Transcript of The American People Have Spoken | Hour 1

Corn Hacky, what do you got?

All right, here we go, Dan. I want to break things down for you because we're looking at our top 8 teams, and I'm struggling a little bit to work the technology. It's part of why you see the issues with all of the penmanship here, Dan. But we talk about the state of Florida, the state of Georgia—that's where I went with you at the beginning. We move out west, we shift to Utah. There have been no losses, but no significant wins, no significant gains for Utah. Indiana, a state of its own. There's a loss here to Ohio State, but I'm just saying, I don't think that's going to matter as we move forward. But here's where we talk about regional, incremental, in-state, or in-region, in-party crime, okay?

Can't do this with him. Nick Wright is joining us now, and—

That's not—he's not good at that. That's not his thing.

Well, he says he's very good at his job.

That's the best thing he does.

He says he's very good at his job. He keeps telling us. I've heard, actually, I was thinking about this the other day. There's no one on television telling you who is good at their job, that they're always very good at their job. Like, Jeremy's the only one doing that. But Nick, that's not even the member of our show you've got the biggest beef with right now, is it?

Well, no. I mean, I don't have a beef with Jeremy. He's just not good at it. I'm sure he's good at plenty of other things. That just ain't one of them. Chris Cody, two weeks ago today, around 11:40 AM Eastern Time, Chris Cody texts me, "What are the only appropriate pairs to split in blackjack?" Forget the fact that that is a mortifying question to have to ask as a grown man unless you've just suffered a major head injury. I then, as I always do, go above and beyond, and I did a little word count on this.

Whoa, what's a man with you?

That was rude, bro.

To be fair, just so that you know, he took the content and put it immediately on the air. So while he didn't respond to you, he used everything it is that you said.

Well, Nick disagreed with me. Including the card counting thing?

No, you—I mean—

My take, Nick, was—

He didn't disagree with you. He said the right thing while you keep saying the wrong thing.

Yeah, my take was I thought that the way to do it was you only split aces and eights.

That's right.

And you're wrong. No, I'm saying what I thought it was, and Nick clearly disagreed.

No, but that's—I mean, that is a—that is a good rule of thumb if, for some reason, toddlers are gambling or very, very old people. But if you are, you know, a regular adult with a fully functional frontal cortex, you should be able to have it a little bit better than that.

And the question—

That's all.

The question to my son is, "Why didn't you thank Nick Wright in a text?"

Yes, I mean—

For his tsunami of response?

Leaving a Nick Wright unread, leaving Nick Wright on read is, you know, that's a boss move.

Oh, you're doing a power move there?

I like it. You know what? You've got—as the entire Cody family always does—you've got me back already. How's it feeling, by the way, down in Florida? I'm just curious. You guys proud of yourselves this morning?

Kane's number 1 in the CFP. Yeah, we're happy.

How's it feel out in LA?

The—I mean, I'm just curious. You guys looking around and like, "Yep, we did good last night. We held up our end of the bargain." What the hell, man? What's going on down there?

America won last night. Florida did not. Florida's always going to Florida. But your political predictions are a lot better than your football predictions.

Yeah. Yeah. Gone 1 and 2 on the show five weeks in a row with my picks, which is really—here is what's even more embarrassing about that, Dan, and then we'll get to the politics. I do five picks every Thursday, Friday on the podcast, "What's Right." I then pick my favorite of the five, the three, to do on television for, like, time purposes. We don't have time for all five. Four of these five weeks where I've gone 1 and 2 on TV, I've gone 3 and 2 on the pod, which means I am just—my favorite picks are all my wrong ones.

Funny name for your podcast too, to have it be "What's Right" when you keep getting it wrong.

Yeah. Getting it wrong. Well, again, Dan, I'm getting it right on the pod. It's wrong on the television show. I—but yes, I did throw out some political predictions yesterday. I somehow was a touch to—oh, that's not the—

No, but that's—we've been making fun of you this week because every time the Chiefs lose, you come out like a coach and say, "Congratulations to the Broncos. Great team win for them." So we're just putting on the screen.

Oh, my God.

But we just think it's funny that every time the Chiefs lose, you feel the need to come to a podium and say, "Congratulations to the Broncos." Like, if you're the opposing coach.

