Transcript of The TV Cheater | Local Hour

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Yeah, we did it everyone, we made it to Friday. Give it up for Friday. All right, that's how you do it. That's a Friday show. Look at this crew we got here today. I don't know if this group's worked together yet. We got Tony and Amin and Chris and Jeremy and Roy, and of course out west we have Dave Damashek. Hello, Dave.

Oh, a vision in red this morning, Zasla. Looking good.

Look, I— everybody knows at this point I look good in red. Everyone knows 2 things about me: never a cuck, look good in red. Everybody knows that. So I need some— I need some help here. Like, does anyone else run into this problem? I got so many apps. I got a lot of apps, and apps are great. Watch movies, watch TV shows. And last night my wife and I— so, so we're watching We're watching a couple of shows right now. Like, Dave, do you watch— do you have shows that you specifically watch with your wife?

Yeah, and I think at some point— I don't want to detour too hard here, but at some point we have to talk about the morality of going behind your significant other's back and watching the show when they're not available because they're having a busy week, and the repercussions of doing that.

There is no morality. You just do it. And then when you're gonna get ready to watch it with them, you'll be like, oh no! Like, you just— all you gotta do is act. They're not paying attention to you, they're paying attention to the show. Ladies and gentlemen, nobody actually cares that you're discovering it at the same time. All you have to do is just keep the charade alive, and that's what makes love flourish, is keeping the charade alive.

Wait, are you saying—

I mean, well, the charade— but you're— in your world, the charade is watching it a second time? 'Cause no thanks.

I TV cheated with my wife where I watched season 1 of Ted Lasso, never told her, and she was like, we gotta watch this. And then I watched it with her.

So were you fake laughing?

No, I just was like, oh, this is a good show, and I just acted like I was watching it for the first time.

TV cheating.

It's not hard, guys. Just go ahead, sit down. It's like, oh, he falls down. Like, that's it. Because she's not— or he is not turning to look. Wait a second, that laugh wasn't quite as loud as I thought it would be from that funny of a joke. Oh, you got me.

I have a feeling there's a big twist coming in this second to last episode.

Don't do that.

My wife is awful about that. We'll watch shows together. And, you know, I, I work on the weekends. I work almost every Saturday and Sunday like this weekend. I'm, I'm working tomorrow for ESPN. I'm working Sunday for ESPN. And if my wife and I are in the middle of a show I'm working, I'll come downstairs when I'm done. She's 2, 3 more episodes deep into the show we're watching.

How dare she?

I'm like, what the hell?

That's wrong.

She's right here.

What the hell?

Work less.

That one you can't fake through. If it's like literally we're watching it right now, the other person leaves and comes back.

Yeah.

It's hard, 'cause here's the problem. Here's the real problem. I'm gonna tell you, watch out for this one, kids. When you log in and you watch a show, so let's use the example of Tires. Tires season 3 just came out on Netflix like a couple weeks ago. If you watch the episode, there's a telltale Snitch red line.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh yeah, this one's been viewed. Oh, the next one is this one. So this is what you do, guys.

My wife's not paying attention to that.

You create a different login. I call it guest because I'll say, oh, my brother— I gave my brother my login. I told him, don't mess up my algorithm, use the guest one. So the guest one, that's the one where you're cheating on everyone with. And then you come back and you watch it.

It's a good move.

Yeah, that is a great move.

That is a good move. So I'm in the middle of— my wife and I, we have a few shows right now. This is— we're in a golden age right now, this time of year. There's a few shows going on at once that we're watching together. We're watching Ted Lasso together. We're watching Reacher together. Anyone watch Reacher? That show's awesome. He just kicks everyone's ass. The new one? Yeah.

Yeah, a little bit of a monotonous plot. It's kind of the same thing over and over.

Oh, I love Reacher, man. He's always kicking ass.

He's always big and he's strong and he kicks your ass.

Okay.

There's only one Reacher. It's TC, baby.

Okay, so I have a question for you, because I've never seen the Tom Cruise Reacher movie.

That's why I said there's only one Reacher. TC, baby.

But you're telling me Reacher, like, like Tom Cruise can pass for Reacher? He's like 5'1.

