Transcript of The Jalen Hurts News Breaks Live During The Show | Hour 1

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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.

You're listening to the Dan Le Batard Show in partnership with the DraftKings Sports app.

Now live in all This episode of the Dan Le Batard Show is presented by DraftKings Sports. DraftKings, the crown is yours.

We didn't even mention—

Per Adam Schefter, the Colts have relieved Chris Ballard of his duties as their general manager.

So Cam Ward wins his 4th game in 23 tries, and we're at the portion of the Cam Ward experience where he gets your GM fired if you lose at home to him. And it was special teams that won that game. That game. I don't expect any of you to have watched it or to know that. But the reason that that game was won was because of special teams. What I was about to say before I was interrupted by the breaking news sounder is that we didn't even mention Alabama against Tennessee when we were talking about all of the ridiculous college football from this weekend. 7 of the top 10 teams played one-score games.

I think I heard that everyone in the AP Top 25 changed slots. Yeah, that's insane. Yeah, this is, this is what college football is now. And the quicker we realize that and that that 20-year run that college football had where only the SEC was allowed to pay for players, that was just a blip on the radar screen. And this is what the sport has historically been. And it's going to be this way as long as the NIL rules allow for it to be.

So why do you dismiss immediately when I say how college football is so much better than the NFL? Like, you look at this weekend as a great example. Like the NFL yesterday, it was just boring.

Well, yesterday was a bad NFL day. There were many things that made it bad. The Red Zone was celebrating its 3,000th show. I was surprised that they'd been on the air for 17 years, but they have a sponsored segment, the Breakaway Play of the Day. I'm wondering how many people even notice this when they watch their NFL football. The Breakaway Play of the Day was a checkdown screen pass to Alvin Kamara that went for 30 yards because there are no enormous plays in the NFL that go— I mean, Romeo Doubs had one, but you don't think about what your day was yesterday in the NFL. There wasn't a whole lot of 60- and 70-yard plays. The breakaway play of the day in the NFL was Alvin Kamara going 30 yards on a screen pass.

It was the 300th episode. 3,000 would mean Red Zone started 57 and a half years ago.

Thank you. My bad.

Also, that play was, I think, Alvin Kamara Broke 5,000 total yards. That, like, it wasn't the actual play. It's what it signified for his career.

Oh, no. But my point is still that there weren't a lot of plays that are down the field in pro football. But in college football, they're still learning how to play football as opposed to the NFL, where outside of Jacksonville and Carolina, which are getting penalized at a rate that is a bit astounding, you're watching the best. You're not watching kids anymore. And so I understand what you're saying, Zaslow, but there are too many games, too many of the college games are the equivalent of Colts-Titans. Colts-Titans stands out as being a stinker because so few of the NFL games are actually that.

Just so many good stories. Like, you know, the, the college football dominated this weekend. It was, it was shocking all over the country what was happening.

What are you saying, you like it when the good teams aren't that good? Because that's what college football just taught us, is that the— oh, the teams that you thought were so great— excuse me, elite—

Compared to what?

Aren't that elite, right? So that's what excites you. It's like people watch March Madness and like, oh, there were no upsets. I'm like, you like it when it's like—

I hear you.

Chaminade versus the—

No, I hear you. I hear you. But I think I like that there are more stories in college football, more interesting stories.

There's 185 teams. Of course there are more stories.

Okay, but you act like we're coming here talking about James Madison. No, we're talking about the big teams. All right.

There are 8 billion big teams.

You are talking about James Madison if you look at that UCLA roster.

We're talking about the major teams and the big stories coming out of it.

How many major teams are there in college football?

I don't know, maybe like 15, 20, maybe 20.

You're saying James Madison as if they weren't a playoff team last year.

No, I am. Okay, but I'm, but I'm not talking about teams that are outside even the Power 4 conferences. I'm not talking about teams that are in Group of 6. I'm talking about major teams here.

It's like 30 teams in the SEC alone. Like you say, oh, there are more stories. Yeah, because there are more people. This is like when Dan thought that the Waymos are having more accidents because, oh my God, because it's not safe. No, it's because there's way more Waymos. Way more Waymos.

