Transcript of Dan Le Batard Is So Very Sorry | Local Hour

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There is nothing casual about football season. You can tell yourself you're just gonna watch one game, and 6 hours later, you're emotionally invested in a 4th quarter between 2 teams you don't even care about. That's what I love about this time of year. The entire weekend becomes football. You're texting friends, tracking games, second-guessing coaches, convincing yourself you saw something before everybody else did. And then Monday comes around and you get to do the whole thing again. Those are the weekends you remember. And for me, some of the best ones have usually involved some good people, a great game, and a cold Miller Lite. No matter what triumphs are in store this season, legendary game days start with Miller Lite. Cold, crisp, refreshing, that clean finish. And it's part of plenty of memorable football weekends. Make game day legendary. 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. Game time is Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

A shocking sentence from Zaslav to open my morning. I didn't think I'd ever hear it. He just said to me, me, I'm annoyed that I've got to go to wrestling tonight and I've got front row seats to wrestling and I don't want to be there. I want to be doing what?

Well, I'm not annoyed that I'm going to wrestling. I'm annoyed that I'm going to wrestling tonight because—

That's what I said.

No, you made it sound like I'm annoyed to go to wrestling.

I said that you're annoyed to go to wrestling tonight and that you have front row seats.

That's what you just said. But the emphasis needs to be on tonight. Some people think I'm annoyed to go to wrestling. No, I'm annoyed to go to wrestling Tonight. You gotta emphasize tonight. Otherwise, that's confusing, right?

I thought you were a wrestling fan.

Yeah, I love wrestling and I'm excited about—

Clearly he hates AEW.

I'm excited about going to Dynamite tonight and— Doesn't seem that way. My son and I, we are sitting front row. We're gonna be on TV a lot.

You hate that.

It's going to be a lot of fun.

Complaining about front row seats.

No, I'm—

You weren't. It says you were. You said you were annoyed about going to wrestling tonight and that you had front row seats.

AEW's been so good to us. Why would you do this?

The emphasis is on tonight. Tonight I'm annoyed because—

Not with the day.

Because—

Because—

Because—

I mean, we badgered him into that. We interrupted him so many times, we wouldn't let him finish a thought, and eventually he said a word wrong and then we attacked that.

Can I tell you something?

That is Le Batard Show 101.

Can I tell you something? I have had longtime listeners of Zaslav Show tell me that I'm a great speaker, I never flub, I'm, I'm an excellent orator, and then I started sitting here. And now, like, I say things like that.

It's the chair.

Well, it's not the chair because I have been guilty of this particular affliction. And I too would argue that I am okay at talking. But if somebody interrupts you the way we did from every angle, like piranha 12 times, and don't let you finish a thought, and you have to try and remain thinking of where you left your last thought, but are also swatting at airplanes like King Kong on the side of a building, you get into a situation where we badgered you into that misspeak, and anyone here understands what that, what that is that just happened.

All because of the way I frame things.

I am annoyed that I'm going to wrestling tonight because I realized about a week ago, and I've had these tickets for a little bit, I realized about a week ago, oh shit, it's the Miami Heat's opening game. And it's Giannis's Heat debut and I'm going to be at wrestling and I'm not going. I mean, I'll watch it, you know, later, but I'm a little bit annoyed with that part.

So you're both a bad wrestling fan and a bad Heat fan?

No, I think it makes me a great wrestling fan because I'm going.

But complaining.

Yeah.

Who else here is going?

To AEW?

I am.

Yeah.

Are you annoyed that you're missing the Heat?

No, I love AEW. They've been so great to us. Friends with a lot of people there. I don't know why Zazz would say that.

Greg, are you going?

I am not. I have prior, uh, commitments on my busy schedule.

You got laid off.

I did get laid off. I still got a lot going on.

Bowling!

Damn right.

It's bowling!

Damn right, keg legging!

Nice, safe 9-beer buzz.

Basketball, basketball, basketball, basketball is back, Jack.

It's time for our favorite winter sport. The summertime is over, so let's head down to the court. Time for the tip-off. Give me fast breaks on the attack. Will you shoot a 3 or take it to the rack? Basketball is blackjack. It's a dream shake down in the post or a killer cross you love the most. When the offense tries to run and gun, is it man-to-man or box-and-one?

It's big plays and talking smack.

That's how you know that basketball is blackjack.

