Welcome to the Big Sui, presented by DraftKings. Why are you listening to this show? The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan Lebitard podcast. I'm sorry. I'm not going to apologize for that. In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging. I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries if they're just there. That hasn't happened to you guys? I've done it. And now, here's the marching man to nowhere, fatface, and the habitual liar. The conversation around Yannis and the trade packages for him feels entirely corrupt. The national NBA media is spewing out of both sides of their mouth, and they're trying to manipulate the public opinion for their own benefit. The obvious best offer comes from Miami. It's built around a 25-year-old All-Star guard, a 21 one-year-old and seven-foot tall, do-it-all freak of nature, and Kalil Weir has several picks, including available pick options that the national media conveniently leaves out. But that doesn't fit what would be easiest for the national media. Sure, they might want to come to Miami for a vacation more than Minnesota, but their laziness makes it easier to say, Oh, here's Yannis and Steph, and, Oh, here's Yannis and Anthony Edwards.
They're forcing their narratives without even including the team with the clearly best offer, and they're doing it specifically because Pat Reilly and the Miami Heat know that real Gs move in silence like lasagna. So they don't share their plans. They don't share their plans with anyone in the national media and makes the media's job more difficult. The national NBA media is trying to commit a heist on behalf of the league to manufacture the sexiest story lines. It's obvious. They're willing to do it to the detriment of one of the league's best ever organizations because of leftover jealousy over the Big Three era in Miami. How's this going? Not the best angle. Can we pick up the lower third.
How do we not have better angles around here?
Why is it that you would not be moving that up for me? Taller camera. That's right. It's a camera. Now this is going to get aggregated, and this is going to get aggregated in my voice. That's better, actually. But why didn't we do that before?
Very flattering, the other one.
I didn't even see the angle. If I saw the angle, you think I would have gone with this stupid idea? Take two. I saw the angle early on. Let's do it again. I'm going to do the whole thing again. That's it.
There were some really good points you made. Get up flat.
Super close up. This is too wordy, Jeremy. It's clear you wrote it. It's wildly inefficient.
I don't know what you're talking about. These are all your takes, and everyone should take them very seriously because your voice matters, Dan.
Let me do it again. You know that that's the one that people are going to pick up on, the one that has the lower half of my body looking like Charlie Weiss. The bottom half of my body is sewn on backwards. You know what? I'm not doing this again.
Good decision there.
Okay, social media team, clip that and make sure it gets aggregated. Use the quote at the end that it's about the jealousy of the Big Three era, signed Dan Lebitard.
And crop it.
Welcome back, Dan. Let me remind people that this episode of the Dan Lebitard show is presented by DraftKings. Draftkings, the Crown is yours.
I think it worked.
I didn't expect to have so many opinions on James Harden.
I didn't expect him to be a trigger for me. I apologize. Hey, the Cavs play the Clippers tonight.
Is it tonight?
I think so. That's the next game.
That's the next game? Well, there's new information on James Harden, too, so I'm not even sure we're being fair to him. This happens sometimes, right? Bill Pollian's kid did this last week where he's like, Man, you guys are being really unfair to my father on something that's not true because we need to find somebody to blame for dumb shit. So what's happening here with James Harden? And I should point out that Zaz got this wrong, and he will suffer a penalty in a moment for getting it wrong. It was not the '73 win warriors that the Rockets beat in game seven when going 7-4, 44 from three or lost to. It was the warriors that went 58 and 24 in that 2018 season. But is that Durant? They swept the Caps.
Yeah, that's Durant.
It was LeBron's last year. How did that team go '58 and '24?
They must have had injuries in the regular season.
It was really easy for them to play basketball, so they didn't care about some regular season games. What's here?
What's the latest reporting on Ramona Ramona Shelborn. And I need to remind people as well, tomorrow we're going to be doing a live stream. As the trade deadline approaches, we're going to go and be on live for a couple of hours after our show and have some fun with all the trade deadline stuff. If you want to hang out with us, that should be some fun. But what's Ramona Shelborn reporting? And what are you apologizing for, Mike? He's a trigger. Of course, he's a trigger. Sports fans are always going to get bothered when the athlete chooses the money. It's their business, not our business. And it becomes our business when we get hurt by these guys behaving in a way that chooses money over us.