Way more Waymos.

I was in Austin this weekend, Dan. Not only do they have Waymos, they have what's called Robocabs. You know about those Romocabs?

Robo or Romo?

Romo.

Romocabs drive erratically and then end up in a ditch and ruin their career.

Robocab. There were robo-cabs out there. And here's another thing. If you get a Waymo, would you ever sit in the driver's seat? Because I saw people sitting in the driver's seat of the robo-cab.

Yes. Because there's no steering wheel.

Right.

But in a Waymo, you're not allowed to sit in the driver's seat.

Okay. All right. Because I think it's weird if you sit in like where the driver's supposed to be in the robo-cab. I don't know. It feels strange.

Well, you want to— you will sit on the other side.

Yeah.

Or in the backseat.

You're a passenger, see? Yeah, that's what you are. You don't, you don't take control.

I don't like what you're doing.

Paul Feinbaum says, quote, I'm beginning to wonder if Arch Manning should even start. It's embarrassing what Sark has done to Arch Manning, and I wonder if he's going to regret the day that he went to play for Sark.

I mean, Sarkisian said after the game that they have to— when asked specifically about Arch, he said we have to evaluate everything. So that kind of lends to the questioning of, is he considering sitting him?

I understand Arch is a guy lining up under center and he's tougher to defend today, no doubt. This is on Steve Sarkisian. This is on Steve. Steve is a very pedestrian play caller when he doesn't have all the talent in the world. And when it comes to running a program, that guy can't do it. If you remember all the headlines entering this season, you could make an argument that it seems as though Steve Sarkisian might have lost the team before the season already started. He is just— there was a conversation—

He was number 1 2 weeks ago.

Yeah, they were undefeated, number 1.

I'm telling you this, it's Steve Sarkisian's fault right there.

It is.

Arch Manning— like, Arch Manning has a ton of talent. Steve Sarkisian has done a really poor job building this program out, and I don't think he's got the guys that want to fight for him anymore.

Here's what I think is funny about where we are in Arch Manning's career. I don't know how we got here this quickly, but we've arrived here. We have spent just as much time Talking about is he any good as we did talking about is he the best. Ed Orgeron said he's the best recruit that he's ever seen, reminded him of Joe Burrow. That soared. And we have now since spent all of the time since then wondering if he's any good. And this, this stuff, when we talk about quarterback play and how difficult it is to play quarterback in the NFL, okay, it's not just that Brock Purdy was the last pick in the draft. It's not just that Tom Brady was a 5th round pick. It's also that the number 1 high school recruit never ends up being a pro. Like, do you know how a pro quarterback— the number 1 high school quarterback never makes his way through whatever is just the 4 years or 3 years of thicket of college football so that he becomes someone who plays professional football successfully at the NFL level? I believe that what happens here is that the people doing the analysis on this think that they know things and it's just impossibly unscientific.

And there are 1,000 things that can go wrong, including what's happened to Arch Manning at Texas, where he came in with such hype. And now people are wondering whether he could play at all because we spent weeks talking about how can this possibly be the number 1 pick? And now Feinbaum's saying you got to bench him. Like, what are we talking about?

In what—

in what world Does that happen? That's the number one proof of what you've been saying all along, Dan. We don't know what we're watching. We have no idea what we're watching. I, I got the list of all the number one high school rated quarterbacks since the year 2000, and it is damning. 2000, Brock Berlin. 2001, Matt Castle. That's a success story, folks. 2002, Vince Young. 2003, Chris Leak. 2004, Kyle Wright. 2005, Rhett Bomar. 2006, Matthew Stafford.

Okay.

2007, Jimmy Clausen. 2008, Terrell Pryor. He's like those NCAA commercials. He'll go pro in something other than playing quarterback.

Yeah, wide receiver.

Good receiver.

2009, Russell Shepard. 2010, Phil Simms. 2011, Jeff Driscoll. 2012, Gunnar Keel. What a great name. 2013, Max Brown. 2014, Kyle Allen. 2015, Jared Stidham. That's a success story. 2016, Shea Patterson. 2017, Hunter Johnson. 2018, Trevor Lawrence. 2019, DJ Uglele.

