Transcript of The Fancy Lad Returns: Chris Wittyngham On The World Cup | Hour 2

Summer is pretty much my favorite time to be a sports fan. The biggest soccer tournament of the summer just wrapped up, baseball's on every night, racing never takes a weekend off, and my calendar basically revolves around first pitches, green flags, and whatever game everybody's texting about. I realized I'm the MVP of my group. I'm always the friend that says, "Hey, I've got it. I've got a place, I've got some ice cold Miller Lite, I got the TV, I got a big comfy blue leather couch, come on over." That's the behavior of a Miller Time MVP. I almost never watch the big ones alone. I'd much rather be with my friends. And if I am alone, we're texting, we're sipping on our Miller Lites, toasting the day, toasting the big games. For me, Miller Lite is just a part of a big game routine. It's brewed for taste with simple ingredients, clean, refreshing, and easy to drink, especially in the Miami heat. It's a true American pilsner and the original light beer since 1975. An all-American summer starts with an all-American beer, Miller Lite. Go to millerlite.com/dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer.

It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. Sehr gut, sehr gut, sehr gut.

Sehr gut?

Wieso, Steuer ist sehr gut.

Das sagen ganz viele. Wer sagt das?

Stiftung Warentest, Computerbild, Focus Money, Mit Chip-Finanztipps such dir was aus.

Mega, aber das ist doch bestimmt kompliziert.

Nö, einfach Foto von der Lohnsteuerbescheinigung machen und fertig.

Klingt sehr gut.

Ist sehr gut. Mit WISO Steuer bis zum 31. Juli abgeben.

You are listening to the Dan Levitan Show in partnership with the DraftKings Sports App. Now live in all 50 states.

Chris Whittingham, our old friend, is gonna be here with us in moments.

Chris Whittingham is a fancy lad.

I don't want to disrespect his time. Chris Cody was hot. He was bothered by having to wait, so, uh, I will not go through Mike's entire top 50 list of top 52 sport athletes of all time, but just take us up to Marty Fish. So, uh, go ahead and get started with number 50.

Number 50, Michael Jordan. Yeah, he, uh, tried baseball. He's also a solid golfer and famously decent at basketball. Number 49, Jared Allen, sack artist and tried for curling.

Oh, I thought he was in rodeo, wasn't he? Or wasn't he?

Wasn't he calf roping or something like that? Yeah, that was part of his celebration.

Yeah.

Number 48, Eddie Alvarez. Number 47, Steph Curry. Really good golfer. Number 46, Dan Cortez. Yeah, I mean, he was good at everything in Rock 'n' Jock. Number 45, as promised, Jeff Konine.

Really good at racquetball.

Yeah.

Number 44, Morty Fish.

All right.

We will get the remainder of this list and ask you what it is that you just put on the top of your hat in a second. Chris Winningham with us. He does MLS games on Apple TV. He does Champions League and Serie A on Paramount Plus. He is smiling right now because we did an homage there to Robbie Williams. What are your thoughts there, Whittingham? Do you believe that, yes or no, that was cocaine?

It's pretty hard to argue it being anything else, right?

I just can't believe that that would be right. Like, yes, yes, it's hard to argue that it would be anything else, but I can't believe that that would be right. But you're betting, you're betting odds, uh, your market price is that it is cocaine.

I mean, if— what else could fall out of one's nose like that? What was his mouth?

So we already did the telestrator. It was his mouth that it fell out of his mouth. And now Tony and Mike are telling me—

piece of gum then, or a Zinn maybe? The, the Zinns are— no, Zinn, no, Zinn is gonna break up like that. Yeah, I don't know anything about Zinns. I've never used them before. So, uh, but yeah, I mean, I don't—

that tracks.

I don't know, in, in the mouth though, I, I— yeah, maybe, maybe it— that, that makes it unlikely to be cocaine if it's in the mouth. That seems impossible, right?

Coke expert Chris Whittingham.

So there were a lot of goals scored in this tournament. 104 games, 308 goals. That's, uh, the highest scoring tournament since 1970. Nobody can have any complaints about anything except perhaps the punctuation. Whittingham, your thoughts on the punctuation?

Yeah, the punctuation wasn't very good, was it? And I think that is a little bit disappointing. I think there were a lot of people that would have checked out this final just because, oh, it's this big thing and there are a whole bunch of watch parties and let's go watch the final. But it was not indicative of the tournament, as you're saying. And I think Argentina really, by themselves, really sullied the entire occasion, both in terms of their complete inability to attack but also their shit-housery, for lack of a better word. They just brought a level of tackle and elbow and really no desire to play football whatsoever that made this final incredibly dull for large portions of it. Spain were dominating the entire time and they just weren't able to turn it into clear goal-scoring chances. But I was surprised by the lack of a response from Argentina in any real way until the 116th, 117th minute of the game. To go so long without playing, I thought was incredibly embarrassing from them.