He's tiny.

He's Reacher.

I don't know about that.

Jack Reacher. He walks up, he does his shit.

He kicks ass?

He lives in like motel rooms, he travels around, he bangs broads. It's Jack Reacher.

And he kicks ass.

He kicks ass. Tom Cruise, you never seen Tom Cruise kick ass?

Hello?

Have you watched Mission: Impossible 1 through a billion?

I know, but the whole point is in Reacher, Alan Ritchson, he's so much bigger than everyone else. He, he kicks everyone's ass.

Yeah.

Anyway, we watched Reacher, we watched Ted Lasso, and yesterday— this is the point of why I brought up apps— yesterday we started watching, or we wanted to start watching Lioness.

From season 1?

No, no, the new season came out recently. All right, so we— I think this is season 3, so we want to, we want to start Lioness. What a show. Glad Taylor Sheridan, he knows how to make a show. So we want to start watching Lioness, and I sign on to Paramount Plus. It's on Paramount Plus. And so I click on the show and it tells me that Like, my payment is not up to snuff, and so it won't let me start watching the show. Okay, fine, not a big deal. Matter of fact, I recently had to change cards, so I'm sure that's the issue, you know? And now the problem, because all these apps, I don't— do I, do I go to the app to change my info? Do I go to the website of the app to change my info? And then I do that, and it tells me, nah, nah, nah, playa, you didn't sign up through Paramount, you signed up through Google Play. And I'm like, all right, well, what the hell is that even? Like, how do I get to Google Play? I can't keep track of all of this. So I couldn't watch Lioness last night.

I don't know how to get my account back up and running.

Here's the deal. How you sign up for these services matters because if you go through Apple, for example—

Right, I do that for some.

It's more expensive. they're— they are taking a fee on top of whatever the subscription is. Same thing through Google Play or whatever, the Google Marketplace, whatever they call it. Like, all these things are just kind of in-betweens because it's like, oh, it's convenient, just sign up with me. But they're really— they're gaming you, right?

Like, I probably did it with like a bundle is why I did it like that.

So I made this mistake of doing it through Amazon for Paramount Plus, not realizing that I actually get Paramount Plus For free.

That happens all the time. Like, I'm pretty sure I've been paying for ESPN on the ESPN package for years. I work at ESPN. I'm certain I get it for free.

No, you don't.

No, I think I do.

No, you don't.

I'm very important.

No, you don't. I'm telling you. So this was the thing when Disney+ first came out. I remember they were like, do you want Disney Park Passes, the, like, the card?

Yeah, I get those.

Or would you want free Disney+? And I did the math and I was like, Give me the passes, dude.

Of course.

I'll pay. And, and at that time they still hadn't done the Hulu thing, but now that they did the Hulu thing, you know, I got the Hulu thing going on. You know about this thing he's doing?

The bundle?

No, not the bundle.

I mean, I have the grandfather bundle.

The grandfather bundle.

What is that?

So I signed up for Spotify Premium like a decade and a half ago, and at the time they were like, if you get Spotify Premium, we'll give you Hulu for free.

Wow.

And I have not paid for Hulu since. And as a result, I don't pay for Disney+.

Oh, so you can't touch that. It's like upgrade your plan. No, no, no, I'm not touching nothing.

Never upgrade. I do ads. I don't care.

Right, right, right.

That shit is free.

Right. So I like, Dave, I don't know what to do. I want to watch Lioness and I can't figure out how because I don't know how I paid for this.

Yeah, I think you've officially crossed the threshold into old age, Zazz. Welcome. Yeah, once it becomes too much, the technology, and you start shouting at no one in particular about that you don't understand—

I was getting so mad yesterday. My wife is sitting— I was getting so mad. My wife is sitting next to me, she goes, your face is turning red. Like, I'm close to chucking the remote at the television, and then I'm also going to need a new television because I'm going to break it. I was getting so frustrated yesterday. Oh man. All right.

I can't believe that the make-good that Cody and Amin are willing to do. I mean, like, you're good-guying it too much. You'll sit through the exact same show in this big ruse, like you snuck ahead and watched a few episodes, but then to be a good, uh, mate, you'll sit through the exact same show a few days later.

