Transcript of Knicks Comebacks, NFL Offseason, & The Greatest Soccer Haircut (feat. Jonathan Zaslow) New

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Hi and hello, my fellow football Americans! School's out for summer! New York's hoppin', San Antonio's devastated, the world is enthused for soccer! And football awaits on the other side. We haven't a moment to spare. Let's start the show. Yes, hi and hello, my fellow football Americans, and welcome to Football America, presented as ever by our pals over at DK Sports. DK Sports now in all 50 states, as in the United States of Football America. By the way, I should mention we're thinking about doing a third episode every week for the upcoming football season. TBD, but it's been floated online by one of our fellow football Americans, College Football America. I like the sound of that. We'll see if we get to that. In the meantime, so much to kibitz about here, and who better to join us. Then the guy who, if you're listening on Friday, you just listened to on the Dan Lebatard Show, as you do every Friday alongside of Dumb Dave Damashek and the rest of the gang there. He is also the host of the Zaslo Show 2.0 ESPN. Like I say, he's a regular and a star at that on the Lebatard Show.

It's our pal Jonathan Zaslo. What's the poop, fella?

How are you? Hello, Dave. How are you? Good to see you. Everything all right?

Everything is, is Jake on my end there. I don't know if it is, if we can say the same for the people of San Antonio. At the time of this recording, everybody who talks into a microphone has already had a bite at the Big Apple. What went on in the Big Apple? Larry David, Taylor Swift, De'Aaron Fox, Wemby. Did he choke, or did the coaching staff choke, or is it the singular greatest moment in New York sports history? We have so much to talk about, Plus pro football, Zaslo. And as always, we keep our eye on the game of life. Are you ready to jump into all of it?

Let's go. Let's do it.

Come on, Dave. Dave, what is— what is I'm doing Jake?

Who the hell is Jake? What is—

what is that?

Is it Jake from State Farm? Like, what's happening here? Who the hell is— what the hell is it?

Jake?

Yeah, that's not what you said.

It's a colloquialism.

It's just some shit you made up. Okay.

Yeah. All right.

What's the poop, fella?

I didn't make it. I didn't make it up. That's for sure. Um, but, uh, good to see the fellas behind the glass down there in Miami. Buddy Budowski, you just heard Mike Fuentes, Gino Fuentes. As I mentioned, you guys don't give a crap about what happened in Manhattan on, uh, on Wednesday night.

Am I right?

You guys are excited about it.

That was awesome.

Oh, not, not true, Dave. Listen, I love to see a good collapse, especially when it's someone who's getting a little too full of himself. Okay, that Wembenyama, he thinks all because he's a big guy he can go around for lack of a better term, shit-talking a role player, and then you go and you miss 2 clutch free throws that would have sealed the game. Oh, Dave, I loved it. Dave, this might surprise some people. I loved it, I loved it.

I like sports.

Go ahead, buddy.

I like sports. Sports are great. That was epic the other night. I couldn't believe what was happening. I turned the game off, I watched the Cubs. All of a sudden it's a 7-point game. I turn the game back on. Unbelievable. One of the craziest things I've ever seen in any sport, in any game. It was incredible.

I get it, Zazz. I think that our guy Mike Fuentes just kind of cuts through this. That game, that the series in general has so many angles on it. Um, but I think Mike Fuentes just cut through it all. I think the thing that will resonate in a month, in a year from now, is that Wemby missed those two free throws. And this after saying, I'm in your head, to a Knickerbockers role player, and then he kind of choked. At the end, the gravity of the moment was in his head. How say you? What's your big takeaway, I guess?

Yeah, Wembenyama missing the free throws was obviously enormous. At one point there in the second half, he missed 9 of 11 shots before he hit a jumper with a few minutes left in the game. So he was really bad in the second half. But no, no, you know, if someone's happy with De'Aaron Fox and what he didn't do at the end of the game, it would be Wembenyama because I, I don't think anyone's going to be talking about Wemba Nyama when the Spurs— if the Spurs wind up losing this series. Like, De'Aaron Fox, they traded for him. He's supposed to be the veteran. He's supposed to be the guy who at least has some time in this league that can settle things down. And it was 3 consecutive bonehead plays in the final, like, 15 seconds of the game. De'Aaron Fox played a major role in costing them the game, a much bigger role than Wemba Nyama did.

Well, I, you know, okay, as far as the broadcast goes, as regarding the, the, the Aaron Fox play with 9-ish seconds left, they never showed a replay. They never talked about it. Yeah, that was, that was weird that they just left that alone. I know that there was a lot going on, but, um, odd out, you know. And, and the Aaron Fox said he thought he, he, you know, had the step on him, or right there, it doesn't matter, OG on his hip or whatever, but, but given the circumstance. So what? You, you converting the 2 with 9 seconds to go is suboptimal. What you want is to dribble through, right? You, you get that ball and dribble through to the other side, and hopefully you come through clean and knock off 4 or 5 seconds, right?

Yeah. I mean, he mentioned how I thought I had a step on Anunoby, and he made a great play. Uh, you shouldn't have allowed him to even make a great play. You know, if you just dribble underneath the basket, you're gonna waste at least a few more seconds, and you get 2 free throws all by yourself with the chance to go up by 3, which of course, if you go up by 3 there— Brunson misses a 3 at the end, a tip-in doesn't matter, you wind up winning the game. And then immediately after it, De'Aaron Fox fouls Jose Alvarado at, you know, right across the timeline where he's like tightroping. You know, how about you trap him for a second, try and come up with a steal or get a backcourt violation, which he was very close to, but instead Fox just took a foul. And then of course on the final play there for New York, he doubles Brunson with Wembenyama. I don't know why you would go over to help Wembenyama on Brunson, and he just stands there and watches while Anunoby all by himself skies in for the tip-in. It will— I'll tell you, Dave, I don't think that you bring— I don't think you could bring back De'Aaron Fox next year if you're San Antonio.

Wow. I don't think you can.

Well, I guess you do have to circle somebody and point at them for the failure. It's funny because I wrote down watching the game because we have talked about this on the Lebatard Show and we've been talking about it here on Football America. And I know, Zazz, you talk about it, been talking about it a lot. But it's not just the, the storyline. And now this gets thrown out the window, by the way, which is Wemby's a one-man team. His team is kind of the argument I think that a lot of casuals were trying to make 2 weeks or so ago. But you see that the kids that he's surrounded by— he's a kid himself— but they are going to be high-end stars and durable ones at that. I mean, that, that De'Aaron Fox probably is the reason that it's not 2-2 in San Antonio. I think he's the number one culprit. I, you know, on the other side of things, Harper and Kessel and Wemby, I mean, it's remarkable that given the stress and the intensity of the environment and the largesse of the stars seated, you know, 18 inches from the court, by the way, isn't that wild?