Uglele.

There you go. 2020, Bryce Young. 2021, Quinn Ewers. That's a success story. 2022, Quinn Ewers again. What? Ty Simpson. Ty Simpson.

Excuse me.

2023, Arch Manning. So you look at it. You've got Matthew Stafford. All right, that's clear Hall of Famer, right? You've got some guys, Bryce Young, Trevor Lawrence, young guys but like look promising. You've got some guys, Vince Young had a little cup of coffee, and then it's just a bunch of dudes who are either backups or never even made it.

But one of the things that is difficult, uh, about what is in front of Arch Manning is that every single quarterback that had faced Florida had thrown for 250 or more yards. He threw for 173. Florida's, Florida's secondary is porous. Everyone who plays against them who Who isn't regarded as the number 1 prospect in the country throws for more than 250 yards, and he, with all of the athletes that Texas has, can't do anything?

He's holding on to the ball way too long, and the offensive line isn't good enough for what Texas should be.

I've got a way more interesting theory. The curse of Holly Rowe. He did Holly Rowe wrong, and this is the football gods saying, no, no, sir, you shall be done wrong over and over. Lightning bolt, lightning bolt. And he's like, oh, he's all, what's 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.

Folks, listen up. You know what nobody thinks about until it ruins your entire afternoon? Glare. You've got the TV exactly where you want it.

You've got the couch.

You're ready for 7 straight hours of football. And then the sun moves 3 inches and suddenly you're watching the game like this. Like, I'm leaning. I'm Squinting, trying to figure— is that a touchdown? And instead of fixing the actual problems, we'll just live with that. Yeah, around 4:15 you just can't see the TV. No problem. Yes, problem. That's insane.

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Dan Le Batard.

Let's throw it to my boy Jeremy Tashay, who's sidelined right now.

Tash Money.

What you got for me?

Jeremy Tatché.

Thanks, Jax.

This is the Dan Levitan Show.

Let's do the funniest thing from the sports weekend, please.

Hey, people, tell us what in sport made you laugh hardest this weekend. It is a segment we call What Made You Laugh This Weekend. Hahaha!

Saslow, what was the funniest thing from the sports weekend?

Well, I gotta point straight at our boy Roy Bellamy. All right, because we asked him for advice a few days ago.

Advice?

We wanted him to give us someone who would score a pair of goals in an NHL game, and he was not willing to make that wager because it's so rare. It never happens. Well, the Florida Panthers have gone 3 straight games with a player scoring a natural hat trick. That's not 2 goals, Dan, that's 3 goals. And it's the first time in NHL history that that has ever happened. And matter of fact, it's not just 3 natural hat tricks in 3 straight games, it's a total of 4 hat tricks in those 3 games. Roy, that is the funniest thing of the sports weekend.

All right, listen, I said that if I picked a player, they would not score.

Funniest thing from the sports weekend doesn't come with a rebuttal. You had a lock of the week last week, it lost. And, uh, what Zaslav says, historic, of your analysis is correct. You said it never happens, and then what never happens is that the Panthers have 3 straight games with a natural hat trick. I mean, what was the funniest thing from the sports weekend?

Jaylen Brown! He purchased a harp, Dan. You know what a harp is? You know about them harps, Zazz?

A gold harp.

A gold harp. And now he plays a harpist, not a harper, though Zach would be over there. A harpist to come over twice a week to play music as the sun goes down and his personal chef is cooking. We have a video, check it out.

My favorite purchase, I think my best, my most favorite purchase for me was I bought a harp. I bought like a, a gold harp. I got it upstairs too.

What's a harp?

Like the music thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, okay, okay.

So I bought a harp and I got a, a harpist that come play like twice a week while the sun is going down, while the chef is in the kitchen.

This is my favorite thing. He's being interviewed by the rapper Lil Baby and he said, What's a harp? Like a music thing? And he did this with his hands, and I don't know what he thinks a harp is in his mind. Is it like a big violin? I don't know.

Totally relatable. I think everybody understands, uh, what it is to, uh, you know.

You have yours at Sunrise, yes?

A golden harp. Uh, I, I also have a private chef and a golden harp.

