Transcript of Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 12

You're listening to DraftKings Network. 10 Levitard. Michael, thank you. We'll do it again with you tomorrow? Yes. To tomorrow. Stugats. Taking his shirt off, doing stuff like that. Oh, my God. 20 Mediocre years. Man, I'm really sorry. This is literally the worst way to ever do this. This is burning my heart that this is happening. But if you could hear me, just understand, I'm sorry. This is the oral history of the Dan Levatard show with Stugatz. So this will be an interesting time to revisit because I smile at it nostalgically, even though it was awful. And it's when COVID comes to visit and we're having trouble getting things like, Hey, can I have a microphone to do the biggest sports radio show that there is in America? Mike Ryan is getting essential worker status, and we are handling COVID professionally by having hand sanitizer in two places, following the rules and do America's biggest sports radio show that there is in America. And Mike Ryan is getting essential worker status. And we are handling COVID professionally by having a hand sports radio show. Following the Rules and Do America's Biggest Sports Radio Show from an apartment in your building, Dan.

See if you can figure out the Zoom and see if you can't stop feeling like this is exactly where your career is going to shit because you call John Mulvaney, one of the world's great comics, James Mulvaney, because this is where I'm starting to feel everything's coming apart for us. We're in a sad apartment. There's '80s wrestling playing on the televisions. Mike Ryan has brought in everyone by Zoom, and we are doing a bare bones minimum show that can't have chemistry because we're doing it in a place that's just awful. At least you had '80s wrestling. I mean, that's something, right? Yeah, man. All right. This is a dark, cold, amazing fun time. For everyone. Yeah. Well, not fun. No, there's some fun in here. There's some fun in it. There's some for us, but not for everyone. There's plenty of fun. Stugatz. Oh, I enjoyed it. You never watched Russellmania 10. I had a blast, I'm telling you. You didn't have to commute. I know. I was living my dream. And I had no traffic when I was commuting. I was working out. I'm guessing that Stugatz has not even heard one syllabus of what represents during this dark, cold creative time, what I believe to be some of the funiest stuff that we have ever done in the history of this show in the shadows of people knowing we were in trouble and doing some really funny comedy with some talented people.

I was talking to Jona Hill and John C. Reilly, and we had some talented people doing bits where we were making a lot of funny creative jokes, but not able to do the show itself daily very well. It didn't have any chemistry because look at how we were doing it, Stugats. We actually We eventually got to chemistry, and I'm really proud technologically, of things that we essentially invented. Dan just said we had a bunch of people on Zoom. No, at the beginning of this, Zoom wasn't a thing. Having people just pop up on a Zoom wasn't commonplace. We had to rig things and invent stuff. I'm really proud of the shows that we put out during this era. Now, granted, it took us a little bit of time. It took everybody time. The audience reception to what we were doing, they were just so grateful to have anything, especially something regular and consistent that people might look back on this. I'm sure a decent chunk of our audience would say, That was my favorite era of the show just because of how much our show meant to them. I've had a number of fans come up to me recently saying, We have gotten them through their darkest period.

For many of them, it was COVID. It was that time sitting at home because I don't think many of us, especially down here, realized I could go outside. I was playing golf. We would do the show, and then I would go golfing. But think about people who are in a tiny little apartment and they have no form of entertainment. There's nothing going on. They're really struggling. There's mental health issues. I had a number of people saying, Hey, at the darkest time in my life, you guys, really, and they do compliment the show saying, It might be the best couple of years or year that we did. It made them smile during a time in which they never thought that they would smile. This is one of the coolest things, if not the coolest thing about our connection with our audience that makes this super uncommon. As an entertainment vehicle, you can do anything, but I'm going to spend three hours with these people because I feel like I know them. They brought me through a time like this when in an epidemic of loneliness, Stugatz. We're trying to provide normalcy for them by, Look, we're having the same problem as you are.

Look at Dan. He just called him James Mulvaney because he can't do the show all of a sudden. I don't think we'll ever lose those people. Those people who were in on the joke with us over those six months, we can fall apart. As long as we're still trying to do a show, those people will listen to it for the next pandemic or epidemic of loneliness that comes that we can help you through. It's the coolest. Is that a prediction? It's the coolest. It's just the coolest. Look, man, I don't know what disasters come this way, but I am proud of the fact that the people who ride with us know that we're going to keep trying to show up for them every day because that relationship actually is the core of our entire business. I know I can still hear Finny barking in the background. Oh, yeah. Shout out to all the people. I can still hear Dan yelling So let's take it to the beginning of-How frustrating do you think that was for me? Not just that. I think about it like, I could control my dog. No, I'm sorry. Look, I'm sorry.

I don't mean that. You could control what time your landscapers would come over, you motherfucker. There were no There were landscapers. There were landscapers. It was a shutdown. Yeah, my perfectionism gets in the way sometimes, especially during a pandemic. There is some penaprofusion. He yelled at Abby. I mean- There we're. Disrespect. It was just chemistry. I just wanted the show to sound like the show sounds when it's good. That was impossible, but the show was better than anything else that was out there. I think that meant a lot at the time. Let's take it to the beginning of lockdown for us because Gobert, Tom Hanks, that all happens. I think we essentially have a week, especially down here in South Florida. The world really ended for us down here when Flanigan's closed. That's how you knew. I remember it felt like at any time they would have a lockdown for us, corporate mandate from ESPN, and I had no idea what that would look like. None, zero. No one talked to me. I remember that weekend, I was like, This might be my last weekend for a couple of weeks, months. No one knows exactly what would end up happening.

I went out on a boat because I was like, This might be my last opportunity to go on a boat. Let me soak up the sun as long as I'm allowed to. I get a call from Amanda Gifford, one of our bosses over at ESPN while I'm on the boat. Also a hugely positive influence for us. Doing a great job, by the way, with ESPN's College Football. We knew that she was a superstar, and she ascended quite rapidly over at ESPN. She was great. She called me and said, Hey, we're going to be broadcasting outside the Clevelander in people's homes. Your show is also doing that. I'm like, You're joking, right? Who's going to engineer Dan? Dan doesn't know how to engineer. How is this going to work? She said, We have a couple of remote units, these IP devices. Sugats already has one in his home because of the weekend shows that you were doing over at ESPN, which got a lot of fanfare. Yeah, and stupidity. I actually got Amber Wilson's. I had to have Chris Cody pick it up from her house, and Chris Cody dropped it off at the Clevelander. I literally get dropped off by a boat onto one of these neighboring islands, and I get an Uber and I go to the Clevelander to pick this up, and it looks like apocalyptic.

Not in that it's empty, quite the opposite. Everyone's on South Beach, super spreading their life away because this is the last to party. I'm like, Wait a second. You don't want me to go to the Clevelander because it's unsafe, but I'm going to the Clevelander to pick up this device? She's like, That's right. Okay, cool. The unsafeest place on the planet right now? I'm like, Look, this simply isn't going to work, Amanda, at all. Dan doing this by himself. You're not going to have a show. You're not. Sue can figure it out. Dan's not going to know how to engineer this stuff. I have to learn some of this stuff. There's no way I can teach Dan remotely. I need to be with Dan. She says, Fine, you can go, but only you. I'm like, What is What does this mean for the shipping container? We haven't figured that out yet. I'm like, Okay, but we have Dan, we have stew. Don't have the shipping container, we have me. Cool. What am I to do with this device? Well, Dan's going to be working from home. Start with plugging it in. That's where I started.

I didn't have the opportunity to really test this. I got to Dan's apartment, his condo in the beach. Man, this is eerie. I can smell it. There's so many things about that. It's just so vivid. What are they? The smell of your apartment. I can certainly smell the apartment that we later ended up going to because South Beach was empty and in your building, there was another apartment that was a bachelorette pad. This is so good. There were little dicks everywhere. Yes, dildos. Really? Like little confetti penises. All over the floor, yes. That weekend had been a rough shot run through South Beach. Some of the throwers for some ladies, and their remnants were all over the apartment we were occupying. What was the smell that you remember in that apartment? It didn't smell good. It didn't smell bad. Basically, it was a kitchen without a garbage disposal. There was months old food that had caked into the sink that I was smelling. It smelled like home, a weird, distorted home. But the first couple of shows, I get to Dan's apartment, Dan's in his shorts. Dan, Valerie, hey, what's up? My wife does not want us there.

No, but this is where we're going to have to do the show for now until Dan finds a better place. Or in our mind, a couple of weeks when life gets back to normal because that's what everybody thought. We never knew that we were going to be doing this remotely as long as we did. Because if you remember, everything about lockdown is like, okay, in a couple of weeks, we'll get our lives back and everything got prolonged. Your wife didn't want us there because she didn't want us doing the show, or she was afraid because of COVID. No, I would say that our apartment's not that big, and just putting America's largest sports radio show with its volume in the middle of her life is going to ruin six hours of her day. By the way, Mike's essentially- This is where to go. This is Mike's office. I don't have a place where she wouldn't be hearing- I love you, Val. There wasn't privacy. Everybody else has privacy. Everyone's doing their things in their own homes. Imagine you're broadcasting there in your home, but I'm there. Abby is not going to have the same freedom and liberty, or at least she's not going to feel that way.

If I'm there, she's going to feel like she has a guest in her home. Everybody else got to feel like they were at home. Dan's home was the studio. Show, and I was there as producer engineer. So Valerie did not feel any relaxation at home. And also it's locked down, not very many places where she could go. So I understood why we had to get a different place. But the first couple of shows that we did, I remember being very bad, very bad. And we had all sorts of sports news to help us along the way. God bless Roger Goodell. They didn't pause free agency at all. We had Tom braided going to the Bucks. We had sports things to talk about, and our show was so sportsy the first couple of weeks because we were such a relationship-based show, a comedic show, and the biggest thing that our comedy needed was timing. We had zero timing. We had zero line of sight. We weren't doing the Zoom thing. We were doing like, AIM. We were We're doing Skype. Not everybody had a webcam at this time, so we couldn't tell where people were going.

