This episode of The Dan Le Batard Show features Matthew Berry running through his week 9 fantasy football picks, from running back snap rates and wide receiver matchups to the Zay Flowers situation after the Ravens changed quarterbacks. The hosts then turn to AI memes, Mister Lister trivia about bowl games, and a proposal from Mike Ryan to move bowl games to the start of the season.
The conversation also covers the Black Parade anniversary of My Chemical Romance and a Canadian Football League quiz that leads into a debate over the Washington team's old name. Listeners get fantasy context, sports history and plenty of banter.
In this episode Mike Ryan, Matthew Berry
This episode's transcript, covering Matthew Berry's fantasy football picks and a bowl game debate, was made with the technology behind HappyScribe's AI note taker.
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There's always one game on the schedule that makes you start doing dangerous math. How long is a flight? Can I get back before work? Is this a terrible financial decision or a memory I'll have forever? Week 9 gives us plenty of temptation: Bengals Falcons from Madrid, Giants Eagles, Raiders 49ers, Packers Patriots, Buccaneers, Bears on Sunday night, and Bills Vikings on Monday night. That's a good one. When I start talking myself into a trip, I check the game time. It's easy to find tickets, and the panoramic sea views let me see exactly what I'm buying.
Plus, fees are included in the price shown. What you see is what you pay, period. Game time also has zone deals. I choose a section, game time selects the seats, and I can save money, which makes that completely reasonable for a last-minute trip and makes it super easy to justify. Get your friends together, get your tickets, and tell them it's game time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code DAN for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and use code DAN for $20 off.
You're listening to the Dan Le Batard Show, in partnership with the DraftKings Sports app, now live in all 50 states.
We say welcome, سلام المرحبا to brother Matthew Berry. He's the founder of fantasylife.com and hosts of Fantasy Football Happy Hour with Matthew Berry on Odyssey. And he's also the host of the new show, Pregame with Matthew Berry on Roku that stars the infidel Michelle Beatle as well. And Matthew, these fantasy picks are delivered by Little Caesars, the official pizza sponsor of the NFL. Right now, mix and match two or more large faves for just $5.99 each. Little Caesars officially delicious.
Matthew, take it away.
Matthew Berry. Matthew Berry. Matthew Berry. Matthew Berry.
Guys, our only two quarterbacks in the NFL with a higher touchdown rate than Brock Purtys so far this year, by the way. No NFL team has allowed more touchdown passes than the Las Vegas Raiders in week 9. Brock Purtys faces the Raiders. Niners implied team total 31 points, highest of any team this week. In the four games, the common unguided has missed this season. We expect him to miss this week as well. DeAndre Swift averaging almost 22 fantasy points per game. By the way, during that stretch, he's averaging 22 touches a game and a 12% target share. In the two games since he returned from his hamstring injury, Saquon Barkley averaging just a 24% snap rate.
He's seen just 38% of the Eagles running back touches. Last week, Saquon Barkley played 16 fewer snaps than Elijah Mitchell. In week number 8, Mike Washington led the Raiders backfield with a 67% snap rate, and he out-touched Ashton Genti 25 to 5. Washington also saw all six of the Raiders' goal-line rush attempts. By the way, Washington finished the game with two fewer fantasy points than Ashton Genti. Genti is still heavily involved in the running game, and it's worth noting they are double-digit underdogs this week to the Niners.
Over the last two weeks, Tony Pollard has scored five touchdowns. That's the same number of touchdowns Pollard scored in 17 games last year. It's also the same number of touchdowns he scored in 24 when he played 16 games. Regression is coming for Tony Pollard. In his first game since RJ Harvey was placed on IR, Jonah Coleman—we've talked about him a lot on this show—out-snapped JK Dobbins 38 to 12. He saw 100% of the team's running back red zone touches. That includes five goal-to-go rushing attempts. By the way, he had a 17% target share that ranked second on the team, behind only Jalen Waddle.
I'm hoping Dave Damishack started him last week as we discussed. He's nodding. I think he did. Awesome. Week 8, Ladd McConkie. Ladd McConkie led the Chargers in route participation, 92%. He also had a 20% target share for the season. Ladd McConkie in a season where everything's gone wrong for the Chargers. Ladd McConkie is averaging 11.9 yards per target. That's the second highest rate among all wide receivers that have seen at least 20 targets. In week 9, McConkie faces a Texan secondary, believe it or not, that has allowed the third largest fantasy boost to wide receivers so far this season.
And finally, in his first game since Terry McLaren was placed on IR, Antonio Williams saw a team-high 26% target share. He actually led the Commanders in routes and receptions. Six of the seven targets that he got—this is important—came in the slot. And I bring that up because this week he gets a Rams defense that is bottom 12 in terms of most fantasy points allowed to slot wide receivers.
Matthew, are there cicadas in your house? What's that sound?