If I'm being honest, it was embarrassing. The desperation didn't really play out on the field with their play. The desperation was in what Messi did, trying to get Cucurella sent off for covering his mouth. Yeah, that was as bad a look on a pitch as I've ever seen from Messi. Was that just desperation, them knowing that was their only way back into that match?

Yeah. I mean, to be fair, it worked earlier in the tournament. I guess if you're looking for every possible advantage, the very famous now call from the referee, number 10 covers his mouth, final decision is red card. Uh, because it worked earlier and it was very much a, a tattling situation, um, you are desperate at that point. I think Messi definitely is observant. He is also a frequent violator of the covering his mouth, uh, but it usually is in contexts that are better than that. But yeah, I thought that was bizarre. It was indicative of a performance from him in which he did nothing, and I think That's another big disappointment. If you were to tell your friends, hey, watch this final, Messi's playing, and you watch that, you're like, wait, what exactly does he do? What is he good at? Because he did nothing for the vast majority of the game, and he was unable to arrest the slide. And yeah, it was fairly desperate and fairly pathetic when it was just, what, two fingers over his mouth? To try and get a man sent off for that was pretty poor.

So the shit house-ery though that Argentina, the dark arts that they turn to, it's often celebrated when they're successful, but when they're absolutely choked out of a match the way that they were by Spain, things like Enzo Fernandez's tackle. Uh, Kvaratskhelia, by the way, is not a small dude. He's 6'1". Like, that, that, that's not a flop there. I don't know how you flop at 6'1" doing that.

But I love that you're showing the image right now. There is an argument that that wasn't a yellow card when he is completely upside down in the air. I mean, how, how could Enzo Fernandez possibly argue that that isn't a yellow, never mind a red?

It just looks way worse when the match isn't going their way. And what Messi does so well, Chris, as you know, is finds the spaces in a soccer match better than anybody. It's why he was basically residing exclusively on the right side against England. That's not normally where he likes to play, but if that's what the defense is giving, that's where he'll do his damage. It's not like basketball where you can call an iso play. You got to kind of find Messi, and you're constantly scanning the field. Where is he? Because the ball's not meeting him, and that's that two-man midfield pivot from Spain doing that to him, is it not?

Winning him— I, I want to ask about that, right? Because people are killing Argentina and and Messi for how boring all of that was. But Spain's undefeated in their last 38. Like, they do that to everybody.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the fact that they did it to France, if you look at their run to the final, Portugal, Belgium, France, Argentina, they did it to the best teams. And they have consistently done this to the best teams. You go back to the €2024, they did the same thing to France in the semifinal and England in the final. This is what they do, and it is incredible that it's not a team that is known for defensive ability. It is now because they give up 1 goal in the World Cup, but they're known as a team of technical operators. They're very good in possession, and yet the thing that really makes it happen is how good they are out of possession. On the rare occasion they lose the ball, they go hunting like wolves. They go get the ball and they make it impossible for teams to play against them. And that is the number 1 attribute that they have against the best teams, is that This is an identity that is formed with kids when they're 8 years old. Every kid in Spain when they're 8 years old learns how to play this way, and whether they make it to the pro level or they don't, they all know that at the— on the highest level, this is how we're going to perform, this is how we're going to play.

And every player who comes into that team, no matter what club they play for, what style they play for their club, they know the Spanish style. It is imbued in them, it is part of their DNA as players, and they bring it to the very highest level. So Yeah, it is about that suffocation and defense. And Messi, in some ways, I know this can kind of seem like you're trying to make excuses for him, but Messi plays in the rhythm of games. There was absolutely no rhythm for Argentina to find. So you're trying to hit a direct ball to him in transition. That's not where he thrives. He thrives in, as you say, Mike, finding spaces on the weak side when he's walking and everyone else is running and trying to figure out where the ball is. He finds a space where nobody is. There was none of that to be found yesterday for him.

Number 43, Tim Tebow.

Where are you, Whittingham, as we hyperventilate always after these things happen and try and put it in perspective? But historically undefeated in the last 38 games and a conversation around is this the best defensive performance we've ever seen in a World Cup? Please put it in context. How much better is Spain than the rest of the world? Is it historically better?

