Transcript of Hour 2: The Wine Burp (feat. Jessica Smetana)

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This is the Dan Our Show with the Stugats podcast.

Good to see Jessica again. It's been a minute since we saw her. Do I sound bad? Did I startle you? What happened, Chris? Why did you react as if you were surprised that we were beginning our show?

It was quite a declaration. From silence, it was like, Good to see Jessica.

Are you drinking some morning wine? What is that? Is that a mimosa? What are you doing? What is happening right now?

Oh, my Steelers, Dan. My stealers, Dan. The Steelers won the final NFL game of the season, Week 18 on a missed kick from the Ravens. Then they fired their coach. And guess who's in the playoffs again? Mike Tomlin and the Steelers, Dan.

I wanted to ask the group here, and Jessica, if he makes that field goal, are we having the same conversation right now about Tomlin instead of Harbaugh? Is it the same thing that we'd be doing right now?

Do you think he survived? Yes, certainly, yes.

So you think Pittsburgh would have been let go if a 44-yard field goal goes in, you think Tomlin would have been let go?

I don't know if he is let go or if he's like, I'm leaving. But that was what some of the reporting led me to believe up until that game. I And again, I don't know the truth of it. We talked about this on mystery Crate a few weeks ago because for the last three years, there's been reporting around the end of the regular season that this is it for Mike Tomlin and the Stealers, and then they make the playoffs, and then they lose their first playoff game, and then he signs an extension or whatever. So maybe he would have stuck around for another year or whatever. But it's seemed like there was a lot of frustration bubbling at the end of this year when they lost to the Browns, Dan.

The answer is yes, Dan. That's the literal definition of a loser leaves town match.

But you guys do understand how silly it is to fire one coach and not the other because somebody missed a 44-yard field goal.

And Tomlin spoke to that. You could see postgame, he gave to the camera, he looked right at one of the cameras and gave a shrug. Like, that's how it works.

I'm My question is, let's say the Ravens make the playoff. They make the kick, they make the playoff. There's been all this reporting that Harbaugh lost the locker room and he wasn't getting along with Lamar Jackson. I don't know how far they would have made it in the playoff. Maybe they win a couple of games, maybe they lose in the first round. Do you think both of them in some alternate reality, the kick goes in, but both coaches end up not coaching for their teams next year, too? Because that seemed like it also could have been a reality.

I just find amazing here that Mike Tom Tomlin. I've said before, one of the most amazing stats to me in football is that the Steelers have only had really three coaches. But also amazing within that is that Tomlin always has winning seasons, and it's not just all Rothsperger. It's an assortment of mishmash nonsense. How many coaches has Tomlin gotten fired with a last game?

Dan, I saw this incredible list of coaches from Alex Cozora on Twitter who writes for- What are you saying? I'm going to like this. I think Stealers Depot or one of one of the Stealers sites. This was his list of coaches that have been fired after playing against Mike Tomlin. There are some names on this list that I haven't thought about in years. We'll start with Romeo Cronel, Eric Mangini, I feel like we need some fanfare, Chris.

Man, genius.

Pat Schermer. Rob Chudzinski.

Wow. Oh, that's a good one.

Mike Pateen.

That's not a real guy.

Mike Petton, I think it was.

That's okay. That's all right. You're forgiven for forgiving him. All of these are going to end up being Brown's coaches.

Yeah. Hugh Jackson was the next one. Brian Billick. Marvin Lewis. Marvin. Marvin. Marvin. Marvin. Marvin. And I think unequivocally, the best coach on this list, John Harbaugh.

Can I just go back to the conversation we've been having in some form for 20 years around here about coaching and over the last couple of hours. How do I quantify the idea, Jessica, that a man who has nothing but winning seasons on his resume over two decades would be close to being fired? What sense does that make?

Because they haven't won a playoff game in so, so long, Dan. So, so long. That is the reason why.