I don't know. Maybe I've stayed on it too long. I typically don't display that passion. It's just weird. I feel like I'm speaking for the vast majority of sports fans. You are.
It's not weird for you Who is a sports fan to be offended with not just a player choosing the money. Fine. If you're any grown up, you understand a player choosing money. Okay, let's not be babies here. But you're upset because it's a player midseason who multiple times quits in the middle of the season. That's the offensive part to fans.
But did he indeed quit here? What's being reported? We'll get to this in a second. What do you have, Cody?
Look, I think fans understand the business side more than we give them credit for. In our own lives, if we work for a company and we have a chance to go to another company to make more money, most of us are going to do it. Nobody left the city uglier in recent NBA history than Jimmy Butler left Miami. When he comes back to Miami, I thought he might be vilified and booed. It was by far mostly cheering. I think fans remember what good the athlete did, what good he brought to the city.
Jeremy says it was 50/50. You said by far, cheers.
Okay, I don't... You think it was 50/50? Yes. Okay.
Cody, I think hate fans now hate Jimmy Butler.
A certain segment of them.
What about the ones that cheered him, though?
Some hate the front office.
They don't hate him.
I wasn't too mad about Jimmy Butler. I know I've said some things in character, but as we were going through the entire thing, I'd be like, I'll cheer Jimmy Butler. He gave him some good years, and at the end of it, he just became Jimmy Butler. I thought how that all went down, the franchise shouldered most of the blame because it was super predictable how it was going to go, and they thought they could control the situation. Right.
Ramona Shelborn, last night, she tweets out, I'll read you these here, all right? Just spoke to a reflective James Harden who denied asking for a trade and thankful the Clippers for the opportunity to play the last two and a half years in his hometown, In life, not even just basketball, when things don't work out, there are ways to end things in relationships without having to crack each other. Maybe we just don't see a future with each other. Maybe we just outgrew each other, whatever the case may be. I feel like the other situations weren't like that. And that's why I can respect Steve and L, that's Lawrence Frank and T. Lou, because they didn't put me in a weird position as much as everybody tried to make it like that. Harden went on and said, He didn't want to feel like I was holding the Clippers up in their future. I wanted them to actually have a chance to rebuild and get some draft capital, even though they didn't get any draft capital in turn. In Cleveland, I see an opportunity to win in the East. That's a very good team, coaching staff, all the above.
So as much as I want to stay in LA and give it a go, I've never won before. As a basketball mind, I think we have a better chance So you're telling me that in the middle of the Clippers playing the best basketball in the league, they've won 15 out of 18 games. They are finally in the playoff picture. The Clippers woke up one morning and said, Let's trade James Harden and blow it up.
No, I think the Clippers are under an unusual amount of duress that no one understands because of Pablo Torre's reporting, and they have to be in hiding. And that whole thing has come undone because Kawhi Leonard made the business decision he did after everything that happened in San Antonio and Toronto, where he's like, We really shouldn't have a salary cap, should we? I'll take money wherever it is that I can get it because all these people are in it for themselves. And me and Balmer don't have to listen to anybody's rules. And I think people don't understand what's coming with that stuff. People think that you can hide and that there's going to be no consequences to Balmer. No way are those owners going to turn away when one of the other owners came in and said, When the richest of the owners, you think these basketball players have egos? You think these basketball players have egos? These billionaires, you think they're going be okay with Balmer saying, I don't care about your rules? I know this whole thing is important to you guys, but this is a small business for me. I want to come in here and win in the playground.
I'm going to cheat with Uncle Dennis and Kawhi. Allegedly. Allegedly. Thank you.
It's It's important- It's important to note that Mark Cuban caped up pretty hard for old Steve.
That's Mark Cuban, and I don't know what he's doing or why he did it, but I have talked to other owners. They're not okay with Steve Ballmer already having a bigger bank account than all of them and then coming over and saying, I don't actually have to respect any of your rules. I'm going to make a side deal over here. The ones who cape up for Balmer, if you hear any of the others view publicly, it's because they don't want Pablo sniffing around what they might be doing inside transactions because it's crazy to think what's happened there and how complicated it is, and it's not over. The reporting on is not over. The information that we still don't have that we're going to get is not over. We're going to look back and say, Oh, that's where it fell apart. This organization didn't actually know how to handle an unprecedented scandal, and it broke apart in there. It was already an old team, and Kawhi fouled it up because of whatever it is the business did to him, where he's like, I don't have to respect the rules of your business. What are the consequences really, if I allegedly grab a whole bunch of money on the side.
