Transcript of A.W. Hawkins of Gentlemen's Quarterly | Local Hour

Got a crowded room in here today, so I want to ask you guys, the new folks this Tuesday, to answer this question with one or two words, only one or two words. Amin, catch or no catch?

Catch.

Juju, catch or no catch?

No catch.

Greg Cody, catch or no catch?

Catch.

Andrew Hawkins, catch or no catch?

No catch.

Oh, we got a good disagreement here.

Oh, shit.

I'm just still here chilling in the middle.

All right, let's all sit out and have them discuss catch or no catch. Andrew Hawkins, you have some expertise in this area. Let's use it to start.

Okay, so as a wide receiver, we are taught to secure and possess the ball through enough actions to make a football move. Now, this is less about what his feet are doing, because he has 2 feet down, yes. I would argue they hit at the same time, and that's not really a football move per se, but it is 2 feet. The problem I have is that when he catches the ball with both hands, almost immediately the right hand comes off, which means you don't really have possession yet. The right hand comes back on, and then the left hand kind of loses palm on the ball, and then as that comes on, he touches out of bounds.

Or that's deft handiwork, right? Like, hey, I can take my right hand, I can take my left hand, right hand, left hand. Hey, that's pretty hard. So here's my question: if you had caught it 10 yards up the sideline, right?

10 yards up the sideline.

So not for a touchdown, but just for a first down.

Mm-hmm.

No, it would have been called, "All right, good, all right, keep the, you know, stop the clock." He caught it and went out of bounds. But because it was a touchdown, and I think the refs felt a little bit of the pressure, like, "I don't want to give him a touchdown right here because this could decide things." It's a lot easier. So it's the easy way out, the coward's way out.

Yeah, the coward's way out is a good way to describe that.

Thank you.

And it was an ACC officiating crew too, by the way. Had they ruled it a catch, they would not have overruled it. It was just throwing up their hands and saying, "Nah, that's not a catch." I saw the replay several times. His feet were definitely in bounds. That's not a question. There was a split second, which is all that's needed in the end zone for his both hands to be on the ball in possession with his two feet on the ground. And I think this is notable: his back was to the defensive back, which means it took an extra split second for the defensive back to reach around and knock that ball off.

So definitely and clearly a catch.

Homer!

Definitely and clearly a catch, as Hawkins says, definitely and clearly not a catch. Juju, your thoughts?

I want to object to what Amin said.

What?

I think if it happened down the field in the fifth yard line, referee's steal would have been like, "It's incomplete because you got to catch it, tuck it away, or do some sort of football move," and the only football move unfortunately my brother did was fumble that guy.

Okay.

How many times have we seen a guy make the catch and fall out of bounds?

Upwards of thousands of times if someone makes a catch and falls out of bounds.

That's my point.

Good answer.

10-plus times again.

And we call it, and it's good.

We do call that a catch.

So that's my point.

Again, my issue is not that he didn't have his feet down. I don't think he ever caught the ball, and his demeanor didn't even show the demeanor.

Let's all say our points at the same time. Everybody at the same time. Ready? Let's go. All right.

I thought that he caught the ball.

He didn't land on it.

I don't know.

I don't know.

Might as well. Otherwise, my hands would be.

That's what the man watched you to say.

Still not sure.

That's a magazine. A magazine is a thing of glossy paper that has written words on it, and Pablo Torre, that magazine, makes people fashion icons and icons in general.

Pablo Torre calls it gentlemen's quarterly.

He does.

How'd you feel about how you said quarterly there? You got a little bit scared of it? You got a little bit worried about the way that you were saying quarterly in the middle of quarterly?

It sounded like I had a stroke in the middle of that.

Andrew Hawkins, have you ever appeared? You're a style icon yourself. Have you ever appeared in GQ Magazine? Did Pablo Torre beat you to GQ Magazine?

He's running laps around me to GQ Magazine. He's running laps around me in a lot of spaces in the media game.

Everybody. It's not just you. Don't feel alone there. It's basically happening to everybody. There aren't a lot of Matt Damon's on the cover of this, and Pablo Torre is in GQ Magazine as a man of the year. Like, he keeps getting all of these awards, everything except the sports Emmy.

You know what? I'm kind of glad now we didn't win it, because it just seems way more and more ridiculous. At the moment, I was like, "How is that possible? How is this possible?" And then as time has gone by, I've been like, "You know what? No." This is a nice kind of outcome to not have it, because people say, "How did they not win?" Yes, how didn't we win?

