Transcript of Reaction to Jaxson Dart's Introduction of Donald Trump | Hour 2 New

This is the Dan Levatorre Show with the Stugatz Podcast.

Even though I am indeed behaving like a king with an extraordinarily weird, uh, dietary habit, uh, please get me a Marlin here. Go to Canada and get me a Marlin so I can talk about what it's like to face Jacob Mizerowski, because I've never seen anything like this. He's got 311 pitches this year that have been 100 miles an hour. The next closest in the big leagues is that freak in Oakland, Mason Miller, the closer at 147, but a starter can't throw that hard for that many innings. And he throws 57 pitches yesterday. I'm looking at what he's doing, and he's got 9 strikeouts with 52 pitches thrown because he's just throwing everything in the strike zone and saying, go ahead, here, you think you can hit it? You can't hit it because I throw the ball too hard.

I was watching Marlins, uh, Blue Jays last night. It got me thinking, what are the most random matchups in all of sports? Because Marlins-Blue Jays to me was just like, this one's odd. You can— everyone, let's just save it. Let's put it in our back pocket. Maybe later in the week I want to go around to all the Sports and we just say the oddest matchups because I would not— Marlins, Blue Jays, it's odd. Uh, Mike Ryan said back pocket.

Mike Ryan is shaking his head at your back pocket right now and there's just so much judgment in what it is that he's doing. Like, he doesn't think that your back pocket is worth talking about. He thinks that you should take it out of your back pocket, see if you can find the nearby bin over there and just dump it in the trash can.

Mike, what's your nominee? Give me a baseball.

Come on, tickle me.

Give me a baseball.

Johnny Manziel versus Bob Menary.

That is right. There you go.

I like this one. Did you see that?

Uh, catch me up. I did, but Chris Cody needs a refresher.

There was some kind of MMA fight, uh, like one of those, uh, promotions, uh, the YouTubers, you know.

Is this the Beasley-Lance Stevenson fight?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, what a battle. And so Johnny Manziel fought some YouTuber I've never heard of before.

He's one of the Nelk Boys, I believe. Bob Menary, at one point.

I don't know what those words mean.

Wasn't he? Mike's making a weird face. He did the, uh, the lip sync reading, right? That's what he— That's what he was most famous for.

He's got to be Nelke adjacent.

Nelke Cabrera.

It's just like it was so pathetic looking for Johnny Manziel. He's out there, he's got the belly and like he's Johnny Manziel and this is what he's doing now. It felt pathetic. It didn't even feel sad. It felt pathetic.

I mean, did you see what Sean Strickland said on The Manor? He's like, that was a circus. That was a whole fiasco. I was embarrassed by being there. I had to leave. I mean, Dana White was on commentary and he was kind of talking around what was very clear during weigh-in. Bob Menary's got something going on. He's like, this guy's on Adderall or something. He's got the jaw going. And yeah, it was, it was a little bit of a train wreck to watch, but super entertaining, man. Ray J's got some weird trash talk. That's, you know, like when Mike Tyson started saying, I'm just going to bleep you till you love me. And then he just got into like gory detail, like, oh, this guy's done this before. It's kind of what it is with Ray J, only it's, it's Ray J.

What was sadder during the whole thing, though, if you had to go to the top of the food chain on sad? Was it Beasley against Lance Stevenson, or was there— and are the other things that you guys talking about here are sadder?

It was, it was Menery and the shape that he— I've never seen someone come out the gates that hot, though. Like, I don't know what was going on there, Dan. He had so much adrenaline to, to start. It was Ray J's press conference antics, then getting knocked out. And then taking the microphone seemingly to complain to the other fighter, "Hey, I thought we had an arrangement. That wasn't supposed to go that way." Yeah, the Beasley-Lance Stevenson thing wasn't embarrassing.

It was like, alright, they don't know how to fight. That's not really a surprise to anyone. He tapped out right— like, Lance Stevenson put him in a chokehold and Michael Beasley tapped out right quick. He's like, "Damn, I can't breathe!" And yeah, tapped out.

I think the funniest thing from that day was Johnny Manziel kicks, bro. Like, he was throwing them guys from the rafters.

You weren't bad looking. Man, as you know, I like watching people fight for money, and I saw all these clips, but the one thing that stayed with me is if anybody else heard Ray J's trash talk, is that was very graphic. And at a certain point, you're like, oh, we're gonna keep doing this. Like, he was describing the taste of stuff.