Yeah, you know what? I'm going to be honest with you. So that is I live in kind of the boonies of Connecticut, and my internet is terrible. And so my internet is terrible. And so that is some sort of internet contraption that our mutual friends at Blue Duck put together that gets me wired internet so that I can do stuff like this. The problem is, I was running late this morning, and so I didn't have a time to either get to my studio where I normally do the show from the Pregame with Matthew Berry on Roku studio, but I'm actually at home in my basement, in my office basement, where that is.
And normally, I mean, what I do is I have a mic and I have a whole setup, so you can't hear it. But again, I'm running late, I'm in the wrong studio, and I just didn't care enough to get rid of the noise, if I'm being honest.
No. We love you for power through and for being here, Matthew. Now, quick question.
Yeah.
Jacoby Prasett trade to Baltimore. How will Zay Flowers fare given the new signal caller there?
Yeah, I think he'll be fine. I mean, look, say what you want about Jacoby Prasett, but he understands the assignment. Get the ball to the guys we care about. We saw it with Michael Wilson, Trey McBride in Arizona. He's a professional. And I say this with no disrespect. He's a professional quarterback. Is he amazing? Is he awesome? No. But can he run an offense? Of course he is. There's a connection there. The quarterback's coach of the Ravens was in Arizona last year, so there's some familiarity there. And again, I think what you would do is I think it's not Zay Flowers with Lamar Jackson, but can he get to Zay Flowers with Tyler Huntley production?
With Jacoby Prasett, I do think he can. So I think he's still a mid-tier wide receiver two with some wide receiver one upside. I know last week was ugly. The last two weeks have been ugly, obviously, for Zay Flowers. But I think the thing that you saw from last night, which is important, is they're going to try to manufacture touches for him, right? They're going to try to they're going to try to do some sweeps and some bubble screens and some screen passes. They're going to try to manufacture touches to get the ball in his hand because he is their most explosive player in the passing game.
All right. Check out Matthew's new show, Pregame with Matthew Berry on Roku, streaming weekdays from noon until 2:00 PM Eastern. Listen to full episodes of Fantasy Football Happy Hour with Matthew Berry on Odyssey. Matthew, thank you very much. And please give my absolute worst to Michelle Beatle.
Yeah. I'm pretty sensitive right back, by the way. So thanks for.
We're doing the Matthew Berry.
Thanks, man.
See you guys.
Why is Tony Pollard the Ladanian Tomlinson all of a sudden?
Isn't that crazy?
That one's weird.
Well, what Matthew's saying is that's going to stop.
It's got to. He's Tony Pollard, not Ladanian Tomlinson.
This is like the Luka Doncic. He can't keep getting away with this, right? He can't continue.
Guy who Tony Pollard essentially replaced in Nashville is Derrick Henry, and the word on the street is that the Ravens might trade him. I'm putting my marker down. That's not going to happen. I refuse to believe that Eric DaCosta and the Ravens perceive themselves as out of this thing. They just got Jacoby Prasett, and a hot take-ish is that Zay Flowers is going to thrive with Jacoby Prasett. Do not be concerned about him. In fact, if you can get somebody to buy low with him in your fantasy league, do so.
Every once in a while, a meme comes along and just has a stranglehold on me. And I know we're supposed to not like AI. It's haram. It's the devil's work of Shaytan. But man, this might be one of the best AI memes that have been going around in the last couple of weeks. It's the Tiny Desk one.
Oh, yeah.
Where they're doing the Gap Band outstanding.
You are my fan.
Everyone is still paling in comparison to Caillen DeBoer. Caillen DeBoer, he made that thing work.
I don't know how they get it so I've seen some ones that aren't good. But the ones that are good, it looks like them.
The one I saw yesterday was the cast of the Big Bang Theory dunking. Did you guys see this one?
No.
The AI can make you like you're going full court and just slamming down a dunk.
So there's a couple.
How Parsons do it.
There's one where they've AI mapped people, different people, onto Kyrie Irving clearly, crossing people up. There's a soccer one that's very popular as well.
Don't forget Lil Yachty.
Right. Going onto the stage, yeah. But the outstanding Tiny Desk one, because it's the only one that is happening consistently with something, with a theme. And the theme is your team is in deep trouble. Whatever's happened. The first one I saw was the Rams one.
I saw the Patriots one. That was great.
Yeah, the Patriots one was really good. It's just like every time anything going bad, I saw a Miami Heat one was Spode on the saxophone for that. No, it was Pat Riley on the saxophone.
And that was where AI didn't get Pat Riley. That was a little dicey. It started before the Tiny Desk. The Tiny Desk was just like the best evolution of it. But the algo that I was on was like all the losing quarterbacks singing a cappella together.
Really?
Yeah. And it was like Archmanning was a weekly feature in that.