I know that Larry David did a whole episode about tripping Shaq 20 years ago.. But isn't it wild how close they are on the floor? And also we have to talk about Ben Stiller getting his tickets for free to be that close and all of that. But okay, I'm sorry, I'm getting sidetracked by all the stories.

No, that's actually— earlier today he was very concerned about the access that Mariska Haggerty had.

Well, I do want to talk about that, but I'm trying to stay focused. But it's very difficult, all that's going on from that experience of just watching it from my couch. I am struck by— I mean, those are 21-year-old cats out there, and they all rose to the occasion. While Castle and Harper did better than Wemby and Fox did, which was striking. But I also think Mike Ryan is right, which makes Chaz Barkley right, which is that the coaching was an atrocity on both sides of things. And one more thing, because he was just on our show a couple weeks ago, Ethan Strauss, House of Strauss, is also right. That the officials really screwed that thing up. They didn't catch that Cat deflected that inbounds pass to Castle with a, with a second and a half left on the clock. And had Castle caught that ball clean and tossed it in—

Oh, did the clock not start?

The clock didn't start.

Oh, I didn't even realize that. Oh wow. So, so that's—

so glad you brought that up because when I see him throw that ball in, I'm like, they're definitely going for that like alley-oop dunk off.

Oh, he was gonna be wide open.

Yeah, correct. And he was open, But then I see the ball come up short, I'm like, no way.

I thought it was a bad pass.

No, no, I'm like, there's no way KAT didn't get a piece of that.

Well, yeah, of course. I thought watching it live that, oh my God, what a terrible pass. But of course you wind up seeing a replay and he very clearly got a hand on it. But I did not realize that they didn't start the clock. I mean, that would have been a disaster.

Imagine that.

Yeah, and I always think to myself—

Imagine if he somehow gathers that ball and flips it in.

And I always think to myself, having the huge guy on the inbound, what a waste of a big man. No, it's not a waste. Exactly.

I felt like an idiot.

I was like, oh my God, they did the right thing.

My grandkids showed it. Look, Mitch Johnson, this is only, you know what, his third year, second or third year full-time head coach for the San Antonio Spurs. And by all accounts, he's a good young coach, but he's had a brutal series. And it was really evidenced there on those final two possessions where, you know, Mitch Johnson decides, I'm not going to guard the inbounds passer. And what winds up happening is the inbounds passer, Anunoby, has a free run to the basket., and he winds up getting the game-winning tip-in. And then the very next play, Mike Brown's like, I am going to guard the inbounds passer, and I'm also going to put my tallest guy, and he winds up blocking the inbounds pass when, uh, the player was— Castle was going to be wide open underneath the basket otherwise. So it really goes to show it was two very different ways of going about the same play, and Mitch Johnson was wrong and Mike Brown was right.

Ein perfekter Frühlingstag.

Hach!

Sonne.

Hach! Park. Hach!

Picknick.

Und so viele Pollen.

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The rhetoric goes that what we saw only in New York, the reaction to it and otherwise, I feels as— how say you— that largely my takeaway is the opposite of that. Only in New York? No, it's like every other sports town. It's sort of like we are flies on the wall watching this great experience for another sports town, except for the Wu-Tang Clan and Ben Stiller and Larry David. But I do think if you blur your eyes, it is— it— the, the thing that is thrilling about it is that we are paying witness to another great sports moment, New York or otherwise. How—

I look, I, I am at the point in my life, you know, the way that I view sports, and it's also part of why I love experiencing professional wrestling at this point in my life with my son. Uh, I love the moments. I'm at that point in my life now where the moments and the journeys are sometimes even bigger than getting to the actual destination. And so what— I just want to experience the moments, I want to be there for moments. And watching last night, all the people certainly in attendance, and, you know, millions of New York fans all around the world who are watching, but especially those in attendance, they experienced maybe the best moment of their life. You know, like Mariska Hargitay, who by all accounts— oh my God, do I love her— but who by all accounts, Mariska Hargitay has an amazing, incredible life, and she was walking out the building screaming, "This was the greatest night of my life!" So just imagine how regular people who aren't Mariska Hargitay felt about last night, and that's the kind of stuff that I really love, is everybody feeling that way in that moment.

It was the greatest moment for a lot of people's lives. I really enjoy it.

Well said, Zazz, and it shows your empathy too, because you derive no joy except in hurting other people.

No, I don't like the Knicks. Yeah, I don't like the Knicks.

You know, it's a funny thing. The sort of the other side of that, of what you're getting at is, I've talked to soldiers who saw, you know, who were in action, bullets were being shot at them and they were shooting them back, in the other direction and how obviously intense that would be. And I have talked to those guys during Steelers games or Penguins games or otherwise, and they're like, oh my God, I was so nervous. Oh, I'm so nervous right now. Like, you're nervous? Nervous watching a football game when you're trading bullets with people? Like, how is that? And what you realize is that the range of human emotion is fairly limited.— you know, it's certainly not infinite. You know, your pleasure, best moment of your life, people tsk, tsk, what about the birth of your child? It kind of feels viscerally not dissimilar, right? I mean, that is really what it's all about, and it is owed to the relatively limited range of our emotional scale.

How so? Look, the birth of your child is obviously the greatest, but I, I knew the birth of my child was coming. But it's also heavy too.

You're like, oh my God, what am I going to do now?

I mean, I've had 10 months to prepare for this. I knew it was coming. All right. And in that moment in sports, I don't know that a good thing is about to happen. For all I know, a really terrible thing is about to happen. But instead, the really great thing.

I think it is that balance of like, oh my God, this could be the worst thing ever, or it could be the best thing ever. Like Zazz. Game 3 against Vegas in 2023, the Cup Final. I have never experienced an arena like that before because I think Panther fans knew this is our only chance to win a game in this series and win our first Stanley Cup Final game in our franchise history. And the emotions after it was like that Knicks game last night reminded me of it where nobody wanted to leave the arena.

I empathize with the way— with the video we were showing of Tracy Morgan. Who is a hardcore Knicks fan, after the game last night when, you know, he's in the backseat of the car with his window rolled down and he's like hysterically crying, like he can't even control his emotion because he was so close to feeling the opposite of what he ended up feeling at the end of the game. And I get it, man. Like, I totally get it. And I I felt that— I've felt that rush a couple of times in my sports fandom. The first time was Game 6 in the 2013 NBA Finals with the Ray Allen shot where we were so close to the embarrassment and just this huge pendulum swing of emotion where now instead of a terrible and embarrassing thing, we— I have the greatest feeling. And that was very overwhelming for me emotionally. And then Game 7, of course, when the Panthers beat the Oilers in 2024. Going from the, the, the lifetime of embarrassment of blowing a 3-0 lead and still having never won a Stanley Cup before, to the way that I felt when they held on and they finally did win was very, very overwhelming emotionally as well.