No, it's because—I mean, kind of. I mean, I am one of the forward-facing, you know, people, you know, involved with at least, you know, on the—you know, tangentially to the organization, and I just want to get out in front of it. And I also sometimes—a team deserves congratulations. I think the Broncos deserve congratulations. I think the Broncos, you know, you look at that quarterback class from a few years ago. The Bears, the moment they can, they're going to re-up Caleb.

We will talk about the politics happily in just a second, but I want to give you a stat of the day first.

Stat of the day? Oh, yeah.

Stat of the day, stat of the day. This is your stat of the day. Stat of the day.

What are they doing back there?

This is your stat of the day. Stat of the day.

Well, how are they doing that?

Keep talking over the imaging.

It's a pencil fight. Stat of the day, stat of the day. This is your stat of the day.

We got lost in the mud and the weeds in the first hour, and we were talking about pencil fighting and erasers. And I was saying, I thought that the pencil industry was endangered and the standalone eraser industry was endangered. And then we got to talking about pencil fighting, and I thought people weren't doing that anymore.

Dan, the Ticonderoga stands the test of time as usual. Broke the other pencil, broke a wooden stick. He had to use a Louisville slug against a Ticonderoga gun.

So you don't know what we're talking about there, Nick? You don't know?

I've never seen pencil fighting. Maybe that's a regional thing.

Shocking.

I would have pegged him for a big-time pencil fight.

You would have done what?

Hey, oh.

I'm just saying it's a regional thing.

I don't know. Maybe in the Midwest we didn't pencil fight. I don't know what the hell you guys are talking—I mean, I watched it. I can context clues. I can probably figure out what it is. Seems dumb. I don't know why you guys are doing it.

Here's the stat of the day. See if you can guess. One quarterback in the past 20 years has averaged under 5.0 air yards per attempt in three straight games within a season, minimum 30 attempts. You want to guess who that is?

Probably Patrick.

That's pretty stunning, isn't it?

No, the guy will just play whatever way the team needs him to play given the players on the team. Everyone's so dumb, and everyone is so—they're so disingenuous. All of a sudden, folks are trying to act like Patrick's career hasn't been on camera. And we're like, you know what? Maybe he's just a dinker and dunker when we haven't seen—when the Chiefs had elite downfield weapons, he was the greatest one of, if not the greatest, deep passer ever. When the Chiefs had, in 2022, Jerek McKinnon and Kelsey as the only receiving options, he set the all-time yardage record, but with dinking and dunking because that's what the team demanded.

I do want to ask you two questions. There's actually a big developing breaking news story in the NFL right now. Brandon Ayuk is going to be reporting to the team facility this week for the San Francisco 49ers. I didn't think we'd ever see him play football again. Seems like something's happened over there. I'm curious, Nick, if you saw the Chiefs game the same way. I thought the receivers, even from the rookies down to Travis Kelsey, they gave up on some passes, especially like deep balls. And you got Patrick Mahomes back there. This team needs to make a move for a wide receiver, no?

So they definitely are going to and need to trade for a receiver. Listen, Cyrus Allen, every team has this, the mid-round rookie that the die-hard fans get super excited about in camp, and then he doesn't play much. But given how limited the Chiefs' receiving options are, and given the fact that somehow Taequan Thornton is a load-bearing piece of the offense, Cyrus Allen has been getting more opportunity, but he hasn't consistently been on the field. And I think you saw in his limited opportunity on Sunday one of the reasons.

I want to address Tony and all men who would wear that shirt in public.

Greg Curty.

Don't do it.

This is the Dan Le Batard Show.

What do you think's going to happen with Lamar Jackson in Baltimore? And do you think that the favorite to get him is Miami?

I think right now, I wouldn't need great odds to say that the next game Lamar plays for, he'll be in a dolphin's uniform. Because it's such a very—we're in such a very unique spot where he hasn't know trade, he hasn't know tag. So he can play a game of chicken with Baltimore and say, "If you don't give me five years, 330 million, fully guaranteed, I will play out the final year of my deal. You'll lose me for nothing. I'll hit, you know, unrestricted free agency."

Greg, what are your thoughts on what he's saying? Do you give up the number one overall pick if indeed the Dolphins have the number one overall pick for Lamar Jackson?