But they're not that good. They're always overachieving. They're not underachieving, they're overachieving. You guys feel like that's Tomlin's fault? Does anyone listening to this feel like the reason the Steelers don't win playoff games is because Tomlin knows how to win more than he loses during the regular season, but forgets how to do that when he's playing teams that are better than his in the playoff?

No, I think it's patently ridiculous to even consider firing John Harbaugh or Mike Tomlin. I think they're both Hall of Fame coaches.

It's two completely One of the different scenarios, though. No one's going to argue that the Ravens and Harbaugh have not had the talent. It's actually the exact opposite that you argue, or I think we're arguing right now with the Steelers.

Yeah, I think the Harbaugh thing is interesting because if you believe the reporting about him and Lamar Jackson and him in the locker room, then they made their choice. They want to stick with Lamar Jackson. I think that's probably a wise choice to make. They have lost some excruciating postseason games with a coach that everyone agrees is very good, but sometimes it's time. And when you have someone who's an MVP caliber quarterback, you make your choice. With Tomlin, I think there's probably a fair bit of blame to share about why the Steelers haven't won a playoff game in eight seasons or nine seasons, whatever it is now. But I do think you have to give him credit because he has won a lot of games with Mitch Trubisky, Kenny Picket, old Aaron Rodgers. I mean, old, old. We all saw that first time he was going to scramble on Sunday night. He ended up having a pretty nice scramble a few minutes later, I think on a third down, but he was so slow, Dan.

Oh, my God. It is shocking to me, even understanding that 40 is old for football, but isn't actually that old. It's shocking to me to see what that Killy's injury has done to all of the athleticism that a four-time MVP used to have.

And yet he was able to leap for joy at the end of that game. And that was the lasting look for John Harbaugh.

Great little leap at the end. But yeah, Mike Tomlin has been able to have winning seasons without Lamar Jackson, caliber, a quarterback. So I think you give him credit for that. But if you have watched all of the games he's coached in the last few seasons, there's times where you're like, Oh, my God, what is going... This is I think the Browns game last week was a great example of that. You go from the highs of beating the Lions in this crazy end of game scenario with the OPI call. And then the next week, you just lay an egg in a must-win game so you don't have to win to go into the play-ups against the Ravens. I think there's been a fair bit of that, too, and questions about the offense and defensive coordinator and things like that. But at the end of the day, I think despite the frustrations, there's still an immense amount of satisfaction making the playoffs with this hodgepodge of quarterbacks. No pun intended. Can you name them?

Can you name them for me, Jeremy? All of the quarterbacks? Because she mentioned Picket, and she mentioned a couple of others, but But name the quarterbacks that he has still had winning seasons with over the last four years of quarterback play.

Yeah. I mean, before Aaron Rodgers, it was Russell Wilson and Justin Fields last year. Then it was Kenny Picket, Mason Rudolf, and Mitch Trubisky. It was Kenny Picket and Mitch Trubisky the year before that. Then the years before that, you had the very tail end of Ben Rothsberger before, of course, that 2019 season that Jess was just talking about where you had Mason Rudolf, Duck, Hodges, and Ben Rothsberger.

What do you want to do? What can you do there? You can't The fact that he has had winning seasons with that is an absolute overachievement that is unimpeachable. It's just Steeler fans being bored with what they call mediocrity when it's not mediocrity. I recognize it.

But is the point Is the point of a football season to win nine or 10 games and then lose in the first round of the Bills and get stomped? I don't think so. I don't think that's people being bored. Mike Tomlin says it himself, The standard is the standard, Dan. The standard isn't to lose to the Bills in the first game of the postseason.

Yeah, but the standard was created by Bradshaw and Rothsperger. It can't be upheld by Trubisky and Duck Hodge's and this nonsense that you guys are saying over the last four years. That's just slop.

Yeah, but do you think he has a say in who his personnel is.

It's just hard to get quarterbacks. Yeah, I understand.

I agree with you. I agree with that point.