Yeah, that's a good cope that you got there going. It's like, "You know what? I didn't even want that sports Emmy. I have too many trophies."

Couple copes.

I think the Pulitzer still is the king of awards.

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

It's a journalism.

Well, I mean, you're talking about a sports Emmy like it's a big deal.

But that's the joke I was making. The same thing that won a Pulitzer didn't win a sports Emmy. It's the entire joke I was making.

Okay, I didn't know it was a joke. You seemed serious.

I didn't know it was a joke either, because I won two of them, and I was very proud to that exact moment.

Exactly. Okay.

That exact exchange.

You think Pablo was upset about being bumped from the cover? Because I have to say one thing about Pablo since he won the Pulitzer, and this is going to come off as a criticism. It isn't. It's a neutral comment. Pablo Torre has embraced his celebrity in a way that surprises me a little bit.

Well, he's a total star blooper.

He.

Always has been.

I didn't know that about him. I'm surprised by, like, the cover and all the other stuff.

So courtside at Sixers games with Sadakas didn't clue you in?

No, not really. No. Not in the way a GQ cover does.

I actually.

Those shoes, what the hell was he wearing?

I actually think Pablo did have a bigger ear than Matt Damon. Like, he should have been on the cover.

Yeah, you could make that argument.

What has Matt Damon done?

Ah, salute to Pablo. We love Pablo. That's our brother. But Matt Damon getting bought out to theaters every hour on the hour, selling them out, IMAX, Lomax, WeMax.

Yeah.

Bigger than Matt Damon is a, that's kind of a crazy.

Bigger year. I didn't say bigger overall.

Bigger year? No, I agree. I mean, he's had a huge year, and I love the shoes. We don't like the shoes?

Well, the shoes are great.

I didn't know.

The shoes are great, just not many of us could pull that off.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

That entire outfit, I would love to talk to Pablo about.

Is that a heel?

That is.

I want to talk to Pablo.

That's money.

About how it is that he came upon the decisions to wear the clothes that he chose for this, because he would be very purposeful about doing this. This is a high honor, and him being tapped as cool on GQ Magazine, leaning against an elevator in a New York hotel with high-heel shoes that are what? That are green and black and some sort of skin of some sort. I mean, this is stylish. Not many of us could pull this off.

Dan, you said how he chose, as if you think Pablo went to his closet, "What should I wear for this shoot?" Ooh, I've been dying to pull out these high heels that I've had in the closet for a while. They don't do it. When you go to the shoot, you show up as is. They have a wardrobe. They have a stylist. They ask you for your sizes, and they got everything ready. They picked that for him. Now, he might have said, "Out of these three options, I like this one the best," which means he chose the high heels.

Whatever happened to cuffs on pants?

Cuffing season.

I thought stylist pants had cuffs, no?

Put it on the poll at Le Batard Show, whatever happened to cuffs on pants. Did you see how Amin came in with that expertise with all the GQ shoots he's done? I'm guessing that Pablo chose whatever it is that he put on there from a group of choices that weren't in his closet but were more than three. My guess is it's GQ. Like, this is what they do with their photo shoots, and he chose purposefully there, and it is a statement that he is choosing. It is loud what Pablo is doing there.

So now you know from all of your GQ photo shoots.

Well, I have done photo shoots with Matt Damon for People Magazine. I have actually done this.

Oh, wow.

Oh, drop that name.

People Magazine, you want to compare GQ to People Magazine?

People Magazine.

That's a good comparison.

Let's get the Dan on the pool table photo. Let's get that.

Look at me, Lou.

Yes.

Okay.

I do have proof of a photo shoot.

In '92.

Agreed. My information might be dated, but it's more recent than Amin's. Like, yes, agreed. It was a long time ago, back when magazines mattered.

I was about to say, "I'm sorry I don't have a photo shoot with a dead medium." Oh, wow, that's cool. You got any ads with the Ford Model T you want to show us?

Hold on, hold on, bro. We're forgetting we're talking about the most eligible bachelor, eligible. You feel me? On the pool table. Y'all forgot my boy was on the pool table, man. Barefoot.

I will never live down Bugsy Jumby opening the door to my house as I was squatting on that pool table.

No.