Yeah. If you look at the data, both in terms of the actual on-field statistic, but also there's a figure called expected goals, which essentially measures the quality of chances that you give up. Spain had the best expected goals against figure in the history of the tournament, and that's having played a game more than anybody else who's ever played in this tournament before. They, they allowed— in terms of quality of chance, they would have been expected to allow 2.3 goals over the course of the tournament, which is better than anyone in the history of the sport. So yeah, it is incredible that they are this good defensively, uh, out of possession. It just goes to show the way that they strangle games. But I think a lot of teams are probably rated more highly, both in terms of the individual quality of defender. I mean, there are German teams of the past that have all-time figures. I think the one thing that kind of you struggle to get on board with Spain being an all-time team is they don't really have, outside of Rodri in midfield, all-time players. We think maybe Pau Cubarsi can be an all-time player, uh, in the center of defense.

He's awesome. He's the young player of the tournament. We think Lamine Yamal is on his way. He didn't play well at this World Cup though. So there is kind of this feeling that while yes, empirically they put in the best defensive performance in the history of the World Cup, it's going to be hard to remember these guys as all-time great legends. Unai Simon, their goalkeeper, might be the third best goalkeeper on the Spanish national team. Their two backups have better club pedigree. So So it is kind of difficult to talk about them in these terms. But yeah, in terms of what they delivered, and again, in terms of the quality of opposition, they played the best teams and they did that to them. Those guys, those teams did not have bad performances. Spain made them have bad performances. So yeah, it is right up there with the greatest defensive performance we've ever seen.

Number 42, Jackie Robinson. He played a lot of sports and he's number 42.

So I want to go back to Lamine Yamal for a second. You just said that he didn't have that great of a tournament. You want to go through his resume at 19? Like, let's go. Yeah, let's go ahead and go through the accomplishments before he's gotten out of his teens. Go ahead.

3.

Yeah.

3-time La Liga champion, World Cup winner, Euros winner, finished 2nd in the Ballon d'Or. Has, has already played, I think, 11,000 minutes more than Messi did at this age. 11,000 minutes more than Messi did at this age. So to, to do all of these things is absolutely incredible. And for the most part, up until this World Cup, he was a big part of the reason why, you know, Barcelona reached the Champions League semifinal. He was awesome. Why Barcelona have won 3 La Liga titles since he's been involved in the team. Why Spain won the Euros 2 years ago. He was brilliant in that run. This is really the first time a team has won without him being a central part of why they're winning. It is extraordinary for a player to achieve so much in his career so young. The only worry is that he's gonna burn out younger than anybody else because he's playing so much. But yeah, I thought yesterday in the game he was fine. He had a couple of decent moments. He created a chance that probably should have resulted in a goal. There was that chipped header to the back post that could easily have gone in, but he wasn't great in this tournament.

But also, to be fair to him, he was also probably not healthy coming into this tournament. He was struggling, uh, with an injury in the buildup, and he's been pushing through it. And so you have to judge him on the merits of what he delivered. But yeah, in terms of winning achievement, it is very rare to find anyone who's done this by the age of 19.

Number 41, Joe Mauer.

Whittingham, you didn't even mention 6-0 in, uh, elimination games against Mbappé and knocks out Messi and Ronaldo. Like, Yeah, that's pretty decent.

He's in a pretty blessed spot, Chris, because he played very well in the Euro, but he didn't have to play his best match in the World Cup and he won a World Cup. Like, he got the hard one. That's the hardest one.

Yeah.

And he's inevitably going to play in at least two more World Cups. He's going to play much better in those World Cups. So from here on out, it's just legacy building. He's got a great opportunity to catch up to the GOAT.

He hasn't lost a game. Does he ever lose? Has he ever lost since he started playing in a major tournament? Yes or no?

Yeah, I mean, the Champions League is, is, is the one that he has to go get next. Uh, the semifinal that they played against Inter was a pretty bad one, uh, 2 years ago where they have the lead and they were amazing.

I'm sorry, I meant with Spain. I meant—

Oh, with Spain? No, no, there's, there's lit— I mean, I guess last summer there was a Nations League that they didn't win, um, that Portugal won, but that's— we don't really consider that right up there. It's the Euros and the World Cup. He, he won the Euros at 17, he won the World Cup at 19. There is literally nothing else for him to have won.

Excited for summer? Hosting a pool party, a barbecue, or just looking forward to some relaxing time at home? At Orkin, they've been building their pest knowledge and expertise for 125 years, and they know that no matter what your summer plans are, most people don't want cockroaches involved. Shocking, right? Well, as supporters of summer plans both big and small, Orkin is here to stay one step ahead of pests so you can stay one step ahead of your schedule. Visit Orkin.com today for a free estimate.