Let me hear you say—

Basketball, basketball, basketball, basketball is blackjack. 360 dunks and pick-and-rolls, and we're gonna watch it every day. 'Til they raise the Larry O. Hard pounds and hook shots. A dagger 3 and hack-a-shack. If you say this game's the best, I'll say it's a gag. Basketball is back, Jack. Basketball is back. Basketball is back, Jack. Basketball is back. Basketball is back.

This is the Dan Le Batard Show with Jeremy Taché.

Taché. This is the Dan Le Batard Show with Jeremy Taché.

This is the Dan Le Batard Show with—

say the name again.

Uh, I saw a dismayed Juju there listening to Jeremy as usual making it about himself, and there you can see frozen on the screen. Go ahead and put that on the screen. Uh, you can see that, uh, Jeremy is frozen in laughter and delight, uh, because people are saying his name and he Players are saying his name and he is just delighted. He's got some me maximum in him. He, he is somebody who descends well from Greg Cody. Jeremy with the me maximum. FIU, I didn't think I was going to start here, but I think FIU has a potentially dangerous situation on its hands trying to get fans to the game by just saying, man, the beer is going to be super cheap, super cheap. It's not—

We had a tough loss last night against Middle Tennessee State, Dan, by the way. 3-point loss for FIU is terrible.

I'm sorry, my bad. FAU is what I meant. Who cares about that? It's FAU, not FIU. Tough loss for FIU. Let's go back for a second before I get to this FAU promotion. Tony, you and your father did one of the most Cuban Miami things on a broadcast that has ever been done. You want to explain to people what it is that you and your father did a couple of weeks ago when it came to your—

Oh, good.

Your tandem broadcasting. We're very good, by the way.

So what happened was we had Conference Play start weekday CUSA. Conference USA loves to play Tuesday, Wednesday games, but it's tough for him who's got a job and I who have a job to make it over to Alabama for Jacksonville State-FIU last week on a Tuesday, Dan. So CUSA at night, we said, all right, what can we do to ensure that we can still broadcast our game but not be in Alabama, which we have to be back in Miami instantly the next day? So he said, why don't we watch the game on TV, which was on ESPNU, and then we can broadcast the game watching the game on TV from a cigar bar, which we did. So my dad, chomping on a cigar, was calling the game, and I was giving beautiful color commentary at the TV sitting in front of the cigar bar. Just, it was, it was great.

At a D1 school.

And we did a great job. Did you listen to it?

It's the most bootleg broadcast I've ever heard of.

Bootleg.

Bootleg.

Calling the game on TV from a cigar bar.

Could you hear the TV audio like over the broadcast?

No, of course we muted it. If you go back and listen to it, you're none the wiser.

That's not a real school.

You don't tell the audience?

What do you—

excuse me?

Do you try to trick the audience into thinking you're there?

No, I just didn't say where I was.

More importantly, Zaslow.

Real school.

So wait, if you—

if you went to Santa Fe.

If you're not saying where it is that you were, why would you do it from the cigar bar? You just wanted to smoke cigars. Like, if you could have done it anywhere and you're not promoting the place that you are, could have been at home.

Why don't you just do every road game on your couch?

You did like a Joe Test. We are watching live.

We are live.

This FAU promotion, though, is it $3 beers in the first quarter, $2 beers in the second quarter, and $1 beer in the third quarter?

But fourth quarter, we're not going to sell any beer. Your classic 3-2-1.

2-1 promotion. Yeah, most places stop at the end of the third. So yeah, $3 in the first, $2 in the second, $1 third quarter beers at FAU-Rice this weekend.

Shouldn't it be the other way around, that it starts cheap? They want you there at the start of the game and be there for a long time, and the price goes up as, you know, time goes on.

I think it's a thing about keeping— are they expected to win against Rice easily? Maybe it's a thing to keep fans there. I'm not sure.

I don't know that the attorney for FAU vetted this promotion, because the liability that you're inviting upon yourself by not only giving college-age kids cheap beer, but encouraging them to continue increasingly drinking the beer for 3 quarters of a long game. I don't— this is such a spectacularly bad promotion. And I apologize for leaning away from my mic.

Oh, at least you noticed it this time.

Progress.

I did.

Progress that he noticed that for no reason whatsoever, he was 5 feet away from the mic.

microphone, a professional broadcaster who's been doing this for 20 years. Do you guys— are you guys too young to remember Disco Demolition Night? Do you guys know the details involved with Disco Demolition Night? It was a doubleheader. They suggested that they were gonna blow up a bunch of records.

Is that a Village People thing?

On the field.

Kaminsky, right?

I like them.

It was— they had— I think the White Sox had to forfeit the second game.

Yes, yes they did.