I remember that our microphones at the very beginning were so bad. When people didn't know how to do stuff on Zoom, I don't know if it was a Yeti mic, but just the quality of microphone listening back to those first COVID shows was just terrifying to listen to in hindsight. But I feel like we found our footing relatively fast. Working from home, you thought it was going to be great, and then I had back issues from sitting on my dining room table for six straight months. Just way too much of me and my wife together. Nobody needs that much time together. I'm telling you, people out there, you think you want to work with your spouse or at home with them every day, you don't. It's just way too much of each other. But those were scary times. You look back on them now and you smile because it brought us What a weird time that probably hopefully will never happen again. But yes, an interesting time, to say the least. Well, it was tough because it's one thing. My wife and I went through a miscarriage during that time, so it was really tough.

I had to bail out on one of the shows so I can rush her to the hospital to complete the miscarriage there. Obviously, if you know our story, she was pregnant four times. The first one was Claire. Second one was no development in that miscarriage. Then she gave birth to Aria a couple of years later, who passed away six days after she was born. It was a tough time for me and Aneed and Claire. Aside from that, from a work aspect, because we didn't have an office at that time, I set up at the dining room table. I had all my stuff. I was the only one that really had a microphone because I bought it off of Amazon. Espn did not provide us with podcast mics like we do have right now. I had my little microphone on my arm, and it's right in front of me. I'm at the dining room table. I got my toast right here, my tea. I'm looking at this Zoom screen with nine Texas. I'm just went in my turn trying to make sure that we don't talk over each other, which is another thing because communication at that point on Zoom, really, really tough.

You got to go through the chat box and everything. You got to make sure your fingers up. Hey, I'm going to go here. That was the whole communication thing. Dan himself needed Mike for everything to work technologically. Yeah, he didn't really know anything about it. But yeah, that time was really tough for us as a show, but then we started getting used to it. Were you Was anybody else expecting something different, though, when we started doing that? I remember thinking, this is going to be a disaster. Our standard didn't change. I know, but that's the problem. That's where I got frustrated with both of you because I knew what we were trying to pull off was nearly impossible from doing radio for as long the three of us have been doing it, and you two still held the same standard that you've always had during an unprecedented time in American history. That's right. I'm like, Hey, get off my back. That's right. No, that's the standard. Standard is the standard. Yeah, this was a challenge, no doubt, and it would help explain why we would have trouble running into upholding that standard. But Mike, I get standard or standard, but the radio mechanics, the doing of the show, you knew enough about radio.

You knew it was going to be tricky, right? Yeah, no doubt. Dude, we would- Oh, but it's to God. Damn I would pose a question to you. There would be six seconds of silence. I understand. We'd be like, Oh, we lost Stugatz. That would happen multiple times a show. Yeah, it would drive you crazy. The lack of control. You know I'm a control fan. I know. The lack of control in it. Stugatz is right, though. I just figured there were certain times that may have changed your- Stugatz is right. Stugatz is right that under the circumstances, it should be sane and understandable that the show is going to slip. But I want to offer this as context, and I'm going to probably both embarrass Mike here and really excoriate an ESPN executive who deserves it here. For the entirety of my adult televised lifetime, Eric Ridehome has been regarded as the most visionary of sports producers in the history of the business. Overrated, in my mind. He has been exceeded, I see, during COVID by another producer that I believe, and I've told Mike this, it's the greatest compliment I can give him. I say better than ride home because during this particular time, ride home did not bail me out in all the ways that I was falling apart during a pandemic.

Mike Ryan ran into the breach with his technological equipment and did a bunch of different things that other people wouldn't have done to make sure that our audience got the standard. He's the protector of the standard. That is part of what it is that we're doing here, showing you the innards of how it is this thing got built. During a time that the audience wanted this thing to be as good as it was, Mike Ryan is driving to the beach one of 11 people who's allowed into this apartment covered in dildos because the people need their content from Stugats, and God damn it, Stugats, get Finny to stop barking. Enough of you and Finny. Newborn, too. Christ. Newborn, too. Still scarred from it. At this time. Finny is. I forgot I love the HQ aspect of it all. I would often say well after the show because I had to set up for HQ. Ride Home didn't have to. I was just doing it to help Dan because there was no show. There was no economy without getting Dan set up there. I remember Ride Home gave me a crazy huge Amazon gift card for just being a human and helping Dan throughout that.

Yeah, we kept it going. You deserve more. You probably heard that. Amazon gift card, really? That's all I got you. Those pandemic highly question I can't even believe that we did those shows with no content. There was nothing in sports going on. But we were doing better stuff, Stugat. We made some funny stuff over this time period. I remember this as a content time. It delights me in a that I'm surprised by thinking about it right now. I remember it feeling because our show really thrived when there were no sports going on. I always felt like our show was better during the summer months than it was at any other point in the year. I just felt like this was a long summer, a really long summer. But we had nothing to talk about. Except for the last dance. Yeah, but when you don't have topics, when you can't... The last dance and Tiger King, they came our sports. Yes, they carried us. When you don't have sports topics to lean on, it forces is the creativity. I think that was probably one of our most creative times. Right, but we didn't have the think tank that we used to.

No. While Dan and I were getting closer during this time, how could you not? We needed each other and we both needed work. You're watching '80s wrestling together. That is the ultimate way to bond. Come on. With confetti penises all around. All around. I mean, jeez. I do miss it. Jealous now. I do miss it. You would have had fun. You would have loved it. I know I would have. I wish we were all hanging out together. Can you imagine? I walked in with Valerie's response. Well, this is so It's funny when I think of... I want to do sights and smells for a second because this really does sermon what is a cold, dark, lonely, fun time because for four hours a day, it's not convenient enough that it's the Clevelander three blocks away. We're now going to bring this inside my most intimate space, and we're going to try to do this in a way that's as good as what we normally do, which has all sorts of eye contact, 20 years of knowing each other. Network clocks, spots, so much nonverbal communication on our show, and I don't have the ability to nonverbly communicate in a timely fashion.

You got me at home with a dog barking, wanted to work out, I'm playing golf, my wife's trying to get some stuff done. They had yelling at me. You being totally reasonable about, During a pandemic, can I do a bad radio? The answer from me and Mike is, No, but you're right. We were unfair. I'm telling you, when your answer was no, I would then not back to you, but I would go to Abby and say, They're two fucking assholes. I'm so sorry. People are going through it right now. I am very sorry. My mom was dying. I had nothing to do with that. I wanted you guys to feel bad. Okay, but that just escalated. He got an opening on guilt, and he all of a sudden... Eat it. I'm very sorry. I didn't have anything to do with it either, by the way. Yes, I know. What, my mom? Yeah, we had nothing to do with that. We did go to the funeral. Via Zoom. Via Zoom. You looked so grown up. And then you mocked it right after all. No, we didn't mock it. I was working out. No, we did mock it.

You did mock it. We did mock it. You mocked it. I mean, it was a bunch of old people. We mocked the old people. Oh, my God. It was good content. Don't mock it. That's good content. Come on. No, we need to find that content and audio and play it, just the people talking on Stugatz's Zoom that were 80 years old at his mom's funeral. God bless Zoom because initially it was Skype and nobody knew how to work that damn thing. Oh, my gosh. Every legacy media personality struggling to get on the show with us. We had one engineer over at Bristol. We had initially no way of getting the shipping container involved. Then we discovered Zoom and the way to get the shipping container, which was hugely important to Dan because our audience wanted to hear from Billy, Chris, Roy. Yes. And so did Dan. Dan needed the outlet, too. He needed the fountains of content. The only way that we can get them on the air because we only had so many IP devices at ESPN radio. They weren't going to justify sending Chris, Cody, Billy, and Roy an IP device. The only way that we could do this was through the teleconference app.

There was no way, or at least ESPN hadn't figured out a way to patch that through the board, certainly not without a delay. What we would do is we would have a central Zoom hub that would be on my laptop. Dan could finally see you guys and try to get the timing down. But if you wanted to talk to members of the shipping container, I would take my headphones off. I remember. I would put the microphone to my MacBook speaker. That is how we got the voices of the shipping container involved. I couldn't hear the show at this point. I couldn't hear what was going on. If Bristol was trying to talk to me, my headphones were right in the middle of the book. Which is very dangerous for us, yes. Yeah. That's how we did it for a good month and a half. Technologically, it was awful. Everybody sounded bad because everybody was using the laptop microphones. But yeah, it was not a good sound. Do I have to get our advertising in? Do I still have to do a show somehow? The fact that we got that off the ground, to me, it's just a miracle.

Really, Zoom, the biggest winners out of all that because I'm sure everybody put money into their stock and it skyrocketed from there because nobody was using Skype, nobody was using Teams. Zoom was the thing, and I guess it provided the best audio out of everything. So I just remembered, it was bad, bad sounding microphones on a majority of these laptops. And don't forget, internet issues because you got to deal with people who might have a better internet connection than others. I was on a wireless, it was fine. It was that, too. Technically, it was a tough for everybody to get together and have audio quality that actually sounded good. This was both one of the most amateur things that I have ever seen, but also one of the most majestic innovations that I've seen from inventive Cuban people who can make a boat out of toilet parts. You became MacGyver? This was ingenuity. Well, no, the show was not quite sharp in this form. In hindsight, it probably took a lot longer. In my mind, it only took us weeks to find some continuity on Zoom. But maybe if I listen back, it took longer.

But it was just like our show in studio. It's all about Dan's comfort. Then once Dan leaned into, okay, there's going to be some talking over. Zoom's tough. It's hard when there's seven people trying to get in over Zoom. But I think once Dan just let go and realized that, look, people are happy to have content right now because it was at a time where some people weren't doing shows. We were one of the few shows that we barely skipped. I think people were just happy to have us, and we were just happy to be doing it because it was such a scary, weird time. It was one of those things that once we got to years in with it, because by the end, we were doing it for multiple years on Zoom, we were cooking. It was almost weird doing a show in studio because we got so good at it. But yeah, the first few months was definitely an adjustment. I want to ask you guys a business question here because as we stir around in some of the places we might have felt betrayed or neglected by a lack of support. As you say this, I have not thought about it before now, justify the of sending the shipping container equipment.