I was like, I like Chris. You're saying you, you said you did a whole season?

Yeah.

I like to seem really smart about shows.

Oh, you'll say, oh, I bet this is gonna happen.

Like predict things.

My wife and I, we do that to each other. We're like, ooh, this is what's about to happen. We haven't seen it yet, but we—

I've seen it.

That's—

it's fun if you've seen it.

Try seeing it first, then do it. It's a fun game to play.

So this happens to me when I, uh, when a Star Wars show comes on, because I watch it with my kids, but because I do a podcast, Darth Amin's Rule of Two, get it wherever you get podcasts, Reviewing this stuff, I gotta review it basically, I gotta watch it the night it comes out, be ready to record the next day. But we don't watch as a family until Friday at the earliest.

So you're watching twice.

So I watch it twice. But it like, I enjoy it. Like, number one, I enjoy it when I'm watching it again, most of these things, because you're picking up on things you didn't see or whatever. And then sometimes, if you know it's a nothing episode, maybe Dad takes a nap. What'd I miss?

But is there transparency to that? Like, they know that's happening?

Because for me, transparency—

because for me, like, I love rewatching stuff, so I don't mind watching it a second time. I also don't mind—

You're going to be honest about it.

Yeah, I don't mind if my wife watches a second time.

But tell me, tell me that you've done this.

No, I don't like—

I'm not faking it.

You're going to snitch on yourself?

Come on, man.

Self-report?

Oh, that's crazy. Jeremy, never coming on a bachelor party, I'll tell you that much.

Hey, this is TV. Okay, I have a standard. My TV standard is higher than my personal life standard, in that I don't care what you do to me, but TV, you better be honest about it.

Buddy, let me tell you something. Never ever gonna learn that I already watched it. I'll sit down there and I know how to play— I know how to play that part to a T, like doing like little, little gasps and stuff. Yeah, no, the key is you can't overdo it.

Normally it's women faking it.

The part I struggle with the most is when I know a good part's coming and I look over and my wife's like, you know, nose deep in her book.

Oh, and you want to tell her, hey, make sure you pay attention. And I'm just like, I feel like a good scene's about to—

come here! You should probably pay attention to this scene.

Do you have to cough twice during it?

Yeah, you want to cough. It makes it seem natural.

You're missing the point. If she's nose deep in her book, that means she can't notice that you've already watched this! Now you get to be nose deep in your phone or doing whatever! Guys, the point of this ruse is to make the other person believe you're watching it for the first time! That's all it's about.

That's why I cough, though, because I would never cough if I had watched it.

My wife has no—

We're off the rails as a society. If this is what is meaningful shared experience, is passively sitting quietly and watching other people do stuff on the monitor in front of you, we're lost. You know, what's— where's love gone?

My wife has no shame.

This is the mark of a solid relationship.

That's right.

Is watching a show together. Sheesh.

No, I hate it when she watches it ahead of me. She's very selfish. And if she wants to watch a show, she, she watches it.

But at least she tells you.

Yeah, but I, I don't want to then play catch-up. I want to watch it together.

But I thought you liked being a cuck.

Dan Le Batard!

DJ Laz is playing Kool-Aid in the background of my pit bull.

Here's Dave Demachek and he's like, hey guys, Pittsburgh, uh, all right. Everybody's like, who the fuck is this guy?

Dave Demachek.

He goes, what TV's the Penguins game on? Who the hell is this guy?

This is the Dan Le Batard Show.

Okay, everybody knows that about me.

Roy, do you TV cheat?

Uh, no, we don't watch, uh, TV really.

At all? Okay, I like it. Just like an accepted thing.

Good punctuation.

I'll do my thing, you do your thing.

So tonight, Tua Tagovailoa. Tua's revenge tonight as the Falcons are at the Dolphins. Tua's gonna light the Dolphins up, right? I mean, that's gonna happen, right?

Definitely.

That would be the best case scenario.

That is what—

that—

I'm—

For the show.

That is what's going to happen.

For show content purposes, we need him to go crazy.