And, and that, that's what Tracy Morgan was going through in that moment last night. He just, even though it's this incredibly happy thing, he, it was, it was so much emotions swinging from one side to the other in such a short period of time that it becomes extremely overwhelming.

Yeah, and this is one of my arguments I always tell people. It doesn't really happen so much in sports that have series, but I always said— we're all Dolphins fans here except for Dave. Dave has probably felt this emotion. I don't know if I'd enjoy a Super Bowl.

No chance. Like I think I always think about this.

No chance. Emotionally, getting to the game, I would be in shambles.

2 weeks.

You have 2 weeks of buildup to the Dolphins playing in the Super Bowl.

The last time the Dolphins in the Super Bowl was what, '83?

So I've never— I don't understand what you don't think you'd feel.

What emotion? No, I think that I wouldn't be able to enjoy it because I'd have so much anxiety about losing that game.

1985.

Yes, exactly. So if 1985 was last— so I was, I was 2 months old, Gino was a year old, Ethan a glimmer in his dad's eye, a protein floating through his balls.

My dad was in college.

Yeah, exactly. So like, and Zazzle, young man too, a little bit older than me, but we were all really young. We don't remember it. So for our team to finally get there right? And then, like Ethan said, 2 weeks of buildup. I don't think I'd enjoy it. I think I would just be sitting there in anxiety for 4 hours. I don't know if I'm watching Kylie Jenner sell me Pepsi or something, and I would just be hating my life the whole time.

Well, Zazz, um, so, so you're— I, I love that those are the great moments, uh, of your life, and, and you can relate to that. But let's dig into the cynical side of things. And I feel bad that I have been cast as, uh, as the cynic with this, or anybody who does, or you're joyless if you don't love Taylor Swift's joy. And I get, here's the thing, the Knickerbockers as an organization love Taylor Swift being there. That it, you know, among the other images of celebrities they float out, chief among them is Taylor Swift being courtside. But Taylor Swift's not a Knicks fan. She's from Philadelphia. She's from Harrisburg. She has nothing to do with the Knickerbockers. Kirk Herbstreit has no business being there. But as I talk about all the time, this is what's happening to our society right in front of our eyes, and there's nothing anybody's really doing to stop it. And in fact, what I'm resentful of is the groundswell of support from the average American for this effect that we're seeing, which is that there are now, you know, give or take a few on either side of things, about 29 human beings now through which we're supposed to experience the world.

And Taylor Swift is one of them, and The Rock is another one of them, and Kevin Hart, and the three hosts of Smartless. And it's a relatively short list of people. And this is what it is. They are living— we are supposed to live vicariously through all of them. And then Method Man is on The Le Batard Show on Thursday talking about— the weird thing to me was not that we will serve now for eternity if the Knickerbockers do get over and win one more game here.— which we will, which we should also confirm that you guys think that the series is in fact over. But Method Man's takeaway was, "I'm in MSG and the people didn't know the lyrics!" Yeah, I guess not, Method Man, 'cause a lot of those people who were closest to you aren't New Yorkers and probably don't care as much emotionally or spiritually about the Wu as the people who are from New York are. How say you?

About the Wu, uh, I— look, I loved— I didn't see them perform last night, just, I was busy doing whatever I was doing.

It was the most charming moment Draymond Green has had as an on-camera personality. You and I agree on Draymond Green's value.

Oh, he's brutal.

I mean, he's brutal. Like, I don't know if you saw after the game where he decided to take time to personally apologize to Jalen Brunson for doubting him. I guess it was on his podcast, on the Draymond Green Podcast. Like, hey buddy, This isn't your show, man. Like, can you— like, you're on Inside the NBA. Can we do a show for the audience here? Like, you're personally apologizing to Jalen Brunson. Who gives a shit?

You know, like, where do you come down on the Taylor Swift and otherwise of it with their hilarious Knicks pun?

Well, I will tell you, I will tell you, like, for people who are complaining about Taylor Swift being there, I don't know if you saw on the New York Knicks radio broadcast, Monica McNutt, who's also on ESPN, She was caught on a hot mic. They didn't know that they were still on, and she was critical of Taylor Swift DMV in there. She said, you're not even a fan. Get out of here, girl. I saw like there's a bunch of pictures from the past of Taylor Swift at Knicks games sitting in the front row wearing her Knicks shirt. Like, she's allowed to want to go to—

I'm sure she— I don't know. You come at me, Zazzle. I'm not being a curmudgeon about it. I'm just asking the question.

Why can't she go to Knicks games?

Mariska Haggerty is famously born in Santa Monica, California.

She's not from New York City. No, no.

But Mariska Haggerty Margot Robbie is a hardcore Knicks fan.

Yes, listen, she's been arresting pedophiles in New York since early 2000s. Yes. She can do it.

Especially heinous crimes.

I'm looking up Taylor Swift Knicks game.

It's right there in the intro.

And I know it was last night, but all I'm finding is pictures of her from last night. And also remember, she was rooting for the Cavs last series.

Yeah, but that's—

Is that right?

No, but she was there with Travis Kelce.

She was there with her man. Yeah, the Kelces are from Cleveland. You kind of have to do that.

I'm just team enough of Taylor Swift in general.

So let's just— let's have a quiz. Let's have— Game 3 had an attendee too, big-time celebrity guy, reality star guy from, uh, from the past. Uh, I think he's in politics now. He showed up to Game 3, and this created some tumult as well. I, I submit, and I don't care which side of the political or social spectrum or otherwise, I think what we need is a quiz. There needs to be a minimum standard quiz for big-time games. You say, can Taylor Swift go to Knickerbockers game? Of course she can. She's got all the money in the world. She can buy her way into anything she wants. But not— not again. Spiritually, that building should be— should be home to all the diehards first and foremost. And if there are leftover tickets, then people can buy their way in.

How safe? Well, I, I do think that, yeah, it was a, a, a wine and cheese crowd in Game 3, and I don't think you had that in Game 4. Like, I think it was more— you had all the hardcore celeb Knick fans who were there last night. It wasn't that frontrunner DJ Khaled, all right? It wasn't on his cell phone.

That's what I'm talking about. Slumped over looking at his cell phone with a minute left in the game.

Yeah. It wasn't Derek Jeter. Like, you had the real—

Derek Jeter! Derek Jeter counts! No!

He's a big Knicks fan? When's the last time you saw him at a Knicks game? Really? When's the last time you saw him at a Knicks game?

