Transcript of The Latest Damning Report on CTE and the NFL | Hour 3

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

How mad is Dan going to be that the NFL and CTE— there's this new study that— I get emotional when I think about missing things. How upset are you going to be when he wasn't here when this new study about football players and CTE came out.

Even more mad that ESPN did a good job covering it.

Did they?

Yeah, much better than we did.

It's, it's funny, you know, before, before you get to their coverage, Greg, you know, when, when I was, when I was younger, when I was a kid, I wasn't allowed to play football. I played basketball, I played baseball. My parents would not let me play tackle football. Now I probably wouldn't have anyway, I was small, but I wasn't—

I missed out.

Well, could have been, but I wasn't allowed to play tackle football because the fear back then in late '80s, then into '90s, was always the spinal cord injuries. That was the big fear.

Keep fighting.

Paralysis.

You're gonna be okay. Look at me, I'm here for you.

Mm-hmm.

I won't call attention to it one bit.

Filling.

Yeah, see, it's not just me. Thank you, Zazz.

So the spinal cord injuries—

You righted the ship.

I know, we're good. Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone.

You're welcome.

I'm a good teammate.

And now, like, we never, never considered head injuries. And now, not that it's changed as if spinal cord injuries are not a thing anymore.

No, but that's— you're right on the money there. When I, when I was growing up, it was all about, you know, it's a real paralysis, a real fear.

And now it's all about head injuries, which of course isn't something that can necessarily— the fear with the head injuries is what it's gonna look like in the future, you know, it's not what's gonna happen to you now. Paralysis, spinal cord injuries, that's still very much a thing, you know, that hasn't softened a bit, but nobody talks about that anymore, it's all about the head injuries.

Well, there, there's a visceral thing with the, the neck injuries, but what's so scary about what's going on with head injuries and CTE Yeah, you can identify and cherry-pick individual hits. When Tua's lying on the Cincinnati turf, you're like, well, that's going to come up and bite him. But there's so little that we know about the repeated, um, actions of football. And now with this study, which is terrifying, because if you read the report from this, uh, the, this medical journal that did this, um, this report, there were some, uh, doctors that were of the belief that No, it's way higher than what they said, which is 1 in 4.

1 in 4 was basically what they landed on, which feels like a lot in and of itself. 1 in 4.

1 in 4 is horrific.

Feels really high.

Yeah, that's really scary. And I don't think it's going to change anything, even though ESPN did a really good job covering it yesterday. I think when it comes to football, we're going to start treating this like cigarette smoking. The people that do it understand everything. It's been made very clear generationally. It's been hammered into their heads. This is bad for you. It in all likelihood will undo your health in some sort of profound way.

But I don't think it's coincidental that the NFL has poured millions and millions of dollars into flag football and developing flag football as a, as a national sport, an Olympic sport.

Fast-growing sport.

Yeah, because I think over time If CTE is not solved and if all of a sudden 1-4 becomes 2-4, over time football, tackle football, is going to become less and less popular.

I mean, there, there are really, really stark changes that have already come to the league. Like, I can't— having a world in which they're wearing these huge helmet guards, aesthetically the game is going to look different, I think, a generation from now, no doubt, because this is super dangerous. The way that Look, you go to different countries, the warning labels on cigarettes are, are horrific, really jarring images, and people still reach for them. It's so ingrained in American culture that it's going to take several decades for us to break our obsession with the way the sport looks. And I think culturally, people are going to see the health risks. They've become more and more clear as the years have gone by, and people still make the decision to go through with it, like cigarette smoking. And not unlike cigarette smoking, like, we can admit it's bad for us, but God, we look cool doing it.

Let's bring in our friend Jessica Smatana, the Notre Dame Weekly, Notre Dame podcast, The Echoes. Of course she does with Mike Golick Jr. Jess, do you ever feel bad when you're watching NFL, you see a guy maybe, you know, head hit It's probably gonna be a concussion, he leaves the game. Like, knowing the things that we know now, do you ever feel bad? Like, has it changed the way that you watch? 'Cause I'll, I'll get out in front of it first, it has not really changed the way that I watch. Like, I understand the head injuries are bad, but nobody's forcing anyone to play football in the same way, you know, you can get broken bones when you play football. I'm glad that we have the information that we have. I'm glad the players know this risk. But it's the same thing where, yeah, like the same way you could break, you know, tear your knee, you can get a bruise on your brain. Do you want to play football? Oh, you do? Okay, great. Well, you know, here you have the information. We have free will and you can play football. It hasn't really changed the way that I watch the game.