I would. I would. I don't think that's a lot to give up. Even with Lamar's injury history, which is really problematic, I still think it's a good risk. When we've seen what teams pay for top players, a number one overall pick for Lamar Jackson is a bargain for Miami, I think.

Two-time MVPs usually aren't available at that position before they turn 30 or around 30.

No.

Let's get into the story from last night, though, Nick. American people fed up, angry. They spoke pretty loudly. We've got a Governor Keisha. We've got Texas. You've got a lot of minorities.

Texas won by 12, bro. The Texas Senate was a 12-point margin. Like, it's the John Ossoff won Georgia by 20.

Georgia?

And you know what I mean? Go ahead and pencil him in as the Democratic nominee for president in 2028. It was a total and utter, and this is not prisoner of the moment, historic repudiation of the party in power. And it was not hard to see coming. If you, you know, forget all of my, I think, and a lot of people's, but I'll just speak for myself, moral and just big-picture issues with the president of the United States, even if you just set all those aside and just look at the people who the 20% in the middle from the, you know, you have the 40% on each side and the 20% that decide everything, everything he promised them two years ago, he hasn't delivered on.

Well, everything that happened with Brian Kemp and Stacey Abrams, that was a huge win in Georgia for Keisha Lance Barnes. But the fact that the Senate now has more than 52 seats for Democrats, John Fetterman is kind of rendered useless, don't you think?

Well, so that's the other thing. 51 would have been, listen, if you're on, if you see the world the way I see it, 51 was in theory the minimum you needed. But then all of a sudden, the most powerful person in the world is John Fetterman. And that doesn't sound fun. So 52 was the number we were really shooting for. I thought they'd get 53. We're now at 54 with Alaska is right now, New York Times says 80% likely Democrats. With that said, fair is fair.

Two Dan Sullivans? That's cheap.

I don't love that one. I don't love that one.

There were two Alex Rodriguezes down here in South Florida winning.

But that might just have happened.

Yeah. Like that's 500,000 Alex Rodriguezes in South Florida.

So we're at 54 with Mississippi, I think, is going to be blue. That would be 55. And then pending Alaska, I really hope if the Democrats win Alaska, it's by more than if you add the two Dan Sullivans up because I wouldn't feel great about that. So they really can govern. They really can govern. And they can really, you know, put some, try to steer the ship in a different direction. And that, to me, I'm excited about it.

So I want to get your thoughts on this as you get out of here. He's the host of FS1's First Things First and What's Right with Nick Wright, the podcast that he does with his son. What are, in a country that's obviously divided along many very simple lines, what are the maggots going to do with this? First Black female governor in U.S. history, first Muslim senator, first openly gay senator, first female Native American governor, first female Native American senator, first Latina governor in Texas history, first female governor in Ohio history, first elected female senator in South Carolina history, first Black governor in Florida history, first elected Latino governor in California history, first Kansas Democratic senator this century in 94 years, and the first Congress set up for a Black speaker of the House.

Yeah. I mean, listen, the numbers, the numbers on, like, I think prior to last night, there had been three elected, not appointed, like elected Black governors in the U.S.'s history. Three. And I think there were five yesterday. So that is, pardon me, that is astonishing. The Black, the non-white senators that were elected and not appointed pre-Obama, I think there had been six and four of them were during Reconstruction.

Nick, good seeing you. We'll talk to you again soon, buddy. Thank you for making the time.

Absolutely. Thanks for having me on. Chris Cody, text me back.

I got you.

So I do believe that the American people have a real, angry, understandable issue with affordability and a cost of living crisis that's getting worse by the day. I saw a $5.99 a cent gallon of gas, which isn't something I've ever seen in South Florida before. But what he just mentioned about corruption, a Gallup poll, and I understand that many people aren't trusting polls, but a Gallup poll found that 89% of Americans, that's a huge number, 89% of Americans agree that corruption is widespread in government.

That's what was so encouraging about yesterday, if you're rooting against the current ruling party in the executive branch, is you knew that if this was close, they would do stuff with Alaska. They would try all sorts of recounts, all sorts of funny business to actually try to rig the election. But the Dems put it in a place where they became undeniable. And if you heard his interview, which was an amazing job of investigative reporting, Politico called President Trump live on the air, got right to him. It says, "Somber as you've ever heard the president."