Am I unjustified, entitled, or bloated in ego when I ask you guys, is it unreasonable for me to assume that we had a radio show that was big and popular enough that sending equipment to four people. It's not a ridiculous request? You are all those things, actually. I think most of all, you're uninformed because there are only so many of those devices at ESPN Radio. And guess what? Every radio show in America and across the globe is trying to get their hands on those devices, which leads to a shortage. Right. And they're expensive. They're hugely expensive. I could see the request for, Hey, can the shipping container each get one of these individual IP units being met with? Are you fucking kidding me? Right. We need our host on. I can't get one for Scott Van Pelt right now because there's a two-month waiting period to get one of these things. How dare you? I think it's considering the times, Dan, yes, it was pretty ridiculous for you to assume. But keep in mind, I'm not remembering any of this until he's expressing it. What I am remembering is I was having trouble getting a single microphone, and so just that one thing was something that felt disrespectful and all the other stuff that was happening.

But I wasn't making big ask for giant things. I'm asking that question now as my He says it. We were all frustrated. I don't think we were really fully comprehending supply chain issues, really. We were asking people like, You want another microphone? Why not a Norwell? Why don't you ask me for an endangered species? Because that's essentially what's going on there. And Now, I wouldn't expect you to know it. I certainly understand the frustration. Hell, you were probably frustrated not because of a microphone, but because of how you were feeling over at ESPN. I would say that our general friction with ESPN management had subsided because they were grateful that we were doing this stuff. You are asked to take a pay cut, and I want to ask you about that. But let me talk to you about the solution that I workshopped with Chris Winningham, and this is something that we've never really revealed. I was doing Chelsea miced up with Chris Winningham. Chris Winningham was an intern of ours. When I got hired by Chelsea to do content, they asked me, What do you need to put out a show for us? I need Chris Wittingham.

Chris Winningham and I were recording Chelsea Miced Up at the time. That's another reason why Valarie wanted me out of the apartment because I'd go from doing his show, highly questionable-You were doing multiple shows there? And I was doing Chelsea miced up. I mean-Poor Valarie. Was doing it there. But we had workshopped I remember the conversation came up. He's like, Mike, I've been thinking about the issues that you're running into. Credit to Chris Whittingham. He's like, I think if we use one of the mic ports for not a microphone and we plug it into the computer, we can get the sounds from the computer into the mic port, and you could essentially have all Zooms go through as if they were on the microphone through the IP unit. Now, ideally, this would all be fed to ESPN, but ESPN didn't know anything about even Zoom at this time. I would be flying blind talking to someone else and trusting them with timing, fade up, fade down. It would be a disaster. I wanted to be in control. We rigged our IP device to the computer. Chris Wittingham came over in gloves and masks and rigged the IP unit, and it worked.

It worked. That's how we got crystal clear audio, Zoom audio from the shipping container was our workshopping working through Chelsea miced up. Our crazy idea worked. That's how we fixed the headphones thing, which was a big thing. Around this time, what turned out to be, is this going to be a couple of weeks? Is this going to be a month? Turns into several months. Espn makes the ask of its talents, their higher paid talents, Hey, can you volunteer a portion of your salary? Give us a little bit of a break here. Maybe we can take care of some other people. You had a very unique request that didn't fly over well with some folks at ESPN. But again, dating back to the supply chain issues, you not knowing the nature of your questions causing any friction. You make a genuine human ask about where your salary could go to, and how has that met? Stugatz, do you remember at all whether or not they took? You'd remember. They did. You You-Took the pay cut. You volunteered because it was optional. It was an optional thing. No, I remember. Did it feel optional? It did not feel optional.

It also felt like the right thing to do at the time, I guess. I would say that it did not feel optional, but especially given what it is that we were feeling now in terms of turbulence, and are we going to remain here? It seems like Mike and Stugatz think we're not going to remain here. I'm blissfully... What do you mean? We're following. We're working with these people. We're done. I had several months to tell them, Dan, I think we're done. I didn't want to believe it. I'm still not sure of it at this point. We're done, Dan. But I'm saying, yes, of course. I'm thinking to myself, well, I don't remember bonuses when we were doing well, and it doesn't make total sense to me that a corporate entity, this giant, would need now discounts. But if it's to protect the company, and it seems like a lot of bad stuff is happening and there's a lot of uncertainty, I didn't have any resentment whatsoever about the idea of, Okay, seems reasonable enough. This is a ridiculous way to make a living. Espn has been very good to us, and we make money, and can't believe we get to do any of this.

Sure, no problem. But would you mind, I've had camermen here who have moved from a highly studio over to here. Some of them don't speak English. That 10% salary reduction, if I could give it to them, can I direct where it is that it goes? The answer was no, and I was hurt by that. Well, that's not a reduction in their mind. They're still spending the same money You're reallocating 10%. Okay, yes, but okay, yes. But I thought these people, because they don't work for ESPN, but you understand the part? Of course. Yes, they don't work for ESPN. That part. That part, again, with the supply chain issues and Dan not knowing if his question are dumb or whatever, or if his request are dumb. Espn legally had no way to do this as part of a publicly traded company, they can't actually circumvent that. If you wanted to do that out of your pocket, they could look the other way and not know about it. Well, I ended up doing it anyway becausebecause-They weren't ESPN employed. Yes, I don't understand any of that. And again- They didn't work for ESPN. Yes, I got it.

They all deserve to be paid, but they didn't work for ESPN. I'm just making sure we're clear. Espn outsource a production of highly questionable to another company. You were right to ask, Dan, and they were right to, I guess, say no. Look, he asked me a question, and I'm telling you something that hurt at the time, and I didn't understand it. Now that you explain it this way, I'm not as entitled to that hurt. Of course, they have their company and it has its employees. I just thought of the people who had been doing this show for eight and nine years who were part of this little circle that was adjacent to our little circle that is an inner trust. Not a lot of people are allowed in it. Hey, we're going to take care of all of these people because this is a bad time for them, too. They've made this thing with us for eight years. Can I just put this money over there? But yes, of course, the math on that doesn't work. I remember thinking to myself, if I didn't take the optional pay cut, which didn't feel optional, I remember thinking it would be a worse look for me.

They were keeping tabs on who was actually doing it. Well, that's what makes it not optional. Well, it becomes knowledge amongst everybody at ESPN, the people that are doing this, and that's how they get you to do this. There were a couple of talents that pushed back on it and were a little worried like, Do I ever get it back? No way of knowing. And your boss is, everyone is so thankful for their job at this point. We don't know what the world is going to look like. You're afraid to tell your boss is no. So it's implied that you should do this. It feels a bit ruthless, though, right? I would say it's hard to criticize any decision and any conversation and any questions asked during that time period because it was such a confusing period and stressful period, not just for us, for everyone, for the people running the SPN. No, but I do think that this question is fair to ask. Yes, at a time of great vulnerability when people are uncertain, a giant corporate structure, hypothetical X, immediately leans in and says, Where can I grab an extra 10% in a way that everyone's confused?

That's pretty corporate cold. I can question that. Yes, I Ken. Okay, well, you did. I think you were right to. They hadn't considered the camera people because they weren't on their books. So what you did was a very humane thing in that, what about all these people? There's no furlough for them. What pot of money do they have? How do they make their livelihood? It's a It's a reasonable ask. I'm just explaining why it was that Dan got enough. But that's Dan. Anyone who knows Dan, knows Dan is going to ask that. And so look, and it's fine. Like I said, the things that have happened since then have all rewarded the way that we've done business. There have been some ancillary costs to protect the feelings of people. I am deeply grateful that those people helped make us a video company because there were all sorts of things we didn't see that we needed that those people helped burst. It all ends up being our money anyway. The of our show at this point has some static images because we don't have cameras, but also Libo starts coming over to the apartment and sketching live shows so our visual presentation can have some supplement.

So good. We were trying to push. How can we still be creative as the ground rules change? And I'm really proud of that. And then something funny happens. The first couple of weeks month, it was about survival. The second month was like, how do we make this feel better for us? The third month of it was, how can we really push How can we use COVID as a benefit? How can we use the fact that we're disembodied voices with no real live video to our advantage? And also, there's a whole bunch of creative people that have their projects on pause. How can we use some of the smartest minds in Hollywood to work for us. Maybe they just want the creative outlet. Dan starts getting close with Adam McKay and all these other creatives in Hollywood that are dying for some creative outlet. And we started doing these bits that I'm really proud of, that we didn't present to the audience his bits. We were trying to fool them. Phil Hendry style, which in the first couple of episodes, I told you, probably had more influence because of how much Hawk loved him over our show than any other show that was out there.

This was very Phil Hendry-esque. How did we get to making bits? How are you on the phone with Jona Hill and John C. Reilly? Where there are huge names in comedy and improvisation educational comedy that are coming through just playing characters. We never reveal their identity. This is all really cool stuff. But this was a time where everyone was bored and everyone wanted to be creative. It was an easier time to get guests. It was the easiest time in the history of the show because people just wanted an outlet. They wanted They wanted to laugh. They were cooped up, too. Stavros made an early appearance there with a great bit. Mckay, yeah, he needed a place to put it, and all of these people needed a place to put it. I think Jona Hill's people ran away from him playing a Batmeat lobbyist. I think there was just a whole bunch of stuff that happened there that short-circuited something. It was funny the way that it was, but it would have been funnier if it had been Jona Hill. The thing that you just hit me with, though, because I do want to talk about the fun...