Yes, it's definitely impacted the way I've watched the games as, and it definitely is something that I think about a lot, especially because I cover football for a living and like, what part am I playing in this? And like, do the players have all the information or is there still stuff that they should know about the risk that they're putting themselves through? Through. And I think if there were safety measures that were continued to be taken by the different football leagues, I would never, as someone who's not putting my body on the line, argue with that. Like, you see people in the comments all the time being like, this isn't real football, back in my day, blah, blah, blah. Well, we know more now, and I'm not going to argue with people that are trying to make it safer if there is a way to make it safer. And that ultimately is, I think, firmly up for debate.

I think the part that people probably argue with, you know, the whole, hey, this is not real football, that, that's stupid, okay? We, we should try to be safe. But I think the part that people argue with is when, you know, the player wants to play, he wants to go back in the game. I'm fine, I'm okay, I'm an adult. And the, you know, league, if you will, has rules where they're not allowing you to go back in the game. Like, I think that's the part Whether it's the right way to look at it or not, I think that's the part that probably a lot of fans look at and don't like.

Right. But it's also a very temporary fix, right? It doesn't eliminate CTE or concussions or anything. It just sort of makes it better for that game.

Uh, Trista, I want to bring this up with Jess here because I think she wanted to— I think she mentioned that she wanted to talk about this as well. But you were telling me about this yesterday, Trista, this commercial that's out there, right? This Callaway ad that we saw, which people are out there apologizing for now. Can you explain this to us? What happened here?

Sure. So there's a— I would call it like a bro network, creator network called Good Good. They got super popular during, I think, the pandemic. They sell a golf brand and they sell a lot of merch. And they did a Callaway collaboration to put out a driver and They put out a commercial to promote said driver that apparently Callaway says they didn't know anything about and weren't responsible for producing. And as soon as they put the commercial out, uh, there was some major backlash. Some folks in the back think play on, uh, in the video room. I'll let you guys be the judge. I want, I want Jess, Jess to sound off on it as well.

All right, so let's give this a watch here. Here's the beginning of the, of the ad. So it's a woman, she's reaching for a driver. Do not touch my new driver. A guy runs in, he trucks her, and then warns her not to touch his new driver.

I don't know if it's a warn if it's already happened. It's a threat.

It's a threat.

And he tackled her. Tackled the shit out of her. But equality.

And so people got mad about this.

They issued a retraction.

Yep, they go ahead. I— sorry, Trista, I didn't— I didn't mean to interrupt you. Um, Zazz, do you— could you tell what this ad is supposed to be satirizing?

No, I have no idea.

Okay, apparently it's supposed to be satirizing Obsession. Oh, that's what I read. That's what I read earlier today.

Is that not one—

is that not true?

I didn't get that. I've seen Obsession.

I don't know, Trista, have you seen Obsession?

I haven't. I'm not a scary movie person.

Yeah, neither am I. Okay, I just saw this ad and I saw Obsession. I didn't think I saw that ad, anything about Obsession, I thought I saw a dude trucking a girl and I don't remember that part of Obsession.

Right.

It wasn't even hilarious. I was just like, what is this I'm watching?

Yeah.

Is it like the guy is under the spell then from Obsession and he loves it?

I don't know. I honestly, I think it's part of a longer ad. I didn't really get into it too deeply because I don't really think they're— it's bad. If it is satire, it's bad satire and I don't understand it. And like there's Probably no defense you can make for it other than like, this was a bad creative decision. And Callaway has put out, I think, multiple statements at this point. And like the most recent one, they were like, we should have, we should have said something before this went public. We need to do some, quote, mistakes were made, unquote. We need to do some digging on how this got out there because this should not have passed muster with our advertising team.

Yeah, I mean, he— trucks are pretty good.