At the photo shoot, yeah. And, like, I just popped off of the pool table and immediately, like, sort of was filled with a shame that is hard to explain. There are certain ways that you just don't want to be seen by your friends.

You look like you're in a bathroom.

Is that Chris Penn? Nice guy, Eddie.

Did you have a stylist for that shoot?

No. He's barefoot. Stylist, he's barefoot.

But there was a lot of bad advice I was given. I turned down the offer to come out of the shower. Turned it down.

Good call. See, options.

Just to do this, just to grind from the rap. I'm sorry. Two in the internet. You guys don't even get that reference.

Lee.

In 2002, Dan, real quick, Pablo was 15, just so you know. That's when that shoot was, and.

Well, thank you. You made it 10 years later than he did. He said it was 1992, so thank you. I didn't correct him because I didn't know. I thought it had indeed been 30 years ago. Only 24.

Good call to dress up in that tan T-shirt, by the way.

Only a quarter century ago. That's all. So the Jacksonville Jags yesterday off of, you know, we've got 24 hours here where you've got a bunch of teams that need wide receivers, all of them competitive teams, all of them feeling like they're a piece away. Chicago makes the trade for Jeffrey Simmons that is, you know, two first-round picks. And Jacksonville says, "Well, our left tackle's gotten hurt for the year. Our defensive tackle's gotten hurt for the year. We're going to shore it up all over the places if we think we can win the championship this year."

The Rams did, and they were wrong. But the Jacksonville Jaguars, they are front-officing their balls off right now, because the Jordan Davis trade, yes, it not only shores up, like, injuries, it, like, the presence of him on that defense that already you can't run the ball against, and it allows them to put more people on the back end. And they bring in Jordan Battle, which, again, is just as good as the Davis, or Jesse Bates, I'm sorry, Jesse Bates, who's just as good as the Davis signing, because, I mean, for my money at safety, he is probably the smartest safety in the National Football League.

He causes more fumbles than anybody else. He's better at the peanut punch than anybody else is in the league.

Not only that, he's a football savant.

Well, don't you have to be to be great at the peanut punch?

No, you don't.

To be great at it?

To be very strong. To be great at it, savant? No. I mean from a X's and O's, I know what you're doing before you do it, like Ed Reid. And he doesn't play like Ed Reid. When you played against Ed Reid, he would call our plays out at any point in the game that we're running that play before we ran it. And that's the kind of, like, smarts that Jesse Bates plays with for the Falcons as well as the Bengals, and he's just very underrated, so I think that's as big a move as the Jordan Davis trade.

I love Liam Cohen. When he first, when they first hired him, and you remember his misspeak on the whole Duvall thing, everybody was making fun of him. To me, he looked like he was going to out-nerd Mike McDaniel. You know, visually, I just didn't see him as a great NFL coach, but he has surprised me.

Do we do this visually? Is this one that we're doing visually?

Yeah, I can do that.

We're still doing that?

Yeah.

Visually with.

I do. Yeah.

Visually with this guy can lead my football team based on how he looks.

He looked like a nerd.

So Andy Reid is someone that all of you, if you guys were walking past him in a Publix and didn't know it was Andy Reid, you would say, "That looks like a guy who I trust to be a champion."

No, I would say the opposite, and he plays on that image of him twiddling his hands and lusting over a Twinkie. You know, he doesn't have the image. The image you want visually is the Dan Campbell.

Do you?

Okay, the Mike Tomlin.

I'll take a Kyle Shanahan.

You want the tough guy.

I'll take Kyle Shanahan.

Duvall.

I think Andy Reid looks like a football coach. A lot of them are just big, fat old guys. Now.

I'm going for the not.

Now. Looks like a football coach.

Okay.

And I think that's definitely the archetype. The big, chubby football coach doesn't say much. That gives football coach to me.

Does it?

He's a little too nice for, like, that archetype. That's what throws it off. It's like, okay, you're way too sweet of a human to be a football coach with that look. But that look is definitely a football coach. I've had many coaches with that look.

Yeah, but aren't we playing the result, though? Like, aren't we looking at the Super Bowls and going.

That helps.

Great coach?

There's a lot of O'Connell.

Everybody looks like great coach.

I don't know. You guys are, I feel like you guys are in the early 2000s with the way you're doing this. There's a lot of O'Connells, a lot of Stefanski's, a lot of Kyle Shanahans nowadays. Just.

What is that? What is that?

Just nothing. Just they just look like people.