Because the promotion got so many people there that were riotous that they just couldn't play the second game because they all ended up on the field. This tonight has the potential— or this FAU game, FAU is a 7.5-point favorite against Rice— has the potential to be a disaster. It seems like a good idea until it doesn't. It seems like a way to attract a crowd until the crowd is on your field at 12 beers in.

So what is this, Dan? Because I see like some sort of Army general who's got a microphone. Like, what's going on?

It's a radio shock jock DJ, and they were serving a lot of beers prior to, and and it became a riot on the field.

Looks like Jack Black.

The idea was disco sucks, so you bring your disco records and we're gonna, we're gonna trash them. And it ended up getting really out of hand.

Yeah, it was pure cattywampus. They destroyed the field and made it unplayable. That's why they couldn't play the second game in that doubleheader.

I have been remiss, though, in not mentioning until now that we had almost a genuine calamity happen last night with an assortment of miscommunications around here. That would have resulted in genuine harm to my friendship, I believe, with Greg Cody because of some things that happened on yesterday's show when I was in Tampa celebrating the American League Championship with the Rays. And what happened here—

I thought you were traveling to New York to watch the banner being raised. You did a doubleheader? You watched that from a cigar bar?

Attaboy! We've got plenty of basketball to talk about today, and I look forward to talking about the role that Philadelphia is going to play that you need in sports where they get to be the bad guy, but they're also going to be good if they're healthy, which is— that's a big little word. If it's the biggest little word in sports, if they're healthy, because I don't think you make the appraisal on the Sixers or anybody in basketball in the first game or the first week or the first month. I think at the end of the season, whoever's healthy is where it is that you need to be making your assessments. And that team, I think we can say Less of a chance to stay healthy than most just because Joel Embiid is at the center of everything they do.

They're already on minutes limits. It was Game 1 last night.

They're tired.

So we will talk about that in a second. But let me explain to you what happened here with Greg Cody, because for those of you who do not know, Greg Cody has been genuinely mad at me. And Greg Cody is here today. And I'm, I'm thankful and happy that he's here because I was told yesterday when I was in Tampa I was told, hey, Greg Cody says that he will come on the show tomorrow, today, if you apologize to him. And will you do it on Tony's Substack? And I'm like, sure, that's funny. I will do it on Tony's Substack. And so I wrote something. I have written it. It is written. And I sent it to the people who were, I thought, going to publish it last night. And at like 9:30, I texted Greg Cody, and I'm delirious at this point because I'm drunk on Raze, right?

I'm—

and I'm texting him, hey, have you approved this? Because they told me that it was okay by you, that you talked about it in the postgame show and that you were okay as long as I apologized. Have you approved this? And he said, I've not approved anything. And so I had to, like, stop everybody in the middle of the night. Hey, don't put this out. This is going to— like, he's already legitimately mad at me because I've been writing for Tony Substack after saying that I was going to write for Greg Cody's Substack. He's genuinely mad at me. Don't put that out. I can't imagine, Greg— Chris, you've seen your father the last few days. You warned me about writing that second article for Tony's Substack. You, you and your mom told me not to do it, that he was already agitated.

There's something— he's just got a weird— when he gets quiet like this, like, I felt a weird vibe from him the last week or two with this Substack stuff. I don't know if It's the getting laid off. He's, he's emotional. He's sensitive. It just— this is one of those ones I was telling you on and off air, I would just lay off with the Substack stuff.

Who supposedly told me yesterday that this was the plan when actually nobody yesterday did tell me?

Did you not talk about it during the postgame? Did you guys not talk yesterday? Because I was told that Greg Cody during the—

Yeah, we did. Of course.

Was I there?

Yeah. You said you would accept an apology.

A direct apology?

Yeah.

So a direct apology is not on Tony's Substack? Yeah, what do you think?

He wrote it directly to you.

Who apologizes like that?

Further away.

Somebody who is trying to get Tony clicks, because the reason I'm writing for both of you is to get you clicks.

I don't care about the clicks.

Ha!

I don't.

Let's cut that.

I don't care about the clicks. And the fact that Tony is the recipient of this is totally incidental. Don't bring Tony into it. I'm not angry at Tony. I'm angry at you for betraying your word of honor to me.

We care about clicks. Come on. Where's my click-click?

Ba-da-bum ba-da-da-da. There's my click-click.

You just said with a straight face, I don't care about clicks?

You're consistent.

In this case, I don't.

Dan, he left out a word. It's, I don't care about Tony's clicks.

He left out a word.