All of the quarterbacks in the playoffs, all of them, first-round picks, every last one of them. There's not a one in in the playoffs who's not a first-round pick. You have to be bad to get quarterbacks. That's what you have to do. They're never bad.

My fear now that someone put this on my timeline yesterday, what if two ends up the quarterback of the Steelers next year? That'll be so bad.

You don't want that. That'll be terrible.

Are you floating that room?

Are you floating to Mr. Ed?

No, I'm saying I'm terrified of it.

But yeah, to your point- Bring back duck hodges.

To your point about first-round pick stand, the Steelers are now in the playoffs with a first-round pick, not Kenny Picket, who maybe shouldn't have been a first-round pick, but with 40-year 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers, so that's exciting.

There are some accusations around here that that is not wine, that you are faking alcohol in the morning, that that is some electrolyte drink.

Electrolyte drink. Electrolytes or something.

What is that?

That's citrus cooler.

That does not look like... That is not a wine. What is that?

It's a nice organic skin contact orange, Dan. You wouldn't understand.

I wouldn't understand. You're right about that. Did you guys catch the little bit of football that we got? Was it on Tuesday? Tuesday night, Monday night, when we were all starved for a little football, and then a surprise Championship game made an appearance? Did you guys watch any of that? No. You don't know what I'm talking about? Surely Jess, who's got an addiction to these things, surely she has some thoughts on the only football that we've gotten this week.

Dan, it made me so angry. The FCS Championship game against Montana State in Illinois State was on Tuesday night. I stayed up way past my bedtime watching it. I was rooting for Illinois State. I decided after Illinois State beat the Pope's team, Vilanova, I was going to become an Illinois State fan. I've been there before. It's not far from where I grew up. My aunt went there. I was like, All right, here we go. Another team. It was going to be a huge upset. Yeah, exactly, Chris. I was like, I'm going to make Illinois State my whole identity. Head coach, Brock's back. You're mine now. What a name. So anyways, this game was absolutely bonkers. Montana State had nine false starts in this game. Illinois State could not make a kick. The last quarter of the game, Illinois State scores two touch downs to come back, and they have a chance to win the game. It's like fourth and one inside the 20. And instead of going for it on fourth down, try to score a shutdown, there are a few minutes left in the game. They attempt to kick a field goal. Do you want to know how that ended up, Dan?

Was that a wine burp? That was a wine burp. Thank you, Chris. Good ear. It got blocked. The game goes to overtime. Illinois State scores in the first overtime offense period. Then they try to kick an extra point. That gets blocked, too. So the Montana State guy is running back the extra point. And Illinois State guy, very heady play, grabs him by the face mask and tackles him, which apparently is like a purge down in football. Once there's been a try and there's a penalty on the run back of that extra point, that penalty does not get enforced on the next possession. So Montana State just got the ball back at the 25, but Illinois State only had scored six points. So then Montana State scores a countdown, kicks the extra point, and wins the game. But it was excruciating to watch as an Illinois State fan, Dan. Excruciating to match because they came back and they had it. All they had to do was try to go for it on fourth down, score a countdown, or kick a successful field goal, which, by the way, if you were watching that game live, you knew that field goal was not going to go in.

You knew that there was going to be another block kick. That was not going to go in. It was very painful for me. But luckily, it came after the high of the Stealers one Sunday, so I recovered.

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Dan Levatard.

I don't like smetting either.

Stugatz.

Women stay home in the kitchen where they belong.

This is the Dan Levatard Show with the Stugats.

Jess, are you feeling the same way that I am where tomorrow night we got the Fiesta Ball, and it's enough with this Trinidad Chambleau, right? Oh, come on. We're talking like, Come on. This isn't Andrew luck, all right? It's enough already, right?

I did not think that's where you were going to go with this. I thought you were going to say this is enough with the calendar of the 12-team play off the last two years because I don't know about you. It's January seventh. The title game isn't for another two weeks. This is ridiculous. The portal stuff is happening. All these teams are setting up their 2026 rosters. We still have three more college football games left. It's absolutely bonkers.