Folks, listen up. This summer, whatever you're watching— baseball, golf, soccer, racing— DraftKings Sports has you covered. The DraftKings Sports app is now available in all 50 states, bringing the action straight to your fingertips wherever you are. One app, every market, so you're always in the excitement at the speed of sports. New DraftKings customers sign up with code DAN, spend $5, and get $150 in rewards within 14 days. That's code DAN. Includes all markets. In partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours.

Bet with DK Sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. 1-800-MY-RESET. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777. Visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas, bet tax pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over. Void in Canada. Event contract trading with DraftKings predictions involves risk of loss. Availability varies. Predictions offer void in New York. Bet to get bonus bets that expire in 7 days. Trade to get predictions dollars that expire in 1 year. $50 in rewards issued every 7 days via click to claim for 14 days. One non-withdrawable reward redeemable. Terms at dkng.co/offer. Limited time offer.

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

Mike Ryan, don't just stare at it, eat it. This is the Dan Levatar Show.

Number 40, CM Punk.

It's a little high.

Yeah.

What's the other sport? I'm missing the other sport for a lot of these.

What do you mean? What's the other sport? He's also a professional wrestler.

Hmm.

I've been waiting, as you do, Joe Mauer. I think Whittingham is asking a fair question. It makes you a bit of a bleep hole that you're not offering any of the context when you just go, Jackie Robinson played a lot of sports. I think for the audience—

You're giving me tight windows.

But for the audience, you should also say just a sentence of elaboration. And Joe Mauer was also excellent at blank. He was.

The number 1 quarterback recruit in the nation for Florida State. And then he ended up having a Hall of Fame baseball career. Number 39, Tom Glavine.

Oh, hockey player.

Okay. Thank you, Dan. Yeah, you're welcome. Maybe you can help out a little bit too. Okay. These are Titans.

I didn't know this about Joe Maurer, though. The reason I was asking—

you didn't know that Joe Maurer committed to FSU to play quarterback? No ball.

Did not know. I'm sorry. I don't—

you didn't know that Dan Cortez played every single rock and Put it on the poll at @LebatardShow.

Are you embarrassed that you didn't know that Joe Maurer was FSU's number 1 recruit at quarterback?

Number 38, Todd Helton. He played for the Colorado Rockies as well. He was a quarterback for the Tennessee Wolves.

How was Tom Glavine being picked in the NHL draft ahead of Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille?

That's pretty good. That's a, that's a pretty good stat you're giving us there, Whittingham. What were, uh, what were your big takeaways always from the entirety of the tournament when you step back from it and just enjoy the majesty of all of it? Because I, I did think it went as well as could possibly be expected for the United States as a host country with as few embarrassments as possible.

Yeah, I mean, the only two real embarrassments were the treatment of the Iran national team throughout the tournament, which was not great. And then, of course, the Folarin Balogun situation The degree to which the administration did or didn't get involved with those decisions, uh, was pretty embarrassing and it made the world kind of hate us. But yeah, I agree with you just in terms of the amount of fear that I had going in that it was gonna kind of be ruined by everything that surrounded it. It was fun. Everyone loved this tournament. A lot of the number of people in my life that very rarely watch soccer that have texted me at various points going, that was amazing, where could I watch more soccer, where can I embrace this even more, can I watch a Premier League team, can I watch my local MLS team, whatever the case may be, there was a level of embracing of this which I didn't expect, both in terms of, you know, the America towards the world sport, but also America towards the world's communities. I mean, the number of ways in which we saw cultures meld, with people in Lawrence, Kansas loving the story of Algeria training in their city with, you know, South Koreans in Mexico and the Dutch Orange Army all over the place.

I think it was a real festival. And there was that sense that maybe the US was going to be the first country to not really provide that. That you go back to Brazil 2014 and South Africa 2010, there were some great parties all over the world. The Euros always provide great events, but that maybe the US wasn't going to be capable of providing that. That was definitely the number one takeaway from me, was the number of people here that loved it and the number of people from abroad that loved it, that genuinely enjoyed taking in all that the United States has to offer and us kind of reminding ourselves, oh yeah, there's a few things to like about this place that we live in.

Number 37, Jeff Samarja, Chicago Cub, Notre Dame Fighting Irish wide receiver.

Chris Whittingham. He did say it like Joe Tess. True or false, Cape Verde is the second best team in the world?