That's not true. That's not true. I invited you onto my podcast as a gesture.

Substack.

Or whatever. I always mix those up.

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Going for 2 when you're up by 5. Switching the zone when man isn't working. Oh, and building your new stadium in the state your team actually plays in. In sports, some things just make sense. You know what else makes sense? Drinking Jägermeister shots ice cold. Drinking it any other way would be like punting on first down, or letting your worst hitter bat first, or like going for 2 when you're down 3 with a second to go. It wouldn't make any sense. So don't let the team down. When it comes to Jägermeister, drink it cold or don't drink it at all. Jägermeister.

Damn, that's cold.

Drink responsibly. Jägermeister liqueur, 35% alcohol by volume, imported by Mast Jägermeister US, White Plains, New York.

Dan Levitar.

I'm not gonna apologize.

I'm—

I'm—

I wouldn't expect you to apologize.

Then—

You're a giant infant.

Okay.

You have no control over your emotions. You have no control over your emotions when you're calling someone you know an idiot. I don't deserve it.

Okay.

I don't deserve it.

All right.

And you're a fool for saying it.

Okay.

Greg Cody. You're a fool. Yeah, I was kind of following you.

Oh, you're locking in right now?

You're locking in on us?

Yeah.

All right, let's drop the gloves, pal.

Let's rock.

You should be thanking me.

For what?

For what?

For what I've done around this character.

And the second shit gets real for you, you want to come at me and call me a fool?

Huh?

Yeah, no, no, seriously, Jeremy, seriously, pal, I've added 10 years to your career. This is the Dan Le Batard Show. Greg, you're consistently distracted during—

Just put that microphone under the desk. Just put it all the way down.

Wassup? Yeah, there you go. Anyway, whatever. One does not apologize in print. One apologizes in person. Pick up that kind of thing. And you know it.

Put it on the poll at Le Batard Show. Better apology in person or in print?

We're just gonna— I'm gonna try something. I'm just gonna go in there and lift the microphone.

Yeah, get in there, Roy.

What do you mean? It's on my chin.

This is just—

I am—

your chin's on your chest.

So at the risk of—

Oh, he's mad. Look at him.

Well, at the risk— you're mad. And at the risk of further anger— This is ridiculous.

It's too high. Nobody's microphone— I got the highest microphone in America.

Look across the room. It's literally the lowest of the 3.

Put it way up here.

Oh my God, I can't with this.

All right, that's better.

We're in a dangerous place with him, okay? Because he's upset, and I don't know if it's accurate that he's more sensitive than he usually is, but I want you to imagine, okay, Greg Cody after being upset The first thing that I wrote for Tony's Substack, getting more upset with the second thing I wrote for Tony's Substack, seeing a third thing written for Tony's Substack that he did not know about, that I was told he was good with. I want you to imagine— in fact, you don't have to imagine it because I've seen Tony back there the entire time we're talking, and he seems a little bit distracted. He seems a little bit busy back there. And my guess is, Greg, that he's already published this because he's had it since last night.

Oh boy.

And he doesn't care. He doesn't care as a hustler, whether it's at a cigar store broadcasting FIU games that are in Alabama or whether he's just grifting because he does care about the click, the click clicks on his Substack. Have you been actually doing something back there that you shouldn't be doing?

Yes, it's up.

No.

So.

Oh boy.

So No!

Yes.

Oh boy.

Look, Greg, to be fair, did you read about, you know, the things that Dan wrote about? The raised baseball analogy about his religion, and then the inheritance of baseball getting passed down from his grandfather over to him? Did you read any of that?

Yeah, that's on my to-do list. Um, so let me get this straight. You knew I was upset by the first thing you wrote because it had preempted what you promised to make mine, the first, and then despite knowing that I was upset by that, you then published another one.

I misspoke earlier. Tony published another one the second time under a pseudonym that was Land Debitard.

Oh yeah, nobody had any idea that that was you.

And well, and he— I was suspicious when he was interviewing me vigorously about my passion about baseball and asking me a lot of questions about my father, and then he's a very good writer, and then he wrote something in my voice under the byline land-debitard. And so it would plausibly be mine if you were to read it. And then you further got upset. But now evidently you've already published the third one because you have to keep in mind when I'm writing this, I'm writing it with a smirk on my face. Like I'm apologizing, but because I'm assuming that he's approved of me writing an apology on your Substack, I don't, as someone who's a fellow creative person, he's gonna give me the ability to write that however it is that I want to write it. He's not going to censor me, he's not going to edit me. And so you've now published something that— now, have you read it, Tony?

