Transcript of 5 Major NFL Storylines As Training Camps Open | Hour 2

Howdy folks, it's Mike Ryan. You know, The Labattard Show and Miller Lite go way back. Pretty much, I wanna say like 95% of our existence we've been partnered with Miller Lite, and we believe in Miller Lite, they believe in us. It's great to have a partner with a product you truly love. That's me with Miller Lite. I love Miller Lite, always have. In fact, I consider myself a bit of a Miller Time MVP. The friend who says they've got it. I'll pick the spot. I'll throw the cooler in the trunk. Bring some Miller Lite. And suddenly what was supposed to be a couple of hours turns into a whole afternoon. That's me, the Miller Time MVP. And it's great for summer hangs. Cools the body down, that beautiful white can. Not much better than an ice cold Miller Lite because it's brewed for taste with simple ingredients. Clean, refreshing, and easy to drink in the Miami heat. An all-American summer starts with an all-American beer.

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This household was nuts. James Johnson, his parents, and all 8 siblings have earned black belts of varying degrees. His father Willie won 10 national karate titles and 5 world championships, and his mother has captured 5 national titles. That house was nuts. Pablo Torre is with us. Explain to me what happened or what you think happened here, or give us all the information you can give us based on the reporting you've done around Belichick and Mike Lombardi. For Mike Lombardi being, uh, he's been Let go on paid administrative leave. And some people are reporting that it's a human resources complaint by a former UNC front office employee, Pete Thamel among them.

Yeah, I mean, so we did an episode about Mike Lombardi 9 months ago on PTFO that was a bit of a deep dive into like, what is this guy's whole deal? How did he become the highest paid general manager in college football? And It fits into this general understanding of, and you've heard me talk about this endlessly with you guys, but Bill Belichick gets the job to be the highest paid public employee in the state of North Carolina. And his two advisors, the two people on his shoulder, one is Jordan Hudson, as previously exhaustively reported, and the other is Mike Lombardi. And Mike Lombardi from the beginning has warned this trail of just not just unlikability, and he was described to me as one of the top 5 least liked people in the entire NFL, but just like actual outright dysfunction. He's had a bit of a pattern of disappearing from jobs, including in the media. And so what we reported in that episode, among many other things, which I'll sort of use to get us back to what was just broken by Pete Thamel, I believe was the first to break the seal on it.

He went to Saudi Arabia mysteriously to raise money for North Carolina. We broke that story, that was last summer. He is somebody who has embellished his resume repeatedly. He wrote in his book about how crucial a part he was of the 49ers championship team. And then we talked to Bill Walsh's son who said, you know, he was getting sandwiches. He got a ring from the Patriots. We reported around the Patriots organization and found that he got basically the sort of ring that you get if you're a family member of a coach. And the person who, of course, directed the awarding of such a gift was Belichick. And so loyalty to Belichick has been his foremost skill and talent this entire time. And what you're seeing now as this report about this human rights— sorry, human resources complaint that gets to this paid administrative leave situation is that at a certain point, what has developed recently is that the University of North Carolina has become immensely frustrated by Jordan Hudson and Mike Lombardi. Jordan Hudson, we've previously talked about on PTFO, has been filing public records requests, Stan, of the university. So just to recap that, the head coach's girlfriend has been making public records filings requesting my name, requesting other reporters' information because she does not trust the university.

And now Mike Lombardi, you could argue, has the actual steering wheel in terms of just organizational hierarchy, he is now finally being told you can't be here anymore. And the reporting has been that this is not because of Bill Belichick, but because of the university itself. And so yes, this vehicle, the North Carolina football team under Belichick, has been as disastrous as literally any program that I think has existed certainly in recent memory.

Please be more careful with your words. Human resources is the violation, not human rights. That would be a much—

that's important—

much larger violation. Start your story.

A UN investigation, as opposed to UNC's. Yeah.