I'm looking forward to it.

And my own personal sunset.

Why only twice a week? Why only twice a week?

What are you looking forward to?

I'm looking forward to the next podcast. An NBA player tells me $100 million is not a lot of money.

Uh, Mike, what was the funniest thing from the sports weekend?

Big 12 football, big weekend for them. Here's a lowlight. Player's sock is off, cleat is off, injures his foot. He's being driven around by a West Virginia staffer. This is a Cincinnati football player.

That was a fun game.

And he gets backed into the wall, backed into the wall. Oh my God, painful. Pinched that foot. In between the golf cart and the wall. Agony.

That's wrong, man. Uh, Roy, what was the funniest thing from the sports weekend?

Uh, Aaron Glenn thought that the Jets were going to receive the ball in the second half. He was wrong.

Listen, we're moving the ball. You know, the thing is we just have to finish. Defensively, we just got to do our job. Not just do our job, but do our job well. You know, and that's been the message to our guys. Our guys be ready to go. The good thing is we get the ball, we get a chance to go move it and finish. Defense, when we get back, get a turnover and give it right back to offense. Thank you.

Uh, Jeremy, what was the funniest thing from the sports weekend?

Bucs linebacker Josiah Trotter was trying to trash talk Aaron Rodgers, and his response was, I know your dad and he was better. That's Jeremiah Trotter's son, Josiah.

That's pretty good.

That's pretty good trash talk, man.

I just have the Rams. You lost to a team kicking 6 field goals.

Dan, what should the sideline reporter have done in that Aaron Glenn interview? Should she have corrected him about like, hey, actually you don't get the ball back, or you just let him live?

I think it's fine to just ask the question. You only get 2. You don't want to blow one with the follow-up of, actually, Coach, that's incorrect. You're not getting the ball. And now you're just sitting there staring at each other where he's like, what do you mean? What do you mean I'm not getting the ball in the second half?

Dan, do the Rams have a Matthew Stafford problem?

Uh, the funny thing about the Rams is they've got a kicker problem. I don't know if you were watching yesterday.

Oh, should a game against the Arizona Cardinals be coming down to kicking?

Well, the, the Rams are in a position, Mike, and this is crazy. They've got a league-best advantage of 644 yards this season where they're outgaining the opponents. That's better than anyone, and they're 2-4. And the margins in this sport are so ridiculous that you find yourself in a position when your kicker— you, you You save the fat kicker, Mevis, because he missed a couple of field goals. Otherwise, you could be, you know, just have one loss. But then you bring in Blake Groopy, and he tries to make a tackle on a kick return, and he then injures himself. So you spend the rest of the game worried that you cannot kick a field goal, and you lose to an Arizona team that is now 2-0 in that building this year because they beat the Chargers there as well. An Arizona team that kicked 6 field goals to win the game.

What do you mean they're worried about who's going to kick for them?

Is—

let me ask you something. Was the punter hurt?

The punter is the one who was kicking for them.

Good!

His job's to kick! What's the problem here? The commentary around who's gonna kick the extra point when they took the lead late in the game, that the punter— oh my God, the punter has to kick an extra point. He's a kicker! He's a kicker! What's the problem here?

You're a podcaster. You want to edit the podcast?

They are different jobs.

Oh please, I saw Wes Welker kick field goals during a game. I saw Chad Ochocinco kick a field goal. This guy's—

he's a kicker.

He can't kick a field goal?

He's a punter.

And by the way, and by the way, I'm right because the field goal that he kicked was beautiful. It's right down the middle. Beautiful.

And by the way, I'm right. So you agree with yourself?

Yeah, I do.

Just to be clear.

Good thing for a podcast.

I do. Do I want to edit my podcast? I do edit my podcast. Do everything. You want to buy advertising? I sell it to you. Do everything!

And by the way, I'm right. That the punter kicking field goals is—

Ridiculous!

He uses his leg for a living, but that's not how he uses his leg!

To be fair, I'm gonna, I'm gonna play Zazz's advocate here. Imagine the salary cap implications of eliminating one position, combining it into one person! You punt and you kick, I'm paying less for both.

They should!