Wait a second. I think—

Good question.

To me, I don't know this, but my assumption is— I thought that Jeter and Eli, that's New York sports royalty. Now that's a cutaway I can get down with.

You could be New York sports royalty, but are you a huge Knicks fan? I don't think so. I couldn't tell you last time I saw Jeter at a game. All of those celebrities they were showing last night, those are all hardcore Knicks fans. Could Jerry Seinfeld name two—

do you think Jerry Seinfeld could name two and a half Knickerbockers?

Yeah, well, I know Seinfeld is a massive New York Mets fan and is at Mets games all the time, so I have to assume he's also a pretty big Knicks fan. I'm assuming.

But do you— what about the larger notion that I floated to you? That there be some sort of minimum.

I like that.

I like that there's a line of celebrities like in the bowels of Madison Square Garden, and you're hoping— you're in line because you're a celebrity, and, and you're hoping that the people in front of you get the questions wrong, that the seats don't fill up before it's your turn. I like that idea.

They're playing over-under with the jersey numbers like they do on the video boards, you know. So they show OG Anunoby's number, and then it's over-under Josh Hart's number, like, like at the halftime of the Panther game or whatever, you know.

I like that you have to prove how big a fan you are. But I Like all those celeb fans that were sitting in the front yesterday, I did— there were plenty of them in Game 3. It's like, you are not a big fan. And then last night I felt like all of them were like, are like legit hardcore Knicks fans.

Let's be real.

What about the giving the tickets away? No, Ben Stiller, the guys on Inside the NBA assumed he was cracking wise. He's like, no, I wouldn't have any idea. I bet I've been coming so long they just give them to me.

No, you're right. Well, hey, what goes on? Well, we spoke to Hank Azaria. We spoke to Hank Azaria today. I mean, talk about not having to pay for tickets. They, of course, they don't have to pay for tickets. They only find out the day of the game if they're even getting in. So of course, like, how obnoxious is that? You saw the ticket prices for these games for the regular person that they have to pay, and the celebrities, the people who have all the money, they go for free.

Yeah, the PR guy who doesn't put Taylor on the floor, has her a few rows back, definitely fired. That guy is so fired. That's why Taylor Swift Front row.

Oh, of course she has to be front row.

That PR guy, the PR guy's all, sorry Taylor, you're 4 rows back.

Absurd camera.

You're so fired.

Yeah, you're gonna see her throughout the game.

Abs—

and she got 3 tickets, Taylor Swift. It wasn't just her plus one, she got plus two.

What, uh, what would be specifically on this quiz? A standardized test to gain access to the building. Knicks history would be fair.

Knicks history. History of the team. Yeah, history of the team.

Okay.

Yeah.

What was— float one at me there. I said, like, I said, what can you name 2.5 members who had the 4 points?

What year was the last time the Knicks were in the Finals?

Yeah, yeah, they can't be too hard. That's a good one.

That's a good one. Who did the Knicks play when they lost the '94 Finals? Yeah, you know, who, who was the Knicks starting center in that Finals?

Who was the center drafted with the legendary frozen envelope?

Yeah, you know, who, who was, who was the Knick who went 2 for 18 in Game 7 in the '94 Finals?

Who did P.J. Brown flip into the stands?

That's right.

What was the series score when they dropped confetti from the roof of Madison Square Garden? Squared guarded against the Miami Heat.

Who famously punched a fire extinguisher cutting his hand?

I like Zaslo's angle of the 2-for-18 because that expresses you having gone through the pain. That's really what I always talk about with the Golden Knights going to the Stanley Cup Final in their first year. Oh, it's bullshit. It's the same. It's the Florida Panthers. Same thing, actually. Two generations ago, the Florida Panthers go to the Stanley Cup Final immediately. There was no downside for you. You're not dying when the Panthers lose the Stanley Cup Final. Final, there's only joy there. Fat and double fat of that.

Yeah, that wasn't right. Yeah, getting swept was not joyful.

I was at that game.

Didn't we lose in like triple overtime?

And again, a shot from—

yeah, from the blue line that just squeezes right underneath. It was terrible. At 1 in the morning, I was exhausted.

What a game. Beezer.

I've been on the wrong side of, uh, Samu Väkrup big-time goals myself as a Pittsburgh—

you gotta, you gotta, you gotta make the save there if you're Beezer. You got to make a save there.

We have to cut to the chase here, and because I don't want to hold you up too long here, the World Cup is upon us, and we were talking about it. The fellas were— they, they love the soccer, and I'm not down on it, I just don't know about it. Yeah, and I'm learning, um, as I do every 4 years. I, I— and then I, then, then I get amnesia for the next 4 years, and then I, I tune back in for a month of World Cup action. Um, the fellas are fascinated by the hairdos. I am with Stefan Castle specifically. Like, I feel like that his hairdo on top of his head would probably at some point— it seems to me that that must get sweaty and get heavy and therefore limit him ever so slightly in, in fourth quarters. I imagine his head gets a little bit heavier because of his hair. And they said, oh, that's, that's nothing compared to soccer and all the great hairstyles over the years. Take it away, Mike Fuentes. Guide us through. And I think Zazz is good here because he's, he's a blank palette. Right? He's just a, you know, he's a white canvas that you can put any hairstyle on and see what looks best.

Is that how you want to do this one?

As we know, Jonathan Zaslow, famous for his hair.

That's right.

And when I worked at BN Sports with the great Ray Hudson, Ray Hudson would always say to us, "Now that's hair for a proper footballer." He loved looking at hair, and he himself had a great head of hair when he played for the Fort Lauderdale Strikas. So we have some images here from famous haircuts of World Cups past. All right, and we're going to wait for Danny B to load one up here. Danny B, take it away. Now here we have the beautiful David Beckham playing for the Three Lions of England.

And right here, this is a very popular hairstyle from the early 2000s.

We called it the faux hawk, kind of like a fake mohawk deal.

Jazz, what do you give this?

We'll say a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being bad, 5 being good.

Yes, I go with 2.

I don't like it.

Oh, stupid.

Yeah, but you know, I gotta say, I, I'm a little—

but what's your critique? Yeah, you have to commit to the moment.

The lack of a commitment.

Yeah, yeah, because Why would I support anything that's faux?

So a mohawk is bald everywhere but down the middle.

Like punk rock. Yeah, like punk rock.

I'm about things that are real. All right. I would never support anything that's faux.

That's good enough. But fun fact.

But you love faux.

Yeah.

No, no.

You love faux, which is spelled faux, but you don't love faux, which is spelled with an X. Yeah. Weird.

Fun fact here. Mike Fuentes, when he was 23. He had a—

oh yeah, you did.