These were fun creative things. But when you mention my brother and you mentioned his artwork, I do want to figure out a way to make those prints something that's available to our audience. It's some of the last work of his that-It was on his website for a long time. Yeah, but I want people to see what that time was because of the interpersonal connection of what I'm going to tell you here, which is my brother was broken at that point in his life, and doing that helped him. I don't know what happened, but there was just a short circuiting that happened, and My brother was in a place where he needed to do something creatively that would heal him up and give him confidence. Those pieces of art are something that are really meaningful to me. And I'm sorry of that, but it is a beautiful thing to remember that he was hurting then and just making stuff for our audience was something that helped heal him. Dan, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is a time with your brother where some behavior is a little erratic and we're all a little confused as to why some of this stuff is happening, and no one really knows what ultimately is the root cause of all this, which is the sickness.

That is also happening as the world stops, everyone's lives change. Work becomes a bit of an escape for you. The audience, and not only things, too, God really knows how much you personally are under at this point. I had no idea. Because work is not going great, too. All these things are meeting in ahead, and it's also the mental health crisis of our time. I didn't know that your brother was going through stuff at the moment. Mike, there was such a disconnect at that point. It was hard. But I didn't know because Dan didn't correct me if I'm wrong. He didn't tell me. You didn't really know what was going on at that point. Some of it was confusing. Some of it had to be hidden. Some of it protects his privacy. I'm chasing him through the streets at midnight, trying to catch up to him because I'm just worried about what's going to... Yeah, it was It was an unrecognizable thing. Things were happening in public that I needed not to be in public. It was a bit of a frenzied time in all regards. But I was worried about him, and some of it was so unrecognizable because you don't know how to diagnose what.

That one of the heartbreaking images I have is being at a birthday party for my dad with my brother, and my brother being just so a manic for an hour that I left with my wife saying, This person who represents the thing that I've always loved the most, I don't like him. Who is this? What is it? And so all of that was beyond turbulent. It just was perpetually confusing. One of the things that I remember from this time, and not fully knowing that you were going through that, the ways that our fans talk about our show being there for them during this time, we were all impacted by this. You lost your mom to I lost my grandfather, who I lived with for several years. The show has been there for me. The show has been there for Dan. The show has been there for you. The show has been there for everyone who's a part of the show. The show, when my mom passed away, people were like, What are you doing? You're going on the air. Grief. Taking a beating. I'm taking a beating. Dan's yelling at Finny. He's telling him. Stegatz was really strong during that time.

Yeah, and I don't know if I properly grieved yet. In fact, I know I haven't, but I remember the show saving me because the doing of the show, the laughter, even while Dan was yelling at Finney, the laughter that we shared, and really just the creative process that I think we all have grown to love over time really helped me through the most difficult and dark time in my life. Yeah, that time was really challenging, personally, professionally. Stugatz didn't get to grieve it, by the way. He kept working through it. No. I'm certain that's healthy. It had to be really confusing for the rest of the shipping container who already had a reduced role because of the construct, but they don't know what's living inside anybody's head. We're all pretty divided. We're doing our best to talk and laugh with one another. We're glad that we're all there for one another, but it's different. It's really different. It was almost like, nice. Like, okay, the world is completely shut down. At least I can turn on Zoom every morning and talk to my friends for a few hours. It makes this odd time in the world feel normal.

Doing the show, that was definitely the time when you had the most appreciation for what we did. It was just like, holy shit, the world has stopped. People's lives have been turned upside down, and we were still able to do what we do. It was obviously a scary time, but definitely a moment that made you feel appreciated of what you had. Another thing that happens during this time is George Floyd happens, and there were riots, and ESPN didn't get on our asses about how we could talk about this. There were no sports ties. There were no sports. They let people speak freely on this. We did some good stuff there. We had some really good guests. I'm really proud of the stuff that I did with David Samson there. I grew as a talent as a producer. I really love some of the challenges that this presented in In terms of my skill, this is about as sharp as I've ever been as a live producer. Multimedia. I was learning all sorts of things. Stugatz, the Samson stuff was so good. I know it was. Going through the innards of a sports organization that way, I stayed home during lockdown.

There was a work holiday where the show just had it off, and I was at home for one day, and I was so stir-crazy. Keep in mind, I'm still going through my mental stuff. I'm coming out of it. I have my daughter. I have to be. Like anybody, I feel the walls closing in on I was at home one day and I told my wife, We're moving. I went nuts for one day. So I needed having that show daily for me and my mental as I was coming out of really, truly the darkest chapter in my life. I think having a schedule and having somewhere to be and something to do every day helped all of it. We all had friends that didn't have that blessing. We all had friends that got laid off or worse, friends that had passed away, friends of friends, parents of friends. There were a lot of things that put life in perspective. Dan I spoke to it some there. There was so much serious shit out there that I do have immense regret for yelling at you when Finney went and shut up because it wasn't all that important.

No, it wasn't. It wasn't all that important. Well, I thought at the time, I was thinking to myself, there's no way this could be That's not important, but I'm glad you guys finally came around. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, too. Apologize to Finney, not me. Finny bit me. I visited you during one of those days, and you've never apologized to me for Finny biting me. Revenge game. I would say that we do owe Stugat's some apologies. No one owes me. No, well, I would say- You literally just said we owe you an apology. No, I said, Finny. Apologize to Finny. I'll bring him in tomorrow. He bit me. He could have sued You. And you pretended like it didn't happen. You were just gaslighting me the rest of the time. I'm there introducing you to my daughter for the first time. That was nice. Your fucking dog bit me hard. Broke the skin. He's sorry. There is a general lack of discipline with Finny that would be probably enough. I mean, seriously, you just apologize. You can apologize or not apologize. I'll apologize to you. What are you doing? I'll apologize to you. I'm going to look at you.

But I will never apologize to that fucking dog. Oh, really? Yeah. He bit me. He bit me. We established that. Folks, did you know that sleep is one of the most important parts of recovery? Whether you're a pro athlete or just looking to crush your day, getting the right rest is key. And that's where Sleep Number Smartbeds comes in. Since 2018, Sleep Number has partnered with the NFL to help elite athletes get quality sleep that they need to perform at their best. In fact, 80% of NFL players sleep on sleep number smart beds. Tough workout? The sleep number smart bed can be adjusted to suit your needs. Firmer one night, softer the next, giving you the ultimate recovery boost. And let's talk about those sweaty, sleepless nights. The new Climate Cool Smart Bed adjusts up to 15 degrees cooler on either side with scientifically designed cooling programs to keep you comfortable and undisturbed. Sleep number smart beds don't just help you sleep. They learn how you sleep, providing personalized insights to help you get even better rest. It's like having a sleep coach right in your bedroom. Why choose a Sleep Number Smart Bed? So you can choose your ideal comfort on either side.

And now, save 50% on the new Sleep Number limited edition smart bed. Limited time, exclusively at a Sleep Number store near you. See store or sleepnumber. Com for details. The Dan Leventard Show with Studio God is sponsored by Better Help. We talk a lot about red flags, the warning signs that tell us to stay away from toxic relationships. But what if we spent more time looking for green Green flags. You know the signs that a relationship is actually healthy, supportive, and worth investing in. What are some green flags to look out for? Good communication, emotional safety, mutual respect, and someone who genuinely listens to you. Whether it's a romantic partner, a friend, or even a coworker, recognizing these positive traits can help you build relationships that truly love you back. If you're not sure how to spot them or even how to practice them yourself, therapy can help. It's not just for people going through major challenges. Therapy can teach you positive coping skills, how to set boundaries, how to show up as the best version of yourself. Betterhelp is accessible, affordable, and convenient with over 30,000 licensed therapists and a fully online platform, so you can find the right match for you.

Plus, you can switch therapists at any time at no extra cost. Discover your relationship green flags with Betterhelp. Visit betterhelp. Com/delbtoday and get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P. Com/delb. Hey there, Wellness Warriors. If you're like me, you've given a lot of to how to improve your health and wellness routine this year. I've started stretching more, do a little mindfulness, some meditation every day, try to clear my mind, make my body feel right. Take your health routine to the next level with the magic of contrast therapy. Meet our new amazing sponsor, Redwood Outdoors. They're making it easy to bring the benefits of saunas and cold plungees right to your backyard. A Redwood Outdoors backyard sauna seats 2-8 people, where you can relax, unwind, and enjoy all the benefits like reduce muscle tension, improve sleep, and glowing skin. And it doesn't stop there. Redwood Outdoors invigorating cold plunge helps to boost circulation, sharpen your focus, and leave you feeling absolutely revitalized. Whether it's detoxing deeper, reducing inflammation, or connecting with loved ones in moments of peace, Redwood Outdoors has you covered. Enhance your physical and mental wellness routines with Redwood Outdoors. Take advantage of special savings today.

Visit redwoodoutdoors. Com. Use code dan to save $175. That's redwoodoutdoors. Com code D-A-N. Save $175 on your order. Redwoodoutdoors. Com code dan. Deer Sports. Dear Sports. Dear Sports. Dear Sports. Dear Sports. I really miss trying to find my car after the game. I miss stadium bathrooms that smell like urine, barf, and regret. Dear Sports, I love when the really drunk frat bro who drinks too many hard seltzers during SigmaFi's tailgate is obliterated by kickoff. Oh, and guess what? He's sitting right behind me. And as an added bonus, he apparently thinks he knows more about coaching than Newt Rockne. Deer Sports, you know what I miss? The 16 days off between every NBA playoff game. Putting El or Los in front of a team name to honor Hispanic heritage. I miss awkwardly standing as an overweight guy shuffles 13 seats down to find his seat, only to get up again during the next time out. I miss being that overweight guy. I miss logging on and seeing everyone talking about the big game. Then looking at my mentions and seeing people tell me my takes are so bad I deserve to walk into a lake of fire.