Yeah. Okay.

Like a guy you'd see at Publix.

Well put.

No, they're not even nerds.

They do look like people.

Kevin O'Connell, Stefanski's.

Kevin O'Connell's like five.

But I'm saying, if I saw him at Publix, I'd just be like, oh, there he is. He's at Publix. Kevin O'Connell.

Analytics have/are ruining the game. We're playing AI hoops.

That's his team. His team's in the forefront of all that.

Dan says, "Don't steal my time."

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Sorry.

Jonathan Sassolo.

I get carried away.

This is the Dan Le Batard Show.

You know who don't look like a coach? A football coach? The Baltimore Ravens coach Jesse Menter. He looked like Nate Borgatze every time they put the camera on him. I'm like, who is this brother? Oh, that's the coach. My bad.

I don't know what you guys are doing in terms, I'm with Chris Cody on this. A coach type look like and Hawk, I'm surprised to hear you, of all people.

I'll be surprised.

Who's been in huddles and who knows how meaningless it is what someone looks like as they're trying to lead you. I'm surprised that you think that there's a football coach look that you would trust and another look that you would not trust.

You've never had someone, like, come into a meeting at any job that you've worked at, and before they even spoke, you're like, this dude looks like an idiot.

Yeah.

That's never happened to you?

Absolutely.

And the opposite.

And it's.

Yeah, you come in with Don Shula's jaw, and you're immediately impressed. He doesn't even have to speak, because his jaw looks like he's going to say something great. Same with Bill Kaur. He's got the jaw.

I don't, I'm not looking at jaws, to be honest, Cody. I'm going to be honest about that. But there is, like, when a guy comes in, coach or whoever, it's like, do I think you immediately go to a point. It's the same for players. We look at players in the same light.

Right.

You know? I'm walking in there, all 5'7", and they're like, yo, Johnny Manzell, this is your number one receiver. I'm sure he's like, okay.

Every second there he's doing that to Brock Bowers, and he's got 100 yards in every game with his cul-de-sac for hair because they're underestimating him, and he's running right past them.

It works.

It does?

It's probably why he keeps the hair that way.

Damn, right. That's why I said that about Liam Cohen. He won me over because I thought he was a nerd.

It was the 19 and 6 that won you over in the last 25 games?

It is, that was part of it. That was part of it.

Is it the 267 plus on the point differential?

Yeah.

In the last 25 games?

Decent.

It doesn't have much of anything to do with how he looks. It has to do with how his quarterback looks.

And the running. He's got Tutins, a good running back. People don't know him that well, so they don't respect him, but he's been great.

More than anything right now in Jacksonville, excuse me, pardon me, I'm emotional. I think that they're giving their fan base exactly what you want right now, because you want an aggressive team that's trying everything. As a Buffalo Bills fan, I admire what Jacksonville is doing. They're going for it, and I salute them for that.

Jacksonville is a nowhere city that has had very few great football teams. One of them went in with Blake Bortles to the Patriots and should have beat them. Was it Bortles? It was Bortles, right? Should have beat one of those champion Patriot teams in Foxboro. That's not the best Jacksonville team there's been, because the one with Keenan McCardle and Jimmy Smith is the best one they've had. But I think I'd be willing to make the argument that this team can win the Super Bowl. Like, that, and I don't feel like I would have made that argument for previous Jacksonville teams.

Who's Andrew?

Hawk.

That's Bob.

Oh, shit.

That's my government name.

Sorry.

Yeah. Andrew Austin Wyatt Hawkins. Talk about not cool. Had to rebrand. Right? Because you based off of names. If I came in here as, oh, Andrew Austin Wyatt Hawkins.

You have multiple middle names?

I got double, bro.

Wow.

Wyatt's a good middle name. What's wrong with Wyatt as a middle name?

Why is it a good middle name?

I like it. It's a good.

Why do you like it?

It's famous.

Cowboy.

Say it out loud. Why do you like the name Andrew Austin Wyatt Hawkins?

I like the Wyatt.

Yeah. I'm sure you'd hire me on a job application. Is that what you're trying to say, Dan? Is that why you like it?

It's very good.

It's attractive.

I would use the two middle initials.

A.W. Hawkins?

Hello.

Yeah, he might be on us.

Think about that.

Juju. How many Americas?

One America. Where that name come from? Brother, I don't think.

Stay Wyatt.