And now we got an extra roster spot too! Nobody's gotta get cut now!

I'll tell you what, if they wanted to make it a thing where like, oh my God, Stetson Bennett, the backup quarterback, he's gotta hold now, he never holds, I'm willing to hear you out as that being a bit of a dangerous situation. Alright? But the punter having to step in and kick an extra point? Get the hell out of here.

Guys, think about this. You've got your backup quarterback as the holder. It's a long field goal. Oh no, it's not! It's a long snap and the guy punts it instead! And they go back and they pin him back inside the death box or whatever, under 5 yards.

The death box.

The death box? I mean, you've been having trouble with words this morning.

Death box.

You just made it the death box?

Yeah, when someone dies, you put them in a death box.

That's right.

And then you burn—

well. And then Roy shows up 2 hours late. I missed— I failed to point out a couple of things from professional football, from the NFL yesterday, that were also funny. The call on Reuben Bain's sack in the game. The announcer said, and Reuben Bain with the sack, we have proof of life. That's not great.

Wow.

And then also Mike McCarthy spending halftime in the medical tent because he couldn't walk back to the locker room where his team could have used some halftime adjustments because he He sprained his ankle because he was just sitting in the medical tent all of halftime and they didn't need him. It didn't matter. The Steelers came back and won without, without his help. The first, first-place Cleveland Browns is also a funny sentence to utter. They haven't been in first place this deep in a season for 12 years.

Does Myles Garrett wish he was on the Browns?

How confused is he?

It was his fault all along.

Well, they're scoring 13 points to beat the backup quarterback of the Ravens.

What's weird is like, Deshaun Watson is both better than I guess we thought he would be after Week 1, but also isn't doing much. He's just doing— he's just doing most of his damage when they need him most, which is, you know, helpful. It's a lot more than we expected.

Okay, but that's— this is a crazy stat though, to say in that league that for 12 years the Browns haven't been in first place this deep in a season. We're third through the season. Like, we Played 6 games.

It's not like it's Week 14.

I mean, it's 12 years and they're 4-2 and they're tied, right? They're not even in first place by themselves.

They got the tiebreaker.

They've got the tiebreaker. Um, the, the things from yesterday that, uh, were most interesting from the NFL, I think you start with the Rams losing because the Rams being 2-4 when their offense is fine enough but didn't do much of anything yesterday. When you're watching the 49ers, like, they're, they're going to put an insurmountable distance between themselves and the Rams here very shortly because this is a catastrophe at the start of the Rams season given what the expectations were.

The Rams have no chance to win the division. Now it has to be about, can we at some point get into wild card contention? They are 4 back and right now don't have the tiebreak. Which, by the way, last time we ever have to talk about this, but the nonsense that Sean McVay and the Rams played the Australia travel situation wrong, that's why they lost. No, no, you lost because the 49ers are really good and you stink. Like, that's why they lost. They didn't lose because of the travel situation. The Rams are not good.

Well, but you can say the Rams are not good, but they haven't been blown out like that in 2 years.

They just lost to the Cardinals.

Yeah, but they don't lose games by 20 points. They don't lose 27-7.

But you're a bad team.

also don't win many games. And I do think that— I think Stafford does look a little diminished, and he's older. He's at that age where the things start to happen that way. And baked into this was that the MVP was just going to roll back into town and not be a lesser version, and he seems pretty diminished compared to what we saw last year.

They should trade him. They should trade Matthew Stafford. They have a first-round pick in Ty Simpson, who's their guy for the future. They're 2-4.

They're not going to— What's the team that's like a quarterback away from being a playoff team?

The Giants are in first place.

I'm not even sure they go to Ty Simpson next.

He's better than J.J. McCarthy. He's better than Jameis Winston.

McCarthy was pretty good.

Well, yeah, but doesn't that just show you what a competent quarterback could do with those skill position players?

Please don't make J.J. McCarthy a competent quarterback.

My point, he's not.

He's only had 2 good quarters and one of them was yesterday. Admittedly, 240 yards in 11 minutes is nuts. He's got more throws downfield than Kyler Murray does, and he played a quarter. Like, he's thrown the ball 40 yards downfield, and those are great skill guys that the Giants do have.

