know, allegedly the first row to whatever the 30th, whatever the number is.

It is just sections of the stadium. Well, then FIFA announced a new section, a new category that was for the first row that was actually supposed to be in the first lottery draw. So they just lied about where the lottery was going to get you because they want to squeeze every single penny out. It's open your wallets. FIFA is here. Watch out. And at every given turn, this is what they're doing. They've already commercialized the game in a literal sense. There are cooling breaks even at the indoor stadiums. Why are there cooling breaks? Because that makes it into 4 quarters instead of 2 halves. And bang, you have 2 more commercial opportunities.

How different has this whole lead-up, this whole process been this year than 4 years ago?

That's a good question. Like, worse. And I don't know if that's just because it's being Americanized and the rush of capitalism and get every single dollar for your shareholders for allegedly a nonprofit organization. I don't know if that's just a sign of the times and things continue to get worse and worse because We were focused more on Qatar over the, the human rights. There were migrant workers dying in the lead up to that tournament trying to build stadiums. There was the fiasco of the World Cup is always held in the summer, except in the Middle East. It's 120 degrees in the summer. So they moved it to the winter. And so there was a lot of other things to deal with. And just again, at every turn, FIFA's unchecked and they don't feel any shame and they're still going to do all this. Like Gianni Infantino, the president, they, they, I think he's feeling some heat over all of the public backlash. They probably won't change anything, but he kind of doubled down on the prices like, yo, you know, all you see, yeah, we make money at the World Cup, but that has to cover literally everything else we do.

Well, FIFA survived in 1994. Tony Miola, US soccer legend, starting goalkeeper for the US team at the 1994 World Cup. He was at that World Cup final as a fan just watching the game because the US obviously didn't get there. He showed me his ticket. Midfield, about 20 rows up, $98 face value. That same ticket is like $10 grand.

Wow, that's insane. All right, so another story that broke this, uh, this week was the alleged, uh, story that FIFA had banned tailgating. And then FIFA very quickly came out and said that's not the case. However, the more layers to the onion you'll peel back, they basically did ban tailgating with all these rules they put in place for these venues. What can fans going to these games expect? And is one of those things ice?

Hopefully not, but it's America, so probably there are— there is— there are union workers in Los Angeles around SoFi Stadium have filed a complaint about the worry of ice. That's just one thing. It's like whack-a-mole, guys. Like the last time that I was on the show talking about the World Cup, it was like, hey, where do you want to start? Do you want to start with ice? You want to start with the human rights? Do you want to start with the prices? It's like all of it's negative because of course it is. And like, I don't want to sound like a hypocrite. We're all going to watch these games. I'm going to be covering the US day in and day out. I'll be at all of those games, right? Like, so I guess I'm part of the problem by, by still being there. I know you guys will all be watching and everything, but it just sucks. And the tailgating stuff, what can fans expect? I don't know. They keep changing it every week, right? Like, and I don't trust FIFA. It's what they want is to control just about every aspect that they can.

And in control, I mean monetize. They were supposed to have fan zones and you were supposed to like just outside of the stadium, away from the stadiums. To just watch games. They tried to charge tickets to enter and then stick like the cities with the bills for security. And while that didn't make much sense, I believe New York, New Jersey have canceled some. Boston has fought back. The New Jersey governor is feuding with FIFA, saying that like they were stuck with like a $50 million bill for train tickets and security and like security for those train travelers. So a one-way ticket from New York Penn Station to MetLife, which, by the way, as a New Jerseyan, somebody who uses NJ Transit, I can promise you that's not going to go smoothly. Nothing ever goes smoothly on NJ Transit. That ticket is normally $13. It's going to be like $125. And the governor of New Jersey is like, that's— it's either that or the taxpayers have to pay for it because FIFA is giving us no money while they make $11 billion. So when it comes to tailgating, again, as somebody who grew up going to games at MetLife and the old Giants Stadium, there is nothing around that stadium.