The thing that happens around the money, and I know that people look, I know that people think that money is a panacea, but it's often a poison disguised as a panacea. These guys, all of them, are most interested in the money. They just happen to make it through the playground. It doesn't matter how much of the money you give them. It's a contaminant. And so when you salary cap it and Kauai is allowed to grab a bunch of stuff on the side, and James Harden gets yelled at by every media member when he tries to grab it the money, these quotes from James Harden are the first time I've found him interesting on anything. This guy has been famous for a long time. He has not been publicly introspective. His reputation for a long time has been, I prefer strip clubs in the party life to whatever it is, basketball is, and it's harmed him. I've rarely seen a player of this excellence whose reputation is going to be, Yeah, didn't care enough, and also was small in all the biggest moments. That reputation is hard to get my head around because I've rarely seen anybody who's this good who, if he'd won...
Listen to what you guys are saying. If he'd won because Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook got a call against a heat team that was more ready than they were because they'd suffered a little bit more when all of them were 23, we'd be giving James Harden credit for something that he didn't even do.
That was not a foul. That was a good defense by Shane.
They lost him five. It was not a foul. We were in town around that NBA Finals. There were loads of stories about what James Harden was doing in terms of game prep.
If they'd won that title, if OKC had somehow beaten the Miami Heat, or when James Harden... Was he a rookie? He was a rookie. He was a sixth man, though, right? He was coming off the bench for that team.
San Antonio had no answers for him.
We'd look at the entire career of James Harden differently because he got one championship. Then if they win that game seven against the Warriors and win the title that year by winning the next round, too, he'd have two championships.
Yeah, but don't you think that all set the table for what was then a disappointing career? Because he made it to the NBA Finals early in his career. There were three tremendous players. Everyone knew James Harden was good enough to be a superstar that could carry a team, and everybody assumed he'd be making it to the NBA Finals, not regularly, but plenty more times, and it never happened.
Do you believe him here, though? Because does it change the narrative at all if he's saying, I didn't want to feel like I was holding the Clippers up in their future. He's saying he did not demand to trade.
I'm inclined to believe him. I've never heard James Harden really speak that way ever. It seems reflective, and Ramona says she caught up with James Harden, so I don't think that that's a statement. It reads like a statement.
No, let's read it again. This is him talking to Ramona, In life, not even just basketball, when things don't work out, there are ways to end things in relationships without having to crack each other. This is him learning, by the way.
This is broadly introspective for a dude that wore a Blue Lives Matter scarf inside the bubble.
Maybe we don't see a future with each other. Maybe we just outgrew each other, whatever the case may be. I feel like other situations weren't like that. And that's why I can respect Steve Balmer and L and T Lou, Lawrence Frank, because they didn't put me in a weird position as much as everyone tried to make it like that. I believe him. I don't have any reason to not believe him.
Yeah, I read it a little bit differently. I think what he's saying there is true, but the respect those guys for not putting me in a weird position, it didn't become combative. It didn't become nasty in the media. He didn't want the money. He didn't want to stay there because they wouldn't extend him. They were like, Okay, let's find a trade that works for both of us, and no one slung mudded each other. That, to me, is what that says. Why are you laughing at me?
It sounds like he's got gratitude for this one not being ugly. Like, Oh, I get what I want, and I don't have to cause the scene.
That's how I see it. Yeah, last time with Darryl Mori, he went to China and told a group of kids, Darryl Mori is a bleeping liar. That's what it took from there. So the fact that he gets to go to the Clippers and say, Hey, let's just work this out quietly right before the deadline. There is gratitude there because you didn't have to do that.
That's what you do, Yannis. You call your GM a bleep and liar. That's how you do it.
In front of Chinese kids. In front of kids.
Dan Levatard. I don't like smutti either. Stugats. Women stay home in the kitchen where they belong.