He came out, uh, against Cam'ron and Mase because Mase and Shine. Oh, they talked about both dating Ray J's sister Brandy, and that was when Ray J went on a full 5-minute rant where he went into great detail, uh, as well.

Okay, can I ask someone real quick? I don't even care how it makes me look, whatever, I'm comfortable with myself. Who is Ray J? Oh no, like, I know he was in the sex tape, but like, who is he?

Okay, but that's— I mean, that's, that's what it's gonna say in, in the obit. Like, that's— it is the sex—

so he's just famous for being in the sex tape?

I mean And also performing.

I see. I have no idea if he's a performer.

Sexy. Can I just pet my man? It's got to like, hey, if I had one wish.

He got hit with that over the weekend.

When you mentioned Dana White, can someone please fact-check or help me understand something that he keeps claiming about his Power Slap endeavor where he keeps saying that Power Slap— and I understand he's a carnival barker and I understand that promoters spend a whole lot of time lying, and he's just basically famous for being a promoter, so I know what the backstory is here. Promoters lie, it's kind of part of the job description. But he is saying of Power Slap that it is a lot more popular than I have any knowledge of it being popular. I don't know any human being who watches Power Slap? I put it on the poll at @LebatardShow. Do you know any human being who regularly watches Power Slap as Dana White continually says this again and again?

It does a billion views a month on social media, and it is a sponsorship fucking home run. Home run, right?

Yeah.

And what are the crowds like?

How many crowds are awesome? So What I did was, you know, you don't just pop something up and then go to T-Mobile and put tickets on sale. So what I did was I invited all the influencers to come. If you had over 5 million followers, you got invited to, to, to the event. Now when you think about these, these young content creators and influencers, every day when they get up, they have to figure out how to go viral, right? And they're competing against all these other young, talented Content creators. And so when you think about this, I control the UFC, the WWE, PBR, Power Slap, um, Nitro Circus, SLS Skate League. I have all these brands and, and I let these kids come in and, and it's like a tool. Do your thing. Exactly. Do your thing. Create content. And, uh, yeah, it ended up being a complete home run. Power Slap is The most successful thing I've ever been a part of in such a short amount of time.

Really? Yeah.

Oh, the first 2 years it had more sponsorship than the UFC did in 10 years.

There's an internet theory that he just bought it. So when you Google Dana White slap, that's what comes up. Oh, that's a good— that's a good theory. That's a good theory and probably a good move. That's supervillain mind.

It is weird to me. Like, I, I don't know. I'm with you. I don't know. Anyone who has ever watched Power Slap.

But is it young people? Is it— is it— does he indeed have a market on a demographic that you and I don't have access to as you embarrass yourself by not knowing anything about Ray J?

I only watch the clips because I like watching clips of people slap each other for money.

You don't watch— you don't keep watching the clips, right? You've seen a couple and then you've gotten your fill.

If there's Power Slap on my algo, I'll watch it. Yeah, they're getting slapped hard as hell. You see this thing? They sometimes are bleeding from the ear. Like, have you ever seen CTE Right away. Yeah. I mean, thank God it's not me.

Reds, Tigers, back pocket.

I'm the rare person who watches Power Slap because in Vegas I interviewed like a crew of Power Slappers for one of the contents that we were doing. And so since then, those brothers are champions and I'm locked in.

So maybe it is a YouTube subscriber thing, an Instagram and TikTok thing, and therefore I have aged out on it. Is he telling the truth? Like when he, when he says, you have to understand, I'm always always, uh, taking with a grain of salt anything a promoter says about anything because the job is to simply say things that get attention and it doesn't matter if they're true or not. But, uh, the way that he's talking about this suggests, uh, a knowledge of something that I don't have knowledge of. I really don't know anybody who watches this. But this is also the same guy— you'll remember, this is the same guy who came on our show 15 years ago and said, I promise you that within 10 years UFC will be bigger than the NFL. And obviously that's not what happened in any way.