It reads cheeky, Dan.

Do you want to read this? Do you want to— let's hold on for a second.

Is this written by Lan Debitard or by Dan Levitard?

This was written by me. This was not me being interviewed and in my voice, which is a journalistic breach, but whatever.

So everything you've written for Tony's Substack has been ghost Is that true?

No, I wrote the first and the third piece. The second piece was ghostwritten, but he did it cleverly by calling me Land Debitard and making it seem like it was me.

Sure.

How robust that voice sounds the whole time. It was just raising the microphone.

Can you hear me now?

Let's wait for a second here before we do this, because I do run the risk. I don't want him to pull it up. Can he pull up your Substack on his computer?

He's not currently subscribed to me, so no.

He's capable of doing that.

Let's have him read your apology to him.

No, that's not gonna happen. It's not an apology. That's what you— it is not accepted as an apology when it isn't said to my face.

Oh, Greg, I read it. It's definitely an apology.

I actually don't know how to access Substack. I just send things to Yeti.

No, that's not true. I do know how to access Substack. I'll go with the bit, man.

Okay.

Uh, Tony, what is the headline on the story that has appeared on your Substack?

Dan Le Batard is so very sorry.

Oh, that sounds sincere.

I mean, I want to hear more. It's a read-me headline.

I mean, there is—

What?

That you're saying it's insincere and it starts with—

You're doing nothing but exacerbating the whole problem. What's the matter with you?

It's a headline that said—

how does that care?

Dan Levitart is so very sorry.

Very, Dan. Well, first of all, I, I don't accept that he's genuinely sorry.

Well, you got to hear that because he's doing this for a bit.

He's exacerbating the problem. problem. He's not apologizing to me directly. Let me quote from what he wrote in my Substack. It's one sentence. Here we go. And this says it all. Cody has coaxed me out of writing retirement and made this the new exclusive home for my writing, period. That sentence illustrates why I'm angry. He wrote for me first, but because I waited a week or so to publish it, he then starts writing for everybody else, betraying lying about what he told me and wrote for me, and I didn't appreciate it then and I don't now. It's ridiculous. And it's become a bigger issue for the reasons we're mentioning and for the lack of a direct apology.

But it sounds like this is a direct apology. It's in headlines.

Oh well, in that case—

Greg, you're a newspaper guy. You don't respect headlines?

I respect a personal conversation.

But a public apology is even better than a personal apology, is it not? Put it on the poll @Le BatardShow. So what's better, a public apology or a personal apology?

Well, if you apologize— just as a weird, for instance, if you apologized to me, that too would be a public apology. Just saying.

Not if we did it privately. Not if it's just you and me. That's not public.

That's just you and me.

Everything I do is public, baby.

Let's go to Publix and do it then. It's a Publix apology.

That's a great joke.

Thank you.

I'm a public man.

Meet you in the fruit aisle.

Let's wait a second because I don't want to get him so angry.

I can read it then.

It's produce.

There's no fruit aisle. It's in its own—

It doesn't matter.

It's in the produce section.

I'm buying apples and oranges. I can't say I'm buying fruit.

It's across from the onions and potatoes.

It's called the produce section. It's ridiculous.

Maybe pick a different aisle.

Leafy greens. Put it on the poll @Le BatardShow.

Do you call the produce section at your grocery store the fruit aisle?

Who doesn't?

Or everyone.

What am I buying in there? I'm buying cantaloupe.

The people who work at the store.

Fruit aisle?

Come on.

Have you ever— have you ever heard anyone refer to the produce section at your local supermarket as the fruit aisle?

Does the fruit aisle have a number?

No, because—

exactly.

One of those big wide open areas.

That's right.

It's like next to the bakery.

That's right.

Over there is my meat guy.

Before we get to what risks genuinely pissing Cody off in a way that I am scared of, I do want to talk about a couple of things locally. Brady Tkachuk returns to Zaslav went from, no lie, 3 games ago coming in here dejected saying, I'm very worried about the Panthers, to coming in here yesterday and saying the Panthers are really, really good.

It's an emotional sport.

You have to be slightly less emotional in your perspective as a longtime analyst. You shouldn't— do you guys want your analysts to be emotional? Because you get mad at Gus Johnson. You don't like Gus Johnson. Do you like your analysts being—

understand that analogy. Like, I get mad at Gus Johnson because he yells about every single play, which I don't—

Emotionally.

Uh, or performatively. And sometimes he's getting things wrong. I'm not doing either of those things.