This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugatz.
Tony Tony is out in the field for his top five as we segue into football with Super Bowl week. Katie Nolan going to be on with us later. Mad Dog Ruso is going to be on with us later. It's a surprise. I do not know where Tony is. He likes to surprise us with his reports from locales in the wilderness of Miami. Where are you, Tony?
Hey, Dano. Good morning. I'm at a very secretive location, as you can see. Danny, see if you can pan around here. We're in some place that is almost... You can't even get here. Dan, we are at the old Crandon Park Zoo on Keybiscayne. I wanted to save something very cool that we had to hike to for one of my last hits of the year. So we've got this one, and then obviously we've got the post-Super Bowl one. But I wanted to do it here. This is one of the last standing structures of the Keybiscayne Zoo that operated from 1948 to 1980 before they moved over out West and became Zoo Miami. A lot of rescued circus animals started the Keybiscayne the Crandon Park Zoo. Dan, did you come as a jet to the Crandon Park Zoo?
Did you go as a jet?
Not as a jet.
You know about those jets?
Too legit to quit.
So did you not? Did you not come to the Crandon Park Zoo?
No, I never went to the Crandon Park Zoo. That is not a place that I have been. But you're on a bit of a haunted burial ground, right? There are a lot of animals still there, or there's still a lot of animals wandering around, even though there's not a real home there anymore.
There is a lot of avian animals still around. We have some B-roll of some stuff that's going to appear somewhere here. We got some peacocks. I was looking for a sea Hawk, but I don't think sea Hawks live in South Florida, Dan. So I was looking. We found a lot of other birds, but no Seahawks.
How close are you to a highway? Why is it that everywhere you go in Miami, there's the ambient sound of a nearby highway?
Of cars. Yeah. Okay. So obviously, you've been to Keybiscayne, Dan. I'd figured to say yes, right? Yes. Okay, so you know how there's basically two lanes, one that goes south and one that goes north. We are maybe 35 feet from the northbound lane here in Keybiscayne. So that's why you hear the cars passing by. There's a big fence and a bunch of a hole over here to shield people from getting over. But on the other side, there's actually a bridge that would connect to the other pieces of Crandon Park Zoo, which is right here. We actually can't go through to that bridge, even though I wanted to. They told me it may fall if I walk on it, so I'm probably not going to do that.
Okay. All right. Let's do-Yeah, it's a little scary. Let's do a top five. What was that sound?
I'm going to take you in here, though. I don't know what that was, but I'm going to take you in here. So this is one of the last structures that they have at Cranon Park Zoo, as you can tell, full of graffiti, but very cool. Oh, is that a Seahawk?
Oh, that is cool. Look at that.
That is cool. Yeah. Here we go. So something that you don't usually see, a freestanding building full of graffiti on Keybiscayne, because obviously, if you know anything about Keybiscayne, it's a very wealthy place. So this is a very interesting piece.
It doesn't look like it. So for those of you who do not know, Keybiscayne is wonderful, beautiful, and lovely. Tony has decided to go to a place that is none of those things.
Beauties in the eye of the beholder, Dan.
Let's do your top five here. Do you have any Ola, one of the last of the season, we should say? It's not one of the last of the year because it's February, and so the year's got a lot of days left. But it is your last hit of the football season. What a strange animal noise you're putting in there. Go ahead, Tony, and start. Do you have any OLA?
No OLA, but this is the second to last of the season. Obviously, we'll have one right after the Super Bowl. This one, Dan, is Super Bowl predictions. Things that are going to happen in the Super Bowl from predictive standpoint. So that's what we're doing right now. No OLA, just fives right off the rip. All right, here we go. Number five. There's going to be a defensive or special team's countdown in the Super Bowl. Defensive or special team's countdown. Wow. Really? Yeah. You can use these as gambling advice if you'd like. This is what I feel about what's going on. I like the Patriot Special teams. I obviously very much like the Seattle Seahawks defense. I feel like there's going to be a score somewhere in there.
Is that place Whoa, whoa.
All right, number four. Jackson Smith and Jigba goes for 150 yards and a score. You can lock that one in.
It's on place. That's so smart.
Seems just on par with what he's done the entire season.