Uh, maybe the third best team in the world by transitive property. They are the only team to have not lost to either of the two teams in the final, which Well, I guess, I guess they lost Argentina in the end. But I mean, look, they certainly gave the best game to either of those two teams in the final. And it is kind of interesting that every great World Cup champion has a footnote somewhere in their tournament run. For Argentina, 4 years ago was that they lost to Saudi Arabia in their opener. And it is extraordinary that they were the only team. And actually watching that game yesterday, at one point I said, I think Argentina are trying to replicate the Cabo Verde formula. Because all they did to Spain for 90 minutes was frustrate them, try and stop them from scoring a goal, and really not doing anything in the attack. That's all they were trying to do. And I guess in some ways, the fact that they got to 90 minutes and nil-nil, it sort of worked. Uh, it just is embarrassing when you're Argentina and not the underdog.

Well, but Cabo Verde had 6 shots in 90 minutes. Argentina had 2 in 120.

Like, right, and they had 0 in 90. I guess in the same period of the 90 minutes, Argentina managed a whole 0 And there was that one chance that they had. I want to say it was like in the 92nd or 93rd minute of that group stage game where they could have won it. Yeah. So I guess you could argue that Cabo Verde, they were better against Spain than Argentina were.

How do you feel about Mbappé winning the Golden Boot? How do you feel about the third base, third place game stats counting toward history?

I don't like it. I don't like it. And I saw on social media, we put out a clip of me saying that and all these people thought I was defending Messi's honor. Oh, only Messi's Golden Boot record. It doesn't matter.. It is about the fact that that game looked like an all-star game. It was fun. It was a great time to see 10 goals scored in one game, to see England deliver their best and Bukayo Saka score a hat-trick and Jude kind of respond well from, from coming from behind and sort of the difficulties that they had. We saw France kind of the, that not quite desperate champion feel, but that sort of, oh, we're not going to embarrass ourselves. Let's go out there and score some goals. It was a fun game, but it really has no bearing on what the rest of the tournament showed. I mean, the rest of the tournament is an incredibly difficult grind, teams struggling to score, teams struggling and fighting over consequence. The 3rd place game is not a game of consequence. It is a game that, you know, both teams kind of said, ah, well, we'll take our turns trying hard.

There is no other game in the World Cup that is taking turns trying hard. Every team is trying their maximum. And what we saw in that game, like I said, was fun. If you were watching on a Saturday afternoon, it was great entertainment. But it wasn't, it wasn't a reflection to me of what the World Cup is. I don't think any third place game should count towards the official records of the World Cup because now Mbappé is the all-time leading goalscorer in the history of the World Cup on the basis of two games that were based on two goals that were basically scored in a friendly.

Number 36, Greg Paulus.

That can't be that high.

I mean, he was a really good point guard for Duke and he played quarterback for Syracuse, the hardest position to play in sports.

Quarterback at Syracuse.

I mean, did you watch their season this year? Fran Brown would agree.

Chris, is it unusual for the runner-up, in this case Argentina and Messi, the best player ever, to not speak after the game?

It is incredibly rare. It is incredibly rare. And I think it shows really— we saw it after the game as well with the post-match scenes. Argentina are some bad losers, man. There are some bad losers. They cannot get out of their own way to really harm their own reputation. And it's funny because the manager did speak after the game. He said, oh, we could have done nothing more, we were great in defeat. But man, both in terms of what they delivered in the 120 minutes— when you do that stuff on the field, the fouling, the elbowing, the undercutting, and then you pair it with these kinds of scenes after the game where you're throwing hands and throats, where you're talking about you know, oh, you guys said all this during the week. When you're engaging a team that won the World Cup, the one thing that you can possibly do in your life that as a soccer player you have dreamt of doing from the day you were born, and you're making it about, oh, but what about us? It's not about you. It's not about you. And you have to be— you have to take your lumps and defeat.

You got your ass kicked in a final. Go out there and, you know, say, you know what, we were, we were soundly beaten by the better team. They had a great tournament. I also thought we had a great— I mean, there's so many easy things that you could say, but Argentina, for whatever reason, just cannot take their lumps in the way that all the other 46 teams that lost this tournament did.

Number 35, Shaun White, the Flying Tomato. If it has a board, he's good at it.

Whittingham, I understand when you make that criticism, but I also understand, nah, man, Argentina is not going to look up and say anybody's the better team. They won the championship the last time and 8 of the 11 starters were returning. They were frustrated because they were embarrassed by the way that that game played out. It's not having a chance when you think you're the best. That's what's roiling in all of these people. The world is watching. You're embarrassed. And at that point, you go all in on the embarrassment. Like, it was simply frustration spilling over. That's how rage works.

Sure. But to your— but you're saying, oh, like, they're, they're the best team. They, they didn't— they won it 4 years ago.

They think—

they think— they think— I'm not talking about I think.

Think.

They think— they're not going to acknowledge that anyone's the better team. They were trying to play that to get that into PK's—

in the way that they revealed the opposite, Dan. The game revealed that they were much worse.