I don't understand the part, Mike. I'm sorry about the— maybe it's young people, YouTubers, TikTokers who are watching all of it. Like, that's not the demo that advertisers want to spend money on. Like, if that's your main demo, that super young audience, that's not what—

No, but big on social. Big on social is a pivot that everyone is making now. Anybody— you see that the NBA The NBA has hired a YouTube influencer, Kenny Beacham, is that his name? Where they— the next move for old media is to tap into whatever it is that the kids make everything popular. Young people make every single thing popular, and it's a demo that you absolutely want, even though it's not the money demo.

It can't be the only demo.

No, but it's certainly a good place to start on growth.

Right. And did you see the people from your age generation? The Iceman Frank Isola came out and said some disparaging words about how does Kenny Beecham have this, and he got drug across the internet. So you might be a little skewed opinion on this one.

I'm inclined to believe Dana White with what he says. It has its audience. I don't see it really getting bigger than what it is. It is what it is. It caters to an audience that might dish out some cash to watch Johnny Manziel surprisingly and effectively kick Bob Menary, and that there's a whole internet that subculture of people that like that kind of stuff.

Guy was the most popular football player, like, in the country, including NFL players that year, right? Most popular football player was Johnny Manziel.

Raise Rockies.

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Don Lebatard, and he was doing all kind of wild stuff. When he threw the ball off the glass to himself and yammed it, I was like, wow, that's crazy, you're on perks, Stugatz, you know what I mean? That allegedly, allegedly, allegedly, allegedly, allegedly. This is the Don Lebatard Show with the Stugatz. Zazz looked it up during the break. Michael Jordan's 72-win Bulls averaged 105 points per game. The Oklahoma City Thunder averaged 119 points per game. So we believe that people are gonna— people who are averse to math, because I find that generally speaking most people, sports fans included, are just math-averse. It scares them. You think, uh, 15 years from now when we dive in on legacy stuff, people are gonna look at Shea Gildress-Alexander, see that he's got better numbers than someone like Kobe, and then say Well, different era. They scored 14 more points a game. The Bulls, when Michael Jordan was winning 72 games and they were averaging 105 points a game, the Bulls were the highest scoring team in the league. Yeah.

So it's like 28, 29% for MJ and 26% for SGA. Does that percentage difference feel meaningful to you?

I think yes. Historically, I think 3% is something that if we're going to do math problems, 3% is meaningful. But I don't think that's how people do these things. I really don't. I, I believe that this era is going to distort how it is that we do some of this stuff because Michael Jordan's high-flying Bulls were playing for the least effective shots. They were playing for contested twos and they were playing the game all wrong and you're blasphemous for saying so. They were just playing in their time. We've talked to Jamal Crawford about this. Like, if Jamal Crawford played now, everybody would want him and take as many threes as you want, please. Like, we've changed. Look, I know that baseball has made a ton of different changes where everyone's looking for just really unusual advantages because there are so many places where market inefficiencies have already been explored by all the teams with money. So what you have from, say, the Tampa Bay Rays is they have Andrew Rasmussen, somebody who throws 72% first pitch strikes, just strike zone, strike zone, strike zone. And they've got a bunch of guys who don't strike out.

So it's like, just put everything in play. Doesn't have to be a home run. Just stop doing the useless play that everyone else is doing where we strike out and nothing happens. Make the other team do something. So organizationally, they're like, base running, we're going to be great at base running. Not good, not necessarily even fast, just great at base running. And we're never going to swing and miss, we're just going to put the ball in play all the time. The Marlins just had an article written about what they're going to do because they've gotten the Rays guys. Organizationally, they're looking for all of these places where they can play the game differently than everyone else is playing it. But now everybody's playing 53s game in basketball. The whole sport is basically that the Knicks can beat anyone 4 out of 7 games if that's the time that they decide to make their threes. And it becomes a distort— a distortion, Zazz, that makes very few of these playoff games close.

Yep.

Like, we've had— we've had a couple of them, but it's— it's weird to see these Game 7s decided by 40 points. It's weird to see teams going on the road and winning by 40 points. It's It's really odd to see the Knicks have the best stretch of basketball I've ever seen a basketball team have because they're playing a different form of basketball than they played 20 years ago.

But don't you think maybe you can make the argument that SGA and what he's doing is impressive in a different way, just based around exactly what you're saying? So 3-point percentage— I mean, 3-point attempts and layups is kind of the new wave. But what SGA does is really operates in the mid-range, which is kind of a throwback. And in terms of his efficiency, he's shooting like 60% on twos, and MJ was right around 50% on his twos.