Golf Galaxy has taken all of the Good Good merch off of their shelves. And congratulations to Golf Channel. They have— there's a Big Break TV show that they did in collaboration with Good Good. They're going to postpone it a week, see how it all goes down, see how it plays out.

Yeah, this is just one of those things where there's, there's a lot going on here, Zaz, because there's, you know, obviously a lot of tension between legacy media and like new media, YouTube, social media, like creators, all of that's at play. Golf, we know, more of an old man's sport, a more strict, stingy kind of demure sport. And then there's all these like new younger people trying to get people into the game and be, you know, more exciting and upbeat. And they have these YouTube channels, and this group has over 2 million followers, and they do have some female creators as part of their network apparently too. And, and the guy in that video is one of the co-founders, and the woman is someone who is part of the network. So I've read— I was not familiar with this group. You guys know I, I do dabble in golf. I, I am, I am a golfer. And so this is an unfortunate way for me to find out about this channel. But there's also like part of me that kind of feels a little bad because I'm like, they're so over their skis trying to make an ad here.

They're not an ad agency. They were ultimately like, Callaway should be getting, I think, most of the blame here because they let this slide. They let this go out there into the world, and they are like the established decades-old golf brain involved. But then part of me is like, no, this is such a bad idea. Like, this is no— it's not funny at all. I don't know how anyone is defending it. And then like you get to the point where you're like, well, what do you do about this now? Like, should people get Fired? Should they cut ties with this group entirely? Apparently, um, Dick's— sorry, I just ate a peanut butter jelly sandwich. Apparently Dick's is like pulling their merch off the shelves.

What kind of bread?

Gluten-free bread. It's not bad, actually.

You cut the crust?

That's fine.

No.

Okay.

Um, I tried gluten-free Uncrustables last week. I remembered that I don't have the patience for them to thaw.

I tried Uncrustables for the first time in my life, like 6, 8 months ago. I can't believe what I was missing. I love them now.

They're really— yeah, I mean, they're phenomenal. The gluten-free ones, not as much. Anyways, it's kind of like, what do we do? We're now in like the, I don't know, 6th day of backlash to this ad because again, it is, it is that bad where it's like, how did this get made? How did this— like, how did so many people see this and it still ended up on the internet? Um, but apparently they're sponsoring a PGA Tour event in like 2 months. So what is gonna happen now? Like, what, what happens to this What happens to this YouTube channel? What happens to Callaway? I don't know.

Down, Levitar!

I do agree with Greg, though.

Why are you talking so slow?

Why are you talking so slow? The Dolphins need to win this opener.

It's 'cause you can hear yourself. It's kind of awkward.

Greg.

What do you mean?

Greg, do you have a Back in My Day?

A what?

Greg Cody!

I stand behind Greg for not doing Back in My Days anymore. Y'all have him singing songs and doing so many ancillary things That is ridiculous and you know it.

Talk faster.

Why are you talking so slow?

I'm talking at my normal speed. This is, uh, yeah, my wife loves this deep sexy voice, I'll tell you that.

There you go.

How would you talk to her with it?

Yeah, baby.

This is the Dan Levitar Show.

Jess, uh, let's get some thoughts from you on the SEC yesterday, where the SEC a couple of days ago put out a very, very soft launch of, uh, uh, rules, uh, and when it comes to allowing professional athletes to come back to school for a 5th year, they didn't really do anything. It was like a soft launch, right? They dipped their toe in with that statement. And then the Big Ten yesterday came out with a real statement. And so the SEC then followed suit and they voted 16 to none. All member schools voted to not allow, uh, the bullshit to actually go forward. Uh, so A, what did you make of it? And B, my question here was, if it's 16 to nothing, the unanimous vote, that means LSU voted in favor of not having the bullshit Like, what changed? They're the ones who were spearheading the bullshit.