I know, but self-awareness and self-awareness and the mirror do not help you when you're defending champion. You think a lot of athletes at the end when they're playing for the championship in front of everybody and they're the defending champion raise their hand and just say, yeah, they're better than we are?

I mean, most teams do. France are able to find this. I mean, most teams are able to find— most great athletes are able to find even false humility in defeat. And most of the times it is false. I will grant you that. And we're— what we're asking for is false humility. But most teams are capable of summoning it. Argentina seem fundamentally incapable of doing that. They seem to be the only nation at this sport that are incapable of doing that.

San Antonio Spurs weren't capable of it. Kenny Atkinson wasn't capable of it. You're asking for a self-awareness from defending champions that just won the last 4 games because they think God is on their side.

Yeah, I don't know. I think there's some ego stuff there. But what they resorted to on the field, I think it was a pretty solid admission that they, that they knew they weren't better. And Messi acting like a kindergartner trying to tell on Cucurella was more confirmation of that. Chris, I think FIFA got lucky here that Spain ended up getting their run-of-play goal because that goal coming off the board would have been an immense scandal if Argentina ended up winning this thing. I'm glad we don't have to deal with that. What'd you make of that goal being called off the board? I know for me, I know that there's slight contact on the boot there. It didn't affect the positioning in any way. Goals were hard to come by. I don't understand how you take that goal off the board, especially in the manner that it did without an official going to a monitor, without more discussion.

What's the conversation today if somehow that goal gets taken off the board and Argentina wins in PKs?

Well, I mean, just because of the manner in which that they were outplayed too, it would have been, oh my God, this call decided it. I'm a little bit of the opinion that I, I could see why that foul was given. I, I also think the fact that video review doesn't get involved is an indication that the referee saw it. He saw that the, the, that the defender got stepped on. Um, I thought it was a foul. I think the, the video evidence kind of showed that, but it would have been yet again another cog in the story of Argentina always seemed to get this in their favor. There was also the offside goal, which again, offside is not one that is is up for dispute, but Spain had the ball in the back of the net. It was disallowed for offside. It was incredibly marginal, was about a shoulder's length offside from Ferran Torres. And so yeah, I mean, look, I understand your complaint that you didn't think that was a foul. I think reasonable people can disagree about that. But I agree with you. I— if I— even if I were an Argentina fan, I wouldn't have wanted to win in any kind of controversial way yesterday because it is just such a prevailing story.

I'm amazed at the degree to which, oh, this is rigged for Argentina, is like a real consensus thing that is accepted by smart people that I know. They just say, oh yeah, it's rigged, as if like the sky is blue, as if like today is Monday. Like, it is sort of a statement of fact. And I'm amazed at the degree to which that kind of content takes off on social media. If you allege even a little bit on social media that this thing is rigged in favor of Argentina, you will get numbers because people believe this.. And so I'm not of the opinion that it's rigged in the favor of Argentina. I kind of found that decision to be defensible. But man, if Argentina won it in any kind of controversial way yesterday, that's all anybody would have talked about.

Number 34, Herschel Walker.

You seem to really enjoy, what was the second sport that he played? MMA. What are you doing there?

That's right.

Come on. He wasn't good at that.

He wasn't. What, Dan? He was 49 years old at an old age.

Uh, Whittingham.

Chiseled.

That's too high. Uh, Whittingham, when you say with that flourish, uh, Ferran Torres, give me the top 5 names that you enjoyed saying. Uh, top 5. Uh, let's start with, uh, number—

I was gonna go with Greg Hardy.

Uh, number 5. Let's start—

Poor form as of recent.

Let's start with number 5.

Uh, I'll start with, uh, Mikel Oriazabal.

Number 4.

Ferran Torres.

Number 3, Casemiro.

Number 2.

Uh, I'm scrolling here. Give me one second.

Okay, Mike, give him some more of your list so that I— I should have given him more time to—

Number 33, Kyler Murray.

Oh, that's a good one. Wait a minute, how is Herschel Walker right behind Kyler Murray on this list?

Number 32, Tony Gonzalez. Number 31, Julius Peppers. And number 30, Jameis Winston.

I don't know Winston's second sport. Am I being—

baseball. It was a college baseball.

Incredible. Close.

You have a gaping hole of knowledge when it comes to FSU baseball players, dude, that could also throw the pill. You just— we all do. You just don't know ball there.

Uh, Whittingham, where are you on number 2 of, uh, names you most enjoyed saying? And would you like to retract Torres now because you found a better one?