Mike, you have from the world of politics and the world of human rights violations, the White House Correspondents' Dinner was rescheduled, and I want to play some video here. Can you set up the context for Pablo on what needs to be known here from Wolf Blitzer and the gang?

Yeah, for Pablo and the listening audience, because this is surreal and compelling even if you don't watch it. What I'm about to tell you is this is from the White House Correspondents' Dinner, Wolf Blitzer is mere feet away from President Donald Trump as Wolf Blitzer introduces the award winners for the Katharine Graham Award for Courage and Accountability reporting on Jeffrey Epstein. Now, for the audio listeners, I will describe Donald Trump is just making smiling faces and shrugging his shoulders as this whole thing goes down. Hit it.

This year's award goes to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal's courageous reporting on President Trump's past relationship with financier Jeffrey Epstein triggered the release of the so-called Epstein Files, thousands of documents that might otherwise have remained hidden from the public. And despite the president's threat of a lawsuit, the Journal published a story about a provocative letter to Epstein bearing President Trump's signature. Trump quickly filed a $20 billion lawsuit against the Journal, revealing reporter Khadijah Shafatar's home address. Her family had to be relocated. The Journal was kicked off of Air Force One. But the reporters continued to file revelatory stories. Please welcome the winners of the Katharine Graham Award from the Wall Street Journal. $20 billion, and he's shrugging and smiling, and it's just— he's shaking all their hands. It's all a clown show. Uh, Pablo, you've done a lot of reporting on Epstein. I encourage, uh, people to look at what he's done with Julie Brown, the Miami Herald reporter, and with others. Uh, what are your thoughts here on what would be an otherwise funny video if it wasn't completely tragic?

So I watched this live. I'm the sort of sicko who watches this thing because I was waiting for the main event, which was that this was the thing that everybody in the political press and beyond was aware was going to be awkward. And what you saw was the President of the United States basically signaling to everybody that he does not see the harm in what it is that he does to our country. And I say that kind of smiling because the video is hilarious, right? Like he had a choice. Donald Trump had a choice. Would you scowl or would you shrug? Would you even maybe walk away or would you stay and shake hands? And all of it has the feeling of a guy for whom this all feels like pro wrestling, even the stuff that you'd imagine would be most damaging. Which is to say that the Journal reported in the Epstein birthday book, which you've you've exhaustively talked about on my show. An illustration drawn by Donald Trump that he then sued over, claiming that it wasn't drawn by him. It was, may every day be another wonderful secret, is what he wrote, or paraphrasing that, to Jeffrey Epstein in the birthday book organized by Ghislaine Maxwell.

But here's the subtext to all of it, Dan. If you watch the whole thing, which I unfortunately did, Donald Trump wants, he shows up there, right? Because he wants nothing more than to be liked by the media. Like that's the real bizarre relationship here. It's that he will sue media organizations. He will intimidate the freedom of speech being practiced by people who are trying to bring the truth in the public interest to our country, which is what the Wall Street Journal, which is not known by the way as a liberal rag, to be clear, that's what they did. But at the same time, he just so desperately wants people to like him. And I know that because in his speech, which was an hour and a half roughly, he explicitly said basically, why don't you like me more? I talk to all of you guys, why don't you like me? And he was saying it with a bit of a smile again, but it just revealed what this is all about, which is he wants to walk into a room and feel like anyone there is a fan of his. And even the reporters who reported that stuff about him, That was his mode that he went to, which made everybody feel like they're going insane, because that's the only priority across his entire political existence he has ever had.

Pablo Torre Finds Out is the name of the podcast. It is exploding. Everyone loves it. High praise from every corner of the universe. Thank you, Pablo. And I urge you to check out what he's done on Epstein, because that stuff is also very thorough, very interesting, and it's not stuff that I've seen in a whole lot of places. So his library, his catalog is very impressive. Thank you, Pablo. Good talking to you.

Thank you, Dan. Appreciate it.