I think that people are going to knock SGA not because numerics, uh, not just because of numbers and time. They're going to knock him because of the flopping and the Oscar awards and the getting 12 free throws a game and averaging— what's his streak at now of 20-plus point games? 140-something, because he's always going to get 12 of them at the free throw line. And he's going to get them whether he deserves them or not. He's going to get them because he's the one handling the ball all the time and flopping around out there. I do believe they will discount him that way, but he's won 2 MVPs and it's really hard to make the argument for him individually over Jokic, I believe. Just, just— I'm doing that though based on style of play. I'm not doing that just on numbers. I know that Jokic is earning it. He's not getting any of it cheap. He's doing it all with mastery. He's not— he's not inflating his numbers. By 12 points a game because he's in— because he's flopping around, he's always on the floor.

Well, and I think what's also maybe hurting SGA's case right now a little bit, they're dealing with some injuries. Jaylen Williams out, AJ Mitchell out, and Holmgren, who's, who's afraid of Wembenyama. I mean, that he is playing scared out there. And SGA is having a problem offensively. Like, they're throwing doubles at him, he can't do anything about it. They're mixing up their defenders. I think he saw 8 different defenders in Game 4, and of his 15 field goal attempts, 14 of them were contested last game. So like, the defense is now able to really hone in on SGA because of that lack of support around him right now, and he's been struggling.

I should have mentioned that the streak came to an end of 20-point games in the last one with 19 points.

I think SGA is going to be the rare person that where his GM— or what's the— what is Sam Presti's, uh, title?

Probably GM.

I think Sam Presti will be remembered more favorably than SGA through this era because they still have picks coming up on this draft to play with, you feel me?

I mean, we are obsessed with the executives, but 2 MVPs before the age of 27, that usually locks you in as an immortal for all time. And that no one can basically slice you from any angle if you're a champion and 2-time MVP.

What if he never wins a title again?

I mean, it's still 2-time MVP. It's 2-time MVP with a title. And he may not win again. These next 3 games, these next 3 games that OKC and the Spurs are playing are super interested.

That's a crazy thing you just said, though.

No, Steve Nash, 2-time MVP, not one of the GOATs.

But that's a crazy thing you just said, right? He, he may not ever win again when a couple of weeks ago we're talking about Oklahoma City owning the league for the next decade.

Well, but he also may win the next 3. We'll find out together, won't we? But what's happened in that series is weird, right? You're sitting there watching and you don't totally understand why the games aren't close except for the first one, like the They— these two teams play all season long. I'm genuinely confused, and I don't know if 7 games decides this. During the regular season, the Spurs made OKC look worse than I've seen OKC look for 2 seasons now. They are a team that seems, because of what they have in the middle of the floor distorting everything, bothers OKC more than most. But OKC has 2 home games, they're the defending champions, and I don't believe anybody would be surprised if the Spurs win that series.

That's weird, right?

It is weird. I agree with Damashek on that.

Don Lebatard.

I'm just here to say one thing: the Knicks are fucking back.

Stugatz.

Kyrie Irving, 6 points?

Fraud.

Everybody was like, yo, he's better than Jaylen Brunson, he's better than— the Knicks should have drafted him.

Fraud.

This is the Don Lebatard Show with the Stugatz. I wanted to get to something that happened this weekend in New York with Jackson Dart, and I wanted to survey the room on what it is you guys thought of this. So Trump is having a rally, and that's different than a White House visit. Trump is having a rally in New York, and Jackson Dart decides to do this.

What an honor. What a privilege it is to be here. And without further ado, I'm grateful, I'm honored, I'm pleased to introduce the 45th and 47th president of the United States of America, President Donald J. Trump.

And after seeing this, Abdul Carter, one of his teammates, went on social media and he thought— and he's since tried to squash this— but he thought this was AI, and he asked, what are we doing, man? So, uh, let's put aside all of the other corruptions, crimes of the most corrupt and criminal administration we have ever had in American government, and just make it the one you can't have in the locker room, which is you're endorsing a racist. Let's start with that conversation. What happens in your locker room when Brian Flores— when Belichick didn't do this, when Belichick was simply MAGA, and Trump is saying he's reading a letter from Belichick, Flores goes in and tells the— tells Belichick, hey, you got a problem problem in here. You got a problem in the locker room with what it is that just happened here when you got Tom Brady and Belichick not actually saying this, not actually doing this, but just adjacent to it. And adjacent to it before it became what it presently is, where it's side-taking time all across America because you've got somebody who's doing with government arms things that are unprecedented in the history of a company— of our country.