Dear Sports. Dear Sports. Dear Sports. Dear Sports. Dear Sports. I love that my Nicks somehow won't be done paying Joe Kim Noah the $72 million we owe him until 2022. I love when my local Miami-based MLB team already adheres to social distancing because 13 people go to the games. I miss the way me and all my friends smell after tailgating. The Farmer's Insurance Open, where the best player in the field is Bryant Snedeker. That sad guy next to me who keeps standing up to start the wave, even though it never gets stronger than a smattering of 13 people who pity him. You know what I absolutely love? Being a fan of Miami Hurricanes football and having a national championship stripped away from my celebrating hands while the fireworks fill the sky because mother of me, Terry Porter has a bogus pass interference call because he's clearly in bed with a mob. Dear Sports. Dear Sports. Dear Sports. Dear Sports. I love that Deion Waiters gets paid $13 million to get so high that he starts seizing on an airplane. But when I do that, everyone looks at me funny. I love totaling my fantasy numbers going into Monday Night Football, being up three points, But the guy I'm going against has Patrick Mahomes, and all I have left is Austin Safarian-Jenkins.

Dear Sports, you know what I miss? 8-minute mound meetings between pitchers and their managers. No one knowing what a catch is. No one knowing what pass interference is. I miss getting home after seven hours of tailgating and needing nothing more than three Advil, a shower, and some gold bond. Dear Sports, you've made me scream horrible things that would get me fired immediately. Things that have made me force my living room furniture to sign nondisclosure agreements. I miss Jag's Titans Thursday night. I really do. All right, so the shipping container has been laughing at you here, and I joined in the after because of your contention. Chris, you want to take it up with him first because the shipping container is agitated and they want to crack at you right now. Chris, you take it up first. Well, Jorge Sedano famously said that Rudy Guibert should have been suspended for getting the coronavirus. And I'm seeing reports that Anthony Davis has a cold. Should we maybe find him? I'm thinking that's at least a fine. What do you think, Sedano? It wasn't about him being suspended because he contracted the coronavirus. It's because he so flippantly was touching other people's stuff, particularly reporters, who were all freaking out because we had no idea what this thing was all about.

That was my issue with him, was just him being reckless in that situation. So no, Chris. Anthony Davis shouldn't be suspended for a cold or whatnot. But you should do better than asking college football to play flag football, okay? Because last time I checked, you still have to huddle during flag football. That's true. Good point by Sedano there. Billy, what do you have for Sedano? You've been making fun. Well, no. So we're And he is about to come back, so I'm wondering if we still are on that bandwagon of should he be suspended for being reckless or not, or is it all is forgiven? Well, what I said was if I were the Commissioner, I would have suspended him. I'm not the Commissioner, clearly, Billy. So Adam Silver has chosen not to do that. So he can play on at this point. And by the way, I saw your Walter Mercado documentary yesterday. The last 10 minutes, I could have just fallen asleep. It was great up until that point. They should have ended in Jorge Ramos' interview. Oh, my God. Whoa. This is the most outrageous thing you've said since you thought someone should get suspended for getting sick.

He's lashing out. He's lashing out because- I thought we were one team here. No, he suspended Gobert for getting sick, and he's doubled down on it. And what I want to know is Sedano, is how lonely did you feel as no one has supported you? Much like Chris Cody's flag football take, there is not a single person who has supported you on this. Rudy Gobert should have been suspended for being sick. Listen. You said it. I didn't say he should be suspended for being sick. You did. I said he was suspended for being a dope. I didn't say that. Stugat, don't you start with me. I know where the bodies are buried. Sedano, I just saw a video released on Twitter of Jason Tatum sneezing without covering his mouth. So I think, what is that? That's the first two games of the season, you think? Maybe they should just give him some clam juice or put his foot in garlic, and maybe that'll work itself out. He's coming after you for no reason, Chris. You haven't misrepresented a thing he said. Sedano, it's your boy, Tony. Listen, really quick. The NBA snitch line, a lot of people are using it.

I should have used it on you when you wore the turtle Turdleneck on TV. What's your thought about the Snitch Line? Who the hell is Tony? Yeah, who are you again? What are your thoughts there, Sedano? I have no idea what he's talking about. Did you Then turtlenecks? Okay. Yeah. All right. No, the Snitch Line. The Snitch Line is what he's asking about. Which your boy, Gobert, is already complaining about this snitch line. He said it's petty. Listen, is it petty? I don't know, man. At the end At the end of the day, you need to keep people safe. And if Doc Rivers is joking, saying that he's already called about LeBron and everybody. But I don't know if I would do it. I would probably just... Man, I don't know. I don't know. It's a terrible... I don't I have a terrible answer for this. I don't know. You couldn't have been any worse on this subject, Sonana. You're shook because everyone attacked you because you're the only one who said that Rudy Gobert was sick, and you botched the discount totally. That was the worst answer I've ever heard from an NBA analyst on an NBA question.

Tony Steimied you. Well, you know what? You guys are also interrupting my Max and Steven A time. Can I get back to that? All right, go back and watch your first take. Wade is clarifying his initial tweet, supporting nick Cannon. That's what's on first take right now. You guys really flustered Sedano. Again, Sedano, famous at the Network for the exclusive report that Rudy Gobert should be suspended for getting sick. Now, the Sui nominees for Best Michael Doliak Song. Listener Ben, Return of the Mac. Return of Doliak, you know that he's not whack. And That's Michael Doliack, and he's taking it to the rack. Return of Doliak, I think he played with Shaq. That's Michael Doliack, and he never smokes a crack. Oh, no. We I'm going to take it. Listener, Shandaleer. One, two, three, one, two, three, swish. One, two, three, one, two, three, swish. One, two, three, one, two, three, swish. Throw them up till I lose count. I'm going to pass to Michael Doliak. Michael Doliak, he's going to shoot like the defense doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. Just leave me alone. Listener, Brandon, Ice Ice Baby. Step back, shoot the J and listen.

Doleak is back with a brand new invention. Something got the hold of him lately. It's 15 minutes of the game. Nightbees, lay up, stop, yo. I don't know. He had a cup of coffee with the nugs and nofo. Listener, Phil, My neck, my back. My neck, my back, my Micadoleac. Tv producer Lorenza Rodriguez. Yackety-yack. He played with Leightner and back to Shaq. Was great with rebounds and putbacks. At times, the widest guy on the floor. She don't play back here and back to Shaq. Michael Doliak. Don't talk, bar. That was good. That was good. Listener Joe, staying alive. Joe, you're on ESPN radio. Go ahead. All right. Thanks a lot. I didn't know. I'll give you the verse then. I didn't know we were doing it. Just get to it. Let's go. This guy's amazing. You can tell by the name of my jersey, I'm Michael Doliak, Michael Doliak. Three for the heat for three seasons. Michael Doliak, Doliak. Doliak. My-i-i-go Doliak. Doliak. My-i-i-go Doliak. Michael Doliak. Amazing. That guy's voice when he was speaking, I did not expect that singing voice. Listener Matt, get by with a little help from my friends. What would you do if I took a coup of Would you stand up and try to block me?

Play some defense and I'll back it out. I will try to hit it from the top of the sea. Oh, Dolly, I could fire with a little help for raise a friend. Yes. He's Michael Doliak. Yep. Them mother Santa don't know how to act. Yep. He'll box you out and leave you on your fact. Yep. Don't take it to a pain. Michael, thank you. We'll do it again with you tomorrow? Yes. To tomorrow? You know the Marlin's bus? Have you ever seen the Marlin's bus around town? It was John Henry's motor coach. He bought from scratch a $2 million motor coach that's like a tour bus that had couches and TVs and direct TV. And he would drive it back and forth from his house in Boca to Pro player. And then to spring training him back, this was his bus. And a condition of the sale is he wanted to keep the bus. He wanted to I had the bus for him in Boston. Right before the deal was closing, it's my famous and favorite bus story, is I called John Henry and I said, by the way, we're taking the bus. And he lost his mind.

He hung up on me. He started swearing. Because I just wanted to give... I was so annoyed with the way that Lucinda and David Gainsborough were acting that I said, You know what? I don't care. I'll walk away from this deal over this bus. John Henry, at a black tie event, he was at a wedding. He walks out of the wedding, he calls me, and he starts swearing at me, right? Saying, I'm telling you right now, this is my effing bus. I'm not even talking to you about this bus. The fact that you made me step out of this party about this bus, this is an outrage. I said, John, let me be very clear? Enjoy your wedding. There is no deal without the bus. Click. Next phone call I get is from Major League Baseball, Bob DuPay. You're going to blow up the biggest franchise swap, historic. You're a part of history, David, and you're telling me over a $2 million bus, you are going to blow this transaction up? I said, Bob, I'm telling you now, no bus, no deal. David, are you being serious? Are you flexible in this in any way?

I said, Bob, I will die on the bus. Two days A year later, John Henry gave up the bus, and he really didn't talk to me much after that. And we still have the bus. What do you mean you still have the bus? The team still has a bus? Or when Jeter closes, you ride that sucker out? Oh, my God, you did. It's even better than that. We're selling to Jeter. Jeter is not paying attention to anything other than the fact that A-Rod is not getting the team. That's all Jeter cared about. Literally, that was it. So there's an asset in the deal. It's an asset deal, which means you're buying assets. He was buying the assets from us, from Jeffrey. And one of the assets was the bus. How old is this bus now? It's, by the way, this bus can go forever. This bus can go to a million miles. It's got 50,000 or 100,000 miles on in this bus, it is gold. I am sitting in P. J. Loyello's office with Jeff Konine. P. J. Loyello is the head of communication, the guy who hates all of you guys because you do nothing but manipulate me.

Yeah. He can't even listen to these local hours, right? He has PTSD from a sweat standpoint, so he's worried. So we're sitting in his office, me, Jeff Konine, and Loyello. I said, Konine, this team is being sold, but I have a crazy idea. Let's call Jeffrey and let's buy the bus, the two of us. So we call Jeffrey and say, Hey, Jeffrey, we want to buy the bus from you. And Jeffrey said, Well, I don't care. Does Jeter think he's getting the bus? I said, Who cares? We're just going to take it out of the deal. Won't care. He won't know the difference. Jeffrey Lauria sold the bus to me and Cohnine for 10 grand. Ten grand. Amazing. So Cohnine and I started a company to buy the bus. It's called W G-T-F-B-L-L-C. We got the effing bus LLLC. You and I have a pretty interesting dynamic. You have your side of things with how the Marlins went down, and I speak for the fans, and I have a really good knowledge of what happened there. And I like to think that I can call you on BS. But when it comes to the Montreal Expos, I'm outgunned in that department.