The offense has clicked the last 2 games, right? When Zazz said he was worried about them, the offense clicked.

Yeah, maybe I lit that fire on the offense.

Yeah, you did.

All right, come on. Maybe I inspired them.

It's not just the offense, it's the defense too. Uh, 5-on-5, they're the best in the league.

Dan, they look so good. And eventually Barkov will return, and eventually Marchand will return. They look awesome.

Do they look the way McDavid's looked the last few seasons? Because you've got 3 natural hat tricks in a row. Do they promise the potential of being able to do both things? Play the defensive hockey if they have Barkov that strangles you in the playoffs, but also play the style of hockey that excites you offensively so that they could go through the the regular season and, and be something that's exciting instead of suffocating?

Oh, well, I mean, I think the winning is what's exciting. Like, I— they're not gonna be the— they've scored 7 and 8 goals in 2 of their last 3 games. They're not gonna be that, all right? Like, they're, they're going to be the team that they've been the last few years where they suffocate you defensively. And we're actually seeing it so far because the Panther goaltending— and by the way, Marc-André got hit with a puck at practice yesterday.

A goalie?

I don't even know what that means because goalies seem to get hit by pucks.

I hate when that happens.

He got hit by a puck, he's out 2 weeks. All right, the goaltending for the Panthers has been average, but the defense has been fantastic. And as a result, they're playing well on that side of the ice.

I think they have 14 straight natural hat tricks since Roy said they'd never have a 2-goal scorer.

Roy, I've been surprised by how wrong you have been with some of your predictions, including picking as the lock the biggest favorite in the sport, which then lost that night after you picked them.

Carolina won last night.

I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about when you said you had the biggest lock and you were taking a— I don't remember what team it was, but you took a team that was a giant favorite and then they lost. You would agree that your predictive analysis has been terrible in hockey over the last 10 days? You would agree?

Well, it's gotten better recently, as in literally yesterday.

Because you started terribly and then it got better because it couldn't get a lot worse.

Yeah, so the bar was low.

1-0 mentality.

I love it.

Yeah, next week.

Dan Le Batard, you are a fool!

You're nobody! You are an infant! You are nobody to me!

You have no thick skin!

No.

I literally put together a frickin' stage for your toenail!

Mike Ryan, you are nobody to me!

I am your career right now, pal!

No.

Look at me!

No.

I am your career!

No.

Greg Cody, you have messed with McDavid, and now you're messing with me, and I'm more dangerous, pal! This is the Dan Le Batard Show. Which are you more excited about if you weren't going to wrestling tonight? The Heat playing tonight or Brady Tkachuk returning to Ottawa? Which would make the big television for you?

Great question, Dan. It would be the Heat. The Heat, you know, it's, it's opening night while this is game number 10 for the Panthers. But the Brady-Kachuk aspect is super intriguing. Panthers and Ottawa get together, there's always fighting. These teams hate each other, but now there's extra juice to it obviously because it's Brady making his return to Ottawa. They're gonna boo him every time he touches the puck. It's going to be really nasty, and he comes in as the NHL's first Star of the Week last week, hottest player in the sport. It's gonna be a great atmosphere there tonight in Ottawa, but the, but the Heat would get big TV.

Yeah, they're bad fans. In Ottawa. Well, you got to applaud, uh, Tkachuk, B. Tkachuk, because this guy had— he gave you plenty when he was there. He left because he had a better opportunity with his brother on a better team. Why are you booing him? Are we okay? Why are you booing him?

Well, there's a couple reasons why they're booing him. The first one is they've been kind of, you know, against him since the Olympics last year. You had several Team USA players who were captains on their Canadian club team— Brady Tkachuk, Auston Matthews, uh, even Connor Hellebuyck, you know— who their Canadian fan base has not been happy with them as a result. And, and then you add to it, I mean, Brady was the captain of Ottawa and he did request—

Ottawa had stuff going on in their locker room as they made the playoffs last year, and a lot of it centered around Brady Tkachuk. So he was starting to lose popularity that market and with that team as they were in the playoffs. The general manager said essentially that Brady Tkachuk couldn't be his own man. He had Walt and Matthew in his kitchen. And yeah, like as Zazz alluded to, this has been a sneaky good rivalry, an intense rivalry for a couple years now where they went through crazy amounts of fights, and now you have this hanging over it.

And not to mention that his Senators teammates at the time really hated the fact that he had a podcast with his Yeah, isn't that one of the best or most hopeful Ottawa teams there have been?