Chris, I'm pretty sure your animal sounds have someone talking underneath them. You haven't vetted your animal sounds, so there's an AI human voice talking underneath your animal sounds. I already asked you once to play those less. How about you stop playing them at all? Chris, I'm pretty sure your animal sounds have someone.
All right, so number three, and we're going to get to the halftime show here. Bad Bunny starts the halftime show with Nueva Yol. Okay, that's the song. People that have been trying to bet, trying to figure out what the first song that Bad Bunny is going to play, it's going to be Nueva Yola. I'm letting you know now. So when it does happen, you already know where you heard it from. Dan, you feel good about that?
I do. He's never wrong. He's just early. He's Tony. Number two.
Thank you, buddy. Both QBs will throw an interception. Both QBs just throw an interception, which I love that one. Both QBs, when pressured-Go on.
We heard you the first two times. You expect both of them to throw an interception. We heard you.
Okay. My bad. The reception is spotty here if you can't tell them in the wilderness. If you can give me a little bit of grace on that, Dan, please.
Okay. I'm sorry. I was too hard on you. You're It's okay.
It's okay. It's okay. Number one, even though Mike Vrabel is going to be a coward on fourth down at least one time in the game, it's going to happen. It's going to be fourth and short. He's going to punt, and it's going to drive me crazy. Even though that is going to happen, the Pats are going to win on a last second drive by Drake May. They're going to win 27, 24. They're going to be down 24, 20. Drake May is going to go down, score a countdown at the final seconds of the game and win despite Mike Vrabel being a coward on fourth down at some point in the game, Dan. So that's what's going to happen.
I do not hear a lot of people saying that. I don't know how many people are picking the Patriots. Thank you, Tony. Appreciate all your reports. Appreciate how you get into scenic Miami, into creative, clever, and different places. Thank you for showing us a part of Miami that I had not seen before. It is an interesting vantage point you have chosen. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Don Levatard. There is no question, Dan Levatard show included, anybody else, that this guy is the best player on the planet. Whether he wins the Stanley Cup or the Cotsmite this year, there is no question about it. Stugatz. Overrated? Wait, something's overrated. What's going on? Dan Levatard, how are you doing? Are you living in an altered world or what? Oh, my goodness.
This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugatz.
Greg, what he says there, okay, the Patriots have stuck as a four and a half point underdog, and Drake May is great at the deep ball, better than anyone in the league. He has been great against the Blitz, better than just without anyone in the league. He has been better running the football than any quarterback other than Josh Allen. However, everyone has forgotten that, at least in part because the last two games, he has played defenses that I think are better equipped to slow him than this one, which is said to be the number one defense in the league. I thought that Denver and Houston had the specific things that could slow Stefan Diggs and others that Seattle doesn't have. I don't regard. You guys help me with because I know what the numbers say. The numbers say Seattle is the best defense in the league. I think Denver and Houston were the single worst matchups that Drake may could have seen, that there were not worse ones anywhere in the league. I think he should fear Seattle less than those two. But Seattle is the best defense in the league.
Greg, it's the first time that he's faced one of these elite defenses with the benefit, at least recently, of good weather. That's another layer to the numbers that he's put up, not just two of the top three defenses in the league, but in terrible weather games.
Right. I'm surprised the line hasn't crept down a little bit. I love the pass getting four and a half. I think the Patriots are going to win outright. I predicted it in my own podcast, and I'm going to predict it in the Herald tomorrow and explain why. But what I think is, look, the reason New England beat Houston in the playoffs is that New England's defense outplayed Houston's defense.
I don't think that's accurate. I think that C. J. Stroud was terrible in that game, and Drake may just didn't make the giant mistakes that C. J. Stroud was making. I didn't think that was because of New England. I think that was because C. J. Stroud in the playoffs had two giant turnover games.
I think part of that, though, was the Patriots defense, which I think is really, really underrated. I think New England's defense is on a par with Seattle's. I think Drake is better than Sam Darnold. I think Darnold is going to revert to his tendency and have a couple of turnovers. I just think New England is really being underrated going into this game, and maybe that Seattle is being a little bit overrated.