I remember that.

Yeah, I give that a 2 also.

Yeah, no. All right, Danny, load up the next one.

Mike Fuentes, theater kid, right?

Yeah, theater kid.

I'm not surprised.

It was a face. Anyway, so we're gonna have Danny B load up the next one here. And this one, this is Neymar. Neymar going back to the World Cup this year, first time in a while. This is, I think, is his—

what do you even call this?

I think this is 2014 look in Brazil.

I call this just like a big blonde bush.

Yeah, it's kind of like ramen. Ramen in the front. Yeah. So, uh, Zazz, what do you give that one?

Uh, I think it's better than the faux hawk. So I'm gonna go 3.

A 3 on the name 3 ramen hair. Okay, Danny B, load up our next contestant here. I'm trying to remember off top of my head. Oh, now this one, this one's a classic. This is my boy Ruud Gullit. All right, he played for the Netherlands, which is also Holland, which is also late '70s, right? Late, late '70s, man. My guy could party. Now what this is here, this is like, uh, for the audio audience, this is kind of like a, uh, Looks like from Hall and Oates. Yeah, oh yeah, a little Hall and Oates there. It's kind of like a dread.

Has some Rick James to it.

Yeah, it's like a dread mullet, right? He also has the facial hair going. What do you give this one, Zach?

Yeah, I like it. I'm going to go 4. Ooh, a 4. Because that takes some time, you know? You can't just grow that, say, hey, I'm going to grow this. You got to be committed to it. I think he looks good. I'm going 4.

All right, my Dutch assassin Fred Roodhuller. I got an interesting story for him, an off-camera story, if you don't mind, Russ. Oh, off-camera. OK, I'll get that off. OK, now the next one coming up here, we have— oh, This is a classic. This is Valderrama, el pibe, Colombia, my Colombian brother. Now, this is what I'm talking about.

How does this guy play with that head? That doesn't slow him down ever. That's not—

this light looks better.

It's not ultimately disadvantageous to his best effort.

In the words of Ray Huston, this is a proper haircut for a footballer right here. So Valderrama, the really tight curls, afro mullet. What do you give that one?

Yeah, he doesn't— that— but doesn't that like take like Let's say it takes 2 miles per hour off of his headbutt on a shot. He's probably— isn't that— isn't that—

guy's probably out there high on cocaine. He doesn't know. I guess that's fine. He doesn't realize.

To him, everything's slow. He looks— I think he looks wonderful. He looks— he looks like Mufasa. Yeah, I'm giving that a 5.

Yeah, 5 for Valderrama, el pibe. I like that, a 5. And I think our final contestant here— we actually have 2 more. Okay, we're going to go now.

This guy, a legend.

All right, put that up there, Danny B. This is— this is alternative. This is R9, is what they call the best strikers to ever play the game. What do you get this one?

Inverted cul-de-sac.

Yeah, this is horrible. All right, so this is— if I could go zero, I would. This is a 1. Horrible.

Yeah, that—

not—

I don't understand. He said he had a reason for it. I don't remember.

He wants to look horrible.

I don't know.

He's got a stealth bomber flying on his forehead. That looks— I think that's the worst. Horrible. R9.

You know, really famous. That was 2002, right? Yeah, really famous in the footballing community, but for the wrong reason. All right, one more time, and this is Taribo West. All right, he plays for Nigeria.

That's the winner now.

The Super Eagles.

Uh, now see this one, this one, touch of color.

That's crazy.

It matches with the national colors.

I don't even know where it's growing out of.

That looks like the two front guys from Prodigy combined into one.

Yeah, that's a great call, Dave. Holy moly, is that real hair color.

Yes, I, I, I can't—

green with like horns, but it's also— you can tell this is from found in the back.

Yeah, from France, 1998. Nigeria, the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

What do you give this?

Very confused by that. I'm, I'm gonna go 2. I don't think I like it. I don't, I don't, I, I, I don't know. I reserve the right to change my mind after I give it more thought, but right now I don't like it.

Okay, so, so the winner—

but if he was singing Firestarter Yeah, that was different reasons.

But so the winner, El Pide Valderrama from Colombia, he takes a Zazzlo.

Yeah, that's— oh, you know what, Prodigy is in the generation of— and Zazz loves his music when he's really— his prime time is Pearl Jam, and so that's in that same window of time as well. Zazz, what is the most popular— what's the worst genre of music that became really popular in our lives?

Oh, I mean, I, I don't I don't understand. I, I don't like the new metal, you know.

That's the right answer.

I don't, I don't get it.

It's the worst band of all time that was very popular.

Say that again.

The one, the one that—

Korn.

You didn't like Korn?

I just said I— no, I didn't not like them, I hated them. I thought they sucked.

Wow. Well, this will be my last appearance on Football America, guys.

You like Korn?

They're '90s kids, Dave.

They loved Corn. Yeah, I don't, I don't like nu metal.

That was the whole thing.

This is, this is, this is from a guy that famously went to a Slipknot concert with Romberg.

Uh, yeah, Slipknot's not nu metal. They're in that category. Heavy metal.

They are heavy metal.

I have a heavy heart right now after hearing that.

Wow.

Mumble rap.

We're gonna get some pics from the Fuentes boys and Buddy for some from the World Cup, but before we do that and say goodbye to Zazz, another Game of Life question for you, Zazz. Yeah, people love to throw around It's movie season and all of that, right now that we're in, and that's why it's on my brain, is, um, is, uh, oh, I've seen that movie a thousand times, right? But you haven't seen that movie a thousand times. What is in fact the movie, Jonathan Zaslow, or if there are 3 or 4 that are in competition, for the movie you've seen the most in your life? One. And two, how many times do you suppose, you know, ballpark, you have in fact seen that movie?

Yeah, that's a great question. Off the top of my head, I think I'd probably go with The Fugitive with Harrison Ford. Really? Yeah, 'cause it's a movie that obviously I love and I've seen a lot, but it's also on television all the time, you know? And it's like the movie that I always stop on if I see it. So probably The Fugitive. I've seen that.

Why didn't the bad doctor call the police and tell him that he just saw Harrison Ford in the, uh, in the top—

great question, Chicago. It's a great question.

Yep, that would have been the end of that. I just watched, by the way, um, Taken. I'd never seen—

what a movie.

Yeah, I didn't, I didn't know though. I, I didn't— I thought it was like a more legitimate, uh, legitimate picture. I didn't know that it was supposed to be something that we laugh at a little bit, right?

What's not legitimate? His daughter went on a trip, she got kidnapped, right? He told them not to, they didn't listen, he saved her. That's the movie. I like that he found the guy because he finds the guy who did the kidnapping.