Do they set this calendar, which is pin the tail on the donkey? It's like, Okay, we're going to put this here, the portal open, and then the season ends here. This is just one of the more ridiculous things I've ever seen in sports, this football calendar for college football.

No, it's very stupid. I think the The best case scenario would be to move everything up a week. Then you have semifinal games around New Year's when it's peak football watching time and then play the championship game the week that it's been played for the last decade or so which is the first Monday of January or the second Monday of January, usually. That would make a lot more sense. But then you have to move everything else up. Then what do you do with the New Year's 6 games? Then what do you do with the Army-Navy game? That's got its own window on CBS. Then you have playoff games during the Army-Navy There's like, I don't know. But it's all stupid.

Jess, Greg said the Fiesta Bowl tomorrow between Miami and Ole Miss is the national championship. Correct.

Interesting.

Polite by you to call that merely interesting.

Here's another way to put the question, even though this is not in the question form. The Miami Huracans are going to win the national championship. Tell me why I'm wrong.

I think that they have a real shot at winning the national championship. I thought going into the playoffs, if they could get past Texas A&M on the road, They've got a legit shot. I'm not going to argue with you. I think Indiana is obviously very good. So if Indiana beats Oregon, I think that they'll probably be favorite against Miami. But I still think that's a game. I don't think that there's any runaway favorite right now among the four teams. I just think Indiana is really good, but Miami is also really good. I think Miami could run the ball really, really well in the fiesta against Ole Miss.

They're going to. But does it feel wrong to you? Because it does to me. Does it feel wrong to you the idea of a two-loss champion?

I mean, after last year, when Ohio State lost to Michigan and then went on their playoff run, it eliminated to me the idea that bad regular season losses... People have been saying this for a long time, and I do think it's finally come true. The regular season losses have been deemphasized in a way because of the 12-team playoff. If you can lose to SMU in Louisville, but still don't even make it to your conference championship game and still be a national I do think that next time that there's a huge upset on a Saturday during the regular season, you shrug and are like, Well, if this team is still good, they still can win a national championship. And that, I think, has been a huge shift over the last two years with the 12-team playoff that you can't really avoid. I think Ohio State was the first example of that last year because that was a humiliating loss to their rival in the last game of the season. But then does anyone dispute the fact that they were the best team in college football last year? I mean, I guess Michigan fans still can make fun of them over it, but they won, and they had to beat a lot of good teams.

But it's not two losses, though. We were talking earlier in the show, it's only happened twice, and obviously we haven't had the playoff before, but it's only happened twice in the history of college football that at the end of a season, your champion is someone with two losses.

Yeah, I think it's different now, though. It might be even more different if it goes to 14 or 16 teams. I mean, imagine if Alabama, who should have never made the playoff in the first place, went on some miraculous playoff run, and the SEC runner up who lost by three touchdowns then is your national champion.

You say it's different, and it is, but Miami was almost not in these playoffs, and they're the only one of these teams that can win the championship with two losses. There aren't any others out there. All the other teams will not have lost twice if they win the championship. Right.

I think that that's the biggest argument against people that say you don't need a 12-team playoff. I was one of those people until probably the last two seasons when you have seen a flattening. I think a lot of the advanced analytics would support the fact that there's less distance between the number one and the number 15 team than there were, say, in 2021 or 2020. And so a lot of football fans are still catching up to the idea that a 10 seed could win a championship game because they still could be good. They could have just inexplicably lost to conference games in the middle of the season that they really shouldn't have lost. And so that, I guess, is an argument for expanding the playoff, which I don't think there was a great argument for five years ago, even when that flattening hadn't happened yet. And there really were only maybe one, maybe two, maybe three teams that were just so much better than four through 15.

Jess, outside of the Big Three, how many amendments do you think you can name? Of course, Big Three being one, two, and five.