Here's This is where we are on the Patriots, right? They've gotten lucky in some spots. They've had an easy schedule. They have withstood somehow the fact that the right side of their offensive line is injured and can't block. They've somehow withstood that. The point that you guys are making about the weather is a good one. We have not been reminded of how good this quarterback actually is during these playoffs because of the defenses he's playing against. But the reason I under-regard the metrics that say that Seattle's defense is indeed great is because I saw the last two Rams games against them. They didn't look like a great defense. Never mind the number one defense in the league. They didn't look like a good defense because of how Matt Stafford and Pukina Kua made them look. So while you have the stat that the last month of the season, the Seattle defense did not allow a single play of over 20 yards, but both times around that, that they faced a quarterback like this one, they allowed the Rams to run all over the field. The Seahawks did not win those games because of their defense.
They won the first one because of special teams and because their coach went for a two-point conversion. And they won the second one because Sam Darnal torched a Rams defense that over the last nine games of the seasons had allowed scoring drives on 40% of their drive.
Well, so a couple of things. That great Seattle defense going up against the Rams and Matthew Stafford, who's probably going to win the MVP. I don't think there's any shame in the MVP of the league having a good game.
And the number one offense in the league.
Yeah, I don't think there's any shame in that having a good game against a great defense.
They're division opponents. They're well familiar, and that's Sean McDade we're talking about.
And the second part that I would add also, I think it's in his three years as head coach of the Seahawks, McDonald, lowercase D, Greg, all right? Quarterbacks who are 24 years old or younger are terrible against that defense.
But okay, but most of the quarterbacks who are 24 and younger are terrible. Very few of them are as good as this one. What Seattle does, okay, can you look up for me the last time Seattle allowed a 100-yard rusher? Because Drake May is going to have to win this football game. It's not going to get won by them running the football or because they're doing a whole bunch of play action because Seattle fears the run. I think Seattle has got the longest stretch in the league by a good amount of not allowing a 100-yard rusher. The Patriots are just not going to be... I You can't imagine the Patriots are going to be able to run the football. Seattle is the number one defense in the league because you cannot run against them. Nobody can run against Seattle, and the Rams don't have to. The Rams ran some against Seattle, but the way the Rams are going to beat you because the quarterback is going to act like the MVP.
When I say that we may be seeing the beginning of Patriots' dynasty 2. 0, it's because of Drake May. He's 23 years old. He's going to finish second behind Stafford in the MVP vote. I think he's that good. I'm not comparing to braided. That's five years from now that you even dare do that. But I think Drake May is that good right now.
It's 20 years from now that you do that with Tom braided. Don't insult Tom braided by comparing anybody to him.
Okay, five years from now, if he's won two Super Bowl, people are going to be comparing.
That's fine. They can. And he still will not be halfway to how many Super Bowl's Tom braided has won.
He won't be a third of the way.
He went three in in the next five years.
The thing, though, about Drake May, I'm going to say it again because I think Greg is right when he says a lot of people, myself included, have underregarded the Patriots. The three things he has that a quarterback must have, must have, better at the deep ball than anyone in the league. Seattle is very good at explosive plays. Seattle has a ton of explosive offense because Smith and Jigba is amazing. The three things that I want my quarterback to have, never mind against a great defense, period, better at the long ball than anybody Anybody, better against the blitz than just about anybody, and then as an added bonus, can run better at the position than anyone but Josh Allen. That presents a set of problems to the Seattle defense that Stafford did not because he couldn't run, couldn't go anywhere. Stun me when he converted a fourth and one, and Tom braided shouting, Oh, my God. I'm telling you, I would have been less surprised if my coffee table had gotten up and run and gained three yards. When Stafford ran for two yards. I was like, That's crazy. I do believe that the way Drake May has beaten teams all year is the way that Patrick Mahomes would.
Remember all those third and seven plays where Patrick Mahomes would run eight yards? Drake May took that from him this year. Drake may took Jake May was doing a ton of that where he was bailing that offense out when it failed two times and bailing them out when a third play was failing on a drive because he's just running for eight yards on third and seven.
To your point, on their defense, they did not allow a single 100-yard rusher all season.
Oh, it's longer than that. I think it's been more than two seasons almost, hasn't it?
Well, sure. I thought we were doing the defense isn't transferable from one year to the next.
Why didn't you also look up last year?