Yeah, the guy who— Marco found them at the airport and he finds him. Yeah, in 2 minutes. Oh, he finds him in 2 minutes. Yep. But then doesn't grab him and get all his— he gets run over by a car.

A bus.

A bus. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I expected something different than what I saw there anyway.

The great father. But, you know, by the time you get to Taken 3, it's like, dude, can you— can you keep better watch of your daughter and your wife?

How about you go on vacation with them? Yeah, like, this is crazy.

So I should go— should I do the second chapter of Fugitive?

I would watch the second one. I like the second one. The third one, I don't think it's worth watching.

Okay, so Fugitive, number one, and how many times do you suppose you've actually seen it?

Great question again. Uh, I go— because you're right, like, I've seen it a thousand times. Nobody has ever seen it. There's no one alive who has seen a movie a thousand times. Uh, I would say I've seen Fugitive, eh, 30 times.

How about that? It's a lot.

Does that sound legit?

30? Yeah, it does.

That's 30.

That's like 60 hours of your life.

Probably, probably like, like on average once a year since it came out.

Yeah. One more question for Zazz before he goes. Um, are you surprised? Because we talked about 2, 3 weeks ago about whether or not you as a Dolphins fan are rooting for Tua and Mike McDaniel's success this year. Um,— I submit as a Steelers supporter that Mike Tomlin is not rooting for the Steelers this year. He does not want to— I mean, doesn't want them to go 0-17, although actually I think that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for him to say like, "Hmm, not so bad, eh, everybody who was bellyaching for the last decade about my results." Are you surprised that Knicks of the past are there and so excited and rooting for this?

Yeah, I don't know what it is. I've asked that question before. I don't know what it is about that franchise. This franchise, which has been a loser franchise, that franchise compared to, you know, every other franchise, why, you know, the former players come back and they sit, you know, up front. And, you know, David Sampson's like, oh, if you watch the Pistons games this playoff, you see Ben Wallace and Richard Hamilton are sitting right there. I'm like, yeah, but they're not running on the court, you know, during the game like John Starks. They're just sitting there like normal dudes. So I don't know what it is with, with that. Organization and, and those players, because like I said, it's been a loser franchise for so long. But I don't know, I guess there's something about it.

Because I think you just said— I think you just pointed out the key detail, is that it has been a loser for 50 years. There is no stink. There is nothing to lose. I submit that Manu Ginóbili and Tony Parker, um, are— they don't mind seeing these Spurs fall a little bit. There's no, you know, the, the whoever it is, John Starks or otherwise, it's, I'm on that team and now we've won a title. There's no sort of diminishment of their, their deeds to see the 2026 Knickerbockers win the title. I think it kind of makes some sense versus the other examples I laid out there, but you're right, it is weird. Iman Shumpert putting his jersey on to run out and He got drafted.

He got drafted by them. Like, he— like, you're going to associate him with two. Like, if he, like, repped the Cleveland, okay, I get it because he won a title there. He got drafted by the Knicks.

I'm like, you got— you got Tim Thomas who's sitting there with, you know, the other world peace players. Yeah, it's like, I mean, well, but he's also from New York and also in his jersey, by the way.

Is Marino thrilled if Malik Willis wins the Super Bowl this year?

He won't have to worry about that.

Well, yeah, he works— well, he works for the team, Marino, you know. So, yeah. Well, he still— he works for them.

All right, that's that. Visage, you're the tops. We held you too long. I look forward to talking with you every Friday. We will do it again on Friday, or we just did it on Friday, and then we'll do it again next week, and then the Friday after that. Looking forward to all of it. In the meantime, Zazz Show 2.0, The Lebatard Show, a mainstay making the show great every day that he's sitting in there. It's Jonathan Zaslow. Thanks for the time, pal.

Thanks, Dave.

All right, there he goes. And I don't really know what he knows about the soccer. I, I, I'm not gonna jive you. That's the cardinal rule of Football America. No jive. No jive policy. I don't know about the soccer. I'm learning about it thanks to Gino and Mike and Buddy Budowski. So lay it on us. The first weekend of this World Cup Give me some best plays here, would you?

All right, Dave. So as we all know, this is Football America, but the biggest tournament in the world is on hand and we call that a little football.

Football America.

Hey, let's get some vibes going in here. The second I turn on my computer, there it is. Hey, the 2026 World Cup being held in Mexico, Canada, and the United States.

Because they couldn't decide.

Yeah, actually, I kind of like it, even though next year I don't like what they're doing. But this year, this year, I think it's really cool.

No, it is weird that Qatar, which I don't know how big it is on a map, and well, it's not gigantic, they got to host all of it. Yeah, but we have to share with all of North America.

It's, it's the juxtaposition of having all the stadiums within that word one more juxtaposition. There you go. Of having all stadiums within 8 miles of each other and now spread out across North America.

Yeah, Dave, it wasn't just one country. It was basically one city. Like, all of the stadiums were in Doha because that's basically all that's there.

So have you guys seen Justin Padixon? Whoa. Play for the Pirates? Yeah.

Check us out.

Oh, the password.

The password.

The password.

So anyway, Gino accidentally just about pronounced Justixson. Justixson, I think, is how you say Garcia.

Thanks for making me feel better. So here is a little Fútbol América presented by DraftKings. DraftKings, the crown is yours. Opening weekend here.

DraftKings Sports.

Sports. That's right. So this is releasing on a Friday. And on this Friday, you'll have host country Canada. They are playing against— as soon as I know where to look here for these odds, there they are. They are playing Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bad draw to start the tournament playing two countries instead of one. That's tough. And also you'll have USA-Paraguay. All right. Kicking off. And that's the game I will pick. Now, this USA team, I'm excited. Me and Ethan were texting the other day.

I'm getting ready.

Yep, yep, yep. The attack looks really good.

So because of that, this is who you're rooting for, Mike?

The country I was born in is giving me everything. Yeah, I think that's going to be—

I don't know. I don't know what you root for. I don't know. That seems very strange. I see a lot of Americans rooting for different countries.

Look, it's 3 things here, Dave. The Reds, they don't like to lose. The red, the white, and the blue. Exactly. I rep where I'm from. USA versus Paraguay. And I like the USA to get 2 goals in this game. But that back line, as always, very shaky. Questions at the goalkeeper. So Paraguay will also score. So I'm going to take the USA to win this game outright, 2 to 1, and both teams to score.

Gino, wait, Soup Campbell told me that Paraguay is good. Yes, they—

that Paraguay They've tripped up the Americans a couple of times, Dave. But this is a tricky, tricky game.

They just lost their best scorer.