Right. I don't think I ever met a Wyatt before in life. It's good of me to be a brother.

I've never heard of Wyatt Earp. He's the only other one I know.

Right.

Yeah. And what was Wyatt Earp like?

I don't know. He's white.

And bro from.

He's so Jack Dang.

That's what he did.

It's an old West name, Wyatt.

It is. It's actually my grandmother's name.

Why are you so far away from the microphone? Like, why are you so far.

He'd be a gunslinger with the name Wyatt.

Why?

There you go.

Craig, explain to me. Just explain to the audience. Explain to anybody. Why are you so relaxed in the doing of the show that you feel comfortable being that far away from the microphone?

I'm in my living room.

That's me.

Yeah.

Enjoying a drink.

You're lucky I got pants on. That's how comfortable I am.

Sash, you've been frustrated with Cody for how long on this front that he doesn't get the basic principles of what we're doing around here.

It's insulting to me as a radio professional. You're at work.

What were you dressed like last week? Radio professional?

No, don't worry about that. You're at work.

He had an arrow on his head pointing downward.

Can you explain it, though? What's the thinking prox? Give me the thinking process, Craig, on you deciding. Is it just that you're so relaxed and you're just so enjoying yourself that you forget that you have a job to do?

No, it's the ultimate compliment to you two guys, to be honest with you, because you've created an atmosphere of comfort and natural.

You've been like that since day one.

Good job, Hawk. Yeah. Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah, good job.

Thank you.

And you all are contributing as well from back there, except Zaz. Zaz, whatever his name is.

What a load of bullshit.

Whatever.

I agree with what Craig just said.

Thank you.

I mean, it was a compliment, and you guys just don't know how to take compliments. Like Yannis, I'm trying to compliment him. He takes offense. I don't know what the big deal is. I couldn't believe that Doc Rivers' explanation. Can you guys get me the Marcus Spears sound where they are seriously, if you're not following this silliness, thank you. If you're not following the silliness on this, you've got Doc Rivers going on Bill Simmons' podcast and saying that Yannis isn't a super high IQ player, and then, you know, Yannis gets his feelings hurt, is surprised, is wounded, says that he's speechless, and then Doc has to apologize.

Marc.

Marcus Spears is on with Sadano. I'm sorry I confused him with.

He has actually a J.

Yeah. That's my bad.

The brother, is his name Marcus in real life? It could be his name for real.

No.

And they're related, by the way. That's the other part. They're related, so yeah. They're cousins.

No, they're not.

They're cousins.

It's a play on for me, Dan.

Thank you. I am confusing him with his cousin. It's what I am doing, man.

I don't know if they're cousins, man. I think we need to get that authority.

I'm authority. I'm authority.

Okay. But let's hear from Marcus Spears on this and, I guess, explanation for Doc Rivers.

That was Eric Name, who asked that question of the athletic. So, Hall of Famer, what can you add here?

Well, I did what Yannis said. I asked Doc.

Okay.

What's up, Doc? Why'd you do that? And he said he actually texted Yannis and explained some things to him. One of the things that Doc said was that Yannis wasn't easy to coach. And he's told me this morning, he's like, that's not a slight. He's like, superstars are tough to coach. You know, LeBron's tough to coach. Luka's tough to coach. And he said what he was trying to do is get more spacing for Yannis, and that was a challenge. So he said that was actually a compliment. Now, same question, Yannis's basketball IQ, saying there wasn't a super IQ there. Doc did acknowledge that that's where he made a mistake.

Just kind of want to do an impromptu. Is this journalism?

Talking to Doc and getting his explanation, no matter how silly it is, does pass as journalism.

That's journalism.

But what is Doc doing saying he meant any of that as a compliment? What is that?

This is from Marc's story that he wrote for Anscape. Quote from Doc Rivers. Quote.

I was saying he was one of the most interesting guys. He makes unbelievable passes, but then at times, because of his force that he plays at, it gets in the way of his feel. It was more of a compliment. I hate this, and I feel bad about it. I apologize for the distraction. I'm not trying to be one.

Right. Don't piss on me and tell me it's raining beat, bro. Uh-uh. We heard you.

What is that?

I mean, coaches say that all the time about great players, how hard they are to coach, right?

It reminds me of the scene in Money Talks where Chris Tucker sees Charlie Sheen's fiancée come downstairs and says, wow, you are fat. And she's like, what? He's like, fat, pretty hot and tempting. Like, yeah, you can't save it quite like that unless you have the charisma of a Chris Tucker, which Doc Rivers does not.