Well, Daz, would you believe that in the history of college football, there's a bunch of schools that have agreed to rules, but then when the rules are applied to them, don't want to actually follow them? That has been kind of the history of the NCAA. And this SEC doing this is like, I think, sort of a soft launch of their proposed, like, self-governance model that they've been meeting about for the last, like, few months. Like, okay, if we don't get this legislation passed, passed the Protect College Sports Act. Like, can we actually have our own rules and will people follow them? But like this, like everything else, is going to get challenged in court because none of this is collectively bargained. And so there's a ton of, you know, federal laws in play here. So to be honest with you, like, this is my least favorite part about college sports is how much we get bogged down in the minutiae, especially in the offseason. So I'm very excited that there's finally some real games this weekend because when push comes to shove, like, I, I agree that it's ridiculous that you could play in, like, sign with the Browns and play in preseason, whatever, and then go back to college.

But this is also a really small number of players that this is affecting because they didn't know the NCAA was going to change the eligibility rules and that they were going to be left out of it. And I just, like, don't care. Like, I, I'm just ready for the season to start, and I am done caring too much about this right now.

I, I think, I think this conversation, I think it really goes away one, maybe not this weekend with, you know, just a couple games, but the real Week 1 next weekend, Greg, I, I think this conversation kind of goes away.

I, I think fans resent the player who changes his mind like that and takes advantage of what is an, uh, loopholes really. I mean, if you're on an NFL roster, if you appear in an NFL game the gall of wanting to go back to your college team. Nobody wants that. I don't think—

I think you would do the same thing, though, Greg, if you were in this position. Like, you're not good enough to make an NFL roster. Like, we're not talking about these are the best players coming back, like Fernando Mendoza is coming back to Indiana even though he's on the Raiders. Oh my God. Like, we're talking about kind of like fringe NFL players, guys that probably weren't going to find themselves on a roster that were left out of this eligibility change because of the timing. And the NCAA knew this was going to happen. And some people think this is like a conspiracy to get people to support the Protect College Sports Act. I don't know if it's that. I don't know if they're that savvy or if they just are slow to change and knew that this would get challenged in court and it'd affect a few dozen players and then it would kind of be the end of it. But I don't know if I— again, like, if maybe I'll change my mind once the season starts. If, if one of these players ends up being the star of a team that wins a national championship game, like, yeah, maybe.

And it's not my team, but I, I don't know. I just find it really hard to get that worked up over it because of the complications of this scenario.

Yeah, it's a classic hate the, uh, the game, not the player situation. Yeah, these are young adults who probably was on the fence about all their decision-making, uh, decisions, whatever you call it, in the first place. You got it.

He did.

So yeah, we shouldn't be mad at them.

They were treated unfairly in that the COVID people got the extra year of eligibility The NCAA has since ruled 5 years for everybody in the 20s. You could see this coming. And like, the, the cynic in me thinks that the NCAA did see this coming and actually decided that the mess is good for their bottom line, which is get past this unjust, not collectively bargained Save College Sports Act.

Yeah, but and again, like, this is the, this is the worst part about college sports. I hate it so much. I don't want to read a bill. That's not why I got into this. I want to watch Hawaii and Stanford on Saturday night.

I, I agree with that, but the athlete and his agent and his parents and all his advisors have months and months to decide whether they're entering the draft, right?

But they didn't have— they didn't, they didn't. Yeah, that's not what happened because they didn't— the NCAA changed the eligibility rules after that decision was made, and the NCAA knew this would happen. And they, I assume, knew this would lead to what is happening right now.

I'm just like, zero blame, zero blame. I understand the optics are on them. And how could you? Isn't that weird if you put on a Browns uniform one week and then you're in an LSU uniform?

No, it's ridiculous. I agree.

It's not their fault. It's the NCAA's fault. This was— if they had any type of leadership, this was the most obvious thing that was going to happen with the 2022 class. And if you're a player that's on the fringes of the NFL, You would have liked clarity on this sooner. Now, could you say maybe a player could have challenged this earlier? We had players on Miami that were, were trying to see about this to see if the 2022 class was going to be screwed. But the, the, the NFL process is such that you kind of have to make that decision quick. As I highlighted yesterday, Markel Bell, who's doing really well at the next level, would have been back at Miami had this thing been clarified earlier on.

So do you agree or disagree that major conferences should have the right to say, nope, we won't take you back?