I can't speak for the Expos fans because I don't know enough. So I brought in the number one Montreal Expos fan that I know and certainly known the world over as the prime Expos fan. I bring in Ariel Hauwani. The overall sentiment of Ariel and most Expos fans were that you and Jeffrey were not at all serious about keeping Montreal a baseball town. David contends that Major League Base wasn't serious about keeping Montreal, really, and Montreal wasn't serious about keeping the Expos due to his negotiations with the regional sports networks. David, could you articulate a little bit more as to what you ran in on? Because I imagine you and Jeffrey bought this team with hopes of turning Montreal into a World Series champion because that was a conversation that had in the locker room, and Vladimir Guerrero didn't understand a word that you were saying. How quickly did you run into the notion that maybe they don't want us here? So let me just explain to you what happened from day one is that we were told by Bud Steal, during the applications. Just so you know, if you think you're going to come into baseball at this level of investment and all of a sudden move the team and have it not work in Montreal, you will not get permission.

You will not get the votes. You have no chance to move this team. You are a new owner. Do you really want to go to Montreal? It is an absolute disaster up there, but you really want this? And we agreed to go and try with no promise, no guarantee, no ability to canvas the owners, which is what I would do going from Montreal to Florida, making sure that we have the votes to actually get a deal done. I had no access to the owners, no ability to actually try to figure out what position we were in. We had no choice. What What we did say is the downside is limited, the upside is infinite. And that made it a business deal that was worth it, even with how horrible the PR was, even though how much we were not liked from the beginning. And it's nice that you wanted to hug and felt that we were so great from the beginning, but we were not painted that way by our own partners, because we would go into meetings. We negotiated before we got the team that it wouldn't be just me trying to get a TV deal, that we would bring these limited partners, Steve Bronfman, the new limited partner, Jean Coutou, the man.

Pierre Michaud was so widely respected, and Jacques Monar was the number one banker in Montreal, that they would come and they would negotiate. They would be helpful with the provincial financial leaders with the people who have the money to put into a stadium. They knew these partners, Ariel. They knew that in order to get a stadium and say, baseball in Montreal, there would have to be public money. They knew that we were all broadcasting budgeting to have higher broadcast revenue. They approved all of the financials before the deal was ever done. So you're acting as though they were shocked when the numbers didn't hit that we had to do a cash call. But that is revisionist history. If you want to paint the picture that the limited partners were only in it for photo ops, they were only in it for season tickets, they were only in it to say that they were going to be a part of the expos, but not really invest in the expos to make them better, and they didn't want you guys to come in and ruffle feathers, that's fine. You can make that claim. And trust me, I have my issues with the limited partners as well, because it seemed like they cried foul when the ship had sailed with the lawsuit, right?

It was pretty much a dead situation by that point. But to paint the picture, what just bothered me, and I don't want to harp on this the whole time because there's a lot of other things we can get to. It just really bothered me that your opening statement would paint a picture about a beautiful city in a beautiful province, one that you lived in for two years. And I find it fascinating that you boasted about the fact that you lived in a hotel for two years, which suggests to me someone who lived in a hotel for two years had no interest in actually planting roots in the community and staying there long term. If you're living in a hotel, sounds to me like a pit stop, if you will. But I'm happy that they helped you out with the pay-per-views. It would sound to me like you didn't want to actually understand the situation. You didn't want to understand the history of the Montreal baseball scene in the community, why you would need someone who speaks French to lead the franchise. What were your qualifications when Jeffrey appointed you as the President? What What were your qualifications in terms of leading a baseball team, being the President of a baseball club?

Did you have any experience? Listen, you can question any one of my business principles you want. You can be as angry as you want. It doesn't matter. The real question is, did we come in and lie about trying to save baseball in Montreal? And my answer is there was not one limited partner and one organizational executive for MLB who did not know exactly what we were going to do and then did do as it related to the TV deal, to getting the new stadium, to bringing in corporate sponsors, everybody knew the plan. You're the best. Yes, Soccer. The beautiful game. A game soccer zealots claim is so complex in its artistry that us simpletons just don't understand it. To which I would respond by saying, No, we understand it just fine. We're just not entertained by it. We digress. At what is considered to be the world's game, he is considered the greatest in the world, despite the fact that he's never won the most prized trophy in his sport. Born June 24th, 1987, Lionel Andres Messi lived with his family in Rosario, Argentina, a small point town where if the going gets tough, the tough gets going.

And he did get going to Bartholona. It was there, at the age of 13, where Messi sculpted his talent and where Lionel became known as La Polga Atamica. It was there he would fall in love with what is known in some parts as Joga, Bonito. It was there in La Ciudad Conda that he would sculpt his game. It was there in La Via Della Della Tondo that he perfected his craft. It was there in La Takeda Del Plata he would play his entire professional club career. And it was there where he would be charged with and found guilty of tax evasion and fraud. Now, like the true fraud that he is, F After one bad season, Lionel Messi wants out of Catalonia. After two decades, the world's greatest player, most assuredly must have told his owner face to face. Not La Pulga Atomica. He informed them via fax. O teams will line up to try and acquire the 33-year legend, but I hope that they know this, that behind that youthful, innocent-looking exterior, there lies a monster. A monster that will kill you via fax when his privilege is called in the question. A monster that is capable of tax evasion and fraud.

A monster that is also capable of standing in front of federal judge and lying to the judge's face. And a monster that is probably a tad overrated. When Magic is saying that stuff, and then there's the dad in a wrestling where he taking his shirt off doing stuff like that. Oh, my God. What happened there? I know Miami cares about that. Mike, I know it was contentious. I know it was wonderful. And again, it's T. J. Warren. Dan, I was alerted to the fact that T. J. Warren is playing Jimmy Butler twice in one week, thanks to Rachel Nichols, who hosts The JMP, which is a national show. This, all the hostility coming to a head twice in one week. This is a major plot line. If you're not investing in the regular season component of this NBA bubble, I just got you. What Dan doesn't realize is T. J. Warren, on any given night can light you up for 45 points. I need Because this show can be whack-a-mole sometimes, I need to put these things on the poll at Lebitard Show. Is T. J. Warren ever involved in what Mike Ryan described as a major storyline?

Because you're not going to skate on this one either, Stugats. Oh, boy. Can T. J. Warren give you a 45 points any given night? I'm guessing T. J. Warren has never scored 45 points. I don't know why you did that. I really have no earthly- I'm not going to change the game I have no earthly... Can you look up the career high for me on T. J. Warren? As you say, T. J. Warren can give you 45, because I'm going to go the opposite on that. I'm going to say T. J. Warren can't give you 45 on any given night. What if I told you that one of college basketball's most decorated coaches was born 400 years before the sport was first played? That he clearly chose basketball because it was indoors. That after several lustful centuries roaming the beyond, he finally found love on an Italian restaurant table for 15 seconds. That he could have gone for a second course and still had time left on the shot clock. That that he expected accountability from everyone around him, but he himself wasn't capable of looking in the mirror, literally. That the opponent he feared the most is Holy Cross.

That up until this point, the only thing that stuck to him were a few crumbs from that restaurant floor. Oh, come on. This whole time, he's been coaching 90 minutes away from Transylvania University. That he's not too worried about his latest scandal, because if he sits out the next few hundred seasons, the right job will become available. That Van Halsey isn't walking through that door. That UMass might need a coach, but Minute Man, would be giving him too much credit. That the FBI put the final nail in the coffee. Espn Films presents the greatest example of time healing all wood, except, of course, for a steak for the heart. You think you're going to be ripped? I don't. I think you're probably eating even more grossly than you normally would. Listen, why you said that? I just ripped off 10 sit-ups. I said 10 all three ways. In front, I did left and then right. I mean, I am going to be ripped. Wow. I know. Ten total. Three, three, three. That's nine. That's nine. Stupanity. We are going to get to Action Bronson and the World's Strongest Man should be six time. They've got a new single Action Bronson does.

I don't think Magnus does. He said while you were off there, while the connection was bad, he had mentioned that you have lost a lot of weight and that he admires that. What got Why did you decide? I thought it was all... I thought we enjoyed being about the Munchie. It's slurring again. Okay, the connection is bad again, unfortunately. Back to Magnus. Okay, back to Magnus for Magnus. This is going about as well as it could go. Thank you, Billy, again for laughing in my face. Magnus. I mean, I am. This is the worst thing. Can you guys hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Hello. Yes, sir. Action. Hello. Action. Man, I'm really sorry. This is literally the worst way to ever do this. This is burning my heart that this is happening. But if you could hear me, just understand, I'm sorry. Hey, pop, how are you doing? I'm good. I got Tommy right here. Rory is going to do it a little bit later. He's late for dinner. So I've got Tommy here, and then you ask him the questions. What's up, you guys? How are you doing? How are you doing, Tom?

We really appreciate your time. Thanks so much for doing it. Anything for Sambo. Sambo asked, I say yes. This is exciting. Tom, first off, let me just say thank you. As a New York jet fit, thank you for getting the hell out of my division. Finally, I appreciate it, man. Well, that wasn't the intention to help the jet fit. But I do appreciate it. Tom, I'm wondering, in quarantine, you have a famously- You look like you're in quarantine, man. Are you in a closet? Where are you at right now? I'm in a master. Yes. I just moved into a house like you, and I am yet to get my office set up. Charlie's got a master's flag behind him. He's really winning this so far. He is. Tom, aren't you tired of beating Payton? I mean, aren't you tired of it? No. You're kidding me? Wait a minute. He's got his fair share of mine, too. Eli is the one that I'm actually happy I'm not playing against. Against Eli on the golf course. Payton, I got to show. That's a good point. Not against Payton. The star of the O. J. Simpson documentary that won ESPN and Oscar was not O.