Well, you say he doesn't have the charisma, but as far as coaches go and playing the type and whatever it is coaches are supposed to sound like, Doc Rivers fits the bill, and I don't think he'll ever work again, right? Like, he just, will he ever get a job again?

I would say I think he's not even looking for a job anymore. He got into the Hall of Fame. That's it. Crowning achievement. He's on NBC now. He works with his son. Everything's happy for Doc Rivers. Now he doesn't have to do anything. By the way, he's old, too. So even if he hadn't made these missteps or had the bad years in Milwaukee, you're still kind of past the expiration date, so to speak.

I can't believe Marcus Spears and Marc J. Spears are cousins. That is real. And it feels racist, but they're truly related.

You know what's racist, bro?

I'm with you.

It feels a little racist.

But it wasn't. I'm like, hmm.

But they're legit cousins.

There was one racist act in here, and it was you doubting me a black man for having the knowledge. If someone white had said it, you would have been like, that makes sense.

All skin folk ain't kin folk, I was told. So I didn't know what you was on, man. But I'm like, what? They're cousin? Don't spew that.

Okay.

All these white guys.

Austin Wyatt. In 2026, I feel like feels racist is racist.

It's back, baby.

It's back.

Do you think Yannis hit him back, or did he leave Doc on red when Doc apologized?

The idea that he has to apologize for the clarification on not super high IQ is really insulting. It'd be wounding. If I were Yannis Antetokounmpo, and a former coach of mine was saying that, I would be wounded by the audacity of saying that in private. Never mind in public. In private, if someone said that about me and I was Yannis Antetokounmpo, and that person was my head coach, I would be hurt by that.

Well, and don't forget, Yannis, if we believe that he had not heard these comments yet, was being told by that reporter a couple of nights ago, and the reporter did not include the low IQ part. Like, at some point, somebody then likely answered, oh, by the way, he also said you're stupid.

Did he say he was low IQ, or did he say he wasn't high IQ?

Not super high IQ. This is the distinction.

Super high IQ.

That's what I was trying to tell you guys yesterday.

It's the same.

No one believed me. No one listened.

It's the same.

I didn't say he was low IQ.

Is it?

It is the same.

Super high, like he's not a he is not a genius. That's not a okay.

As someone with a low IQ, I'll take what Doc said.

Wyatt listened to me. When you volunteer, not asked.

Okay.

When you volunteer, not super high IQ, that's low IQ. When no one's asked you, and you're his coach, and you're just tossing it out there, no one was thinking that before Doc Rivers said it. No one.

Okay.

That is not something that is not a criticism that anyone has filed at Yannis Antetokounmpo. They've said hard to play with. No one said hard to coach, and no one has said not super high IQ. So Doc Rivers volunteering that to me is suggesting something that nobody was thinking before he spoke it.

I mean, Hawk, if you're watching an NBA broadcast and a player like turns the ball over, and the broadcast says, wow, he is just not a high IQ player, nobody is looking at that and saying, oh, he's definitely not calling him stupid.

Right.

Yeah. I mean, if he came down the lane and jumped from the free throw line, windmilled on two people, and is like, bro, trust me, this is not a super IQ guy. This is a basketball player, right? That doesn't sound as bad. You know?

That sounds so weird.

If I just volunteer walking here, man, my brother Amin is not in the best shape. You're going to be like, damn, Amin done let himself go, huh? You don't think, oh, he's just.

No, he's in good shape. I just didn't say he's not in the best, but he's in good shape.

He's not a bodybuilder.

Average shape.

Dan Le Batard.

Y'all boys is coping sloppy.

Jonathan Sasslow.

Is this Chum Bucket?

This is the Dan Le Batard Show. If I volunteer, if we're sitting here and I volunteer, hey, you know, so-and-so, not a super high hygiene guy.

You're saying he stinks.

I think he's average.

No, adequate hygiene.

I think average.

Bad smelling.

No.

When you say somebody's not a high hygiene guy, you're saying he smells.

Definitely not a stinky.

Roll something on, will you? And the whole basketball IQ thing is a red flag. If you say somebody has a low basketball IQ, you're calling them dumb. That's the way America is hearing it.

I don't know, man.

Roll something on.

Roll something on.