Like, I don't understand why Greg wouldn't understand why they would be upset that they lost their captain and star player to Florida, the, you know, the 2-time champion. He's leaving Canada. Canada always stinks at hockey, never wins the championship. They've got a captain, they've got a great player, and that's one of the most hopeful Ottawa teams there have been, correct?

Like, Yeah, yeah. And, and by the way, this year both teams are off to great starts. Like, Ottawa is off to a really great start. There will— you would have to expect there are going to be fights tonight. Like, will Brady fight?

I don't know.

Uh, I could see Matthew fighting kind of for him this evening. I feel like he steps up for his brother and decides to take someone on tonight. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun.

And last year's playoffs, Ottawa was Carolina's toughest test throughout the entire playoffs. So there's that too. They really had hope last year.

Yeah.

Marchand also mocked the captain choice when Stutzle was named captain. He was in the comments, Stutzle, hahaha.

I mean, Greg, it's not that common. Like, it's happening right now in Detroit with Dylan Larkin. It's not that common that the captain of a team requests a trade.

Well, I would say beyond that, it's also not that common for a longtime sportswriter to say, why would you boo him? And then you get 1,000 reasons for why it is that they're booing him.

expect fans to be bigger than that.

That's literally like Golden State being like, why would the Heat boo Jimmy Butler? Yeah, well, that's what you're asking right now.

And, and a lot of fans didn't. He was not universally booed. I'm just saying, you came back—

I get why when there's trade requests and it's a bad ending—

Why would Cavs fans boo LeBron in his return?

Whether it's a trade request or not, if Tyler Herro comes back to town in a Bucks uniform, you cheer him. You know, what are you doing?

They're gonna do it to you.

They're gonna Well, they might, but some will cheer, you know. I want to interview the one Ottawa fan who's cheering for Brady Tkachuk. That's a man's man. Unless it's a woman.

This is how stubborn he is. Like, Chris, I want to ask this question seriously as Greg Cody demands a public apology from me. Has your father ever apologized to you?

I think the most I've gotten is, you may be right, kid.

I've never heard your father apologize for anything. And just now, like, he's wrong a thousand— I've never heard you apologize. I've never heard you apologize.

When it's due, I apologize.

No, he doesn't.

Well, you always think you're right, so it's never due.

I don't always think I'm right.

You just doubled down when they give you 1,000 reasons for why it is Brady Tkachuk is getting booed tonight. It's just a ridiculous question you're asking. Why would he be booed? Because that's what fans do when their guy leaves.

I know. Well, you know, and be bigger, be better. Okay, be a bigger fan. You know, quit— you know, they're booing.

It's unbelievable how far back to the mic he is. He's moving his chair back. Usually he just moves his body back. He's scooting his chair back.

They're booing because that's— they're like trained animals. They think they have to boo.

Put it on the poll. Are Ottawa fans like trained animals at a Lemaitre show?

It is true. They think they have to boo, so they boo.

We're gonna hope that—

Be a bigger fan.

People get the context. Another international incident.

You really love pissing off Canadian team fans, don't you? Oh, McDavid situation now.

This—

I can't wait for TSN tonight. Dan Levitar asks if Ottawa fans are trained animals.

Get closer for the cough.

Pardon me.

Edit that out. I apologize.

See, he just apologized.

See?

Wow. I never apologize. In Ottawa.

Before we get to Tony reading from his Substack, uh, you know what, let's just get to—

You don't have to read it because I'll—

I've already promised it to the audience. Let's just go ahead and do this and see where we end up. And let's just do this. What is the headline again, Tony?

Dan Le Batard is so very sorry.

That's a good start.

It is a good start.

Sure it is.

All right, Greg, you ready?

No.

Well, here it is. I and you have been threatened by Greg Cody, who was laid off and says he won't return to his only remaining paid employment if I, the only person willing to create a job market for a coughing 72-year-old, don't immediately apologize publicly. So I'm sorry. Genuinely and profusely. Put it in a giant bold headline: Dan Le Batard is so very sorry. Because Greg Cody has threatened us. And because I'm sorry that he has threatened us. And because I'm sorry that nearly 40 years of friendship has been threatened by that threat. What else am I sorry for? That my friends are so stubborn and sensitive? That I promised to write exclusively for him while writing even this exclusively for someone else? That Greg is crotchety, unreasonable old man who has never once apologized to anyone about anything while making boycotting threats demanding apologies.

Timely.