If there is no tailgating, you just go into the stadium, I guess. And I guess that's where FIFA can make more money. So I don't know, maybe there's a future where in the next World Cup they're going to plan a, you know, hey, if you get tickets to the game, you have to do a FIFA breakfast and a FIFA lunch and take the FIFA tram and then the FIFA hotel and the FIFA afterparty. And just how many more ways can we make money on this as a nonprofit?

Tom Bogert is with us from The Athletic and the Golazo Network. Tom, I talked about this some with Jess earlier in the week. I was so excited about the specter of the United States hosting a World Cup again. When, when this was whispered about 20 years ago, God, I can, I can only imagine where the U.S. men's national team program might be and what an opportunity this might be to maybe crack the four major sports. There have been several reasons as to why that, that isn't the case. There's still an opportunity for this to become a win, right? There's still an opportunity for this to be a real launchpad for the sport here in the United States. But do you fear, like I do, that the United States has simply wasted this opportunity, both on the field and off?

Absolutely. We'll see what the performance is like at the World Cup. There isn't a ton of reason for optimism, save for the November window. They beat a bad Uruguay team, but still Uruguay. They, they got a little bit of momentum in the fall. And then here in the spring, they got ran off the field by Belgium and Portugal, which isn't necessarily abnormal. I don't think Belgium is like the lay of the level of, you know, Spain, Argentina, Germany, like some of the top, top. They're the second tier. We shouldn't be losing to them 5-2. And there's just all of the renewed questions about everything on the field. Again, you talk about off the field. It's— this isn't for growing the game. This isn't about the common— I, I grow up in a life of soccer. I'm, I'm, I'm a guy who is very narrow-minded in the things that I like. So a lot of my friends and people in my life come from the soccer world. All of them had your same view, Mike, of like, oh my God, can't wait for it. When, when it was officially announced that the World Cup was coming here.

And then slowly and slowly they've all given up hope of being able to attend a game. I think one of my friends won the lottery to watch, like, I think Senegal versus Germany, a halfway decent game. But like everybody I knew tried to get in the lottery and one person won.

I'm sorry to go real elementary here, but I think some of the audience at least probably aligns with me with being fairly ignorant about international soccer.

Very ignorant.

With what? Yeah, well, I am, and that's fine. I'll wear it. Mike Ryan just touched on it. I remember when I was a kid growing up, it was like, get ready, everybody. Before NASCAR made the same claim. Fifth major sport. It was like, look out for professional soccer. It's going to take over America in the next quarter century. It has not. Why isn't— as we sit here in 2026, why is it not that, that it's potential that the U.S. could make a run at the World Cup this year? Why is it so delayed or has it not, you know, gotten off the pad at this point already?

Damachek, do you mean the, like, American interest in the sport of soccer?

No, no, no. I'm sorry. The quality of the team. Why is it not more competitive? At this point. This has been a couple of generations of investment and otherwise with like more kids are playing soccer now. Look out here, 2026 already. Tony Mioli happened, you know, forever ago at this point.

Now that, that is totally fair. And, and there has been a lot of great work through like the professional pathway system because the, the shortened version for those who are ignorant of European soccer is there's no drafts. It is every club team is responsible for developing young players through your academy. The more you invest in it, the better kids you get. Then they go into your team. So you get what you get out of it rather than, you know, being the Wizards or the Jazz who are tanking and you, the Cavs get LeBron after, you know, being bad for a while. Right. So the American system has caught up to at least mirror what Europe has done and South America and Asia and Africa. And we are producing better players. But the game has continued to get better and better. It's a great question. And again, this is the number one thing around these circles and the people who are planning these things of why it feels like we have players at better clubs and our pathway should be rivaling and our level of coaches. Why are we not seeing this? This was supposed to be a golden generation.