That's a team that could use him, Minnesota.

Skadubou didn't— Skadubou was essentially benched yesterday, didn't do anything after his fumble, and Jim Harbaugh is saying that he is, he is not benched. But let's talk for a second, just real quick, when he's mentioned Stafford. Did you guys know that CJ Stroud threw his first interception yesterday? The thing that's happening at that position Is that you can't throw interceptions. And CJ Stroud is 2-4 even though yesterday was his first interception. They beat Jacksonville in the game's— the day's most entertaining game was the first one when Jacksonville and Houston are playing, and Houston was able to do something against the Jacksonville defense that nobody has been able to do. You realize that Jacksonville before yesterday hadn't allowed a 40-yard rusher this season?

40?

Had not allowed before yesterday anyone to rush for 40 yards in a game. So what's happened with Stafford this year is that he's been inaccurate. Inaccurate for him, inaccurate compared to an MVP. But the premium being placed on do not turn the ball over is why Jameis Winston is now out of a job. And Harbaugh is saying flatly, he's saying, we haven't, we haven't even considered— Benching Jameis after benching Jameis. Haven't— I haven't even thought about it.

It's not—

it's not—

hasn't been talked about at all. Nobody's discussed it. We haven't talked about it. But JJ McCarthy just had 240 yards in 11 minutes, which is something I haven't seen a whole lot of. I don't know, how often have you guys seen 240 yards in 11 minutes? Usually the other team has the ball for some of those 11 minutes. Like, he came in in the 4th quarter and changed the way the Giants looked because Likely and Nabers seem pretty impossible to guard, the two of them. And so J.J. McCarthy, all of a sudden in New York, is viewed as something of a solution, even though literally we've seen him play 2 good quarters of NFL football. One of them was on a Monday night when he won a game in the 4th quarter. And the one was this last one that we just saw most recently.

But it's—

but it's Jameis is the other option. That's what's at work here, right? It's not like, oh my God, J.J. McCarthy is so amazing. Is he better than Jameis? I think we owe it to ourselves to at least give it a shot, see what happens.

Like, they didn't trade for McCarthy for nothing. Like, they, they traded for him because they want what they saw yesterday. And the other option's Jameis.

Dan Le Batard.

You're gonna go to Buffalo with Bernie Parmele.

Mike Ryan.

And the Jags.

This is the Dan Le Batard Show.

I want to talk a little bit I want to talk a little bit more, though, about the Jacksonville and Houston game because Travis Hunter has announced himself. Okay. He had 4 receptions. He had a pick in the end zone that was CJ Stroud's first pick. And he's been better than any corner in the league in man coverage. Like, he's, he's grown up into an adult and all the things that people thought of him. It took a couple of years, but all of the things that people thought of him are true. Travis Hunter is somebody who's an extraordinary athlete, even among extraordinary athletes. Jacksonville, again, in the last 3 games— and I keep talking about this— they've got 32 penalties in their last 3 games. They cannot stop doing illegal things.

I know you say it, it's taken him a couple of years. He missed almost all of last season, and yesterday was Week 6. Like, he really has played very little football.

Oh, but what I'm saying though, it's not just the things that are noticeable to everybody. Yes, when a cornerback has 4 catches and is used as a wide receiver who's more successful than Brian Thomas, their number 1 pick, and when he has a game— well, a game-influencing interception in the end zone, those are the obvious things. Less obvious is in-man coverage. No corner is better this year, period. Like, you put him in man and he's doing Deion Sanders types of, uh, type of things in man coverage. Uh, but can you guys— do you guys— there are a couple of things in football that I'm willing to get rid of and one thing that I want more of. First of all, defensive backs, the sheathing of the sword. Stop. Just stop. You make a play and you take your sword and you sheathe it. I just don't need any more of it.

How do they do that?

You think it celebrates violence?

No, it's not because I'm offended by it. I just think it's redundant. Every guy is doing it. And they need to stop doing it. They all take their imaginary sword and sheath it.

Is your culture their costume, or what's happening here? Because this right here, first of all, this is not a—

Do you think that this is them doing something with a sword? No, it's a seatbelt.