Because I was trying to find the stat to get to you guys. So there were only three three players to rush for over 80 individually. They were Jonathan Taylor, Bjan Robinson, and Kyren Williams. They had seven games this season where the total rushing yards for the opponent was even over 100 yards. And in several of those, it was through the example that you're talking about, where it was like Washington in. And Jaden Daniels was running in one of the games he was healthy. So it takes the quarterback being able to scramble to do anything against it. I will go find the last time they-Yeah, I just feel like if it extends into the previous season or even the season before that, I'd like to know.
Maybe it's just I don't know.
Sam Darnal does run some, and I think the streak, I don't know if it goes into the '20s, but it dates back to last season.
Twenty-five games.
The thing, though, that is most interesting to me about all of the scheming, all of the planning. Mcdonald's obviously a great coach. Vrabel is a great coach. If the Patriots are going to win, to me, in my mind, there's only one way that it happens, and it's when plays break down. It doesn't have anything to do with planning, and it doesn't have anything to do with how you've game planned, and it doesn't have anything to do with preparation or will or anything else. It's just Drake Mays in a panic, and he busted everything open. It not only allows him to run for 50 yards a game, it also allows him to throw that deep ball while rolling around in the pocket because he's bought extra time against the defense that Stafford cannot buy against that defense.
That dude is entirely capable. The first time I saw Drake May in person was at Hard Rocks. I'm like, This kid is outrageous. The second time I saw him in person was at Chapel Hill. And I saw a Miami defense perfectly execute its game plan against him. Nuke plays at the line of scrimage, and it wasn't enough. He'd either throw a bomb downfield with pinpoint accuracy, or he'd call his own number and be Superman. This guy is entirely possible of saying, I'm going to put the team on my shoulders today and getting it done against a good defense.
The way that Cody describes this, though, and this is the thing that I would fear if I were a Seattle fan, okay? Because I'm going to keep banging at home on this front. The reason that there aren't more giant explosive plays in that sport deep down the field is because of the amount of precision it requires to throw a ball 50 yards and have everything be perfect. And this guy does it better than anyone in the league. I'm routinely He's extremely stunned by the amount of accuracy that he has 30, 40, 50 yards down the field.
You're pounding the table, literally, for Drake May. I'm on four and a half. I'll take it. And it's Vrabel as an underdog. This one's easy.
You say it It's easy. Four and a half.
Give me the points.
It does feel easy to bet.
Give me the points. Just give it to me. If you even want to take the Seahawks, why don't you hedge against that and cook up a little Drake Mays Superman parlay with rushing yards or what have you? Because that is New England's chance in this game. Drake may become Superman. So hedge against Seahawks minus four and a half with that if you want to take action in this one.
I'm all over Seattle.
I am, too, actually, even though I just pounded the table for Drake Mays.
Us saying that definitely didn't help.
Well, that's true. That's always true. That anything that looks like it's easy in that sport is never easy. But the safer bet, I'm guessing the entirety of this season would be just take the points under any circumstance in any game, because football always being football, and it's weirdly close late in a bunch of games that you never expect it to be.
Wouldn't it be great if just one time it was easy?
No. What do you mean no? I want a great game. I want a great game.
I want the money. But that- But the grave was just easy one time.
I know, but that's why I'm shocked the line hasn't moved. I would think it'd be three and a half by now.
It's because of the last two games the Patriots have played and because people are forgetting what Drake may did all season. This is what they're also They're forgetting. They're forgetting what Sam Darnold did for 10 games of the season because of what the last one looked like. Sam Darnold erased an awful lot, and we got one of our favorite conversation points making an appearance all over ESPN today. If Sam Darnold wins, will he be considered elite? I haven't heard this one since Joe Flacko.
I know. I was making fun of that headline earlier today. It's crazy. No, I think it takes more than a super-How about very good? Especially if he doesn't win it. If the defense wins it and he has an average game, I think he's still Sam Darnold.
I could be wrong. What if he has over 300 yards and the game-winning countdown?
He's elite.
I believe that Sam Darnold will throw interceptions? Yes, I do, too. I think with González playing or starting, they've lost once this season. As a corner, he's elite. He's elite as a corner. I think he's Sertan, but he's in the conversation of best players there are in that league on defense.