And I use that a little bit loosely because when you said golden generation, that makes it sound like it's an aberration. It's a one-off. This was supposed to be the first of the new normal. In 2022, the United States were the youngest team at the World Cup. They got to the round of 16 with the youngest team at the World Cup and a lot of really good stars. Since then, most of the top-end players have either gone backwards or not come anywhere near this potential they were supposed to get. So things are more bleak than they were 4 years ago because that progress hasn't happened. It's not like a video game where, oh, automatically potential is hit. So there's a lot of talented kids to come out, but are they better than— you said Tony Miola in '94. I, we don't have a keeper that's better than that. Definitely not in this one. Tim Howard was the only one since. Tab Ramos is a midfielder on that '94 team. I don't really think that we have any better midfielders. And same thing, Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, the forwards like Christian Pulisic. The star of this team, he hasn't scored a goal for his club team since like October, and he hasn't scored for the national team since he did a Trump dance more than a year ago.

Right?

Like, this is the opposite of what you want going into the World Cup. And damn it, it's a long-winded way of saying I don't have a good answer. These are complex questions and they should be better than they are right now. And the thought was that they were going to be. So hopefully it's more of a blip. But this is a real bad time for a blip.

Tom Bogart from The Athletic obviously is all over the World Cup. And for more details on Inter Miami's coaching change, You could check them out there as well. Good job, Tom. Thanks for joining us here.

Cheers, guys.

Go Clones.

See ya.

Go Clones.

Sports fans, all the sports are coming together. It's a great time to just sit on your couch, text your friend, hey, come over, let's watch the games. And when I do that to my friends, guess what they text me back? I got the Miller Lite. That's right. They pick up Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer and they come over to my place. We take that first sip and we realize, man, We just made a regular old-fashioned night into a special night. Thank you, Miller Lite. And shortly thereafter, we got multiple screens on, everybody's dialed into something different, and the whole night just keeps building and building and building. That's why I reach for Miller Lite. It can take an ordinary night and take it to an extraordinary place. It's clean, refreshing, easy to drink, brewed for taste with simple ingredients, just 96 calories and 3.2 carbs. The original light beer since 1975. And still hitting different. Cheers to legendary moments with Miller Lite. Great taste, 96 calories. Go to MillerLite.com/Dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller time.

Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

Folks, listen up. Quick break in the action. Are you counting down the days until payday? Instacash from Moneyline can help you access up to $500 of your hard-earned pay early. There's no interest, no credit check, and no monthly fees, so you can manage those in-between expenses with less stress. Download the Moneyline app and link your qualifying bank account to see what you qualify for. Moneyline— make money easy. Instacash is subject to terms and eligibility requirements. Expedited delivery requires a turbo fee. See moneyline.com.

The NBA playoffs are here, and DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA, is boosting every game day all postseason long. And when the lights get brighter, the best players in the world show you exactly who they are. Playoff stars turn it up round by round, and DraftKings turns it up too with profit boosts available every game day from the first round through the finals. New sportsbook customers bet just $5, and if your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code DAN so you're ready for the moment. That's code DAN. Turn $5 into $300 in bonus bets if your bet wins. In partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours.

Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET. New York, call 877-8-HOPE-N-WIRE. Text HOPE-N-Y. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas, wager tax pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over in most states. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bet must win to receive bonus bets which expire in 7 days. Minimum odds required. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see sportsbook.draftkings.com/promos. Limited time offer.

Dan Lebatard.

I feel like we need to normalize saying the scientific terms for organs on the air. Like, if someone— yes, you know what? If someone takes a foul ball to the penis, we should just say he took a foul ball to the penis.

Say it. Stugatz.

That free kick hit him right in the cock-a-doodle-doo.

This is the Dan Lebatard Show with the Stugatz. Jade Cargill is on First Take on ESPN. I think she's promoting WrestleMania.

Is that this weekend?

So, uh, a new episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out dropped early this morning. All right, and this one's going to be fun. All right, today's episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out is in collaboration with Wired, all right, and it's presenting the results of Wired's 5-month investigation into Madison Square Garden's surveillance state. That's right, MSG's surveillance state. We know the New York Knicks, they begin their playoff this weekend, so that's going to get a lot of attention. Uh, you know, there's, there's, uh, Charles Oakley is in the episode detailing what took place with him. I think it was back in '21, maybe it was like 5 years ago when he was, uh, thrown out of MSG and what has taken place since he was thrown out at MSG. You also have, for instance, uh, Patrick Ewing essentially acknowledging to Charles Oakley that there are cameras and microphones all over Madison Square Garden recording. But let me give you a preview here, and for the visual audience, you'll be able to see the video clip. Let me give you a preview here where apparently, and this is evidence, right? They have a security team at Knicks and Rangers games.