I, I think one thing that we've learned from this summer with this and the Sorsby thing, it's that the schools are in charge because the NCAA has zero teeth legally. They lose every case that they have. And if, if we were up to court rulings, the NCAA, Sorsby would be playing right now. So The inmates are running the asylum to a very large degree. Sometimes that is perceived as a bad thing if you're viewing it through a traditional prism. But also the inmates got it right when it came to Sorsby and this one. I think most people consensus would agree it's a little ridiculous that a dude can get 2 sacks for the Tampa Bay Bucs one week and then go into the transfer portal the next.

Yeah, flatly ridiculous. But also, Greg, like, these are players that I— and it's a little late in the game to— and, you know, there's the cap air quotes and all NIL and everything like that. But like, yeah, if you can make money to play an extra year in college, maybe it helps your future NFL prospects. Again, I, I doubt it in some cases because these are players that played 4 years in college and, you know, they're older players for the most part. So I don't know if that's a real consideration. But if you get one more year of wages or NIL or whatever it is playing in college that you wouldn't have gotten because you didn't make an NFL team, then yeah, I, I I don't think I can blame you, but I also acknowledge it is completely ridiculous and it sucks that the players are wearing it when this is really just a decades-long NCAA flaw. Because when— as soon as schools started getting millions of dollars for their television rights back in the '80s and '90s, that was when there should have been some acknowledgment that, huh, it's weird that the players don't see any of this money, right?

And here we are still talking about collective bargaining. And if that were a thing in a contract, once you you sign with an NFL team or declare for a draft, you're no longer eligible to play college sports, then yeah, I'd be like, well, you agreed to that. We all— we all— this is a CBA, it's collectively bargained. But this is not the case. That's not how it's working right now.

We hold them to this strange standard. For, for example, if I'm a regular college student, there have been countless examples of people who went to school, joined the workforce, decide I'm going to go back to school. They are not met with any judgment whatsoever. Whatsoever. And these people have legal reasons to be like, I can go back, I have more eligibility, I can't. And they're actually getting paid to go. Yet there's a lot of, a lot of moral grandstanding when it comes with it. That is a little unfair when you just compare it to gen pop.

Yeah, I don't know. The whole thing is obnoxious, but Memphis UNLV, at 10 o'clock on Saturday. Yeah, so that's what I'm excited for.

Dan Levitar.

I heard that as a woman faking, uh, pain. I, I didn't think that sounded real. I really didn't.

You know, it was not fake. It was in no way fake.

You can spot a woman faking it, Greg Cody.

Yes, I can, Jess. I've been married 40 years.

This is the Dan Levitar Show.

We have an ongoing storyline, all right, that has come from this Daquan Wright Cleveland Browns LSU situation. And I wanna— I want you to follow along here with us, Jess. On Monday, all right, we, we heard from Todd Munkin, who— the head coach of the Cleveland Browns, who spoke about this Daequan Wright situation. At this point, they'd put him on waivers, and if he cleared waivers, he was going to— which he did— he would then go and sign with LSU. So Here, let me take you back a couple days ago. Here was Todd Monken, head coach of the Cleveland Browns, telling you how he had a missed call from Lane Kiffin.

I mean, I don't know what to say. I mean, you know, I wondered why Lane Kiffin reached out a week ago. Now I know. I mean, you know, now I know. I didn't call him back. Now I guess I should have. Appreciate you. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. So Todd Monken there is saying, all right, you know, That's why Lane Kiffin was calling me. Uh, you know, he was— he wanted— he's poaching my player.

I should have called him back.

Should have called him back. I thought it was originally weird. You don't have 60 seconds? Lane Kiffin— you have a message from Lane Kiffin, you don't have 60 seconds? Seriously, to call him back?

Why wouldn't you call him back?

Weird, right? Really strange. So the next day, of course, Lane Kiffin at his media availability in Baton Rouge was asked about the phone call that he made to Todd Monken.

There's some inaccuracies in that story, but I don't know, maybe someone else called him and said they were me, you know. So, um, I actually don't know Todd, um, so I guess somebody left him a text or called that was me because I don't know where I have his number.

Now you can say that Lane Kiffin is, uh, kind of a douchebag, whatever, but, uh, I don't think he's lying there. That looks like someone who doesn't know who Todd Monken is.