Somehow, maybe we're in a sports bubble. But to me, it's overtaken another one that was going at the same time, which was the Rumpelstiltskin one with the tiptoeing in my jaw. That one had a hot moment, but I feel like Tiny Desk just blew it out.
Executive order. AI can exist, but only for this and your taxes. That's all. I feel bad complimenting AI at all because people get really weird about it. But I love these videos of people doing random shit.
These are the ones I don't like are like, "Hey, let's make a fictitious man on the street one."
No. Don't like that.
Those are.
Don't like the flyers.
Don't like that.
Every flyer now looks the exact same. That Carolina Panthers font. But Malachy Tony getting out of a wheelchair with a fake cast the way that Kevin Nash did, that's good stuff.
Yeah.
Mario Cristobal punching Ryan Day. Good stuff.
Yeah.
That's all right.
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The holidays should be about the people you love. Not mandatory work parties where I pretend to care about someone's kitchen renovation. Now's the time for those unexpected holiday side quests and enjoying a great-tasting light beer. Last year, mine was my cousin's garage, a Miller Lite, and a four-hour debate over the best Christmas movie. Dan would make it a segment, then argue the other side on purpose. Best night of the season. Tiz Miller time. In that garage, I felt great. I took a sip. I looked around and thought, "Yeah, this was the right call."
Miller Lite is a taste you know you can depend on. Brewed for taste. It just hits different. The original light beer since 1975 and still iconic more than 50 years later. Miller Lite is great taste done right. 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. Tiz Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.
Dan Le Batard.
I hope he goes to your town so I can laugh because you think he'll make you a contender.
Who's that in impression of?
The sports guy.
Oh. Oh, do some more. Let me hear some more.
What part of Massachusetts is that?
Let me hear some more.
Dave Damishack.
I don't do a good seaman, but that's what I'm doing right now.
That's maybe the worst seaman I've ever heard.
That's the worst seaman.
Hey, man. That's a bad impression.
That's Miami Heat media.
This is the Dan Le Batard show.
Are you guys talking about superintelligence? I'm not familiar with that.
No, it's back to AI now. It's Arab intelligence now.
Brother David, it's a different day now. We're doing things the halal way. And it's the halal way.
The old-fashioned way.
Yes.
Habibi.
The super.
Hey, I got great news, everybody.
What's that?
It's time to break things up. Let's get to it. It's time for Mr. Listen.
Pick Jeremy. Pick Jeremy. Chris is hiding. Chris is hiding. Pick me. Pick me.
Is that the old hockey night theme?
No, it's not.
Roy?
No, it is not. It's an NFL film song.
The hockey night in Canada. All right, here we go. Let's do you know what? Mike's nervous right now. He's dealing with a lot.
Not for Mr. Lister.
His MotoSports plus his canes making a trip without a favorite player. I'm going to leave him out right now. I'm going to give him his wish. It's Tony V Tache TNT. Here we go. Throw your hands in the air all you want, Tache. There's no dodging this one. The first round. Here we go. It's not just about the U and the SEC. Now, it's also about the Big 12 this weekend. Big 12 teams in 2026. Tache, why don't you start us off?
How long is this list?
UCF.
16, as it turns out.
If you lose this one, that's pathetic.
Yeah.
You're UCF night.
That's right.
Jeremy should win this one. Texas Tech. BYU. Utah.
I mean, what was the delay there? He just said BYU. The other one should be obvious there. Tache.
Oklahoma State.
Oh. Who's doing nice? That's the maker. Pittsburgh Steelers in 2027, perhaps.
This is harder than I thought it'd be.
The Big 12.
Yeah, because now I'm realizing.
Yeah, I like he states it. You see that, I mean? That was a valuable mention right there. He just restated for everybody in case you weren't aware he was naming Big 12 teams. Big 12 teams, A.
Of course, Colorado.
What are you doing?
They came back.
Did you looking over Roy Scholar?
Yes.
Absolutely not.
Did you just look over Roy Scholar?
I would never cheat. I would never cheat in this.
Oh, Roy?
Outraged.
Why does Roy need an answer?
He said he can't put it down. Houston.
This whole thing stinks.
I'll tell you if it's a ding or not. TCU. That's a ding.
Well, now you're usurping his ding by not giving a ding.
Because his answer sheet is causing problems back here.
Well, he needs the answer sheet.
What are we without integrity?
Roy's like the kid that won't let you cheat off his homework.
Yeah, for real.
Arizona.
Ding.
Which begs?
Arizona State. Ding.
Forks up, baby. Forks up.
This is where I'm now starting to.
The Sunshale team.
I'm trying to think of everything.
This is embarrassing all the way around.
That's a ding. I got another one for you. Kansas State. A ding. I keep saying teams and knowing. It's just handing one to you.
I mean, we said we said 12 of them.
12 of them?
I've got one more.
It's going to be a state of.
I've got one more.
Ding.
We have four.