This here is from a Rangers game where they have a security team that surveils fans who yell things during the game that are anti-James Dolan. So, or, or stuff like sell the team. And here is what takes place. When the security team gets wind of fans who are yelling negative things about the owner.

Here's Eversol. 9:22, just heard a sell the team. Any idea who screamed it?

I'm near 101, didn't hear it.

9:24 PM, now Dolan sucks. Where is it?

All of section 109 now. Section 110.

So they are out.

Started by two guys on far left, one Blue Rangers jersey, one white shirt. Both, "Sell the team" and "Dolan sucks." I mean, they have something like a protocol for when they hear "sell the team" or "Dolan sucks." Yeah, which is you're supposed to forward the suck chanters' information to the intelligence team for what are called workups. Forwarded the IDs to the intel team for workups.

Then Eversol says, Load in facial.

Yeah, load in facial in this particular context presumably refers to the security team now using the facial recognition technology to flag the fans in question.

And then we can do the workups during business hours.

Sheesh.

I know, load in facial was crazy.

That was nuts. I didn't expect that on today's episode. So that dropped earlier today. Pablo Torre finds out And yeah, MSG, they are, they are surveilling everyone.

It's crazy that he's just using a surveillance state to go after his own personal vendettas, like, and basically this entire podcast and this article are— it's insinuating that James Dolan is just the tip of the iceberg on this. Like, this is where all of these arenas are, are ultimately headed. Is surveillance, facial recognition. I mean, they literally tried to send the cops after a kid in Utah for tweeting about James Dolan. That's real, a teenager.

I love the text, just like, at a Rangers game, "It's the Blue Rangers jersey.

Hey, thanks." And a white shirt, helpful. I mean, you can boo the teams, and you can express displeasure if you're a— They were chanting, "Rangers suck!" If you're a patron, that, that usually comes with the admission, right? You can show your support or show your displeasure. We're headed towards a place where there are punitive measures now for showing your displeasure.

So I don't know if you're aware, it may have come up, WrestleMania's this weekend.

I'm just learning that right now.

Can you mention, Mike, the schedule for First Take this morning on ESPN?

So I like the schedule keeps changing because they had announced Logan Paul, they had announced Triple H. Is First Take in Vegas? Yeah, they are in Vegas. But then you keep getting more surprises. Trick Williams and his Lemon Pepper Steppers, they were on First Take and he's actually like, he's a— he's amazing on First Take. And you could tell Stephen A. loves him. And Jade Cargill.

I mean, on there, she is a knockout.

I believe Rhea Ripley is hosting NFL Live. Later on.

Really?

I'm not tuning in.

You like that?

I don't know that, but would you doubt it at this point? This is pretty— this is too much.

Dan Howson is hosting SportsCenter later today.

This is too much. Kit Wilson was hembo today on Get Up and said—

hold on, that's not real.

I mean, it sounds super believable, right?

I had to ask.

I don't think anybody wants this wrestling. WWE fans are probably like, that's enough. And I know ESPN fans got to be super pissed about this. It has been— I hope like Front Office Sports does a deep dive. There are some metrics here, the hours dedicated to this. And I'm sure WWE is over the moon. They're getting $325 million a year and they're getting mainstream promotion. I mean, SportsCenter is doing countdowns.

There's never ever been promotion for WWE like this.

This is insane and it's way too much.