I just feel like a devil's advocate in the context of athletes, for someone as good as Yannis is, I feel like it could be like, yo, he is just a dominant player. Because there are a lot of professionals that are good because of their skill level, what they know, and it's like, yeah, but you can't just one-on-one go to business with me. So I think it's kind of him being like, yo, he's so talented. He's not out there, you know, knowing the answers before they come.

You know what? You're now my favorite Austin. You're number one on my Austin rankings. He gets it. The Jags defensive line is going to average six foot six. Like, they were already violent and injuring people, and their whole line, every quarterback that plays against them is going to look across an offensive line in which the defensive line is bigger than their offensive linemen.

Do you think they're prepared to play the Vikings in the Super Bowl with Kyler Murray as a quarterback?

The Vikings, I want to talk about this for a second, because I want was Carson Wentz once the most expensive quarterback in football? Was he the highest paid quarterback in football at one time?

Maybe.

I think he was. I think I remember Carson Wentz being the most expensive quarterback that there was in the league. I wondered how he woke up this morning after that stat line, okay? And your headline in ESPN.com begins with, "After abysmal Monday night football effort by Wentz, O'Connell defers quarterback trade query to Vikings GM." And then you click on the story, and this is how it starts. "A horrific offensive performance on Monday night football, fueled by the worst performance by a starting quarterback this season, has put the Vikings at a crossroads."

To confirm your question, he once signed the highest guaranteed money in NFL history at $107.9 million of guaranteed money. That was in June of 2019, and it passed Russell Wilson at the time, but he was passed shortly thereafter.

They're six and two, and it feels like they may not win other games here.

They're not a good team. They're an imbalanced team. Their offense is so mediocre that I don't think a great defense.

They're so much worse than mediocre.

I don't think Brian Flores can out coach how bad he is.

It's not mediocre. You have Justin Jefferson. We could have made an argument for him best receiver in the league. You have 11 touchdowns in eight games. It's not.

Jordan Addison is good as well.

It's not mediocre. They don't have a quarterback. The problem is they don't have a quarterback.

Their running game is not great. And their quarterback situation means Justin Jefferson.

The Packers running game is also not great. They have a quarterback. The Vikings don't have a quarterback.

Okay, Justin Jefferson is not making his quarterback better. He's.

No, he makes any quarterback better. These are awful quarterbacks. Like, the problem is we've seen this guy be great. I'm talking about Justin Jefferson, not Carson Wentz.

Yeah, we've seen him be great, too. It's weird.

No, we saw him be great. No, no, wait a minute. We saw him be great with a Philly Eagles team that won Nick Foles of a Super Bowl MVP. Like, and Jalen Hurts looks like a different quarterback with that team than he would look with any other team because they had pro bowlers along the offensive line. They mold people for a decade. Nick Foles was a Super Bowl MVP. And I'm not saying that the Eagles can't be fooled by that. We've seen Justin Jefferson be good, whoever is his quarterback that's not Carson Wentz.

Valid. I think they do whatever they have to do to go get Kirk Cousins.

Yeah.

Orts, I got something for you. By the way, 8.9 passer rating, the lowest to throw 25 passes since Sam Darnold saw them ghost that one night against them Patriots. Neither here nor there speaking of Sam Darnold, I think that Kevin O'Connell, after all these blunders and moves and mistakes, bro, on a hot seat right now.

Oh, is that?

Because the first six and two team I've ever seen with a coach on a hot seat, because every single mistake you've made to put the person back on the waiver wire has been successful for another person. And to what you're saying, I think they might need to look into somebody in Tennessee, because Tennessee is going nowhere fast. And that brother was the number one draft pick. If you trade for Cam Ward right now and you're in Minnesota, dare I say you got a chance.

I was thinking.

Don't dare you. Don't do that.

Don't dare me.

I got to take my dad back.

Don't do that.

Don't do that.

I don't think Cam Ward gets a first-round draft pick anymore. I don't think.

Cam Ward is not the answer.

I was thinking Daniel Jones, but the Kirk Cousins suggestion is such a cooler story. Like, that would be a great, great, great story.

I think it would be a great trade. I don't know if the Raiders, who you know they started off 3 and 0, so they felt like, oh, we're playing well. They can keep Fernando Mendoza on the bench. But at this point, I mean, the Raiders are still the Raiders. They're like the best of the worst teams.

You might be able to get a little something for Cousins.