This is great.
Colorado State. Nope.
Tache is our winner. He advances to the next round where he faces the reigning champ, Mike Ryan. Here we go. Tache v. Mike Ryan. Who wants the honors here? Tache, you want to go first or second?
I'll go second.
Ooh, defer.
All right, Mike Ryan, the category is.
We take the ball and the win, right?
Bowl games.
Hasselbeck.
Bowl games as of the year 2000.
As of the year.
Actually played, well, the 2000 season. So most of these games were played in early 2001.
Wait, am I doing matchups or bowl names?
Hold on. What's happening here?
Just the bowl names.
Just the bowl names from 2000 on. Can they be extinct?
Imagine if we had Tache try to name.
Can they be.
The matchups from 26 years ago.
Can they be extinct? Can they be extinct bowl games?
They're the games that existed back in 2000.
Wait, is it just the year 2000?
Just the year 2000.
Come on, brother. Let's all settle down.
Hold on. December 2000 to January 2001.
What is this?
I made a mistake going second.
Tostitos Fiestabel.
Here's what I I don't want to give too many tips or warnings or otherwise. I would avoid the sponsorship tie-in. That can only get you sideways.
I'm getting extra points here, pal.
Roseville.
Okay. Presented by AT&T. I'm going to go with the FedEx Orange Bowl.
I don't know if you're right about what the tie-ins were, the corporate tie-ins.
It's a ding. Sugar Bowl. That's a Nokia Sugar Bowl.
I'm not sure if it was the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at the time.
It was.
Yeah.
Come on.
Oh, Tache. My goodness.
Well, those are the big ones.
There's a lot of big ones.
What is in your brain if not this?
I don't know. Stats about Lee.
Bowl games, man.
Yeah, I'm trying to think. I'm trying to think of the non-New Year's 6 and if they were all around.
Trying to think if they were around. Name one and we'll find out if it was around.
Yeah.
There we go.
Gilligan Holiday Bowl.
Gilligan. Hey, Gilligan, man. Let's go, Tache.
It wasn't Bad Boy Mowers at the time. Was the Gasparilla Bowl around?
No way. No way.
Gasparilla.
You're a fool. You're a fool.
It's way off the mark.
What came to mind?
Citrus Bowl.
Man, the Outback Bowl.
The Outback Bowl.
The Shreveport Independence Bowl.
You're good at this.
The Olomo Bowl.
I would have beat your ass. I would have beat your flat ass. The Galloway Foods Dot Com Bowl.
The Blockbuster Bowl.
From Mike.
The New Orleans Bowl.
The Insight Bowl.
Name aside, what is the worst bowl to go to? I always thought.
Liberty Bowl.
Liberty Bowl's pretty bad.
Yeah, come out of this one-on-one.
The Aloha Bowl.
Yeah.
Come on, Jeremy.
Guys, I won.
Did we get peach?
I was posting. Yeah, I got peach.
Yeah. No, Mike got peach.
I asked a lot.
I got peach.
Allowed. Was that Chick-fil-A back in the day?
Yes, it was.
Yeah. This was a great game.
Yes, it was.
Yes.
Mr. Lister.
I love Mr. Lister.
I love Mr. Lister.
And I like that it was a 2001. And I like that I got all the sponsors right.
Yeah.
Galleryfurniture.com.
It's furniture.com bowl. I'll never forget that. Pets.com had a bowl too, but I don't know if it was that year. It was before the bubble crash, though. Pets.com.
The Of Matzahball Soup.
Did we get the Micron PC Bowl?
Were they in 2000?
In Miami.
Yeah, it was in Miami.
Late in Miami.
An incredible game between Tory Holtz NC State Wolfpack and Edrin James's Miami Hurricanes.
Wow.
Come on.
Close. It was NC State versus the Gophers.
I'm not saying.
But man.
You had to get Micron PC. I'm saying Olomo Bowl.
Yeah, I could have done it. I didn't. I won my first game, and I was riding high. I chose to go second for some reason, and I failed. I'm okay with that. I'm all right. I'm a failure.
I just want a podcast.
Imagine being.
Podcast, it's Mr. Lister.
What's up?
Imagine podcast, it's Mr. Lister only.
It should be.
Well, we had a great one on Football America yesterday, didn't we, Mike?
Oh, what's Football America?
I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not.
I love this game.
We played an impromptu one, didn't we, Mike?
Oh, dude. All the teams that Jacoby Brissett played. I ended up losing because I had no idea he played for the Commies. Zero idea.
Oh, Jacoby Brissett's played for every team in the NFL.
No, he's only played for six.
No, that's not true.
Eight, I think it was.
He's played for every 32.
Seven with the Ravens.
Well, in my mind, six because I had no idea he was a Commies.