I, I love WWE. I love pro wrestling. I've loved it my entire life. I'm always going to love it. But there is, there is a part of me where the part that I don't like about this, and I'm not gatekeeping, like, I think wrestling is beautiful. And I think for people who don't like it, aren't into it, I think, A, I think you're missing out. And B, I think if you if you were to give it a chance, I think you— I think there's potential that you would love it. Okay, so I'm, I'm certainly not gatekeeping. The more the merrier. But the part that I don't like is I feel like it's been so much this week that the thing that I love, which, which as a kid, you know, back in the '80s and then the '90s, I had to hide my love for pro wrestling. Like, you You couldn't— I couldn't go to school wearing a wrestling shirt. I'm wearing my Roman Reigns shirt right now, because I'm a big boy.

Now that's your work clothes.

I couldn't go to school wearing wrestling clothes. I certainly wasn't going to talk about it, you know, because man, if somebody hears that I like wrestling, like, this is very taboo. This was like my little thing that I liked, and the thing that I'm afraid of now is I don't like the idea of people feeling that it's being forced down their throat, and now they're pointing— like, they hate that this is on their television. Like, that part bothers me, because I love this thing, and I don't want people to hate it because they're— because it's being forced on them.

00:24:56

This is sort of funny for me, because I'm listening to you talk about wrestling, and it's reminding me of how I feel about theater, and then I realized, oh, so this is what your experience is with our own show when I tried to introduce the cast list of Octet. You're like, I don't want this, I don't care about this, I don't want that on my show.

It's cool.

That's lame.

You, you understand wrestling is just theater, right?

Yes, of course I do.

Okay, just wanted to make sure.

Yes, but cool because it's for dudes.

Yes.

Uh, got it.

It's— but that is—

as I think what you're getting at is, and there is, there is an element— I'm a longtime NHL fan and it's gotten a little more popular, and there is that weird instinct of not exactly gatekeeping, but is this person, this new fan on the up and up, do they know, do they care about the sports sufficiently and all of that. But the unfortunate reality is I don't exactly get how it works. Like, I'm one of these people who, like, advertising works, eh? Like, it's worth it to spend millions and millions of dollars for 30 seconds on the Super Bowl ad? That's going to convert the viewer to buying the product? I'm always— I always consider that for my entire life a little specious, but apparently it works. Same thing goes now with the new executive programming thing, which is just saturate, oversaturate it. I mean, it's the same thing with Kevin Hart and Jason Kelce last week at the Masters. Just throw— you don't have to be clever, there's no nuance, just overwhelm the audience with what you want them to watch now.

I mean, they wouldn't— WWE, they wouldn't be doing it if they didn't feel that the, the money slash metrics were in their favor, right? Like, these are not stupid people in regards to the ones who make those types of promotional decisions, right?

I mean, yeah, I agree, but it feels— yeah, I, I'm with you. It just feels like— it feels like there's, there's nothing, um, uh, high-minded about it. Just, just, just throw the kitchen sink at them kind of vibe.

I mean, people can sign bad deals, and, uh, I— it's funny that They've mentioned the NHL. They have plenty of other partnerships and yet— and several opportunities for even wider bases of audience to get familiar with stars of these other sports. And the WWE is certainly benefiting from a treatment that is not one that we see really to any other sports in terms of rotating guests. I'm sure over the course of the year, because this is not— yes, this week it's been crazy. It's literally every day part. It's every quarter hour there is a WWE thing represented, and if not, it's certainly on the lower third. Tune in this week. That is not attention that any of their broadcast partners get.

And by the way, I am on ESPN Radio tomorrow night immediately after WrestleMania hosting like a WrestleMania post.

Good for you.

Tough as fuck.

Well, by the way, by the way, Mike Ryan, you know, I think that's explained by the fact that these are— Tashé kind of hinted at it. These are performers, you know, pointing a camera at like, hey, do some marketing, we're going to put you in this spot. Evgeny Malkin or Alex Ovechkin, who struggle with the language, they're not natural performers like someone in the squared circle is. So they, they translate much more easily to doing SportsCenter or otherwise do the professional wrestlers, right? Yeah.