Yeah, but that call is so traceable though. I mean, any call into a head football coach's office, that number is going to be traceable. You know, he may have a burner phone or whatever, I don't know, but it's tough to say you didn't make that call.

Are you saying that they're monitoring calls for— on a cell phone for college football coaches? Are you out of your mind? Or NFL coaches?

Okay, let's say a crime is involved here, a major crime is involved. You don't think the cops have access to that number?

Well, they have access to every number.

Okay. So what I'm saying is, if you're Todd Monken's guy, you look at his list of numbers. What I'm saying is the Browns can prove whether or not a call came from a number associated with Lane Kiffin.

Well, this story continues now.

It's easy to trace.

Okay.

So Todd Monken claims that Lane Kiffin called him, doesn't know why, assumes it was because of Daquan Wright.

I'm like a dog with a bone on this one.

Then Lane Kiffin— Then Lane Kiffin says, I don't know Todd Monken, nor do I have his phone number. So now, obviously, yesterday Todd Monken was now going to be asked what the hell is going on.

One of our staff had said that they'd gotten a text. I should have followed through with it. Maybe they meant someone from their staff, right? That's on me. Should not throw someone's name out there without what? Following through with it, right? I was just making light of it. I really, I was really not trying to make a big thing of it. It was just like, man, what this world we've come to. And I shouldn't have thrown that out there, right? Like to me, hey, I can't control this, right? I was just, it was almost silliness and goofiness. Like really, this is what we've come to where guys can be here and go back to college. It's really not a big deal other than I probably shouldn't have without knowing for sure, you know? Oh, it is what it is.

All right, someone needs to go back to Lane now. This needs to be a season-long arc.

This is—

he should—

he could have just said, I was kidding.

That's exactly what happened.

Yes, it was obviously a joke. The first press conference, he's obviously like, haha, Lane Kiffin called me, LOL. Like, who, who cares? Like, does this matter?

This is the dumbest shit. How does Todd Monken not just get up there and say I thought I was making up something funny. And what's this world we've come to?

That's the part.

That was the part.

Like, all these days, you know.

All right, nothing worse than a damn liar. Todd Monken, you having a hell of a week, big bro. I don't believe nothing you talk about no more, bro.

Did the people who bugged Lane's office at Ole Miss, are they able to infiltrate his cell phone records so we can see what happened?

Okay, I'm not saying they bugged his office.

No, they— never mind.

Okay. Who got the text? One of Munkin's assistants got a text from LSU.

I'll take the vine here. I'll follow what Jess was trying to set up. Jess, there were— there was rumor and innuendo that the offices at Ole Miss were bugged after Lane Kiffin left. And Pete Golding was asked about this rumor and innuendo. And here it is in the press conference.

Any bowl game playoff system, obviously you're going to up security. I'm not sure that there was a hiring process of here we go with the FBI. I do think we probably have a, a current player whose dad just so happens to work for the FBI that lives in town. That from that standpoint, there was no measure to go, oh my gosh, here, come in from that standpoint. But no, obviously anytime you get in that playoff system and you had guys from this building go to other places, you want to make sure it's secure for your players.

I'm gonna tell you something, college football is the best. I mean, yeah, it's just the best.

I mean, Lane Kiffin is just such a necessary evil in this sport. He just makes everything so Exactly.

It's important to remember that this is here for our entertainment and we should enjoy it and, and soak it all in. I'm with you. And Greg, I'm— I was trying— I wanted to have your back. I wanted, I wanted to do the thing where I'm like, I'm with Greg on this one, but I did, I did sort of lose you for a second. Okay, but it's okay.

I'll—

we'll, we'll come back. I, I'm confident.

Okay, okay, okay. Okay, I may not have explained myself well enough. I'm just saying if you call Todd Monken's office or you leave a text for him, it's traceable. That's all.

Something with you ever since that Connors interview.

Just a little off.

Who?

You.

Oh, he thinks his name is Curtis.

I'm looking right at you.

Connor Curtis.

Oh, Connor Curtis or Curtis Connor?

Yeah, Clark Connors. You got it.

Oh my God, you guys, Tim Curry died.

Yeah, we— no, come across.