And Plantation is going to celebrate it tonight with giving Greg Cody a proclamation for a lifetime of service to journalism that might be dying. But Greg Cody is going to be celebrated tonight in Plantation.

One of the things that is overlooked is you're not going to be, if there is, Donald Trump has been extremely fortunate. In fact, a lot of the presidents that haven't won the popular vote have loaded the Supreme Court with the most judges. Donald Trump, if a Supreme Court justice decides to retire, he's not going to be able to get one through. And that was, that had lasting generational effects.

Do we have a speech planned for tonight for the city of Plantation?

It's going to be extemporaneous. I don't have anything written down, but I am invited.

Just from the heart. You're going to speak from the heart.

Yeah. I'm invited to talk for a minute or two, which is not difficult for me.

But you'll keep going if you're feeling it.

Oh, is there a time limit though? Will they, no, no, I don't think he'll keep going. I think there are limits usually on time there because they don't want you to filibuster. If they told you you're only allowed to talk for 60 seconds.

I was told a minute or two. That's the way they phrased it.

Sounds pretty loose.

Yeah. Well, you know.

Could be three or four.

What am I going to say?

What if you get hot, Greg? Talk about the Lobos. All of a sudden, five or six minutes.

FPI.

LJAX. Obviously, that's a big loss for the Lobos.

You've got to do us a favor and throw at least a couple of your catchphrases into the speech, right? We're asking all of these broadcasters all over the country to use their catchphrases. You've got to figure out while your son is missing part of bowling night to film you, while Zaz is saying he's a game-time decision to go to the Chamber of Commerce. Are there many other chambers these days? Like, there are only a handful of chambers. They're all in government.

Yeah.

Chamber of Horrors.

You are going to use some of your catchphrases, correct?

Yeah. My plan is to begin by just thanking the city council and saying, "Very good." You know, that's what I'm going to say.

All right. We'll see how many catchphrases. Chris, give him some help because he's going to need some help. Let's check in with Corin Hackey here, who's on Instagram Live for.

Yeah. We are on Instagram Live and we are checking in. Oh, we're back with the main program. Okay. So as things go here with the main program, I want you guys to tune into a few things. We have number five through number eight down here. I'll get to that in just a moment because we have number nine through 13 set up here. BYU, Ole Miss, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Tennessee. Now, these are really interesting things to check in on. Why? When you're looking for a bellwether representation of the way things that shift from the early returns on your voting in this college football playoff committee to what will ultimately happen later down the line, you have to look at Notre Dame.

I have a huge problem with all of this.

And you should all have a huge problem with this. This guy went back on his word. He is not wearing football pads, a helmet, and a jersey. He's supposed to be doing that for two weeks straight. He found a way out of it. And I'm not going to let that stand. We have to have integrity.

Jeremy, you're being told that you don't have integrity. Mike is going to run some of this uniform back there to you so that you can wear it with your Corin Hackey outfit. But please continue. We interrupted you again.

The bellwether game of Notre Dame against Miami is going to be a key in the early returns and the way that things shift over the course. Remember, your early returns are not always reflective of the way that this committee and their election will ultimately end up. And the reason I bring that up is you have a situation here between Tennessee and Alabama that is the establishment in Alabama and the new progressives in UCLA in Tennessee. You don't often see these teams in the way that they go.

Are your glasses now stuck under the shoulder pads?

They sort of seem.

He lost his earpiece standing here.

Within the course of this. No, I can hear. I can hear. I can hear what's going on. So within the course of all of this, we talk about establishment versus progressives. Okay. Ohio State, that establishment team, they're really important here as we look forward because USC, they're sort of a new progressive team.

Mike, help him get his arms through the slot there.

Of what's happening. And we talk about a team that is.

If you want more, Jeremy, Corin Hackey, you can get more Corin Hackey on Instagram Live. You seemed, Chris, back there to feel you looked like you were dismayed for Jeremy.

Yeah. You know, I usually hate Jeremy, but this is just, I just felt a little bad for him there, I have to be honest.

We beat him up a little bit, and I think that he might still be reeling from Nick Wright saying he's bad at that. He takes pride in doing that.

Now I feel bad again because I said I hate him.

Nick Wright just hurt his feelings though, right? Because he takes pride in doing.

That's the best thing he does. Like, Corin Hackey is the best thing that Jeremy does. And for Nick Wright to come in and automatically like torpedo it is a tough look.