I'm going to give you an item from Sam Quinn of CBS on LeBron before moving on to other subjects. Uh, 37 players in the NBA last season touched the ball at least 68.4 times per game. Weird number, that one. 5 of them play for the Sixers. It's Maxey, it's Edgcomb, it's LeBron James, it's Joel Embiid, it's Jaylen Brown. It's going to be fascinating. It really is, to see whether this thing works or it implodes.

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Howdy folks, it's Mike Ryan. You know, The Lebatard Show and Miller Lite go way back. Pretty much, I wanna say like 95% of our existence, we've been partnered with Miller Lite and we believe in Miller Lite. They believe in us. It's great to have a partner with a product you truly love. That's me with Miller Lite. I love Miller Lite, always have. In fact, I consider myself a bit of a Miller Time MVP. The friend who says, "They've got it, I'll pick the spot, I'll throw the cooler in the trunk, bring some Miller Lite," and suddenly what was supposed to be a couple of hours turns into a whole afternoon. That's me, the Miller Time MVP. And it's great for summer hangs, cools the body down, that beautiful white can. Not much better than an ice cold Miller Lite because it's brewed for taste with simple ingredients, clean, refreshing, and easy to drink in the Miami heat. An all-American summer starts with an all-American beer, Miller Lite. Go to millerlite.com/dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly.

Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

Dan Levitar. Put a finger in there, but if you tell anyone, I'll deny it.

Mike Ryan.

Don't just stare at it, eat it. This is the Dan Levitar Show. Before we get to Gearhead, Mike is making subtle allusions here that it is time to get to Gearhead. I'm not ready quite yet to get to Gearhead. I have for your perusal, for everyone's perusal 5 football stories, 5 of them, and I want you guys to tell me which is the most interesting of the 5 American football stories. One, Aaron Donald is going through the regimented process of trying to rejoin the Rams. Kyle Shanahan has been in a terrible accident. They've got 40 stitches on his face. It broke his nose, his ribs, his hand. He got a severe concussion. He's not even capable of actually running his team.

40 stitches on the face, you look like Frankenstein.

You think 40 stitches on the face is worse than ribs broken, nose broken, hand broken? Because that's one hell of an accident, and the severe concussion is terrible as well. Uh, Tyreek Hill says he has no power in his leg and has, it looks like, no free agent value a month before, or less than a month before, camps open. Tony Romo quietly gets an OWI, which I don't know what that is. I just thought it was DUI or DWI. I don't know what an Operating?

I think it's operating.

Do you guys know what an OWI is and the difference between an OWI and a DUI and a DWI? Because the only classifications I have heard are DUI and DWI, and I don't know what an OWI is.

I don't know, damn!

And then the other one is Diego Pavia being released by the Ravens before they've even thrown a football. Like, he went out there the way Tony went out to FIU and threw an imaginary football, and then they waived him. And this whole Pavia experience, man, If you're a cocky quarterback, you better be good. Like, if you're going to be the guy who wants to break all the rules— Well, if they give us the balls, we can actually show them that we're good.

Like, what am I supposed to do, throw an imaginary football?

Better be taller than Shakira.

It seems that OWI and DUI are just based off states. Like, they're just referred to as different things.

But am I right? Is it operating?

Yes.

Operating while intoxicated versus driving under the influence. It's just state by state they call them different things.

Semantics.

Which is the most interesting of those stories? Do we have different votes or does the group have a uniform and consensus number one? From among those 5?

Shanahan. Next time we see him, it's like Frankenstein.

That's not even the interesting part about it. It's who replaced him.

Does America understand who replaced him? Because this is quite the comeback story. I'm willing to do a Metal Ark documentary on this and a 30 for 30 if anyone's interested, because this is a story of real redemption. And I did not see a path all those years ago when the only story that the Miami Dolphins produced in a single season that made national headlines was an offensive line coach who was snorting cocaine cocaïne, or a powder that looked like cocaine, off his desk while sending it to a sex worker in Las Vegas, because cocaine and sex evidently is a magical combination.

Right. I mean, that stuff has happened before in sports, but rarely do you ever have video as compelling. That's what kind of separated it.