Jacoby Brissett is the dream NFL career, right? It's like good enough to always have a job, but never good enough for people to have expectations. Because when you're like, "No, I want to be I want to be Patrick Mahomes." Like, no, there's so many expectations there. That's such a stressful time. Jacoby Brissett is like, "Yeah." It's like, "All right, man."
Oh, I failed here. You're going to trade me? Okay, fine. Chuck's coming, right?
And by the way, whenever Jacoby Brissett comes in, you know what preceded him was awful, right? So in Arizona, he replaces Kyler Murray. And it's like we were like, remember we were talking about you? It's like, "Hey, they're better with him out there."
But he got counted on. And he started a lot of games in this league. You want the Charlie Whitehurst. You want the Chase Daniel, the guy that just has been collecting checks, played for a million teams.
Matt Cassell.
You never got no, Matt Cassell was actually a pro bowler. He was a pro bowler.
He had a great year with the Patriots.
No, in Kansas City, like with Todd Haley, he made up to a pro bowl.
Who's the guy? Is it Josh? What's Josh's last name? Josh, what's his name?
Alan.
MacCown?
Josh MacCown. Is that the guy?
MacCown got counted on plenty. And he took that helicopter hit that one time. I would not want that.
Mike Ryan, I think, hit on the right one. Clipboard Jesus. Charlie Whitehurst, who just straight up conceded like, "Yeah, I don't want to go in the game, man. I might get hurt doing that. I want to collect the paycheck."
Only in a band skin rug with Jewel.
It's such a great life when you think about it. You hang out with the boys. You work out. You're in good shape, right? But you never actually get into any sort of danger, not physical and not, again, the mental stress.
Of course, cracking wives in the meetings.
Of course, man.
Matt Moore just seemed like such a mensch.
Yeah. You got to backup quarterbacks get invited to all the weddings, right?
Oh, for sure.
Everyone's wedding.
You're the best man almost.
Yeah, right? Like you go in there.
I love this guy.
Put it on the poll. Was Matt Moore such a mensch?
Got it.
Can we play Mr. Lister again?
Actually, put on the poll.
Love that game.
Was Matt Moore such a habibi? Again, different.
I'll do both.
Imagine you're the 13th ranked team in all the land, and they're like, "You made a bowl game. Obviously, you're the 13th ranked team." Like, "Great. Where are we going? We going to Honolulu? We going to the desert? SoCal? South Beach? Where are we going?" No, no. You made it to the Mobile Alabama Bowl. Where's that one played? Mobile.
Oh, Dave, we haven't won many bowl games in this century. I think we went like damn near a decade and a half between bowl game wins. There was a long time until Brad Cayes Miami Hurricanes beat West Virginia in like 2016 that our most recent bowl win was the crucial dot com humanitarian bowl.
Jesus.
Against Colin Kaepernick's Nevada in Boise, Idaho.
So this is the funny thing because players say, "Hey, if it's not a great obviously the Rose Bowl or whatever, then they want to go to the place actually where they get the most the giveaway, the merch and stuff is at the highest." But my thing is like, man, there's not enough you could give me to want to go to Boise. If I'm not playing.
Monroe loved it.
I'm just saying.
Monroe has great stories of his time in Boise.
If I had all I had nothing to play for in terms of a championship or whatever, send me to Hawaii, man. Send me to that Honolulu Bowl. Let's hang out by the beach. Let's have some fun. Let's relax.
Tour the local fair.
Yeah. Or let me go to the Insight Bowl in Phoenix, right? Just hang out and it's around New Year's or whatever. It's December. Weather's great. Any one of these where it's like, "This is a destination I'd like to be." You know what's worse than Boise is that one that they played Yankee State in the Pinstripe Bowl?
The Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl. I was there in a rainstorm. Motore dominating four Rutgers. Man, that seven-yard sideline pattern for Xavier Restrepo and Jacory Brown was there all game long. Now, I will take the bowl game vine. I don't know if I've ever run this by Dave Damishack. Now, the expanded playoff, everyone's wondering, "Well, how do bowl games figure in this?" We had the head of the onion in yesterday. He's trying to secure the rights for a bowl game. I have long had a plan to bring importance back to bowl games.
And you and I, every pre-show meeting, we're talking about the January 1st bowls. How do we get bowl games to mean something again? So let me run this by you. Bowl games to start the season.
Wait a minute, Mike. Ryan, what the hell? I brought this up on Football America, and I swear to Jesus it was to you.
Allah.
I invented it. I invented it several years ago. I actually invented this in a hotel room waiting for the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl. It is mine. Everyone knows this. I invented the idea. Bowl games to start a season for many reasons.
Yes.
Because the team that you had in the bowl game wasn't the team that you had in the regular season anyways because you had all these opt-outs. So I don't care. You start the season with excitement. You have marquee matchups. It solves a lot of the non-conference schedule anger that there is out there. You take that decision out of these ADs' hands, and you basically force them to play a non-conference opponent that is of the same ilk, and it makes it an event. You have sold-out stadiums because everyone's O and O. You have a trophy. I think it's the best possible solution.