Well, I thought it was a sledgehammer.

I thought it was a shovel. I thought it was a shovel, and they're like— I think it's a sledgehammer.

Which one is it? Go ahead and tell me which one it is. You can correct me on this one too.

The peekaboo?

The peekaboo?

We can stop doing that too if we're wide But something I need more of— Jacksonville's mascot, when Houston made the field goal to win the game, Jacksonville's mascot collapsed on the floor on a game-winning field goal. I need more of that with my football. I need the mascot being crushed more often. I did think it was the sheathing of the sword.

No, no, it's the seatbelt. They're strapped in tight. Strap in tight for the coverage.

Wouldn't a seatbelt be more appropriate for a safety? Because it's a safety belt, right?

Put it on the poll @LevitardShow. Is the cornerback sheathing a sword or is he tightening a seatbelt?

You had him as swashbuckler?

It's like, haha! Yes, yes, that is—

and now I shall return my sword from whence it came.

Well, now that I think about it, mine is cooler than a seatbelt. Like, I, I like— I don't like either of the celebrations, but I like mine better than a seatbelt.

But they're in coverage and they're strapping in I think it's a sledgehammer.

I still think it's a shovel.

And by the way, I'm right!

Yeah, that is a good name for a podcast, uh, Zaslav, if you want to start a new podcast. And by the way, I'm right. I agree with myself.

And by the way, I'm right! You know what's another one I don't like? This happened on Thursday Night Football last week when the Broncos kicked the field goal to win at the end. The kicker was running around at home, mind you, shushing the crowd. Why are you shushing the home crowd? You won the game. They're cheering. They're happy.

That means someone was chirping. A guy does that, that means he heard some chirping and he's like, you know what? I'm gonna silence those chirps.

Calais Campbell had a sack yesterday at the age of 40 years old. Uh, that is something that doesn't happen a whole lot in the NFL.

Well, thank you, man.

Thank you.

You're welcome, Calais. Uh, 40 years old and he had a sack and Baltimore loses at Cleveland. You mentioned that the games yesterday weren't very good. There were 5 teams in the 1 o'clock hour who were getting shut out. I mean, Philadelphia is in a world of hurt. The Chargers— A world of hurts. The Chargers are really bad, and Zaslow is going to have to eat the commentary that he called Harbaugh the greatest coach ever. Harbaugh is going to have to eat the commentary that he said that before it would be said in All was said and done, that Justin Herbert would be the best quarterback ever. And now he's just got interceptions in every game that he's played this year, and their offense is incompetent, and Harbaugh's not answering questions about Mike McDaniel. Let's hear Jim Harbaugh in his own words before the season.

Justin Herbert, when it's all said and done, when his, when his career comes to I predict he will be known as the, the greatest, best ever to play the position of quarterback.

Greatest quarterback.

When it's all said and done and his career is finished, we're gonna look back and say, yep, that's the best that ever did it.

Coach, those are strong words, and you know people are going to be all over them.

Call my shot.

You called it that shot, Coach. That's how you're supposed to call it. Now, how much is Coach McDaniels going to help him get there?

He saw the same thing. in Justin Herbert. And, uh, the way those two, the way those two, they're, they're football smart, the, um, and book smart too. I mean, you got a Yale grad and a 4.0 guy. I mean, they're, they're, you might say, how smart are they, coach? Well, how smart are they? They're so smart, Michael, that I wish I knew how smart they were.

You know, that's a good measure for smart. Uh, he's 7 years into his career, like, and it's, it's been an okay career, but not like Oh, it's on the precipice of being one of the best ever.

Not a single playoff win.

So like, how do you— let's do this. Forget about what's happened this season. What type of career would Justin Herbert need to have starting from his 7th year in order to, by the end of his career, be known as the greatest quarterback of all time?

At least 5 Super Bowls. Right?

Like in a row.

So stupid.

Throwing 4,000 yards a year and like 40 touchdowns and 3 interceptions.

So stupid.

He's still not better than Brady if he does that. If he were to do that, if he were to win the next 5 Super Bowls in a row, put on the poll at Le Batard Show, if Justin Herbert were to win the next 5 Super Bowls in a row, would he be better than Tom Brady?