That's a great question, Jare Bear. 19. That's an important one.

19th is important.

Oh, I thought you could name 19. I was like, wow, you made a tent in a school.

No googling either.

I see you. Big brain on Jess.

Guys, please.

I'm a half glass of wine deep. Don't ask. I'm not here to take a quiz.

That's the way to answer that, because I do believe this is not the room to talk.

If she can't do it, none of us are going to be able to.

That is correct. I want to talk to you a little bit about what is happening throughout college football, the ability for Auburn to just buy South Florida's coach and quarterback, the ability of Oklahoma State to just buy North Texas's coach and quarterback, 30% of all the players being in the transfer portal. Who are the transfer portal villains beyond the agents?

I'll give you one, Dan, because this has been a hot topic. I'm sure you guys have already talked about the Washington quarterback that potentially transferring to LSU now after resigning his deal with Washington earlier, I guess, later last week. He is being made out to be a villain. And while I think that what he's doing is very villain, I will not dispute that. I think the biggest villain is still Lane Kiffin because he left his team that is trying to still compete for a national championship to be the coach at LSU in the first place. And I don't want us to lose sight of that, Dan. I don't want us to lose sight of the fact that Lane Kiffin left his team that is still on January seventh attempting to compete for a national championship team. Do you think he's rooting for them? I think he says that he is, and he'll probably get... I think he's There was reporting that he was going to get bonus money for every game that they won. Yes, there was reporting. So yeah, I would say he's probably ready for them because of that.

Is it Elmis?

Lsu has to pay. That was well put by you, but yes. Elmis.

I knew what you meant, though. You sound like you've had a couple of glasses this morning, too. It's the first week back after a long layoff, guys. Give Zaz a break. He would have known all those amendments if it were next week. But yeah, Lane Kiffin's the villain. That's my point. There's a lot of... My fear, this is maybe a tad existential, Dan. My fear is that... What is on my head?

Well, Greg has drawn something, but the thing that people didn't notice- Who's telestrating me. We have a telestrator, but what people might not have noticed- He has a little hat. Here's what's funny about this, Jessica. It's not just that you were wearing a little hat that Greg drew, that for the last five minutes before that, I watched him try to draw that with an actual pen on the telestrator. He used the wrong thing. Yes. Now there's just pen drawings all over the iPad.

Thousands of dollars.

Where the Telestrator is supposed to be.

I'm sure John Maddon used to do that, too.

Pen Teller.

Nice. I've seen them. Not nice. You know what? I'm going to have to get you out of here, and I'm sorry that you're so terrible at this.

Can I take the Telestrator with me? Can I take it with my new story.

Minor penalty, two minutes. Personal foul. Personal and foul.

Get out of here. Just unbelievable what you just did there in its entirety, all of it. Before we get you here, Jessica, would you prefer to see a video of a man being kicked in the junk by an AI robot or somebody struggling with the Boulder from the Indiana Jones movies?

Which-stunt show at Disney. Which would you prefer to see?

I saw that one. That Boulder is too big. Let's watch someone getting hit in the nuts.

All right, here's somebody playing with an AI robot. There it is. There it is.

This is so great.

Why is the robot mauling him? No, so that's what it is. The whole setup of this thing is the robot. This guy's controlling the robot. He's controlling it, so he kicks himself in the ball. And then the robot does his reaction to the kick. It's just what a metaphor for AI, am I right?

This is what it feels like to be a Notre Dame men's basketball fan.

Check out her weekly Notre Dame podcast, The Echos with Mike Golick Jr. She's excited to have another playoff game. She is a, look at her, a tipsy Steeler fan, feeling good about herself because her coach always wins, even if his quarterback is a combination of Mitch Trubisky and Duck Hodges. Thank you, Jessica. We appreciate you being on with us.

He always pulls me back in, Dan. Goodbye.

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I heard that as a woman faking pain.

I didn't think that sounded real. I really didn't.