But put that off to the side. Abdul Carter absolutely makes this a story that we to talk about in a way he— it wouldn't have been. It would not have been the same story because the media would have had difficulty talking about what Jackson Dart did until they can hide behind Abdul-Kader. But the problem remains the same. And the thing that I thought while I'm watching this— oh, okay, so New York doesn't have a quarterback at all. Of course the young one who prides himself on rebellion of all kinds would be in the modern age someone who takes up the cause of a president who— this isn't 50/50 anymore. The approval ratings suggest this is not 50-50 anymore. Jackson Dart is in a minority position, and he's supporting a president who is overtly against minorities, overtly and obviously. And your locker room is, across the NFL, mostly Black. So I want to know from you guys, the quarterback usually avoids all controversies and distractions. This quarterback quarterback wants to do it differently. This quarterback has a series of temptations around him that are unique to the New York quarterback. He's the only quarterback the market has.

He represents hope. He is somebody they think can play, even though he's reckless. And I'm not sure yet. I think, I think most people think Jackson Dart has shown good things, but he's also reckless. This is bad judgment in your locker for your job. You guys tell me what your appraisal was strictly as a quarterback. Just— you don't even have to make it about whether you agree with the politics or not. The decision of a leader to do this in a primarily Black locker room when you're going to get objections from your teammates. Why do this?

It shows inexperience. It shows that you don't really have the pulse of your locker room. I think, yeah, without getting bogged down in the politics of it, that I think it's just a huge mystery by Jaxson Dart because that'll divide the locker room and it already did. I do find it curious that people are taking the opportunity to go at Abdul-Kader a little bit more than Jaxson Dart, even when all Abdul-Kader is doing is reacting. Abdul-Kader was minding his own business until his quarterback introduced Donald Trump at a pep rally. This is not, as Dan mentioned, going to the White House. This is not an apolitical honor. This is you going to a pep rally for a president that sorely needs mainstream support, and being the quarterback of the New York Giants at this time in history when his approval is really, really low, when he is embroiled in controversy after controversy, be it Epstein cover-up or corruption or a hugely unpopular war or the cost of living not being addressed, not being improved like he said from day one and only getting worse. This is a bad time to support this president. You can support the president from behind the scenes.

That might even be known in the locker room, but you have just invited this public discourse by doing that. And for me, it's just a huge misread as the quarterback of a team. That's not how that flies. There's plenty of pro-Trump quarterbacks in the NFL. You may know some, you may not know others, but they keep it pretty low-key with the exception of a few. And for this point, for this moment in time in that young man's quarterback, uh, quarterbacking career where he's pretty popular. He represents hope in New York. He has given people for the first time who support the New York Football Giants a reason to be unsure about his judgment, a reason to not like him. Now that is personal, and he's given this whole locker room a problem that they didn't have.

I was pretty stunned by the, the lack of judgment from the quarterback, from the face of the franchise. Also, by the way, a quarterback who's only entering his second year, so it's not like he's got like this really firm standing with the team. You mentioned, you know, we're not even sure how good he is, but for the— and I don't even care about the politics part, I don't even care about the, hey, you know, the racism part here in this instance. If we're talking about the quarterback, the face of the franchise, lacks the kind of judgment where you're choosing— again, not a White House visit— you're choosing to do something that could, could divide your locker room. That to me is an astounding lack of judgment that I think would be alarming to the New York Giants.

It's May. Nobody's talking Giants football. The reason people are pounding Abdoul-Kader, who is Black and Muslim, by the way, uh, is at least in part because Abdoul-Kader hasn't been as good as hoped and Jackson Dart has been better than hoped. And so people are doing, do you make me feel good? Abdul-Kader has been forced to walk this back, saying, look, I've got no problem, we've squashed all of this, don't make a big deal about it. But I do find, uh, really interesting the lack of judgment in inviting this particular conversation in May. In May, no one is talking about the New York Giants, no one is talking about Jackson Dart. But do you guys agree with me on the point that the media would have a harder time discussing this if Abdul-Kader hadn't put his name on, hey, I object to this, to assume that there would be a problem in the locker room as opposed to one guy giving voice to a problem in the locker room.