Now, do the bowls still do the inviting? Because early season, a non-conference, the teams are making their own schedules. Is this a case where the bowl sends out invites? And then how do you position yourself to get one of these lucrative opportunities?
We have to dip Mike Ryan. Let's really figure this out because you're a man of influence. And so you can make this happen probably by 2028, maybe even by '27. Yeah, I think this is a grand idea. I don't know if I somehow heard it out there and I stole it for myself. But yes, I said this a month or so ago myself. Yeah, take these bowl games. Make them relevant once again. That's what you need to have. And you pit these teams. You solve all the stuff about they didn't play anybody by having them play somebody in the first games of the season.
And now that's taken off the table. And you give relevance to the Gator Bowl once again when Miami has to play USC, for instance.
You mean the Taxlayer.com bowl?
Okay.
It absolutely makes bowl season relevant. You have it in August, which is great because you don't have these cold weather bowls that go against everything. You will definitely have packed houses. You won't have these tarps over the stands. It'll be amazing. You have a trophy to start the season. And guess what? No preseason rankings. Zero. We will take what happened in the bowl, and then we will do it.
So everyone's in bowl games.
Yes, I love it. You have games on Wednesday. You have games on Thursday. You have games on Friday. It's August, baby. That's bowl season.
Oh, a marathon to start the season. This is getting better. The only question is that Amine rightly asks is, who determines what these matchups are?
Now, conference tie-ins are complicated right now. You have these huge bloated conference tie-ins. So you either go back to the days of yesteryear where they invite you, but that could be subject to corruption. And we don't like corruption.
No, we don't. Yes, there's stuff for a lot to it.
I'm not a huge fan of conference tie-ins to bowls. If you watch the You documentary. Dog. The best job in sports used to be these bowl committee members that would travel to these games, get wined and dined.
Really?
Dude, to be an Orange Bowl committee member, wear that orange blazer, and just eat shrimp cocktail everywhere you go because you know your boys look good.
Yeah.
Your boys look good. You gave us something to think about.
Oh.
That's the best.
Mike, it was one of the weirder quirks that, again, there should be full documentaries just based on those bowl officials because it was based on the scheduling and otherwise, they had to make the offers because the bowls didn't want to be left without teams. And so they would offer teams to be in their bowl game before the regular season was even over. And a lot of teams didn't want to get left without a bowl game. So they would accept the bid, and they would sort of gamble. It was like who wants to make a deal kind of thing. Do you want door number one, or do you want to risk it and go for what's behind door number two?
Yeah, but both's a both. But the box Mr. Buck's Vehicle.
This is true. In 1980, Pitt, before they played Penn State, had to sort of make a decision. They had lost to Bobby Bowdon's Florida State team earlier in the season, and they didn't want to get left out. So they accepted the Gator Bowl bid and passed on a chance to get into the Sugar Bowl to play Undefeated Georgia. College football history would be very different. Vince Dooley would never have won his national championship. Neither would Hersha Walker because Pitt, Mighty Pitt, would have won that national championship.
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Down Le Batard.
Jessica thinks you're pathetic. I saw the look on her face. It can never be the lane to victory, Matt.
I know. I think Jeremy's pathetic. Jeremy just.
You should hear him back here. He's so sad.
Delivered the most absurd theater kid basketball analysis line that I've ever heard from him.
Jeremy Touché.
My dad was talking about the adjustments that Spo made and criticizing him last night. And Jeremy just back here. His adjustments were spectacular. It's just like they lost. They're down 0-2.
This is the Dan Le Batard Show.
Okay, so I know nothing about these bowl games. What's in my head instead of bowl games is music and facts about music. And there's one that's popped up recently because of a tour that's happening that I think is really fun that you guys actually will like, which is that.
Ron Browse.
You remember My Chemical Romance? Anybody?
Of course.
My Chemical Romance?
I would say, and I'm sorry to all those journalists from New Jersey, this is the best rock band to ever come out of the state of New Jersey.
I love My Chemical Romance. And actually, for that matter, I saw Mike when My Chemical Romance was here a few years ago because they put on an amazing show. But what's really cool right now is their most iconic album is the Black Parade. It came out in 2006, 20 years ago. So they recently had a reissue. It was the 20-year anniversary. It paired along with the fact that they're back on tour playing that album. And what's amazing about it is it's gone number one. Their first ever number one album is their number one album that was written 20 years ago.
So now you have all of these young people finding this music for the first time. You have everybody else streaming it again, finding the fondness for the nostalgia. But also, what's an amazing concept album, like a perfect album from top to bottom. There are all of these amazing songs, including Welcome to the Black Parade, I Don't Love You, Cancer, Teenagers, Famous Last Words, which is the last song I would always listen to before I played baseball. Just really got me going. It's one of those songs. But this album is perfect, and I'm so excited that it's number one.