It was not fake. It was in no way fake.

You can spot a woman faking it. Stugatz.

Yes, I can, Jess. Expert. I've been married 40 years.

This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugatz.

My dad just looking at the telestrator, not doing anything with it.

That's right. Your father is in rare form here today in general and has been in rare form. I should have asked her if she was surprised at all by his behavior this morning, spilling coffee all over the floor and then just waiting for somebody to clean it up for him. It was just breathtaking-We'll ask next week. In its entitlement. Something that happened here yesterday, I'm going to say quietly, although everything I'm about to say is fairly ridiculous to me, and I don't think I could have imagined it 15 years ago. Lebron James, for what I believe is the first time, is giving voice to the idea, Okay, somebody else's team now, I'm going to have to tailor my game around Luca. And he added some context when he says, There's not a basketball game being played anywhere that I don't know how it is that I would make myself fit around that. But we were talking yesterday about Trey Young and his value and the idea of counting stats and not believing that Trey Young has very much value. And Zaz said, among other things, Trey Young, it's crazy to think that he doesn't have value when he's a 25 and 10 guy.

I agree with it, but yeah. Well, but the counting stats don't matter anymore, right? I do believe that I can take any third guy on any team and get 25 and 10 out of him if I give him the usage rate that Trey Young has in Atlanta. Then I don't have a good team, but I have a guy who's getting 25 and 10. I really do believe that I can go to any third guy who's a scorer on a roster, make him Norman Powell, and all of a sudden, what I'm seeing from a number one guy is a team that's a 500 team, but I'm getting counting stats that are a good deal better, but my team's not good enough.

I would couple of things. Number one, one of the things that I think you like about Trey Young is we've seen him in big spots in big playoff games, and he's been able to carry teams to not just wins, but road wins. I mean, very famously, that series against the New York Knicks. I mean, that Hawks team that he took to, I think the Eastern Conference finals, that Hawks team, the cast around him. I mean, it's Kevin Herder, John Collins, and Clint Capella. And I totally get what you're saying, especially because half the game, the defensive end, you really can't win with players who are Trey Young's size. Anyone who trades for him and wants any chance of winning, your defense has to be really good, the rest of your players that are in the lineup with him. But man, I think this is a really good player who seemingly has no value.

Well, and reputationally, we all think of him as a guy who could spread the floor as well. He can't. He's a 30% three-point shooter. He is not a good three-point shooter anymore.

He's more like 33, 34.

He's a 30% three-point shooter this season.

He's played 10 games.

Which one is it, guys? Still, look, he was at 34 last year. He was at 33 two years before that.

He's never been as good a three-point shooter as everyone thought he was going to be when he actually was. That's exactly right. Never been as good.

It's a different thing. And so when you can't shoot the three efficiently, it's more difficult to play off the ball. That's the one thing where we talk about Tyler Hero. You can give him a level of credit offensively. He's not the passer that Treyung is. No, Tyler is a high percentage shooter, man. But he's a very efficient player. And that's the thing that tanks Treyung's values. You talk about the counting stats of 25 and 10. It's with a massive usage rate. The ball is always in his hands, and that's where Dan's point comes in.

I feel like usage rate is good. Players, they love not playing these days.

Well, when they're on the floor, they want to get the ball, and they want to get involved. And when your whole offense is revolving around a guy who is not all that efficient, that's where your team starts to suffer. The thing that made him good was that at the time, at least the way he was getting guys involved made a lot of sense, and all of those guys played a role. But now you have a team with Jalen Johnson built around it. Everybody knows that's the direction you need to go. You budding superstar at 24 years old. If Trey Young is constantly dominating the ball and it's disrupting that chemistry, it puts you in a really awkward position if you're the Hawks. They have no leverage.

Here's my question of Trey Young, and this is theoretical, can Eric Spolstra and whatever power there is in heat culture, fix Trey Young?