Is that right? I'm hearing about this for the first time.

You know who that is?

Yeah, of course, of course he does. Yeah, Greg, if Greg's not a Rocky Horror Picture Show—

no, he died.

Yeah, Rocky Horror Picture Show.

He was very ill and that was known about him, but no, he died.

He's been out of the public for a while.

I didn't know.

Don't count your tips in public.

Wow.

Yeah, Muppet Treasure Island was my favorite movie.

I mean, we're reacting to this live. I feel like he died a long time ago.

You should stay entrenched there.

It's been explained to you.

It's trending everywhere that he just died. You should stay where you're at.

Literally just died.

That's a great song.

You're confused because I think he had a stroke a few years ago.

He's been very sick.

Yeah, you're just— I think you're just a little confused. I'm sorry, I didn't know we were alive, but I don't know.

Jess, why are you confused in that studio so bad today?

Okay, my bad. Should we talk about the Jaguars' new uniforms?

Go ahead, I'm gonna gather myself here.

Okay, at first glance you think, I don't, I don't see what the big deal is, these look fine. And then you zoom in on the pants and they are animal print, and I think they're perfect for the city of Jacksonville. They are spectacular.

I saw them, I saw them compared to Lululemon.

Yes, that's exactly what they look like.

I love them.

They look like a Lulu print.

These look cool.

So true.

Yeah, I love them.

I'm not—

yeah, I'm with Roy. Roy just said off mic that he doesn't like the font and the rivalry uniforms. I don't love it either, but there is a good uniform here. Yeah, and it's, it's starting with the pant.

Craig, who named them Bold City? Is that a nickname they just made up for themselves? I've never heard that before. I'm just raising the question. Yeah, Bold City.

I'm with Greg on this one.

Yeah, thank you, Jeff.

B-O-W-L or B-O-L-D?

B-O-L-D. Bold City. I've never—

Bold City.

Never once heard that nickname applied to Jacksonville.

If you were going to give that nickname to a city in America, which one would you give it to?

It wouldn't be Jacksonville.

Which would it be? That's what I asked.

You know, Jackson, Wyoming.

What?

I'd give it to Boulder.

Wow.

Oh, that's a good idea.

There it is.

Boulder City.

I gotta tell you, I'm shocked right now with this Tim Curry news.

Are you? 'Cause you— Are you shocked that you found out he wasn't already dead? Is that what you're shocked about?

Yeah, that's what I'm shocked. I really thought he passed away a while ago.

You mentioned that.

I had not heard that he passed away until today.

Huge.

When he passed away?

Well, that makes sense.

That doesn't make sense. I have his Rocky Horror Picture Show album in my collection, and one of my favorite rock songs from the late— I think it was the late '70s— was a Tim Curry song called I Do the Rock. Which, if you haven't heard it before, it's a banger.

Rocky Horror Picture Show, amazing. Uh, Clue, loved him in Clue.

Clue, yes.

It, It, that's right, he was the original Pennywise in It.

Alone, Lost in New York.

Like, Rocky Horror Picture Show was, you know, is a cult classic. People still go to see it. And dude, between this and Dolly Parton, huge cultural tentacles.

Greg, according to Reddit, Jacksonville received the nickname via self-marketing after the 1968 major restructuring of the city and county. Due to our newly formed big-ass city, they slapped that slogan onto road signs to sway people to move there, most notably being the 1968 photo of Mayor Hans Tonsler standing on a ladder with busty actress Lee Meredith. I don't know who Lee Meredith is.

Busty, busty.

Yeah, thank you, thank you to This 2-year-old, uh, sub Jacksonville subreddit comment. Okay, from whoever, whichever user posted it.

There you go, self-marketed.

Jess, what is, what is going on with this Oura Ring lawsuit? I'm not even sure I know what an Oura Ring is.

Um, okay, I have a family member who has one of these. I don't have one of them, but it's sort of like a, an Apple Watch, but it's on your finger. It's— you remember Whoop?

Remember those?

It's kind of like that. There it is, during your test. It's monitoring. Yes, uh, like biometrics, I guess.

Okay.