Yeah. And so as you could see, like not only has WWE been all over ESPN this week with promotion for WrestleMania, which starts tonight. You got WrestleMania SmackDown in Vegas, then tomorrow's Night 1, Night 2 is on Sunday, and then Raw after Mania. So it's, it's 4 consecutive monster nights for WWE starting tonight. It really is going to be great. I'm very, very excited starting tonight. Don LeBatard. I've never stepped foot on that campus.

I—

if you told me right now your life depends on it Go to Santa Fe University and just take a picture. Stugatz. I would die. I don't know where it is. This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugatz. WWE and WrestleMania have been everywhere, and that includes the show that Cameron host, right? It's called It Is What It Is. You know what I'm talking about, right? And so that is what it is. So I— they, they had Jey Uso in studio yesterday or two days ago.

Imagine that.

Jey Uso was in studio on It Is What It Is.

What'd he say?

I'm, I'm gonna tell you, and you may see that I, I got a bunch of messages, all right? Because there ended up being a scuffle where Jey Uso attacked Cameron. All right. And you will see a young lady. All right. A petite young lady who jumps into the fracas. And I got messages. Zaslo, is that our girl Trista? And that's right. Trista Crick, if you don't know, is a guest host every now and then. I've known Trista for years. All right. And she, she is a guest host every now and then on It Is What It Is. And our visual audience, you will see here. If you are the, uh, audio audience, you'll be able to hear that there ends up being a scuffle where Jey Uso attacks because he was insulted by Cameron, and, and Trista has to jump into the fray and help break it up.

Listen, Mace, I'm— I actually don't have any more questions. Nick, I'm more mad at you because you keep bringing Saturday WrestleMania here and you don't bring us a Sunday WrestleMania. I ain't got to be my producer, bro. You keep bringing Sunday. I need a Sunday WrestleMania. I don't smell what the oosa's cooking. And they—

I mean, there was, there was Trista standing on top of the table. Trista standing on top of the table.

Stood on business.

That's right, she stood on business. There she is, she is standing on the table as Jey Uso is being pulled away from punching Cameron. Look at Trista, look at her jumping right into the action. Good for her. Not gonna do—

would you have jumped in?

Uh, would I have jumped? I would, I would help.

You protected Jey Uso.

Well, I don't like Jey Uso these days, so maybe I would have helped Cameron. Yeah, I'm kind of—

who's been in the most fights in that room? Me.

Obviously Jeremy.

Who said me?

Obviously Jeremy, Dave.

Hey, cachet? Has there been a lot of fights?

No, obviously not.

I've got 2.

No, me neither. We're nice boys.

I've got 1.

I've got 2.

And JB, but I've only got 1.

I have 2, but man, I was young. Like, we're talking middle school.

I got several murmured from Roy.

Yeah, but I mean, I was a child.

I mean, any, any, any as an adult? Anyone as an adult?

College, so.

One as an adult.

Hmm.

All right, tell the tale.

It's pretty embarrassing because it wasn't like that long ago.

It was a couple days ago.

No, it wasn't like a couple days ago. It was a few years ago. I was, I was probably in my 30s, and it was that— it was at Lollapalooza. We were right. Oh yeah, and the guy—

have you told this?

Yeah, I probably already said too much. I've told you like private. I don't think I've said this one on the air.

What were you right about?

I want to know.

I was right about like the, the fight, but you know, it was ugly. Some dude got you know, stretchered off. It was a stretcher job. He was okay. Wow.

Was it you?

No, actually, it was a—

it was—

yeah, my— nah, I'm not gonna put— I'm not gonna say what did it in.

Look who's being—

this is the ultimate—

it was a family of—

modesty from a man's man. Are you saying, Mike Ryan, that you are the one who delivered the blow that got this guy backboarded?

No, no, it's actually like a— no, I'm not gonna say the story. I'm not gonna say the story.

No, we were—

we were swinging though. Like, it was He was a big boy.

Holy hell!

Oh my, my esteem.

Interesting story.

I actually lost my wedding band in the middle of that fight, and this was in the infield of Grand Park in the softball field.

Was your wife with you?