You cannot have that defensive player on the floor. You can't. You just can't. He's terrible. If Tyler Hero is a weakness, that guy's even more of a weakness defensively.

It's not even just that. I think you have to weigh the idea of Trey Young, who next year will opt into his contract and makes almost $50 million a season, or would you rather have Davian Mitchell, who makes five?

He was terrible last night. All of the heat were terrible last night, but we've wandered away from what was the original point because I got distracted by Trey Young talk. But LeBron saying for the first time, this is the first acknowledgement, right? And the reason I say it's all absurd is I can't believe he's the oldest player in the league. He's 40 years old, and he was still last year, speaking to usage rate, he was a guy who could be 25 and 10 without any problem. I heard Hannibal Burris talking about this the other day. It was such a good point. He had a pop-up set here in Miami where he just showed up and did some comedy, and he was just talking, and he did a great rift about how weird it must be to be Bronnie and have your 40-year-old dad still be a good deal better at basketball than you are, even though most places you that aren't the NBA, you're the best basketball player walking into any place you're going, but you come home and your dad's just dribbling the ball between his legs, looking at you. You're still not as good as me.

I told you, I'm highly questionable. I loved asking competitive athletes how it is that they competed against their kids, and all of them would say, all of them, he got close to beating me at the end, and that's when we stopped playing. The idea that Bronnie still can't beat his dad when he's an NBA player?

One-on-one, what's the score?

Whatever it is, it's still not Bronnie winning, and it just can't have a lot of precedent in the history of 40-year-olds that somebody who's good enough to be in the NBA, he still can't beat his dad.

Lebron still skunks him one-on-one, right? It's whatever.

Definitely skunks him. Whatever score it is to one because he just got too cute trying to block a shot and maybe one layup goes in underneath him. He had 38 and last night. He's 41 years old. What? How? I want to play this sound we have of him talk just to how old he is. He's still dominating his son. This is LeBron talking about playing back-to-backs at his age.

Every back-to-back for the rest of the season is TBD. I am 41.

I got the most minutes in NBA history.

Bank it right now, okay? What are we talking about?

You don't look like you're 41 on the quote.

But I am. Look at my birth certificate, December 30th, 1984, 4: 30.

39: 00 PM.

That's what I was for.

Any suckers on there? When I came out, slept the doctor and asked, All right, I'm good.

Has he said how much longer he's going to play? No. He could play another two or three years, right?

Well, nick Wright said one of the most absurd things in the history of the show said that at 50, he'd still be an All-Star.

Then a week later, he got sciatica.

I might buy 45. He's a unicorn. He's Tom braided.

But what do you guys make of the articulation that he's finally saying, We We've been talking about usage rate, and he's always at the center of the usage rate. This is the first time that someone else is getting the concession. Keep in mind that with the Lakers, Carmelo Anthony refused to come off the bench. Toward the end of his career, when people were talking about getting Carmelo Anthony, who at the time, I think, was five years, six years younger than what LeBron is now, he wasn't willing to come off of the bench. What do you make of the articulation, finally, that LeBron, is there anything meaningful about the articulation? I will make my game fit around Luca.

I think it's great. I think it's a statement. I think it's a watershed moment for LeBron who is saying, I have found a way to age gracefully. So many superstar players don't age gracefully on their field of play because their ego won't let them. Here, LeBron, finally, is saying, I can be in an elder statesman role where I don't have to be the best guy on the floor.

Yeah, I think it's straight out the LeBron playbook, where you say something like that, I'm changing my game, and I'm still 30 and 8. I think it's such a LeBron move. I'm not even doing the things I used to do. I'm now playing a different way, and I'm giving you 30, 8, and 8. I think it's right out the LeBron playbook.

He's 41 years old, and since turning 41, he's played three games since that date. In those three games, 31 points, nine rebounds, six assists, 26 points, seven rebounds, 10 assists, and then last night, 38 and eight.

That's why he's letting you know that's what changes his game.