It looks like the books have finally adjusted to JSN, though. The over-under on his total is insane because you cannot guard this guy effectively.
It's like Puka.
You can't bet that. I'm not betting over seven and a half catches.
I don't care who you are. They know who to call when they need a big play. It doesn't matter if he's not even open when you throw it, he'll get open.
He's ridiculous. I wanted to ask you guys about some of the stuff going on in Memphis, because quietly, Memphis just traded a two-time All-Star who's a rim protector and is 26 years old, and the whole Memphis thing has collapsed, and it has made me wonder, and I don't know what the details are with Jaron Jackson on what has been happening in private, but I do think the dangers of growing up under the James Harden time in this sport is making it so that the 20-year-olds like Ja Morant, a generation removed from that, are learning really bad habits about how hard it is to be consistently excellent in this league. Because Memphis was a contender, and now they're a joke, and they just blew it up, and they just traded a two-time All-Star. Now, he's got some mileage on him because somehow at 26, he's got seven years in the league, so he doesn't get to be quite a young player anymore. But this is a two-time All-Star who's a rim protector. Why are they getting rid of him and sending him to Utah? And why isn't there more of a market for him than that?
What is it that I don't know that Utah is the one putting together the best offer for a two-time All-Star who's a rim protector who's only 26 years old?
Three first-round pips is a lot.
But why wouldn't someone else also want that player? And why is Memphis getting rid of him?
I think they're getting rid of him because they've decided to press full reset. Now, in the next seven years, they have 13 first-round pips, and they might attach one of those to move Ja Durant. Stay tuned. Ja Durant, damn it.
Mike, you know I have one rule to live by, right?
Don't place parlays on multiple long shots. Don't say a game is one when it hasn't hit triple zero So always drink your Jägermeister ice cold.
That's the rule. Everything else is merely a suggestion.
Everything else?
Everything else.
Wearing clean underwear every day?
Well, that's just a personal decision.
Brushing your teeth?
Obviously smart, but not a rule.
Never PP on an electric fence.
Okay, maybe there are two rules, but the one that is 100% that I insist on completely, Jägermeister must be drank ice cold. Or don't drink it at all. Damn, that's cold. Exactly. You're finally starting to get it.
Drink responsibly. Jägermeister L'Core, 35% alcohol by volume, imported by Mass Jägermeister US, White Plains, New York.
Listen up, folks. It's game day, and you already know what that means. The noise, the jerseys, the group chat's going crazy. I'm telling you, no game day is complete without the world's number one Vaka. You know that that is smearing off. We're talking easy cocktails, tons of flavors, perfect for every fan over 21. Whether you're riding with your squad, watching from home or celebrating like your team already won the first quarter, Smirnov is the official Vaka partner of the NFL. It's award-winning, and it's been bringing people together since 1864, which is basically forever. Smirnov does game days. Big energy, big moments, big wins, hopefully. Grab a bottle of Smirnov at your local and head to smirnov. Com to find a cocktail recipe perfect for game day. Please drink responsibly. Smirnov number 21, vodka Distilled from Grain, 40% alcohol by volume, The Smirnov Company, New York, New York. Please don't share with anyone under legal drinking age. Now, let's get back to arguing about refs.
Sag mal, Nikola, hast du auch immer dieses Gefühl, bei der Steuererklärung mit einem Bein schon im Knast zu stehen?
Boah, nee, gar nicht. Wieso Steuer ist so die Steuer-App, mit der ich wirklich nichts falsch machen kann. Wow. Das heißt, damit ist alles sicher? Ja, genau. Wieso Steuer ist die Steuer-App, die dich versteht. Weil Steuer betrifft ja dein ganzes Leben. Arbeit, Kinder, Partner. Du kannst nichts falsch machen.
Stimmt. Nice. Fühlt sich gar nicht wie Steuern an.
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"Too legit to quit."
Dan starts the hour by going scorched-earth with his 100% authentic take, written in his own words, that the NBA media is trying to force Giannis onto a team NOT named the Miami Heat because of jealousy over the Big 3 era. He's delirious with rage. It's a sight to behold. Also, Tony's Top 5 from Crandon Park has some bold Super Bowl predictions.
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