I mean, he had those grains in his nose.

Selfie mode in like a meeting room.

The big grains.

Chris Forster is his name, and he deserves to outlive the shame of that. I just didn't think he would.

You know about those big brands?

I did not have a situation where this would run the mighty 49ers dynasty that is being undone only by the power plant next door that continues to injure its players and make them, uh, brittle. Uh, but I don't believe that most people reading this story— is this the— that you guys are choosing that as the most interesting one? Because that's a— that— I just gave you 5 really good football stories to chew on. The, the Diego Pavia experience, that's a little bit a little bit crazy. They haven't even gotten to camp. Like, they've seen enough. They've seen enough that he can't be the fourth string quarterback when Skylar Thompson's the third stringer.

Tough look.

Yeah, why is it that crazy? Like, Diogo Pávez, like, he even got a chance. He's tiny.

Tyreek Hill too, he's got his bad leg.

You didn't even mention Vrabel. You saw Vrabel over the weekend? It's like, here's a dog. I dare you to ask me tough questions.

He used the dog as a meat shield. So many to chew on, but they're all in the pit because we're taking some left turn. What do you mean? No, I think you said before we to it. All right, well, we'll decide. Guys, we were racing at the Brickyard. I mean, one of the most famous, uh, tracks in all the world. And there was a really interesting story here. Michael Jordan wins at the Brickyard in back-to-back years, but he doesn't win with a full-time driver. That's right, a part-time driver has taken the NASCAR scene by storm. Corey Heim already won in Coronado Base at San Diego. He had a top 10 finish at Chicagoland Speedway. He is not eligible eligible for the playoff format in NASCAR because he is not a full-time Cup Series driver. He only races occasionally for 23XI. That's the racing team that Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin co-own. And while this race didn't have action, the fact that Corey Heim has done this being a part-timer— he had a lot of success in the Truck Series— is pretty amazing. He's 24 years old. And while the race wasn't super compelling, there was one great moment where another young hotshot, Carson Hosovar, who along with Spire Motorsports has had a this season, Carson gave Corey Haim the middle finger during the race.

And the great studio team led by Marty, Marty Smith, our great friend over there at TNT and ESPN, asked Corey Haim if he saw it. I want to get your thoughts on it. You and Josevar, well documented, you've raced each other very hard over the time.

We're right here.

I want to know, did you see this?

Nope.

You would be looking at your commitment line, but your mate came by and told you you were number one.

Handed them a big fat L after that one.

Oh, hey, Haim time talking that shit for every lap. Keep it fun. Keep it Cuervo.

Chris Cody, did you have a vote for me? Aaron Donald snuck under the radar with all of you guys there. Where you—

what was his story again?

Yes, I wanted the headline.

What was it?

That he has to go through a regimented process. The Rams are in the process of going through a regimented process to bring him back after 2 years of retirement. That is horrifying if you are an offensive line and it's Miles Garrett and Aaron Donald. Like, that's just It's not in any way reasonable. It's not fair. I don't understand how the Rams can afford this. The Rams also have now— they've replenished their cornerbacks when they were— we can say they're a punt return away from being what the Seahawks were, right? Like a punt return or a bounce in that just the most spectacular Thursday night game in the history of Thursday night games was the Seahawks coming back against the Rams after being dominated by the Rams and the Rams going from a 1 seed to a 5 seed and They replenished by— the Rams came as close as you can come without being in the Super Bowl to having a team that we would all acknowledge is worthy of the Super Bowl, including having an MVP at quarterback. Aaron Donald finds this enticing enough— that seems like an unpleasant position to play— finds this enticing enough after 2 years to say, you know what, I want back in the game, and I want back in the game because of how easy Miles Garrett is going to make things.

But we have to break away from that story to show you Mike Vrabel entering a press box, or entering a press conference with a dog as a meat shield, daring anyone to ask him a tough question when he's got the dog cradled under his right arm. Let's show this, please. That time of year, I do my best here with Bibi. Okay, so welcome everybody. It's good to see you guys.