And Nick Wright is wrong about that because he's good at Corin Hackey. He does Corin Hackey well.

He found something.

He's also good at telling you that he's good at doing everything. And that is something that is something that usually I don't see a lot of in the sports media. How often do you see people in the sports media telling you or feeling the need to remind you or tell you that they're good at their job? Do you feel like a lot of the people who are good at their job are telling you that they're good at their job? Because Jeremy's done it more times here than everyone else in the history of this show has done it combined throughout the more than 22 years we've been doing this.

Yeah. I don't have to tell anybody about that because my hometown is telling me that with a proclamation.

That's tonight.

Lawrence Mass?

If you want to stop in on the Chamber of Commerce in Plantation, not in Lawrence, Massachusetts, if you go to that one, Greg Cody will not be being honored by anybody in Lawrence, Massachusetts tonight.

Not at all.

But in Plantation, he will be being honored tonight. I am looking at, I just laughed looking as the rankings scrolled across the screen. Has Kentucky ever been ranked this high? Has a Kentucky football team ever been? You guys told me in the 1950s there was a Bear Bryant team that was very good at Kentucky, but I'm just not used to Kentucky being ranked sixth in the country.

I mean, Dan, we could easily make the case. This is a historic weekend of college football, just an incredible amount of top meaningful games. And Kentucky is featured in one of them.

Look it up for me, please, Chris, while you're back there. I'm beginning to feel bad for Jeremy as well because he's sweating a great deal. It seems like it's been hot. We've been having some technical difficulties back there. So he's been doing a good job managing all of the juggling. Tony, you wanted to say something?

Yeah. I've got highest final AP ranking for the Kentucky Wildcats, 1977. They were number six. Highest AP ranking ever, number three with that Bear Bryant team of 1950. Like. What could it have been this century?

Tim Couch, is that this century? When Tim Couch was the number one?

I don't think it was late. It was like '99.

Late '90s. Late '90s.

That was late '90s. Okay. So it's the 11th time Kentucky has been included in the top 25, the first appearance since 2022. And it's the highest the Wildcats have ever appeared in the CFP top 25. They peaked at number nine in the first rankings of the 2018 season. So I can, I think I can present the argument that we just got done seeing the best Brewers team there has ever been. We are presently watching the best Kentucky team there has ever been.

They made it to an Orange Bowl.

What was that? Jim Grober? What was that guy's? Jim Grobe. So Jim Grobe got a big contract extension. But this speaks to the general chaos of college football that you have Kentucky at number six. Do you know how, do you guys know how disorienting it is to me to still see Indiana up there? Like, I know that that was the best season an Indiana team has ever had last year, but it's still confusing to me to look at the top six rankings and see Indiana and Kentucky in there.

No, Georgia.

Okay. So Georgia. Thank you.

Two lost Alabama that beat them is also ahead of them.

You've been good with the Georges. You've been good.

I'm not saying I'm good. Lean back a little bit.

When I'm home by myself with just a dog in the house, if the mood strikes me, I'm like, "Georgia."

I thought you were going to say if the dog says Georgia, I say it.

Well, I will then too. I would love it if dogs could talk. That's one of my dreams.

Put it on the poll at Le Batard Show. I think that you've got to be careful what you wish for there. I think if dogs could talk, they wouldn't have a filter and they would say nasty things about you. Like, I think you don't actually want that. Amina's talked about this before. We've talked about the ideas of animals being able to talk and how disappointing it would be if they were just bitching about the same things that human beings were bitching about at the coffee shop. All of a sudden, you got this clinically depressed beagle talking about all sorts of stuff that you didn't think the beagle had in its system.

What if you learn that like your dog is stupid? You just have a straight-up unintelligent dog.

I think the cat would be an asshole. I think the cat would say things that were just really off-putting. I think the dog would just be goofy, funny, smart. You know, not smart, but just lovable. Just goofy lovable.

Greg, I think the cat would say things to guests that you have over about you, right? So you'd be like, "You see, Greg?"

Yeah.

I've seen him scratch his buttons. You should have seen him an hour before you got here.

And it would be said with an aside. Like, a cat would snurk.

In disgust.

Put it on the poll, please, at Le Batard Show. If you granted the dog the ability to talk, would you then regret when it revealed your secrets?