J. Simpson. It was this man, Carl Douglas. He is our attorney, the show's attorney. What do you make of what you've seen in America as a guy who has been a part of the biggest civil rights law firm that we've ever seen in America with Johnny Cochrane? What do you make of what's going on in the United States over the last five days? And thank you for making the time for us today. Well, first of all, Dan, thank you for having me on your great show. I'm a big fan. I I watch it every day. I've been, man, a civil rights lawyer for 40 years, and I've always believed that the Lord put me on this Earth to sue police officers. If I can leave your listeners with one thought, at least. It is that police brutality has not gotten worse, man. It's just being televised. When I was growing up, Gil Scott Heron, of the last poet, once that the revolution would not be televised. But that was before the invention of cell phones. Trust me when I say this is a cultural revolution and it's live. Dan, there are so many George Floyd that weren't televised.

I got a case that I call this forgotten man, Oro Nunez Senior. It's spelled N-U-N-I-S. Steu Ratz, Oro was a 47-year-old Jamaican-American who was unarmed. On March 13th, he stood 5'4. He weighed 145 pounds. Dan Oro Nunez was the husband and father of seven. Mr. Nunez was suffocated by the Chuluff Vista Police Department in San Diego County as they tried to detain him. Mr. Nunez had done nothing wrong. His daughter had called the police for help. But you see, Dan, cops in small towns aren't often trained as well in cops in the big cities. Cops in small towns don't often get the cream of the crop in terms of police candidates. They get the leftovers to be kind. But there was no video taping Oro Nunez senior when he got suffocated by five cops. Nobody is marching for Oro Nunez senior. If five trained cops could not detain an unarmed man who is 5'4 without killing him, I say they don't deserve to be police officers. I have to explain to his wife, to one of his seven children, why nobody is marching for Oro Nunez senior. Why do you think that this one feels different to America, even if it doesn't necessarily feel different to you, Carl Douglas?

Because George Floyd, separate from any other occasion that I had ever seen in my life, narrated his own death. Mama, they're hurting me. You guys are going to kill me. I can't breathe. He was narrating his own death. Dan, the man with his knee on his neck had his hand in his pocket market. The fourth cop was standing within arm's reach and could have tapped him on the shoulder. Okay, he's down. We got him. The fourth cop, the Asian cop, could have simply said, Now, Dan, you see they are filming us right now, but that reflects a culture. He had 18 separate occasions when he was complained about and it got off. So there's a culture in Minneapolis. That culture is viewed because Omar Jimenez, a Black reporter from my alma mater, Northwestern University, was arrested on the air. The soundman said, Guys, you do know that we are recording this, don't you? But there's a culture by the code of silence. Dan, the code of silence is the greatest impediment to reform in the police system nationwide. The code of silence is why cops don't report on other cops because it's dangerous out there, and a cop never knows when he's going to need someone to back him up.

A cop would not dare say anything that would go against another cop because the next call, God forbid, that may go me. That code of silence is at the essence of what is wrong in police departments across this country, not just in Minnesota, brother, not just in Miami, but everywhere. Last week on the Dan Levatard show, Dan seemingly challenged you to a fight for charity. How serious do you think Dan is about doing this? And what's your response to that challenge? Dan Levatard is a big mouth. He's all talk and no action. And I can promise you, if he's even remotely serious, it ends very badly for him. But I will give you this. Dan Levatard, if you are serious, I'll put up $250,000 for whatever charity we come up with, and we can do it, pal. Okay. Challenge accepted with big money, too. Dan Levatard, you have 24 hours to respond. What are you doing on Sunday nights, Charles? I'm actually watching that last dance because there's nothing else going on. Actually, Saturday night, I ran at the MLA fight. They were awesome. But I've been watching their last dance. And what do you do with what it is that you're watching?

Obviously, you were featured prominently a few episodes ago. Well, I think it's all over the place, depending on... I mean, it's all over the place. You got to see Michael Jordan is the greatest competitor I've ever been around. And it's amazing to play against him. You can see at times he can be like a bully. But it's been fun just given something different to watch. I'm curious, though. I'm curious, Charles, when you see... Because I've been made sad watching you. I've heard you talk in a couple of different places about how your friendship isn't what it was because you criticized his management. And he obviously, the film shows that he holds on to these lights and doesn't let go. But life's too short, man. Can't you reach out to him and fix that? That's never going to happen, Dan. You can let that go. That's never going to happen. Hey, Dan, stop it, brother. We're good. Michael's doing great. Chuck's doing great. But that's never going to happen, brother. I'm too stubborn for that. You know me better, Dan. He tends to hold on to grudges, Dan. Now, Charles is probably- I don't hold on to grudges, but I'm never going to bid if I'm not going to admit if I'm not wrong.

That's never going to happen. Charles, I'm wondering, do you think back in your prime, the way he treated his teammates, I'm not saying he would have treated you like this, and I know you played with him on the dream team. I'm not suggesting that. Do you think you could have played with Michael, not dream team play, Pipp and Horace Grant play with Michael, be his teammate? Well, you notice he has selected prosecution over there, right? He knows who to pick on. No, listen, Michael's awful, but let me tell you something. He would have been... There's certain guys you can't treat like that. You have to know what guys you can treat badly, and they got to accept it. Screaming at guys all the time, punching guys. Come on, man. There's certain guys that will whip the hell out of you if you try doing that. So He has selected prosecution. I mean, Scott Burrell and Steve Kerr. Come on, man. It's a good point. Did you feel bad for anybody? Did you feel bad for the way anyone is being portrayed in it? Let's see. Actually, Jerry Kraus, because I think Rysdorff has thrown him under the bus and drove over him like 10 a few times.

The notion that Jerry Kraus broke up the Bulls, anybody would think that's got to be a fool. Jerry Roger didn't want to pay those guys. He had a chance to play Horace Grant, and he let him go. See, that's the thing that's funny, too. You go back to episode two, I think it was. They're about to talk about how much money Scotty was making. Michael wasn't making that much more. He was making more from Nike. But other than the last two years where Michael made $30 million, he wasn't making any money. And the reason they broke up the Bulls, he didn't want to pay anybody. He didn't want to pay Scotty. I guarantee, I don't even know what Dennis was making, but I bet it was peanuts. When it was time to pay everybody, he broke up the team, and he threw Jerry Kraus. Jerry Kraus broke up the Bulls. I'm like, Come on, man, it's Jerry's Ron does money. If he wanted to keep that team together, they would have stayed together. Tiger King is the name of the Netflix documentary. Mcgill knows everyone in it. He binged the whole thing, Stugats, yesterday. He watched all All seven episodes, and this is how a lot of people are going to end up watching this thing.

So without giving too much away, Ron, what can you tell us about your observations? You knew these people, you know these people, but you didn't know them this way, did you? I didn't know to the extent of how whacked out of his mind this guy, Joe Exotic, is. I mean, I realized he was an oddball. I didn't agree with the things he was doing at all. I said it many times on network television that this whole thing of keeping these animals as pets and using their cubs to make money by selling pictures with them is something I abhor. But having said that, this guy is so whacked beyond even that. I mean, that's the least of his totally messed up mentality with these animals. This is a series about not just wild animals and keeping them as pets in your yard, but it's about sex, it's about alleged murder, it's about all kinds of... You couldn't make this stuff up if you wrote it. If you wrote this and put it in a book, they go, This is dumbest book ever read. None of this would ever happen. Well, I thought the most normal of the private zookeepers was the drug lord from Miami who was sentenced to 100 years in prison and served 12 You know Mario, right?

I know Mario very well. I knew him very well. I actually worked with him way back when, when I started 30 something years ago. He taught me how to hand raise a lot of animals. I will say this about Mario. He loves animals, and he knows his stuff about working with animals. He openly admitted to me afterwards. He made a lot of bad mistakes, did a lot of bad things. But at the end of the day, as far as his caring for animals, I think he does an incredible job doing so. Do I agree with what he does with those animals, like having a chimpanzee and taking pictures? No, absolutely not. He knows that because though I respect his knowledge of animals, I no longer will ever go to his facility or anything like that because I totally disagree with that philosophy. You knew him back when? I did know. You knew him when he was scarface? Because he seemed- I knew him before he got busted, yes. Then I went through the whole process of when he did get busted. I will tell you, Dan, I remember working in his warehouse because I was working with animals or learning how to work with different animals.

I didn't get the opportunity to work with it at the zoo. I remember he had a briefcase like you saw in the movie on his desk, and he'd open the briefcase and you'd see all those hundred bills wrapped in those perfect little... Like you see in the movie. I mean, this is like a movie stuff. But one thing I will tell you, all the things that he did and he admitted he did, he never, ever did it in front of me. I never saw any semblance of that other than that briefcase I remember seeing with money. I think he had to get a key out of it to give me something to get in the back room and he opened the briefcase and I couldn't help but see what's in the briefcase and going, Holy Jesus. This is like, those are the Miami Vice days, and I'm thinking, I'm living an episode of Miami Vice here. Now, Dan and Mike, watched two episodes, Ron. You watched the entire thing. I watched one. I'm wondering, though, and I'm guessing a lot of people still haven't watched it. They're hearing about it for the first time. So without trying to give too much away, what made you angriest watching this series?

Just the fact that we have so many people with this mentality of keeping these animals as pets, thinking they can make money out of them, exploiting them by anthropomorphizing them, thinking, Oh, come on. Everybody wants to swim in a pool with a tiger. Everybody wants to lay down on their belly and take a picture with a baby tiger that has been ripped away from its mother for the sole purpose of making money out of it. Then most likely when that tiger gets to be a mature adult, it is dumped somewhere, or worse than that, killed and thrown into a pit because it's no longer useful making money because you can't take pictures with it anymore. That's what happens with a lot of these situations. I'm hoping that this series, as crazy as these people were, opens people's eyes up and they start looking at some of these things and saying, Wait a minute. Now, I got to stipulate that you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater. There are truly some good sanctuaries that do an incredible job of caring for their animals. But what you saw in this series is not those sanctuaries.