Yeah, they lost their best scorer. And they're a middle-of-the-way team in South America. Let's be real. So I like the United States to come out and—

I'd also like to say very quickly that the best national anthem is— this is not, I hope, something that is unpatriotic to say out loud, but Canada has the best national anthem, right? No.

France. La Marseillaise.

France is very nice too.

La Marche. Uh, guys, sorry, José Canutti. Yeah, in Italy. Yeah.

All right, uh, let's go. I'm gonna do some Brazil versus Morocco. That is on Saturday. Now, you know, the, the layperson would probably take Brazil here just because of name recognition, but Morocco has been dominating for, um, for about 4 years now. They finished in the semifinals.

Yeah, how many people live in Morocco?

Good team. No, Dave, Semifinals in the last World Cup. They only let in 2 goals all of qualifying. Brazil finished 5th in South America in qualifying. So I'm going to go ahead and take Morocco here.

Now, Dave, just as a winner, a classic mistake. Well, he thinks that, correct, country, small country, small population means they must not be any good. They don't have a lot of people living there. You only need 11.

Not paying attention to the whole US standing.

Exactly.

Uruguay has 2 World Cups for every 2 million people in its country.

So you don't, you don't need a big population. You just need 22 guys. And let's be honest, half those guys live France. So it, so it's like, it's Morocco, very good team, finished third in the last World Cup, I think, right? They ended up winning the third.

They won the third place.

That's right.

So either would ask you.

All right guys, I am going to go to Sunday's action. Côte d'Ivoire is back in the World Cup, but I'm not going to be taking them. I'm going to take Ecuador. This is a sneaky, sneaky good team with two very good center backs, including William Pacho of Paris Saint-Germain. Look out for him. He might be a breakout star in this tournament. I like Ecuador to win this game. Get out of their group. And I like them to go to the round of 16 as well and win a knockout stage game here. So Ecuador against Ivory Coast.

All right. We'll try to make some picks for you. And as I absorb the information like Neo and his girlfriend did, like, I'm not ready to go yet. But remember, like, she's like, I don't know how to fly a helicopter. And then she's like, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Download that shit. That, that like by, by, by Monday I'm going to be all up to speed and I'll be here to tell you who's going to win the World Cup after I absorb some of that information. In the meantime, I've absorbed this, uh, this Brendan Sorsby thing, and we talked to Bert Breer, what, a week ago, two weeks ago, about all of it, and I am positively stunned. I stand by, and Bert I assume does as well, that the NFL is going to drop the hammer on Sorsby, which is awfully ironic now that college football intends to let him play after a couple of games. What the hell? Do they— are they not students of history, of sports history, the Black Sox scandal? And I get the people out there who are saying that this is not comparable because Sorsby was betting on games in which he was not participating.

He was on the bench. He was not an influence on what went down. But obviously you have inside information on what's going on in your locker room, at least. And so that is fraught with potential issues. This is why, among myriad other reasons, why you cannot have players on teams gambling on games in which they are— in which they are rostered. It's ludicrous. What— am I missing something? Does anybody in Miami or anyone within the sound of my voice and wants to weigh in on YouTube— we appreciate the comments— explain to me what element of this story I am missing that allows college football to think, or the college football thinks it's okay to allow somebody who bet on your sport— I get it's not murder, this isn't a, a felony per se, but But it is a capital crime if you want your sport to survive, because if you undermine the credibility of it, of the results of the thing, it ceases to have any value whatsoever.

Yeah, I, I think the thing that you're missing, Dave, is that there are no rules in college football anymore. And all you have to do now is go out and find a judge that either went to your school or is in your school's jurisdiction, or you can maybe slip a big paycheck to and say, hey, You should probably think about what this will do for your community and your chances of getting reelected if you deny our quarterback to play. Like, it is such a mess. And this goes well beyond all the problems people have with NIL and all the problems people have with the transfer portal and whatever. This is just simply about the fact that the NCAA has no power and all these teams are just running rampant doing whatever they want because they've been able to take advantage of the NCAA for so long.

Right, in the context of, you know, teams have been cheating and been paying players for, you know, forever and all of that. And so I get that you can sort of say like, "Meh, the whole thing's muddy now. All of a sudden you're gonna, you're gonna try to clean something up." This is worse than anything else.

Oh, 100% agree.

You're bringing guys in who otherwise wouldn't attend the school. This is different. You are now wagering on outcomes of games in which you theoretically could impact how the game unfolds. No, I— sorry, go ahead.

I completely agree with you. This is, this does rise to another level, but it just kind of shows that there is nothing the NCAA can do right now. All you have to do is go out and find a guy that'll give you the ruling, or a girl that'll give you the ruling that you want that says your quarterback can play. And it's really bad. It's a terrible, terrible mark on the sport right now that this guy is seemingly going to play. And Fuentes, we've been talking about this in the office. They moved the trial back to after the college football playoff. To determine whether he can play or not.

It's terrible. This is exactly what they wanted, because now the outcome doesn't mean anything, because by the time they do get around to it, he's already a pro. And it's crazy that, you know, we used to think college was the place for like moral standing. This is where things get right, and big business, that's bad. Meanwhile, Terry Rozier, literally under federal indictment, and the NBA is like, well, we don't want anything to do with you. Like, you are gone. Meanwhile, this kid, ah, he can just come back and it's fine, because let's be real, some big donor is going to give a bunch of money and it will be okay. So like now the morality center is like completely shifted, and now we're like, yay, big business, because they have integrity when it comes to sports.

It's It also has to do with the blurring of lines on gambling, right? Like gambling is now legal. And so there are lines that are being blurred. But I'm with you, Dave. There is a line that simply has been red forever and you cannot cross it, which is you cannot bet on anything involving the outcome of a game that your team is playing in. Right. We talked about this on the show the other day, and Zaslo said it best. Pete Rose took this to the grave.

It was—

it followed him around forever. It, it cost him his livelihood. And this kid's going to be allowed to play college football? It seems insane to me. And I think eventually the public pressure is going to crack and going to crack Texas Tech and going to crack him and he won't end up playing, which would be the just outcome here, in my opinion.

Yeah. I mean, also what they have insulated themselves and Sorensby specifically with is, is sort of some state of victimhood, which is he has a disease and he is seeking treatment for that, and you have to give him time. And we don't know if he's going to be ready to return to action in Week 3. Spoiler alert, he's going to be available in Week 3 to play if Texas Tech has its way. I do kind of think— I don't know if this is, uh, naive on my part, buddy, um, I, I think the Big 12 or somebody has to step in and be like, no, you would think, right? You would think, you would think that the NCAA is going to do anything like that, or I, I don't, I, I don't know enough about it. I am being absolutely— I will, I will wear this— I am being a pretentious ass just talking, just throwing crap against the wall here. But doesn't like the committee who determines who's in the playoff have to say before the season starts like, yeah, the NCAA has rendered its verdict, but we are also rendering that team ineligible, right, for the postseason?