Uh, I'll, I'll stick with it. My number 2, I'm gonna go Nick Vultimada of Germany. And number 1, Bruno Fernandes of Portugal.

Uh, Whittingham, good seeing you. Last thoughts on the halftime show. Uh, what are your thoughts? Uh, was it—

it was fun. It was fun. I have to be honest, this really annoys me. I saw that Wayne Rooney came out after the game, or came out at halftime and said that it was crap. I am really annoyed. Look, when things are in Europe, when things are in England, and there is creeping Americanism with it where you have halftime shows and pregame shows and all that stuff, and it's in your territory, it's in your neck of the woods, and you want to complain about But fair enough. When things are in America, Jack, there's gonna be a halftime show, there's gonna be 5 million celebrities in the crowd, there's going to be all these things because that's what we do in this country. And as long as the thing is being held in the United States, it's going to adhere to American tradition and custom. Stop criticizing things that are happening here. It's your sport, you do with it what you want when it's in your place. But here, enough. I've had enough of Europeans telling us what to do when things are held here.

Enough, Europeans!

I thought it was enough and gay. Who were those Korean ladies?

Dan Levitar. They're sunglasses in boxes today, but in my bed in the hospital, ending our lives all the same.

Jeremy Tatché.

It's the final nightgown.

This is the Dan Levitan Show.

Good seeing you, Whittingham. Thank you for making the appearance on the show. Actually, real quick before you go, what are your thoughts here on Chris Cody's tweet? He decided to do this. Yesterday, and it seems dangerous, irresponsible, reckless, and not credible. Uh, what are your thoughts here on Chris Cody reporting that tonight, uh, that late afternoon actually, uh, today, uh, that LeBron will make his decision to play in Miami?

At first I thought it was a tweet from the Slow Report, which of course is one of his many great social media ventures, but I kind of wonder how that came together. How did that come together, guys? Do you know? Do you have any insight?

We asked him and he says he doesn't know. He says he doesn't know what a source is, and he didn't get any second or third sources, and he says just flatly, I don't know how to define what a source is.

I don't know what a source is.

Huh. I feel like it's possible, uh, like, I, I don't want to put our group chat on blast, but there's someone in our group chat who also has reported in the group chat that LeBron is coming to Miami. And it's just like, did a, did a valet, like, did, is someone who's in charge of moving luxury vehicles, like, there's a very Miami way that this could have come together. For Chris Cody. So I don't know what his source is, but I trust him. I trust him. I trust that by the end of the day, LeBron's going to be a Heat.

Okay. Thank you, Chris. Appreciate the time. I will tell people here that I had 7 sources on LeBron in 2010. While one of them wasn't a valet, one of them was a restaurant owner. Like, I— but, but I, but I needed to have— I needed to have 7. I didn't— I wasn't going to go with just the restaurant owner. And I feel like Chris Cody went with just the restaurant owner.

I sit by my tweet. Heat. I'm hearing things.

Look, it's time that I reveal. I heard from a guy who heard from a guy whose uncle is a chef and says that he's a chef for a former— this is 100% true. A guy who knows a guy whose uncle is a chef for a former Heat player who says LeBron's coming to Miami.

Mike, how many places in the crevices and corners of the Miami underworld that you occupy with a little bit of cocaine on the brim of your hat, how many people have come up to you and said LeBron is coming to Miami? Give me a number.

It's close to 20. And you know, inside that 20, some of them are ridiculous, but all have conviction and all have some kind of tangential— certainly some of the ties are a little bit closer, but if I was going to run with every Tom, Dick, and Harry that said that— well, in Miami you don't run into Tom Dicks or Harrys. Well, plenty of dicks. Any hoodles. This is the point that Brian Windhorst was trying to make though. There's in every city, there are these cupcake shops and people that are real estate agents that swear that LeBron's coming there. However, if it happens in Miami, get ready for the douchiest victory parade from some of the worst people you'll ever meet.

Any hootles?

Number 29, Jimmy Graham.

Wow.

Number 28, I Show Speed.

Ah, come on, Chaz, it's your boy.

Not my boy.

Can I take a quibble with your list real quick? Just let me take a quibble. How is Jimmy Graham ahead of Tony Gonzalez? Like, what are you doing?

I think Jimmy Graham was a better college basketball player. Yeah, I think that dude ate glass. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And neck and neck is a tight end.

And then like they were only separated.

Neck and neck is a tight end.

Yeah.

Look at Jimmy Graham's seasons, Dan.

Tony Gonzalez is better. But like in terms of the back of the— I mean, Jimmy Graham just casually started playing football, dude. I think like the ease that it came to be an all-timer separates him. And again, Again, they're only separated by Jameis Winston on this list. Yes. But they're both behind IShowSpeed. Number 27, Kenny Lofton.