I think it's really cool for My Chemical Romance. My Chemical Romance, a toast to you, My Chemical Romance. And Worth a Toast is presented by Quervo. Keep it fun. Keep it Quervo.
Did you guys know that Thriller, the song, has never been number one?
That's crazy.
Right? That's the wildest. I found that out. And there was this guy online who was trying to say, "Hey, Halloween is basically it's peak time of re-listen, but it's never been number one. It's been as high as like number four on last Halloween or something like that." So he was trying to get enough people to.
It's a hell of a factoid.
I know. But that's.
If there's ever a time to rally around Michael Jackson, now is that time.
Well, no. Not now.
Concept albums is something from yesteryear. Really, I think only the and Taylor Swift tries to do it, but it's all the same concept.
What was the concept from My Chemical Romance?
It was a black parade, and it was a theme.
It was all about you.
Yeah. But The Weeknd is really like the only guy doing concept albums.
Brothers, when you say black.
African American parade. I'm sorry.
Yeah. Yeah, no, the concept.
Check out the thermals. Body Blood, The Machine. I have a concept for you. Forget about Michael Jackson. It's Michael Ryan v. The Room. One more Mr. Listen.
Oh, he's back.
Here we go.
One liberal, 17 conservatives. Let's go.
Dog. Put a pin in that.
2026 Canadian Football League teams. Mike Ryan, you go first.
2026. The Calgary Red Blacks. I'm sorry, Red African Americans.
Thank you.
African Canadians.
Actually, Native Canadian. First Nations African Canadian.
Wait, did I say Calgary? I meant Ottawa. If I.
I was going to correct you, but I didn't want to.
Can it be correct?
No, no, no. I'm giving the entire room a chance.
No one knew. No one knew. Sorry. And I'll tell you exactly why I made that mistake.
Why?
You guys go.
Because you guys knew the room needs to come up with one.
Montreal Alouettes.
It's great. I'm going to go Calgary Stampede because their color scheme is red and black.
The Argonauts?
Of?
Oh, it's fine. You said the wrong city.
Toronto.
Toronto.
All right.
Here we go.
Edmonton Elks. They are no longer the other thing. What was the other thing? The other thing?
Yeah, what was it?
The other thing? Yeah.
The Eskimos. Why is that?
Brother.
I thought it was much worse. I don't know what's going on in Canada.
Yeah, they're the Elks.
Amine, I'm not going to allow you to stir this drink necessarily, but I guess you're the best person to turn to. I asked this to Mike Ryan. Now I ask you. Is the old name of Washington's pro football team? Now we decided we have to move on from that. Is it such a slur that it's inappropriate to say it into a microphone in 2026?
As of Tuesday.
Yes. It's a different day we've woken up in. Now, David, I once was on the radio right when they changed the name. They're changing the name. And I was on Mad Dog Sports Radio, me and Zach Harper, and we basically explained, "Hey, this name is it's a literal slur. This isn't like the Cleveland Indians. This one's a slur."
It is absolutely a slur on face, and I can't believe it went on for decades and decades. But all of a sudden.
Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. So we said, "You know what? Open up the phone lines. You guys, I know there's so many people like, 'Oh, they can't change the name.' You're going to make an argument. I guarantee you nobody can make an argument that's worth it." And I swear to God, the very first caller says, "What if instead of changing the name, they change the mascot to a potato?" So now they're the Washington Redskins potatoes. And me and Zach looked at each other like, "Shit, he's got us."
You got me.
If they had just changed it to a potato, you're good. You're good. In the same way that Syracuse changed their name.
The orange.
Their mascot just to an orange, an actual orange.
Now you've bought yourself enough time. Now name a CFL team.
Oh, Lions.
The of?
British Columbia.
I'm not going to allow it.
Wow. Yeah, Nathan Rourke had a season for the ages a couple of seasons ago. Scotswan, Roughriders.
Bombers.
What color are those bombers?
Oh, damn.
I'm definitely not allowing that.
I got to have the color of the bomber?
Yeah.
I'd like you to have the.
Blue bombers?
Of?
Okay.
Winnipeg. It's a W. Because I can't think of any other. What's another W city in Canada?
Now you may think to yourself.
1985, Dieter Brock was the starting quarterback of the LA Rams in his first year after he left a successful CFL career for the Blue Bombers, became the Rams QB. And to this day, Eric Dickerson will say that Dieter Brock cost him a chance to play in the Super Bowl.
Now you might be asking yourself, "Surely, that's all the CFL teams," to which I say, Hamilton Tiger Cats.
I don't have anything.
You ran the table.
That's it, right?
No, you ran the table.