Something like that has to happen, right? I think that is You can't have guys who have gambled on the game still playing the game. I mean, and then there's precedent too with Terrell Pryor and, uh, uh, yeah, but that was when rules existed, right?

Terrell Pryor and yeah, yeah, but I get what he's saying. Like, it's such an integrity hit because now if Sorsby throws an interception that looks really bad, you'll be like, oh well, you know, everything he does, Dave, is going to be tied back to is he selling, you know what I mean? Is, is he And it's just a bad look. And I saw Brooks Austin said that Brendan Swordsby is not worth all this pain. Like the guy as a football player is simply not worth it. And if you're Texas Tech, at some point it's going to get to a point of fever pitch. You would— you might think where they're like, okay, this kid's not good enough to put up with all this because we're losing out on money because teams aren't coming to play us. Our other sports are being affected now because teams aren't coming to play us.. And yeah, I do think at some point, like, the College Football Committee, they've never made a ruling like this before, but can they make a ruling where they say you are not eligible for our tournament because you have a player that should be ineligible?

Or can the Big 12 rule the kid ineligible? It's insane. It's the wild, wild west.

You bring up, you bring up a really interesting element of the story because it kind of ties in with, in a way, the conversation we had last week with Nick Kostos about Jackson Dart and you know, his little, uh, dust-up with, uh, you know, introducing the president, whether or not he should be doing that and everything else. And Costas said it's also how good the player is, how much you can get away with, and whether or not Darts earned the right to put himself in that position. Tom Brady is held to a different standard. It is interesting. If this were Arch Manning, how would we react? Would we be reacting differently? Because we want— as people who want to pay witness to the brand of the sport. We want to see Arch Manning out there. And I think that's the leverage that sports tends to have over us, is that's why teams, when it comes down to head-to-head, like the star player versus the franchise you root for— it's funny, I think the players are always surprised when the fan base sort of sides when it comes down to it, when it's a week out from the start of the season and all of a sudden the fan base is like, all right, enough already, sign so we can win some games here.

It's funny that that is what will win, and sports has that leverage over us too. Like, yeah, we know he's a bad guy, but we also want to see the best possible version of the sport out there. And Sorsby, the question is, is he worth all that? I think the NFL is going to humiliate college football when they hammer this guy because he is not among the gilded class of quarterbacks you gotta have.

Yeah, you're not bringing that shit over here. That's what they're saying.

I hear you, but I even wonder if it were Arch Manning or somebody who's a sort of perceived as a can't-miss guy, if the standard would be a little different. I do think in this case they are going to hammer this guy, not just because of college football, but also because he is optimal. He's not Arch Manning, he's not a can't-miss guy, but they can deliver a message to a generation's worth of players like, oh yeah, you want to, you want to wager on football? This is what will happen to you in the NFL if you do. That was the end of my rant there. Um, all right, you know what, I think I'm done ranting. I think I'm done ranting altogether. Unless you have anything else you want to throw in there, we'll call it a day here.

And I got something, I got something.

We never got to— oh, oh, we never got to— I didn't know you were taking a nap.

Oh, you never got to 6.

We never got to 68.

Oh, this is a good one.

Okay, please.

This is a good one.

This is for you, Dave.

This is—

yes, you got two iconic 68s in Pittsburgh.

Richie Incognito.

Yes.

We got Yarmir Yager and Elsie Greenwood, and I want to make you choose. Ah, who's the most iconic one?

Dave's Hall of Fame. Dave's Hall of All, which washes off the stink of all the existing halls of fame, which should all be moved up to Mount Pius and replaced by Dave's Hall of All, which will be based on merit and on justice. And Elsie Greenwood belongs in any Hall of Fame that honors football players who play well. Still, Al Elsie's not in there because the weirdo dorks who do the voting in there feel— and this is true— too many Steelers from that era. Can't put them all in. Okay, how about ones who were critical factors in those 4 Super Bowls? Too many. Too many Steelers is really the explanation you'll get from people. Like, what do you want? We're going to put the whole team in there? Okay, that's fine by me. Um, Jaromir Jagr, Buddy Budowski, Tell me what the number is. Is it 46 years in a row?

Something like that. Yes, I think you're right about that.

One of his teammates has played in the Stanley Cup Final for— this is the 46th year in a row that either Jagr or one of his teammates has been involved in the Stanley Cup Finals. It's insane. And it's funny, it feels a little delayed, I think, because he played for pretty much the entire Patrick Division and a half dozen other NHL teams and then went overseas and kept on playing and maybe still plays to this day. I think it's muddied our evaluation of him, especially comes up on the same team with Mario Lemieux, the greatest player of all time. So it's really kind of hard to see who he is. It's now clear, everybody gets he's one of the 8 best hockey players of all time, right?

Yeah, I would say so. And he brought— he's, he's, he's more important to the South Florida hockey community than you realize, Dave, because his time with the Panthers, though short, was extremely impactful in that he kind of groomed a lot of our young guys at the time, especially Alexander Barkov, who is obviously now the captain of the two-time, you know, Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. And he also got us back to the playoffs for the first time in a while. Like those Jagr years in Florida were so impactful. And it just shows like that was well beyond his prime, well beyond the peak of his powers. And he was still making such an impact on the game. He is I think he's, he's second in points, is he not? Or third in points?

I think it's second behind Gretzky.

Second behind Gretzky, which also, if Gretzky never scored a goal, he would still have more points than Jaromir Jagr.

There's a good puck era in Jagr's era as well. And there's some bum teams he's—

excuse me—

that he's a part of along the way. But obviously those two Stanley Cups in the early '90s, probably at least one of them Ain't in Pittsburgh, um, without number 68 there. So I have to, with all due respect to, uh, Hollywood bags and the gold shoes that L.C. Green would wear, and hopefully he, uh, his family one day gets a belated gold jacket, um, to honor the, uh, the late great, um, Jaromir Jagr, one of the, like I say, the 7 or 8 best players. And as a reminder, Jaromir Jagr, Mario Lemieux, and Sidney Crosby, same organization. Heady, heady stuff for Pittsburgh sports fans. All right, listen, that's, that's enough. That's a nice note to go out on. I think we can all agree on that. Like I say, we'll be back on the other side of the weekend for you. Enjoy your World Cup, your NBA Finals, your Stanley Cup Final, baseball, all the rest of us. Pro football, a lot closer than you realize. We'll keep talking about that next week. Until then, thanks so much, my fellow football Americans. It's been a Thin Slice of Heaven.