You've fallen in love with IShowSpeed.

I think it's an incredible story.

You've come around on his story.

No, I've always been in on him. The guy was barking at people in front of like a couple dozen Twitch streamers and then he's playing before the World Cup. It's an incredible story. It's an incredible American story.

Playing?

He was playing one of his songs.

You haven't been always in on him. You've been what Zazz is presently, where you were saying to yourself, what is it about this guy? And then the first time you actually got informed, you're like, oh, I get it.

No, initially, the first time that I put effort into like watching it and the stuff that he does, and admittedly, what does he do? It's not for me. It's skewed to a younger audience. But he's, he's a master when it comes to engagement. And it's also like, he doesn't have the chops. Like, he puts himself out there, things that can embarrass him. I think the production when he goes on tours, it's some of the great organic content that's out there, really genuine funny moments that come from improvisational skills. His team around him is incredible with the content. Don't, don't—

yeah, I did.

No, I think, I think when he goes on tour, he gets like Michael Jackson level reaction.

Really gets Michael Jackson reaction?

Yes.

Michael Jackson Jackson.

Yes, the King of Pop. Yes, he does. Michael Jackson.

Michael Jackson. And there's I Show Speed. Similar response.

Similar response.

Similar crowd reaction. You don't know ball. Michael Jackson, I Show Speed.

Okay, you sound— you sound like an embarrassing person. You sound old as shit. Uh, Kenny Lofton played for Lute Olsen's Arizona Wildcats. He was really good. Number 26, Patrick Mahomes.

Mahomes.

The Bloodline. He is the most talented quarterback we've ever seen. And if he wanted to play pro baseball, it's in his genes. I bet you he could. Number 25, I'm an ally, Ronda Rousey. She also did some MMA. Number 24, Mickey McCarty. He was drafted by 3 professional sports leagues.

Did you just make Mahomes high on this list because his dad was a baseball player?

Yeah, well, I'm sure, like, I'm sure he could. Could have and been really good at it.

Number 23, you put that ahead of Kyler Murray, who actually got a great deal of money for playing baseball. You don't even know if Mahomes played baseball.

Number 23, Anthony Collada. I mean, I'm selling you short, pal. As you know, tried out for the Miami Heat, tried out for— how good do you have to be to be considered to play college quarterback without being able to throw a football? You had to throw an imaginary one.

Stop.

Stop.

So bothered by Jimmy Graham being ahead of Tony Gonzalez.

Come on, Dan.

Uh, number 22, Rebecca Romero. I'm an ally, dude. Cyclist, uh, multiple Olympic sports, learn ball. Uh, number 21, Truls Klapvik. Swimming, fencing, Olympic glory. Number 20, Dave Logan. Drafted in 3 American professional sports. Number 19, Vanetta Flowers. Track and field and bobsled. Go on, girl. Number 18, Clara Hughes. Cyclist, speed skater. Number 17, Sheila Tormina. Why you say it like that? Swimming, triathlon, modern pentathlon. And number 16, what— people, when you talk about the great two-sport athletes, you need to talk about Babe Didrikson Zahiris. Two golds and 10, count them, 10 LPGA championships. She's truly great and was nicknamed Babe back in the '40s. Not at all sex—

by Babe Ruth.

No, Babe Ruth gave her that nickname. I said not at all sexist. Truly. Number 15, Travis Pastrana. Great extreme sports star doing incredible things in motorsports. Number 14, Danny Ainge. Number 13, Brian Jordan. Number 12, Dave Winfield Fly Roll, drafted in 4 major sports. Number 11, Jackie Joyner-Kersey. She would have been in the W if the W were around. Number 10, Charlie Ward. Now, Dan, you seem to have a gaping hole in knowledge when it comes to dual sport athletes that went to Florida State. I'm aware, which rest assured, Charlie Ward won a Heisman before he got thrown into the sands by PJ Brown. Number 9, John Elway. Number 8, you heard of Jim Brown? Number 7, Lauren Williams, track and field, bobsled, go Canes. Number 6, Tenard Davis, the only man to win a Super Bowl and a Battle Corps championship for the Cyclones. Top 10 two-sport athletes. Number 5, Eddie Egan. Golds in multiple sports. Number 4, Bo Jackson. Number 3, Brock Lesnar. Number 2, Jim Thorpe. And number 1, Deion Sanders. What a list.

Where's Antonio Gates? How is Tony Gonzalez and Jimmy Graham?

He— what?

He—

look, look.

Antonio Gates gets to say, "I wasn't as good as Michael Jordan."