But one of the things Oura Ring does is it tells you if you had a good or bad sleep score. And one of my family members like swears by it. She's like, I had a really bad sleep score last night. And I'm like, okay, but do you— are you tired? Well, no.

Yeah, like, don't you just know when you wake up if you slept good or not?

Right. But it gives you a sleep score. But now there's a class action law lawsuit that they're basically just like kind of making it up, and it's kind of like a 50/50 guess as to whether or not you get a good night's sleep or a bad night's sleep. And I don't know if— I don't know if those allegations are true.

Wait, do you have an Oura Ring?

Yes.

Look at that, Jess, he's got one.

Roy, do you think the sleep tracking is accurate?

No.

So what are you wearing it for?

There you go.

Well, it's technically a replacement for my wedding band.

I imagine your Oura Ring It takes your personality and every morning it's just like, it was fine. When Roy asked like, how was the sleep?

It was okay.

Yeah, it does actually.

Do you check it every day?

I've been checking it recently and Chris is right.

And how often are you getting the good sleep report?

Every time I can pull it.

Tell us about your sleep last night.

It wasn't great last night.

What does it actually say though?

Like give us the exact verbiage.

Now if it says that you didn't get good sleep, do you always like, oh yeah, that makes sense. I don't feel great.

Really?

Yes. It's sort of a fulfilling thing. Yeah. It's like, oh, well, I got a bad sleep score. That's why I don't feel good today. Or like, oh, I got a great sleep score. Today's going to be a great day. Like, it kind of— it's maybe like gives you a little bit of like a placebo effect. I don't know. But anyways, I am all for these class action. Do you guys get emails from like law firms sometimes?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I got one yesterday from European Wax Center in Florida, and I was like, oh boy, here we go.

Get on that.

What did they— what did they do to me now?

What—

what thing did they subject me to? It turns out it was like some data leak thing, but I will be signing up for for it.

I got one from the NBA 2 days ago.

I was like, oh, whoa, whoa, get on that, you feel me?

Yes sir. I think it's some League Pass situation happening.

You're gonna make some money.

Talk to me about your sleep, Roy.

All right, total sleep was 5 hours and 3 minutes. Restfulness was good. REM sleep was an hour 24. Deep sleep was 53.

Wow, 5 hours. That's not enough, Roy.

Come on, sure is not enough.

What are you doing, man?

Were you up late watching hockey or something?

No, it's not hockey season yet.

Uh, Claire, you could have been watching a replay.

No, I wasn't watching replay. I was watching baseball, but, uh, Claire couldn't sleep, so, you know, it was classic Claire.

Yeah, tossing and turning.

Wow, this is Claire.

All right, you toss or turn more?

Uh, I'm not a toss and turner.

No, no, no, you don't toss or turn?

No, I'm sitting on the side. I'm a flipper. I'm a flipper. I start on one side a couple times through the night, just flipping to the other side.

Yeah, I flip.

You're, you know, you're not supposed to sleep like a, like a crime scene outline, like like, you know what I'm talking about, when you're like face down. You're not— who the hell sleeps apparently? Oh, I do every night. Face down with my knee.

Oh, I kind of— that's kind of— I think of that as a side sleep. I know what you're talking about, where like the right— if I'm on my left side, my right knee is like kind of up near my stomach.

Is your tummy flat on the bed?

It's kind of a weird angle. Like, that's like— it's a hybrid between— I get— I know exactly what you're talking about. It's like, to me, that's like a hybrid between side sleeping and on your—

I sleep on my back with my arms up like this.

Wow, you must— no wonder, no wonder you snore so much.

Like you're being held up.

Yeah, okay, that's very comfortable for me. That's how I sleep.

My dad sleeps on his back with his legs crisscross applesauce and his hands folded on his stomach, right?

As if I'm in a coffin.

It's one of the scariest things to ever stumble upon.

Do your knees not hurt when you wake up?

No, it's— I find it very comfortable.

I got the Meg Thee Stallion knees, huh? Whoa.

Jess, you could hear her. The weekly Notre Dame podcast, The Echoes with Mike Golik Jr. Great job, Jess.

I'm going to finish my PB&J now.

There you go.

Looks like a slice of pizza.

Hear that crunch?