You could say that, yes.

Oh, that's rough, man, having a fight in front of the wife, because the wives, they scream like, "No, no!" Like, they don't like that.

Not if you win!

If you only knew.

No, if you only knew. If you only knew how this one went, but I'm not going to say that story. But the very next day I did find the wedding band in the same infield. Can you believe that?

Yeah, they were performing at Lollapalooza.

Good recovery.

It was during a Red Hot Chili Peppers set.

Tony, I twice before a Super Bowl threw a dime on the field, on the playing surface, an hour before kickoff. And then I went back once to see if the dime was still there after the game and it was not there. The other time I forgot that I had done it.

It was— what would have— Dave? What would have happened in the middle of the game, someone gets hurt, and then on the broadcast they say, uh, so-and-so, he's down, he's, he's holding his leg. It, upon further review, it looks like he tripped on a dime. What's a dime doing on the field? Why would you do that?

I was an experiment to see if it survived the game and As I just told you, it did not.

It's so ridiculous.

Well, which part?

What would happen?

The dime is ridiculous, right?

Yes, it's like experiment. You're just like, before the game, you're like, what kind of experiment can I do?

It's the biggest event in the world. I wanted to see with cameras pointed at it and all the—

did you consider a quarter of a pro football game and everything else?

No, see, that, that could get— see, that's— it's the nuance that the devil's in the details, as a quarter is big. A guy's cleat might slip on that. A dime? Come on.

Oh, so you felt like you were, you were looking out for safety?

That's right, that's right. And I did it around the 10, so it wouldn't impact like a kicker. It wouldn't be at a pivotal swing of the leg, you know, like I didn't drop it around like the 30, 35. No, no, it's like more like the 10 outside the hash kind of vibe.

Speaking of would I have jumped in and helped out the way Trista did— she was very, very brave. I remember it was during Radio Row, Super Bowl week back in 2020. Super Bowl was here and you guys, your show was on one end of— your set was on one end of Radio Row. My show, I was back, you know, when I did the show with Amber Wilson and our show was like at the other end of the convention center. and when I got done, when we got done with our show, we came over to visit you guys, and it was like seconds after— was it Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal?

They had like a little issue there. I remember that.

But that was like legit. It was right in front of your guys' set, right? It was a real thing.

I remember it happening. I wasn't there when it happened.

Yeah, I don't remember.

I was bringing back COVID from Thailand at that point.

I like, I remember arriving on the scene immediately after it happened. They were being separated. It was being brought. I was very uncomfortable. It was scary.

You didn't get involved?

I did not like it. I was— I don't know, it made me really uncomfortable. I was glad that I was a few seconds late for the party there.

Anytime anybody has ever in my adult life, or I guess even when I was a teen, anytime anybody ever like gets in my face like, "You wanna go?

You wanna go, man?

You wanna go?" I can't help—

it makes me laugh really hard. When, when people start doing that. People seem so ridiculous. And this is before—

I've been in a million of those.

Every time you've been— like, when people are throwing hands at a football game or otherwise and all of that, inevitably, not 99% of the time, 100% of the time, someone's ass crack is making the scene. Like, there's always— there's 100% chance of ass being revealed there. And that alone is a reason I would never participate in such things. But I laugh all the time, and it kind of inadvertently defuse these things. That's why I haven't been— people always think like, you don't get punched in the face a lot, Dave, with your mouth? No, no, I can't. I'm a man of peace. And I think that's conveyed when I start laughing in their face when they start doing like, come on, you do something, come on, bro, let's go, dude, let's go, dude. You've been in a lot of that, Mike, right? You know who has not answered the question about how many fights they've been in? Tony.

I've only been in one fight.

If you can hear me over the Roomba.

Yeah, the Roomba's here. I kicked it out of the way. Um, I've only been in one fight, but it was a melee. It wasn't, it wasn't a one-on-one. Yeah. I've never been in a one-on-one.

I was in a melee that ventured off to one-on-one.

No, this was—

Kind of like an Avengers movie.