You might be able to get something back. And Kirk Cousins, you know he knows the system. He's played in it well. He knows Kevin O'Connell. And they haven't had any success offensively since Sam Darnold left. But look at the quarterbacks that have left there. Sam Darnold has left and won a Super Bowl. Kirk Cousins has at least come back to being Kirk Cousins after the injury and all the things that went wrong in Atlanta. And then you just sent off your first-round pick and gave up on him to the New York Giants, and he has looked at least good, at least how you can describe it. The worst thing that could happen for the Minnesota Vikings is that JJ McCarthy continues to play well, because that is what's going to start pointing the finger.

I'm sorry.

At the powers that be.

Did you see Chris Cody's impersonation of JJ McCarthy on the sidelines?

That's pretty good.

Was that his rib? What was the matter with him? It was his rib, so he broke did he break a rib? It seems like it'd be pretty hard to play that position with a broken rib.

Or at least not to know that it's broken before you throw that pass.

The idea that we're talking about Kirk Cousins to Minnesota when that's the worst team in that division. And I'll keep saying it because of how ridiculous the people of Minnesota have to feel. You're doing that wonderful culty sort of Vikings chant of skull, skull, skull. You bring out Adrian Peterson, he blows into that ridiculous horn, and you can do nothing but kick field goals and get incompetence at quarterback. It's hugely frustrating. You want to intimidate them, but you're scared of your own quarterback because he's dreadful. And you get an offensive performance with Justin Jefferson, with skilled guys that are plenty good if you got merely competent quarterback play.

Well, I think Minnesota is the biggest fraud good team in the entire league. I don't know that Kirk Cousins is the answer, but he's better than what they've got. And the timing for that trade is perfect because Mendoza is in the he's the horse, a thoroughbred in the stall, stomping his feet to get out and run that race. And I think he's ready. Mendoza, in his only game this season off the bench, did pretty well. I think he was six for eight. He looked pretty sharp.

He's ready.

He's ready.

Bro, I got a real question, bro, because of how it looked last night. Did Carson Wentz practice this week? Like, for real, for real. I've never seen a quarterback this incompetent. Single coverage, overthrown, wide open receiver in the dirt, wide open in the crowd, ass, third row. It's like he was not making any play. Routine checkdown, screen, smoke screen, fumble. Back with pass.

I actually think Carson Wentz is better than he showed last night, but his problem is he isn't a super high compete guy. So when the lights are on.

What?

That's not his strong point.

He's not a super high compete guy.

He's not a super high compete guy.

That's a low IQ comment right there.

What? No, it's just he's not super duper competitive. If that game was played on a 1 o'clock Sunday with other big-time games, he would have played much better than that.

Greg, how do you not realize what he was doing there? Where you're coming in with this.

Kind of like the IQ thing.

How do you not realize that.

It's a good coincidence.

That that's what he was doing. That when you came in and said, just like Doc Rivers, okay, just sip your drink and be proud of yourself.

I'm neither proud nor ashamed. I'm just neutral here.

Me?

It wouldn't be to make your point.

My question stands. How did you not realize that he was doing the thing that you undercut by saying what it is that you said?

Because he didn't mention IQ.

Good point.

Your brain beating me.

The phrase super high compete guy didn't give you a clue that he was leaving some crumbs?

No.

He's not a super high compete guy. I've never heard that phrase before used by anyone in the history of analysis. I've never heard. So that didn't clue you in either that he's using a phrase. He's not a super high compete guy. Which is also not like he was so clearly going for the joke there. That's usually not something he'll ever do to an athlete, question their effort.

I mean, I thought he had some information to back that up. I thought he was about to say his record in prime time is 3 and 11 or something. I don't know. I don't you know I'm not a professor of Carson Wentz. Lucky I got pants on.

Now he's paying you a compliment. I thought you had more.

You're a professor over there.

I mean, look, Carson Wentz has played about six NFL seasons as just a torso because he cares so much. Every time that gets guy gets spiked like a javelin. Why can't he throw anywhere accurately? None of the body parts work correctly. That guy just does WD-40 in the locker room before the game and prays to God nobody asked him to go in it.

Wide open receiver, straight to the linebacker. Like, what are we doing, man?

He's a bunch of dismembered parts sewn together, still trying to live up to that highest quarterback pay in the league. Not a super high compete guy. He's played as just a belly button in the league because everything else is dislocated.

Gentlemen's Quarterly.