Yes, that's how Boomer Esiason feels comfortable wading into the waters, is because Abdul-Carter had a reaction to something that I think probably draws a reaction out of people. The original sin here is not Abdul-Carter's reaction. The original sin is Jaxson Dart choosing to do this at this time. And Trista, there's also a subtext here that needs to be addressed.

Yeah, the subtext is that Jackson Dart and Donald Trump are very much the same in a singular way about this point. They both grift off of Black culture. They both want everything to do with hip-hop and the braggadociousness. Donald Trump loved being in hip-hop songs, and the same thing goes with Jackson Dart with the grill and the chain and the swag and how he has his haircut. And it's like, yeah, but you don't really give a shit about how Black folks are treated by this administration, spoken about, Black bodies. It just feels very performative, and it's something that, you know, the Black community, and like I think fairly, has a big problem with, which is like, you like everything about us except for us.

That's a huge point, and it's what's going on here. Jaxson Dart is a white guy from Utah that went to school in Mississippi, and he's known as like a swaggy QB. All right, let's see how it goes for you the next time you try to connect with your teammates on that level.

Now, it don't help that Lane Kiffin had to say what he had to say about that school a couple of weeks ago, too. So on the heels of that, it's very embarrassing.

For full context here for Jackson, he did begin this speech with a Go Blue chant that did not go over well.

Just want to—

I feel like that's worth noting.

It's important that you do that. And this is why you are rising in the industry as a strong voice who brings fairness to all circumstances. Did not go over. They were very confused. It didn't.

He's like, can we do this? Go blue!

And they were like, no, blue, Democrats, what?

Not great judgment all around. I just honestly, honestly, I can't believe we're having conversations about the president of the United States where not only can you say, you know, allegedly rapist, racist, pedophile, all the corruptions, but Zazz is going I don't really care about the racism.

You should always care about the racism.

I'm saying in this instance, for a quarterback to get out publicly and do or say anything, it could be about the racism, it could be about politics, it could be about anything, let's be clear about that.

Hi Ethan, cut it up for the club please.

But for the QB to get out publicly and do or say something that could divide a locker room, it seems like incredibly poor judgment.

Yeah, but also poor judgment is you wandering into this conversation and saying, I don't care about the racism. You got to give a little context.

You're killing me if you don't put any context.

The one time Zazz dips his toe in and you kill him for it.

But he did— didn't have to say I don't care about— I don't care.

I was making a larger point.

Also, America, let's keep the same energy of a distracting quarterback as we had Colin Kaepernick's energy. Distraction, distraction, seems 6'7" to me.

It's a— it's 100% right, Juju. Like, people are going to be like, well, oh, keep politics out of sports. It's only their politics that they want reaffirmed. If there's an outsider view, then all of a sudden people have an issue with this. That's his personal time, but he is there as the quarterback of the New York Giants. That is a public appearance. He is invoking the Giants with a Big Blue chant. He is a representative of that organization and that locker room. And at the very least, he can be a Trump guy. There's plenty of secret Trump guys in that locker room, I'm sure. Sure, but now he has invited something into that locker room as a proud face co-signing the president in this moment, and he is dealing with the ramifications of that. And that is not Abdul-Carter's fault to have a reaction. He was provoked.

You think there are going to be ramifications?

I think in that locker room there already are.

I think Abdul-Carter has already been talked to. That's why he walked it back.

If I'm an offensive lineman and I'm making a decision— a Black offensive lineman— and I'm making the decision whether I want to protect Jackson Dart or not. Just let him get chipped a little bit. Ole, ole, ole.

Yeah, I don't think that's the way it works in those locker rooms.

It isn't the way it works in those locker rooms. There are plenty of different people and they show up to work for their own money. But I do want to put these side by side and just examine it. I'm putting it forth to everybody, which is worse when I put them next to each other? Kneeling before lower a flag and not participating in the national anthem—

that one—

and then being blackballed from the league, or introducing this president with these crimes at this time? Which one? And furthermore, I would say what Kaepernick was doing is in objection to police brutality, which is being supported by this president and his fake police on minorities and creating more violence with these, uh, you know, these ICE armies.