Dog's terrible.

The dog doesn't want any tough questions.

What could have been better? Maybe like a first responder, just like arm in arm with a first responder. A whale. A teacher.

Save the whales.

He's got a whale behind him.

A Teacher of the Year.

Yes. Before I start here, I'd like to honor Miss McGillicuddy here, who—

it's got to be a puppy though, right? It's got to be a cuter dog than it— not that there's anything wrong with that dog.

Look, I think that might be a puppy. Yeah, just a big puppy.

It needs to be a smaller puppy. I'm going to find the way to criticize this. I'm going to find the way to— it's hard. You got to work at it. But he could have chosen a, a better dog. He could have chosen a dog that would have made the questions even softer.

So you're taking issue with the type of dog?

If you want to have the correct dog, if you want to have the correct dog, that is correct.

That is what I'm saying. You are zagging, my friend.

That is correct. If you want to have the correct dog, it has to be a dog whose paws are too big for its body. It has not yet learned how to walk correctly, and its paws make it a little extra clumsy. That dog doesn't look like it's clumsy enough if it were somewhere other than under the armpit of the disgraced coach of the New England Patriots.

Now, as he entered the room, he said, "It's that time of year again," which leads me to believe that this is a move that he has done before. However, he must have been really happy with the timing of "that time of year" this year.

Do you think the debate is— the debate is, do you come out with a puppy in that spot to avoid the tough questions, or a Make-A-Wish kid? I'm gonna go with the pop.

Maybe you have like chocolates for everyone. You just start walking around the room. Here, have a chocolate.

A tray, like a tray of gourmet chocolates, like the finest. Not just regular chocolates, not just, you know, you don't want like a Halloween bowl filled with like little Snickers snacks. You want to have high quality gourmet chocolates. The question I wanted to ask you guys around the Kyle Shanahan story is, have you ever heard of a coach being disabled before a season starts from being able to coach his team? His team because he gets into an accident so severe 2 months before the season that he has a broken nose, a broken hand, broken ribs, and 40 stitches on his face, and, and a concussion so bad that we need someone else to run the team while he recovers. Like, what kind of precedent is there for that?

The Showtime Lakers.

I was gonna say, I just watched that a few weeks ago for the first time. That's almost exactly what happened. He was like 15.

He was a bicycle accident, right?

He was just—

it wasn't a car accident with an SUV, right? But it was a bad— it was a enough accident that, uh, that's— is that how Pat Riley got his chance?

That is correct. Uh, well, one coach—

no, yeah, it was a domino, no doubt.

I remember that episode, that episode in the show.

But Riley became assistant coach as a result of the accident.

Yes, Jack McKinney was the, uh, name of the coach.

Yeah, the Kyle Shanahan story, uh, sort of came out of nowhere where you're reading this weekend that the accident is severe enough that the team that was at the at the top of the conference for the 10 years before the Rams and Seattle started fighting over the top of the conference. Uh, this coach being out and then being replaced by Chris Forster, whose claim to fame in football— outside of football, to those who aren't in the game— the claim to fame that he has is he's got a scandal unlike any other assistant coach in the history of the league, where during the video age, he was betrayed by a sex worker who put out the video of him snorting blow, or what appeared to be blow, off of what appeared to be his desk at work while trying to lure her into another rendezvous.

Making guttural noises.

I like how careful we're being. It was like we're doing appeared and allegedly on this one. That one was— yeah, no, he told us as much. It wasn't a car accident, but Bruce Arians became Coach of the Year and eventual Super Bowl champion because Chuck Pagano got ill.

Was that before the season?

I'm not even sure. It might have been like right before.