Mike McDaniel's going to be fired today.

I think—

why does Adam Gase keep skating? He's the passing coach.

There's a pretty good chance that you're right because Harbaugh wasn't answering questions about that yesterday.

And, and they have a bye. This coming weekend. He's, he's going to be fired today.

And their offense looks so very bad for a number of different reasons. But we haven't even talked about something that I feel like was pretty seismic yesterday. Caleb Williams, pretty important, pretty important to everything it is the Chicago Bears are doing.

We have a big break in NFL news.

A statement from Jalen Hurts's His agent, Nicole Lynn, says that Jalen Hurts is going to be going on blood thinners. There's deeper conversation about the initial diagnosis in his left calf, but basically he now has a deep vein thrombosis as well as a bilateral pulmonary emboli. He'll be going on blood thinners. They expect a full recovery, but no football activities for the time being while he's on blood thinners. And Ian Rapoport is saying that he'll be out an estimated 3 months as he undergoes treatment.

So the blood thinners— remember, we had this conversation around Chris Bosh and we're like, well, he plays a sport that has some danger to it, but, you know, thankfully it's not football. You can't play.

I mean, this sounds like it's career-threatening.

Yeah.

Did they just tell us his career's over?

I mean, look, it's not a permanent thing, right? Like Wemby was on blood thinners he had.

If it happens again, you have to be on them.

Yeah, exactly. So, so a second occurrence is like, okay, now this is something that you need to stay on the meds. But if it clears up and it doesn't have another resurgence, he can come back and play. It absolutely will not be this year though.

Well, when we're talking about his play, I think the first place that we should be is on his general health, because that is fairly calamitous news for a young person who wants to be making a living in sports. I would also say, as I've been saying here for a couple of weeks, it's really hard to keep these people healthy now. It seems like it's harder than it has ever been. I mean, Michael Penix is now going to be out again with Atlanta. You're going all throughout that league and you, you have all over the place all of these injuries. And the one thing that we're not talking about is Josh Allen never missed And he's still out there running around in the pocket and then flipping the ball 15 yards underhanded because he gets to play a different sport than everyone else. That, that is awesome. And that play was awesome. I also can see their, their season ending on a play like that where we're talking all offseason about why did Josh Allen do this thing where he's running around and spinning in the pocket? But before we just move on to other games, right?

But what he just said, Jalen Hurts, okay, is the rare athlete whose story we start covering in college. And we learn of him and Tua at the same time. They're products of a different age, back when Alabama won all the championships without good quarterbacks. And then Nick Saban figured out, hey, what if I do this with good quarterbacks? Won't it even be easier if I do this with good quarterbacks? So Jalen Hurts is somebody Who we're all aware of and we have spent his entire career arguing about. Is he good or is he not good? Is he good because they've got Pro Bowlers all along the offensive line and they've got all this skill position help with Barkley and everybody else? You know, this is heartbreaking news in a calamitous season for Philadelphia. Whether, you know, you're arguing for the last couple of seasons about whether or not he's a franchise quarterback or not, he was a champion quarterback. And every time I hear the broadcasters talking about him, all they're talking about is poised leadership winner, poised leadership winner. I don't think that on blood thinners that that is a sport that you can play for a long time without worrying about an assortment of issues.

You cannot play that sport on blood thinners. That's not like, I don't know how, like, you cannot play that sport on blood thinners.

It specifically says that he's not allowed to participate in any contact activities, including football. For what it's worth. They added that he's clinically stable, he has no significant functional limitations, the prognosis is good, they expect a full recovery and no long-term effects. But same thing.

Chris Bosh said he felt fine.

That's right. They said very similar things for Chris Bosh. And yeah, if it happens again, you're on lifetime blood thinners and you're obviously impossible to play that sport on blood thinners. This is a, a really horrific thing to happen to that's been to 2 Super Bowls, won one, um, and was— had a big season in front of him to change an ongoing narrative that had popped up recently. And that's really— that's such a bummer. It's tough.

A brutal, brutal Philadelphia Eagles season somehow keeps getting worse.

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