That I may not be apologizing correctly enough right now for this man who again has never apologized to me about anything and would never be asked to do so. That I didn't know our agreement was immediately binding even though he printed— didn't print it until 2 weeks later. And even though I agreed to something different right in front of him on air when a fellow teammate me requested my help. And even though I'm working for both of them for free while they work for me for money— wait a second— that I'm, that I'm someone who likes to help, that I'm generous, that my gift of more readers— where's my click-click— blew up in my fat face, that I went to Cody's retirement party as an act of public love and he waved me and my wife off with the back of his hand, that I helped create a Frankenmeme monster of greed, entitlement, and narcissism.

Frankenmeme.

Mine. Oh.

Ha!

Won't even read his own whatever this is.

And also, this is worth emphasizing, that I was spectacularly wrong. The rest of this apology is playful sarcasm that will soon be exclusive to Cody's Substack if he is generous and gracious enough to forgive me from on high. But that last sentence is not sarcasm. I was spectacularly wrong in betraying a man I will always truly love, no matter how wrong he ever is. This is a binding apology, public and profuse. I was clearly wrong, and I mean that from the heart of my bottom. Tony, please make sure there aren't any typos in this. Sent from my iPhone.

Pathetic. Unacceptable.

That start with a B?

Pathetic.

Most people don't know there's a B in it.

Badaa. As Nellie Doogie said, having potatoes for dinner. Now, you don't do that in print. You do it in person. And you make it succinct, you know? You don't flower it up. You just look somebody in the eye and you say, I really blew this. I misplayed it. And then after I misplayed it, I kept intentionally exacerbating the situation just to pile on the acrimony.

Greg, what part stood out to you from Dan's apology that was really, you know, resonating in your soul?

I wasn't listening.

To the entire thing?

Not really.

No, just you—

I zoned it out.

You just opened your mouth and he just was looking right at you and he just decided to—

Dan Levitart is so very sorry.

I, I don't believe it's genuine, you know? I don't believe it's genuine.

Said I was wrong in betraying a man that I love.

The glasses are off.

No matter how wrong he ever is.

The heart of my bottom.

Yeah, we got 3 minutes, bro.

The binding apology, public—

Heart of my bottom.

You guys need to learn from Greg Cody, uh, and his performances on this show. This is, uh, approaching a dangerous place.

Approaching?

No, it's beyond that. Like, he gets annoyed now. Now he feels like you're having to go at him on the air, and he's gonna start taking this personal.

I remember what it meant when my father took off his glasses.

Yeah, that would— I did not like that.

No.

Put it on the poll @Le Batard Show. Did you know that your father was going to beat you when he took off his glasses at Le Batard's show.

I don't beat anybody, particularly when I was on the UM beat. Pathetic. Pathetic. That's why they kicked me upstairs.

If you know Greg Cody's career, that's an unbelievably funny inside joke. He was a beat reporter on UM and the Miami News was kicking his ass and he said, that's why they kicked me upstairs. And it wasn't because he was a bad reporter, it's because the Miami News was actually doing an exceptional job of having some sort of great inside sources to University of Miami malfeasance.

Greg, how about the part that says Greg is a crotchety, unreasonable old man who has never once apologized to anyone about anything while making boycotting threats demanding apologies?

Yeah, that's part of an apology. That's an apology. What? Sounds a little bit like the opposite of an apology. And since that was read, I, I haven't heard anything over here.

Your mic's over there, by the way.

I haven't heard anything from the guy who right now cannot bring himself to publicly apologize.

I just wrote an entire thing for you.

It, it, it's not good enough. I, I gotta, I gotta, I, I gotta leave.

This is—

don't snort while he leaves. Don't do this, Zach.

Walk the other way right in front of the camera.

Well, Dan called it. My friends are stubborn and sensitive.

Dan, I tried to tell you this, man. He's just— it's in a weird spot. He's in a weird mood the last month. He's just an odd cat right now.

It happens. He was let go. This is a career crossroads, and we're making fun of him during it. Yeah, I feel for him.

You could just have like a genuine apology once in your life. Yeah, not everything has to be a bit.

Yeah.

Hard on my bottom. Like, what are you doing?

I asked Tony to check for typos.

He did.

It says it in the piece, actually. Tony, check— please check there aren't any typos in this.

'Cause we do this thing where we think we can joke, we can joke, and then all of a sudden, it takes a turn, and we still push, and then that ends up happening.

He'll be back. His phone's here.

You snorted while he left. You— like, that's—

that is indignity, 'cause you guys are rivals a little bit, and you also bother him, and he's genuine. All right, we'll see. We got Nick Wright next, but we'll see if Greg is back or not.

Be quiet.

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