The, the Tyreek Hill story, I think, is also interesting because his leg shattered in a way that made me wonder at the time, is that career-threatening? Is that career-ending? And then for some reason, Greg Cody immediately just believed Drew Rosenhaus when he said the surgery was great. Everything will be fine. He'll be ready and valuable and himself again next season. But at this point, it is It is really, really rare for somebody to have that kind of talent that you will overlook everything else because he's got that kind of talent where you're watching a football game and you're looking at somebody and you're like, he's faster than everyone else. There are a bunch of athletes on the field and he's the fastest one. He's the one that's allowed to play at that size. No one else at that size is on the field. He's the one that's allowed to play at that size because he's faster than everyone else. And what becomes the mark on the line on we will not look past all of the other reasons it's hard to sign you? Oh, he can't run anymore. Can't— he can't actually run faster than anyone anymore.

And so no one's interested. That he's— he is jobless right now. No one's even taking a flyer on the idea of we'll offer you something small just to wish, you know, just to see if we've got something in camp. This would be the easiest thing in the world for the Chiefs to do, would it not? Just to to like— what? But they've got their own problems with misbehaving wide receivers. Why are they going to welcome something back into their locker room that's not as fast as it used to be?

We didn't even mention this weekend Brandon Aiyuk, who— there's something going on there. He claims he purchased a $10 million home in Virginia this weekend.

That, you know, story's crazy because, you know, he plays for the Commanders now.

I don't— I don't like that. I don't like that story one bit. Um, I mean, Tyreek probably will get a chance if his body recovers. No one's taking a chance on him because look what he said about his Who would sign anybody? It could be Jerry Rice.

Oh, because you can get this person cheap. This is the lowest that the value is ever going to be on something like this. And so you're just going risk versus reward.

Yeah, but it can happen towards the later end of the season or possibly next season. It seems like the recovery is not going well by his own admission, and it seemed like a really bad injury as it happened.

Down levitar!

I think when he goes on tour—

I shoot you!

He gets like Michael Jackson-level reaction.

Really?

He gets Michael Jackson-level reaction?

Yes, he does.

Yes, the King of Pop.

Yes, he does.

Michael Jackson.

Yeah, Michael Jackson.

There's Michael Jackson and there's I Show Speed.

Similar response.

Similar response.

Similar crowd reaction.

You don't know both.

Michael Jackson, I Show Speed.

Okay. Jonathan Sasslo.

You sound like an embarrassing person. You sound old as shit.

This is the Dan Levatar Show. The Tony Romo story, whether you're calling it OWI, DWI, or anything else, uh, where are we on Tony Romo broke into broadcasting as, uh, one of the most seismic developments in the history of broadcasting? It is really a sports broadcasting. It is really rare for someone to start as a novice on broadcast television on one of the single greatest platforms and immediately get nothing but applause when the person has no experience. And the reason he was getting nothing but applause is because— this is the primary reason. It's not just his affection for the game or his enthusiasm. The primary reason was that Tony Romo is the first guy I've ever heard in the history of sports broadcasting who was so recently in the game and had such fluency proficiency for what it is that he was watching that he was impressing everybody by telling you what was going to happen before it happened. There was no— there has been nobody in the history of my sports broadcasting, uh, watching that has been able to do what Tony Romo did. But the evolution of the game changes so much that once he lost that parlor trick, almost immediately what was Tony Romo's stock started going down with everyone, including his employers, who reportedly had an intervention because they didn't think he was working hard enough at what he was doing, but why would you if you were getting tens of millions of dollars and you come out with a splash?

And there's never been a novice of any sort in broadcasting who gets that much applause for like, I can't believe how good he is at picking plays before they happen.

It's like, this is easy.

Why, you just want me to go up here and say what I see?

All right, cool.

Yeah, now he's kind of entered the John Madden realm of I'm just tuning in for the guttural noises.