Doesn't matter what my opinion is. The history is always going to reflect on Colin Kaepernick being the, the bigger issue. But what Jackson Dart did by, by choosing to do that was he guaranteed at the very next press availability all his teammates are going to be asked about it. And those are the things that he's not thinking about. And while every talking head that has come out— I, I've, I've seen this from where I'm standing, this has fallen more on Abdul-Kader than it has on Jackson Dart. All the talking heads that feel comfortable now about talking about it—

because it confirmed that, you know, what they believe would happen.

And it's coming from the likeliest characters having a go at Abdul-Kader here. That is a locker room issue that Jackson Dart just brought on everybody's shores for no apparent reason other than his personal conviction, which he could keep. But as a public appearance, that— you just, you just guaranteed media training for an additional 10 minutes Hits at the first minicamp of the season. We're gonna have to talk about Jackson. And here's how you address the questions from the media and say we're keeping it in the locker room when he chose to not.

I also do think, uh, the New York media really just needs to ask Jackson Dart, hey, why do you support him? What is it that you believe? What— go ahead, here, here's a microphone. You, you're comfortable doing this. Let's say he objects to what we're saying. No, this isn't a lack of judgment. This is me trying to be a leader. I'm trying to be an activist. I am choosing to be an American leader. I want to be bigger than sports. I want to use my platform to do this. Uh, okay, Jackson, here are some questions. Tell us, what, what are you supporting? Explain it to us. Explain it to your teammates. What, what are you supporting?

How, like, his agent didn't say beforehand, maybe this isn't the right thing to do? Like, how was he allowed to do it?

It was a bad decision. I, I don't, I don't know who was in his camp, who was advising him, but it's a bad decision for exactly the reason that we're highlighting right now. And this is all just a hell of their own design. There's nobody to blame here but the guy who chose to go to a pep rally. Again, this is not, hey, this is an honor for whoever the president is, because I've seen that take out there, boomer. Like, this, this is— I mean, what, he's just choosing to, to honor the president? He's an American. No, this is a pep rally for Donald Trump. This is a staged event with a casted audience behind them to show the world that, hey, it's not as bad as the polls are telling you. And they are grifting off of the quarterback of the New York Giants. He is there because he is the quarterback of the New York Giants. He's not just some guy. He has mainstream approval, and he has just put all his teammates in this situation. That is a distraction that he caused. Don't go at the person that's reacting to the distraction.

You don't hear from Abdul Carter this weekend if Jackson Dart doesn't do And to be honest, it could have just been Abdul Carter saying, I think it was AI, that he would have made that decision on either side, right? Like, even if it was Kamala Harris, no matter who it is, unless it's Mom Donny because of the New York connection, there's no reason to align yourself politically at all.

Think about for a second though, when I tell you that Mike has it right, people are pounding on Abdul Carter. Put that tweet up again. Abdul Carter didn't say anything. He just asked what the New York media needs to ask Jackson Dart. What we doing, man? Like, he didn't say anything. He just—

that is coming out.

No, but he said he thought it was AI. He thought it was fake.

Did not think it was actually AI. He's reacting to what kind of judgment is this? What are we doing, man? Yeah, I'm sure there is a slant to his opinion, but I think even if he knew Jackson Dart to be pro-Trump, which probably probably could be the case, right? They have talks in that locker room. I still think the decision to go out there, be paraded around, speak in front of an open mic, say it's your, your pleasure and honor to introduce the 45th and 47th president of the United States in this time— read the room, not just your locker room, read the country right now. What are we doing?

You live— read your fan base, read your customers, what the place you live.

Jackson Dart, what are you doing? Doing?

Like, what are—

like, you are the popular quarterback. You represent hope for the New York Giants. Why have a political stand of any kind? Pleasure to announce you're literally doing what Boomer Esiason doesn't want you to do, and yet Boomer Esiason is defending your actions now because Abdoul-Kader reacted to it. This is, this is bonkers.

He's doing the thing that Boomer doesn't want him to do, and Boomer is defending I just feel like I wanted to ask this question for a long time. I feel the temperature of this room in general just errs on the side of strident. Strident is the baseline, and I get it, but like, let's bring the temp down.

Can we just reaffirm I don't like racism?

No, I think we need to clip this for the club.

I think the ultimate bishop to rook 9 though is the question you had, Dan. Why do you support him, brother? Like, we see the rumors, but why?