I got nothing. Two years ago, I watched every CFL game. That's how I know about my dude, Nathan Rourke. When Tony Khan signed him, I'm like, "You found the answer, pal." Somewhere Andrew Hawkins is wiping away a tear. Thank you, guys. Andrew Hawkins. Andrew Hawkins and Doug Flutie. Those are the only two CFL players I can name. Oh, and Warne Moon.
You know who's a legend in the CFL? He just signed a multi-year extension. Swag Kelly.
What?
Yeah, Swag Kelly.
That's where he ended up?
He's an Argos legend.
Cameron Wake.
Hold on.
Vince Bergamo, Tom Cuzino.
When Hawkins back here, we got to ask him. When he goes back, is it like when he goes back to Cleveland? Are people like, "There he is." Is there that level?
It's a highly controversial time right now in the CFL. You guys have no idea how dialed I am on this. So they have a new commissioner, and he's Americanizing the CFL, and it's hugely controversial.
Oh, can't do that.
A whole new playoff format.
Maybe you can do that.
Although I think it's an improvement, but a lot of the Canadians are up in arms saying, "This is our culture."
We need it to be. I know that people in Canada have a chip on their shoulder. Our rules predate your rules and all of that. But listen, what's done is done. The NFL is the way. Its rules are what should be applied. And the CFL, if it really wanted to make itself more relevant, much like the bowl games, Mike Ryan, it would announce itself to be the proper minor league of the NFL.
Well, remember, there was.
Right? You don't win.
I agree. And there were merger talks that fell apart between the XFL/UFL and the CFL, which probably would have gone a long way. In fact, Dave, you do such a great job on Football America, privileged enough to guess often along with 10 Day Tony. We got into the CFL a couple of episodes ago.
Football Canada?
Where I reminded, it was actually Football Canada for a little bit, or Football 51st State, if you will.
Oh, not anymore.
Not anymore. That's done. That's shelved for now.
No, habibi, no more.
I broke it to Dave and the audience that Baltimore has a CFL championship.
Baltimore?
Baltimore, yeah. Yeah, the one in the '90s.
Rhetorical trick.
Huh. How about that?
It was a weird time.
There was American expansion.
And they had the Orlando Renegade, didn't they? Wasn't that also a CFL team?
I thought that was an XFL team.
So there was a World Football League too, wasn't there, in the early '90s, where they were played in kind of arenas, but not to be confused with the Arena Football League. Didn't Scott Mitchell play for one of these teams? Is this a fever dream that I heard?
Scott Mitchell played for the Rattlers, I thought, in the Arena Football League.
That sounds right. The best minor league ever, besides the AFL, was the USFL, which is a punchline now, but that was the most legitimate of all the side leagues. I guess the CFL would count for that. The weird thing is, yeah, well, there was a guy in New Jersey who ran one team that kind of ran the entire league into the ground, and who knows what the future might have been. Otherwise, the thing that's the best with the CFL that the youngsters may not realize. And the Red Blacks are the Red Blacks now, but what did they used to be called, Mike Ryan?
Of Ottawa?
Yeah.
Oh, I don't like this game.
Oh, you don't? Well, there were the Roughriders, of course, in Saskatchewan.
Yeah.
But then Ottawa had the Roughriders. There were eight total teams.
There were two Roughriders.
And there were two teams named Roughriders.
There's a lot of rough rides, I guess, in Canada.
Oh, can we do a Mr. Lister of arena league teams?
Oh, there's not enough time.
Not enough time.
I want to talk to you forever.
All right. We got about 90 seconds left.
Orlando Predators.
Using Arabic numerals.
Tampa Storm.
I'm very excited for a movie that's coming out.
The Miami Hooters.
Miami.
The Miami Hooters were.
Hooters. I heard something.
What did you.
I heard Frank Reynolds saying.
Hooters. The Miami Hooters.
I'm really excited for I Play Rocky. No, you're out on this, Dave?
No, I'd rather see a documentary about the making of Rocky, not a fictionalized version of it.
I like the fictionalized version because the guy who's playing Stallone is the same guy that played Pacino in, was it The Promise? What was the name of the series that was about the making of The Godfather?
Yeah, the something.
The Vow.
Dude, we're getting close, though. We may have a historic first award to hand out. Fanfare. Congratulations, Amine. And Dave Dameshak, actually. Congratulations, Dave Dameshak. You are the Dan Le Batard of the day.
Good job, boys.
You would rather see a documentary than the scripted program. Thank you very much for being Dan.
We appreciate you.
Yeah, man.
I'm looking forward to the Hunger Games.
Shukran is how we say now.
The offer.
The offer. I knew there was a word like that.
It's like thruddy.
So is everyone boning up on their Arabic?
Arizona Rattlers.
And it's got my booty hole puckered up.
"IT'S TIME FOR ANOTHER MISTER LISTER!"
After Matthew Berry delivers his best fantasy football info, Mister Lister takes the show by storm.
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