Yeah, this was a melee between our rival school, Palmetto and Killian. Um, they let us down through a, through a hallway leading into our locker room where they also funneled all the opponent fans through. So we had a kid on our team, my buddy Kevin, who's You know, been mentioned on the show. No, not Haas. Shithead Kevin.

He's, he's been—

Zazz, you would hate Kevin, by the way. Can you tell Kevin right now he's a shithead?

Kevin, why you gotta be a shithead all the time?

Okay, so Kevin used to go to rival school Palmetto. They called him the P-word. He didn't like that. Says, next guy that says that, I'm punching him in the face.

Next guy came up to him and said, you're a P-word.

He went at it.

And then all of a sudden the entire team is fighting, the entire kids in the stands, everybody's throwing haymakers.

I got pushed up against a wall.

I punched the guy in the forehead. A little bit bigger as a smaller guy had to smack him right in the forehead.

I've had friends, one or two friends of mine over the years has said something to the effect of like, or has been describing his closer friend group and like, sometimes one of my friends will just get into a fight to see if we all have his back. Like, well, if you do that with me to see if I have your back, spoiler alert, I ain't got your back. I'm not jumping into a fight to see if this is—

We had to protect the honor of Killeen High School though. This is not about the friends, about The green and gold. Yeah, it's about the green and gold.

I, I almost had to fight a few years ago at a concert. I almost had to fight. Yeah, I was at, I was at a Slipknot concert. Uh, I was at a Slipknot— talk about a place I'd never be. I was at a Slipknot concert with, uh, with my guy Brett Romberg, Hall of Fame.

Oh, it was his fight, wasn't it?

Hall of Fame, Universe Remington Award winner, national champion.

That's a good partner in a fight.

I was at— well, yeah, I was at— but, but it also means that I have to fight. And so I was at the Slipknot concert with Vromberg. And we, we had— we were in the first row of our section, which means we have a lot of room in front of us, you know. It's great. Like, there wasn't a row in front of us. And at one point during the concert, uh, some greaser made his way over toward us. Slipknot concerts got some greasers. Uh, dude's got no shirt.

1958.

Dude's got no shirt on. Okay, he's into it, and he's inching his way closer and closer to being in front of us, which is annoying because we're in the front row of the section for a reason, so no one ever has to be in front of us, you know? And now the guy is like totally right in front of Romberg. He's in front of Romberg, and I could tell, I'm like, oh man, like this is— Romberg is getting annoyed, and I don't know if you know, he's not the type to just sit there and be annoyed and not do anything about it. And Romberg all of a sudden pats the guy on the back. Again, no shirt. And it's not really a pat on the back, it's more like a really big smack on the back.

Like Big Show.

And I'm like, shit! Because if something goes down, like, I'm gonna have to do something.

You gotta do something because you can't be a punk.

And the guy turns around and he's like, what? And Romba goes, you're in my way. And then all of a sudden the guy walks a few steps to his left and he says something to his other greaser friends, you know, and they all turn. They all turn and they look at Romberg— and me too, I guess. They all turn and they look at Romberg, and Romberg just looks at them, doesn't say anything, just shakes his head, "No." And they went away.

And I was like, "Thank you, God." Sports fans, all the sports are coming together. It's a great time to just sit on your couch, text your friend, Hey, come over, let's watch the games. And when I do that to my friends, guess what they text me back? I got the Miller Lite. That's right, they pick up Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer and they come over to my place. We take that first sip and we realize, man, we just made a regular old-fashioned night into a special night. Thank you, Miller Lite. And shortly thereafter, we got multiple screens on, everybody's dialed into something different, and the whole night just keeps building. And building and building. That's why I reach for Miller Lite. It can take an ordinary night and take it to an extraordinary place. It's clean, refreshing, easy to drink, brewed for taste with simple ingredients. Just 96 calories and 3.2 carbs. The original light beer since 1975 and still hitting different. Cheers to legendary moments with Miller Lite. Great taste, 96 calories. Go to millerlite.com/dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer.

It's Miller time! Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.