This guy, oh, my God, my blood pressure boils when I think about what I was watching. I couldn't even lay down on the couch watching it. I had to sit on the edge of the couch staring on the television like I wanted to jump in there and punch him. I mean, it's just unbelievable what goes on. Unfortunately, most people don't know about it because a lot of this goes on in places like Oklahoma and Ohio. But here in Florida, we've got a with that, too, in some of these roadside attractions. People need to understand. I can't tell you how many times I've done interviews on Good Morning, America, CNN, every time there's been a tiger attack or some other attack in one of these places where it turns out it's one of these roadside attractions where they just don't have the right conditions to maintain these animals properly. I've seen you interact with animals, Ron, and they love you. I am wondering, because what I see when I watch the first episode is a bunch of happy big cats who are being loved and they are loving back. Is it possible that these tigers are happy?

Is it possible, Ron? Happy is a hard term to interpret when it comes to animals. I think many of those animals are physically healthy, yes. I don't think it's normal. Tigres are solitary animals. It's not normal to see 10 tigers in one pen. No, it's not a kumbayya thing where they think, Oh, look, we're all one happy family. We're all brothers and sisters. I love you. I love you. I don't think that is normal. I think at the end of the day, that puts a stress that might not be easily seen by a layperson, but the animal is stressed that way. There'll be scenes in this thing if you haven't seen them yet, where these animals get in some pretty brutal fights. That is not acceptable. That's just not acceptable. So people need to get that out of their heads. Again, there are some legitimate sanctuaries that are doing a good job of rescuing cats from places like this guy's place. When they get confiscated, there's no place to put them. There are places that are taking them in and doing the right job and protecting them. But I would have to say the majority of people in this country who are keeping lions and tigers and similar types of animals in their backyards as, quote, unquote, sanctuaries are not sanctuaries.

They're exploiting these animals to make money. I get this story the other day about Tim Jerns. He's a strength coach at Southeast Tulsa College. I'm like, How can this be real? Is this real? I'm just shouting it around. Then Allison finds Tim Jerns. This is a person person who exists. I couldn't believe some of the things that I was reading. But anyways, Tim, thank you for doing this. First of all, appreciate your time. Dan, it's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me on. I'm just stunned, though, at some of the things that you're doing during what is obviously a pretty panicked time in America, where you're running your guys through football drills still. Well, first off, that's misleading. Typical depressed that they would put it out there like that. These are optional strength and conditioning sessions that we're having. These are team building exercises, purely optional. And fortunately, I've got a great crop of young men, and every one of them has decided to show up for this. But I feel like you're dabbling in some gray areas here where fully optional... I was told one of the details that was appalling to me is that these felt like involuntary OTAs.

Well, look, here's Here's the bottom line, and you know the way it is with what you do with your radio show. If you tell your people, Hey, I'm having a barbecue at my house on Sunday, it'd be great if you could come by. You're the boss. Everyone knows they should show up. So, yeah, there's a little bit of that going on. People care about this team. There's a lot of pride in my young men, so they're showing up. They're getting stronger. And while the nation is hiding, these young men are looking for an edge. Dan, I think the thing you don't understand is we're a small little school. We're a little school that wakes up in the morning. We pull ourselves out of bed by our nut sack. We get to work, and we're scrappy. We don't have the money of an Alabama, an Auburn. So while everyone else is taking a play off, we got to go in and we got to hit it twice as hard. Okay. All right. That's fine. You hit it twice as hard. But what you have happening... Are you not aware of what's happening in the country right now in terms of quarantine?

And now is not the time for anybody to be hitting anything twice This is hard. I have nothing but respect for what everyone's doing out there, and I understand what's going on, but I'm going to tell you something right now. We're being safe, we're working hard, but also we're aware there's a greater danger out there. There's an unseen danger out there that's even greater than what we're going through, and it's called weakness. There was some controversy. I was a strength and conditioning coach at Dawson College, small school up in Northern Florida, fine institution. And we had a before the football season would begin, where every player would turn to his right. They would then produce a serrated blade and cut the arm of the player to their right and put a little bit of blood in their mouth. And the theory behind this was, we got to lack the taste of blood in our mouths because we're not going to win just by getting five star recruits and laying back in a Barker Lounge here. We got to work extra hard. And we did have a player who got sick. And AD at Dawson College, a fantastic man named Ted demon.

He sat down with me. We shook hands like gentlemen, and we both agreed to move on. Somebody got sick. Is that what the backstory is? Someone got sick from the tasting of blood. We don't know if it was directly from the blood, but someone did get sick. Yes, that is correct, sir. Can you explain to me these workouts? Because these details are impossible to believe. As I'm reading some of these things, I'm finding all of this to be very dangerous, really. Well, it's not... Any strength and conditioning is going to push people in the new thresholds of pain. So I'm sure when you look at it on the printed page, it doesn't look as great. But all I can tell you is every young man who is here wants to be here. These are optional. These are not mandatory workouts. These are voluntary workouts. And yeah, I've invented some workouts on my own. There's one where we do a fireman carry. That's two young men. We'll carry another man up the dorm stairs And then when they get to the top, they rotate and they carry a man back down. These are 10-story dorms, so it's a bit of a workout.

There's another one, we call it 20 Men in the Bubble. And what I do is I rent a local fantastic business around here called Lube Party Supplies, we get a bouncy castle, and I get 20 young men in there. They all go down to their skivbies, they're in their underwear, and it's like king of the hill. They're bouncing around in there. It's awful hot. Everyone's grappling, wrestling, and you have players throwing each other out of the Bouncy Castle. And then there's one man left, and that man gets an hour break if he wins that drill. We've got a couple of others. We've got no water Tuesdays. Tuesdays, we work out, there's no water. You feel the pain, you feel the burn, you plow ahead. Are there doctors around watching what you guys are doing? We have actually my... She's not my She's my girlfriend, but she lives with me. So essentially, my wife. My wife is a school nurse at a local elementary school, so she oversees our workouts. No water Tuesdays. If anyone's feeling dizzy or anyone's feeling off, they take a little break. No one's happy about it. We may give them a little barking while they're taking the break, letting them know that we're not lacking the way they're playing it.

But my wife, she oversees this. Sharon, she's a beautiful woman. She's 10 years my senior. She's got a couple of kids that I love. I treat them like my own. And she's there. She's making sure everything is walking the straight and narrow. We've only, in four years of doing this program, I think we've had to call 911 at the most eight times. Wait a minute. What? Yeah. We've never lost a player. We've never had anyone suffer permanent injury. But a couple of times, we've had players where we need some EMTs to take a look at them. And guess what? We're all stronger for it. They move on. Two of the players did drop off the team, but otherwise, it's about getting harder. It's about seizing the opportunities when you have them, sir. Two are going to take us on a trip so far from here. From boring mediocrity to dominant so near. You know why? Because we've waited so long. Since Moreno, we've waited so long, seven to nine for so long. We've all got to wait it so long. And now we've got a tour ticket to paradise, won't you? Grab a mask and we'll leave tonight with our tour ticket to paradise.

Will it to a ticket to paradise. We've waited so long. This is Moreno. We've waited so long. We've waited so long. Since that night, we've waited so long. Sending a nine for so long. Now we've got a to a ticket to paradise. Won't you grab a mask and we'll leave tonight with our to a ticket to paradise. A ticket to paradise. Welcome to another Greg Cody Tuesday, a weekly celebration of White Mediocrity. It's the opening scene in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and it's the line of the guy whose name I always forget. I ask Mike Ryan every time to tell me what the name of the guy is. It's a very uncomfortable scene at the beginning of the movie. Jason something or another. Jason Siegel. Jason Siegel in that movie while he's walking around naked because a lot of people have seen it now in real life says to people, your mother has seen me naked. Just so I'm clear, my mom has never seen you naked? No, correct. That's not what I'm saying there. Anyway, move. My mom has. Move. This is another Greg Cody Tuesday. For over a decade, a weekly celebration of white mediocrity.

Welcome to another Greg Cody Tuesday, a weekly celebration of white mediocrity. Here's the thing about a third nipple, and I've done a little research on this. If the third nipple is located anywhere on the body except where it's supposed to be, it's referred to as a wart. No, that's true. Medically. Look it up. I'll look it up for you, Greg. Please. What are you going to look up? I mean, it's a medical fact. What should I Google? Third nipple, referred to a wart? You could. Sure. I'm on it. Yeah. Dan, you asked him. I mean, you asked him. Probably find that in a medical dictionary as well. Welcome to Greg Cody Tuesday, a weekly celebration of Caucasian Mediocrity. Welcome to Greg Cody Tuesday, a weekly celebration of Caucasian mediocrity. Cody's shirt today What year do you think Cody's shirt today is, Stugatz? If you had to guess. I want to go late '80s on that shirt. What year is that shirt? I have no idea. Who knows a year of their clothing? It's not an automobile. That hasn't been ironed in a decade. I'm driving a 1989 shirt Nobody knows a year of a shirt.

Yeah, but I feel like you bought all your clothes in one year, and you haven't bought any clothes since. It could be. All right, today's poll. Take a picture of Cody. Put it up on the poll today. I want to know. I want people to guess what decade this shirt is from. The only interest You don't know anything about this shirt, it's not made out of cloth. It's actually made out of paper. This is another Greg Cody Tuesday. For over a decade, a weekly celebration of white mediocrity. The Dan Levitard Show with Studio Outs is sponsored by Better Help. We talk a lot about red flags, the warning signs that tell us to stay away from toxic relationships. But what if we spent more time looking for green flags? You know the signs? That a relationship is actually healthy, supportive, and worth investing in. So what are some green flags to look out for? Good communication, emotional safety, mutual respect, and someone who genuinely listens to you. Whether it's a romantic partner, a friend, or even a coworker, recognizing these positive traits can help you build relationships that truly love you track. If you're not sure how to spot them or even how to practice them yourself, therapy can help.

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