Has his star diminished enough enough that you guys are thinking that whatever it is between him and Nance that make them one of the premier broadcast teams in the league, but no longer the premier broadcast team in the league by, uh, by observers, uh, that you think given that his employers had to stage what was called an intervention to get him to work harder, now you have, um, an incident like this that doesn't have obviously the kind of shame that would end someone like Mark Sanchez's career, But it has a shame involved that if you were looking to— if you were looking for a reason to get rid of somebody, this kind of publicity is reason enough. He—

they were the unquestioned leaders as far as best booth that people tuned in on. Now I think, you know, Buck and Aikman, who are calling a Super Bowl this year, I believe, pass Mike Tirico, Collinsworth ahead of them. And one of the forgotten storylines, as people weighed in with a ton of Tom Brady takes yesterday, was a forgotten part part of last season where Tom Brady really improved towards the latter part of last season and was actually pretty spectacular for the, the bar that he established in the postseason.

Can we talk a little bit about what we talked about briefly with Jessica last week, where I, I've always found what I'm about to say interesting, okay? Over the course of my sports lifetime, generally speaking, the very best at something, whether it's Derek Jeter or Michael Jordan, somebody who's regarded as the greatest in their sport, when those people aren't actually interesting in interviews or as personality types, when the excellence is just on the field, the marketers, the managers, all of those people will make it so that their story gets told in a way that makes them greater and more interesting than they are. Nike went and got Spike Lee to make Michael Jordan's commercials. Michael Jordan has never been terribly interesting as a talker. Michael Jordan is interesting as a player. His play, his art speaks for him. But this has been the case for a lot of great athletes. We'll write the mythology around them, okay? We, we— this is something that we do. And in those instances, them being reclusive or mysterious serves the mythology. Let the writers, let the storytellers handle the storytelling. You just handle the play. We've got the marketing.

There's been a backlash against Tom Brady because he's a little too available. Tom Brady in the social media age is coming off as, hey, you're like Michael Jordan when he was wearing the dad jeans. We We want you to be more excellent than that. We want you to be less available to us. We don't want to see you everywhere cheapening your excellence by doing a bad bit with Logan Paul. What's happening with Tom Brady where now that the broadcasting has actually gotten a little better and isn't terrible, now the coolness is dripping away where a whole lot of people are, I'm seeing too much of you. I'd like to see a little bit less of you.

I think it's a little bit of midlife crisis. I really do, where he's trying stuff. He wants to do stuff that he has never been allowed to do, essentially. I mean, look, he's only got one life. We only have one life, and 20 years, whatever it was in the NFL, he wasn't allowed to do any of this crap. And now it's just like, you know what, eff it. I want to have a little bit of fun, even if it makes me look weird.

I mean, that continues something that carried on in Tampa where it seemed as though, all right, I did the Patriot Way for long enough. And what Zazz is saying appears to be playing out. The wrestling thing is a little weird.

Yeah, that I think is weird.

You know, I don't know if he'll get talked out of that, but I know people that swear by Goodnut that he is sitting on an empire with what he's doing there. He's leveraging his name recognition. I like his, his athletic wear line.

I don't—

I like Tom Brady, and I think you mentioned Michael Jordan. He's that class. We should stop saying you're the Michael Jordan of something because that's open for debate. In American football, king sport in this country, Tom Brady passed that 6 rings thing, and he did it at an age where we've never seen possible. He's the greatest. Zazz, you know about that good nut?

I don't, actually.

The, uh, business that Tom Brady has, believes in, that keeps him very young and keeps him nutritionally sound, that he swears by, like, he does absolutely have some health secrets that I think are worth admiring because he played till 45 years old in football and clearly had some science help. Whatever it is that he was doing organically, he had some help there that actually proved to be visionary.

He's ruined it for every other elite quarterback that was his contemporary. We hold it against them that they can't do what Tom Brady did. Aaron Rodgers is being looked at as sad. Oh, look at how you run, run out onto the field. Field as a New York Jet. Look how washed Drew Brees was towards the end. The only guy that ever came close to impressing me as much is what Philip Rivers did the last few years, which is still not talked about enough.

Philip Rivers coming off of the couch, having the body as if he had been on the couch, still having the Cheeto crumbs on his fingers when he would throw some of those out routes.

He went down to the wire at the eventual Super Bowl champions.