Did we miss a trip to Miami? What did we miss here? Did he miss some games a couple of weeks ago?

Can you imagine being Bronnie and still not being as good as your dad? It's got to stink. It really does. It has to stink.

But if you're Bronnie, it's like, Okay, he's the best ever. So I guess I'll accept it. Jacob Dylan. I'm trying to think of an example outside of sports because we've never seen this happen. Ken Graffy Jr. Was immediately better than Ken Graffy senior.

Jacob Dylan from the Wallflowers?

Yeah, he's not Bob Dylan. I don't know. Sorry. I'm glad you said that because I had no idea who that was.

This is a random reference.

I'm just trying to think of it like- No, it's not that random.

Like Bob Dylan.

He got to be really good. The wall flowers are great, but he's not Bob Dylan.

Shit. It's not a bad example. The Boones. I know who that was. The Boones.

I really just ruined everything.

That Boon and Debbie Boon. Now you're talking.

Can I just add?

No. Why don't you let that sit there so that we can all marinate in just his shit joke of throwing a Debbie Boon out there? I'm so exasperated by this. This is how Cornheiser aged comedically.

My dad was on Cornheiser this morning.

Yeah, he was very excited about it. You took a quick K? Yeah. You took a quick K with Tony K?

No, Tony the K, I call him.

This is an exasperation of mine comedically that he has a Tourette that any time somebody says any word, he just says the next thing that comes into his mind. We were talking about the Boon family in baseball, and he decided to throw out there Debbie Boon. Go ahead and look up the years of Debbie Boon. I'm going to say early '70s, Greg, is what it is you're throwing out to our YouTube and podcast audience, okay? Most of whom are younger than whatever the Debbie Boon demographic is. Give me some Debbie Boon. It's not as old as some of your other old references, but if you're going to make one of those Tourette's jokes where you just jump out there and say something like that, can you make them slightly more modern so that more of the audience can get them?

Debbie Boon, I like to educate. Debbie Boon had the biggest hit single of a quarter century. Not just a decade, in a song called You Light Up My Life. I think that was the wrong one. It is a taste. It is. As much of a great career as Pat Boon had, Debbie Boon, with that one hit, usurped Her legendary father.

That's what you were doing. You were actually playing the game we were playing of a child that might be able to usurp their parent, as opposed to what it is that I thought you were doing, which is, Roy mentioned the Boon family because there were three baseball playing Boon, and you just jump in with the one Boon that you think of.

Well, that's the Boon.

Not Bob?

No. Other than Boon's Farm, which was the first wine Greg Cody ever got drunk on. Boon's Farm. Anybody else remember Boone's Farm? No. Hans?

No? No. Give me the time period. Some guy in his car is out there. Please, Jeremy, of Debbie Boon and what Debbie Boone did other than You Light Up My Life.

Well, so You Light Up My Life is what I'm on right now. It did top the charts for 10 consecutive weeks in 1977, but I believe she first got her start at 14 years old as part of... What do they call me? The Boon Girls.

All right, so way to go, Greg. You got it just in under the half a century, a reference that's just half a century old.

I know.

What did Tony the K have you on for? Fix the Dolphins?

Fix the Dolphins and Harbaugh and UM and old mistackles. You give him the goods?

Yeah. He sounds bored and indifferent in delivering. He's just run out of gas, right? It's two straight days. Back in my day, yesterday. It's back from the holidays. That's what's happened. It's just it's simply the old machine is petering out.

To put this in perspective, though, about LeBron, to tie it all up, that song was number one only seven years before LeBron James was born.

Terrible perspective and terrible way to end the hour.

You got drunk on a wine cooler. 7.

5%, really?

Is that right? That's what Boone's Farm was? Yeah, basically, it was like they had an apple wine to begin with.

Okay.

Yeah, so basically a wine cooler. I mean, back then, when you're an underage drinker, you don't look at alcohol content. Anything you get your hands on, you put down your gullet, right? Yeah, that is true. That's.