Look at the stats from The thing that I wanted to address though, as it related to Tom Brady, we like our immortals to be immortal, to feel immortal, and I've got a couple of friends that I make fun of because they live over here in what I call Sad Dad Village, where it's just a bunch of divorced dads. We know a little bit too much about his life. We know a little bit too much about the jiu-jitsu instructor. We know a little bit too much about the fact that he's wandering the earth right now as a single man. And it's not something that looks quite as excellent as his immortality. We can agree on that, right? Like, there's, there's next to nothing that he can do that looks as excellent as his immortality. But I think Mike's, uh, if not alone, I think Mike's in the minority on, uh, both liking Tom Brady and liking what he's doing right now. I think a lot of people are doing a recoiling and a judging about some of the things that Tom Brady is doing in public. If I'm arriving at the conclusion that people want to see a little less of Tom Brady.

I think the— I think the Logan Paul was the tipping point. I think that has really started this conversation because people don't like Logan Paul. It's weird. Like, what? Wait, hold on, you're collabing with, with the YouTube guy Logan Paul, who, uh, everyone believes is unlikable, and then you add in the WWE part? I, I think it's his version of acting. Like, he's not— he's not a movie star, he's not gonna be in movies, but oh wait, WWE, that's acting. Like, I could do that.

He's totally gonna spin that to If it goes, how ridiculous is it going to be to watch Tom Brady in some sort of wrestling match against Logan Paul?

He's going to wrestle Logan Paul in Saudi Arabia.

Everybody is going to be into that. Everybody is going to be curious. It is going to get people talking. I understand the overexposing thing and people not liking his personality. I think there are guys that are just so great that I'm good not doubting them. Philip Rivers off the couch, 18 for 27, a touchdown and a pick, 120 yards.

I enjoyed watching him. Watching him.

We did doubt because we felt like we had enough representative data to suggest, Tom Brady, you are just a bad commentator. I came out and said it. I'm like, this isn't working. And from the moment I said it, I'm done doubting Tom Brady.

I'm done believing in the Marlins for the same reason. As soon as I said they were a playoff team, they lost 12 straight. Franchise record. As soon as I said it, their AA has lost 12 in a row too.

Oh my God, that can't be true.

It's true.

Yesterday they were up 3-0 headed into the 8th. They allow a 4-spot in the 8th. They've lost. They've— they got swept by the Padres. They got swept the Brewers. These are good teams. They got swept by the Guardians and they got swept by the Astros, less good of a team, but they, they got swept by everybody. And it's 12 straight losses. Has there been a losing streak that long in baseball this year? This is a franchise record. The Marlins have never— they've had some bad teams, they've never lost 12 in a row before. Has there been a losing streak that long in the sport? There are a number of things about the sport in its present form that I don't understand. Salvador Perez, uh, Being the Kansas City Royals home run leader over George Brett is something I will never accept.

He's still playing?

Yeah, and he looks exactly the way that he would look if he were still playing in like the Venezuelan League or the Mexican League, or, or 10 years, 10 years past his prime. Let's call it chunky and leave it at that. He's the Royals career leader in home runs, and that's morally offensive. You can't put that ahead of George Brett. It's simply wrong. Very few baseball things come across my desk, Dan.

And one thing that came across my desk this weekend, I don't know how to pronounce his name.

Mizarowski. Is that—

Jacob Mizarowski striking out the first 112 miles an hour? No, that can't be right. He threw 112 miles an hour. That's not— you read the guy went up.

It might have been 112 100-mile-an-hour pitches. That's more likely.

There is no chance.

No way.

There's no—

Tony, 211 miles an hour.

I understand your confusion. It came across my desk, Dan, though. So I got to check. You read it right. It's, it's correct.

Stupid.

My desk?

Yeah, I've seen your desk. Your desk is stupid.

I'm not saying things like someone's throwing 112 miles an hour. Your desk is stupid.

Person that passed me the paper, not, not put it on the poll. Is Tony's desk stupid?