That's what's going to happen because there does feel like a little bit of a momentum where if Tua plays shit tonight, that he's not going to be on the Falcons at the start of the season. Now maybe that means they cut him or they trade him somewhere else for like a 7th round pick. I don't know. But it feels like if he's bad tonight, he's not going to be on the Falcons. But I could totally see a scenario where he plays— where he plays well tonight and lights up the Dolphins.

Do you think the rest of the country is paying attention the way we're paying attention?

Of course not.

Dave, like, I want to say yes to that because for the first 6 years of his career, Tua has been a very polarizing character. Now, maybe that's because he went to Alabama. I, I don't know what the reason is, but Tua has been a player who, despite playing for a team that has not done anything, and Tua being a player who has not done any winning, everyone has had an opinion about him, Dave, for his entire career so far.

Yeah, in, uh, if you blur your eyes and in broad strokes, you know, the notion of we like to build people up and then knock them down and then turn them into a punchline and all of that, especially when they're multimillionaires. That's part of it. But I do, you know, whether or not he's going to play well against the Dolphins is neither here nor there, in my opinion. What I think is striking is what you saw last night, that Mike McDaniel coaching with Justin Herbert, who I don't know if you heard, the Dolphins could have had, that he looks like the real deal. And Mike McDaniel is going to elevate to another level with, um, with an actual franchise QB versus what Tua proved to be for you guys. Yeah, I mean, but by the way, to weigh in, Zaz, on what you were talking about earlier in the week, Dolphins fans should absolutely feel emboldened in booing Tua. Yes, they should definitely be.

I heard you guys talking yesterday about this, and I'm team no boo. Like, I, I think— yeah, it's a great restaurant. I, I just feel like you can be on both sides of like, yes, Tua was frustrating at the end, but he also gave us good things. He had some concussion issues. Like, I just don't— like, I can appre— I can parse it. I can hate the way it ended, but also appreciate that he did some good things for us. And it's just like, wait, like, I'm just not a booer as I've gotten into my late 30s. Like, it's just, you have to be— I have to be so out on you to actually give you the energy of booing.

I agree.

You're not—

Tua though, can I just jump in very quickly? I'm sorry. I wanted to just say, I think Tua is the all-time QB bust for, um, for draft evaluators. I know JaMarcus Russell, a lot of hype around him, but if you start around the, the, the John Elway thing, as hyped up as he was, can't miss guy, he was one of those guys. Peyton was one of those guys. There, there are just a small handful of ones who can't miss. Andrew Luck.

No, and Andrew Luck fulfilled it. He just retired early.

He did, but he can't miss, right? He did, right? He didn't flop, right? Exactly. And Trevor Lawrence—

Trevor Lawrence was going to be one of those guys, I think, but I think he probably turned the corner.

Turned the corner.

Yeah, yeah, right.

I think Tua now stands as a guy— if you remember the first time, to your point about Alabama and all of that, throwing that touchdown in OT against Georgia and all of that, that starts the clock. Like, you didn't really know who he was. necessarily, but you knew that like he's an ascendant star and it is an unstoppable thing. And he really just— he is to me, I think kind of you could circle him as the biggest draft evaluation flop of my lifetime as a quarterback.

Is Caleb Williams one of those guys?

Yeah, I think that's right.

I think he is. Yeah, I think he's one of those guys that's— that was can't miss. He's going to have to be a great quarterback to fulfill you know, everything that was said about him is who else was— because you're right about the way we spoke about Tua, not just us when I say we, and him ended up ending up being a bust.

It's weird, though, because, you know, in retrospect, like, what were we looking at? What were the evaluators looking at? He's 6 feet tall. He doesn't have a big arm. It's not like he's a fast guy or anything. What was—

what was—

what amounted to— it's sort of like Bryce Young, as a matter of fact, at Alabama. Like, what about him makes him can't miss? Because Bryce Young, is borderline. People maybe now have amnesia about that, but a few years ago Bryce Young was like, oh, obviously you want to fall all over yourself to get this guy.

Yeah, but we didn't speak about Bryce Young the way that we did Tua.

I think you're right. I'm just saying that. But, but in both cases, like, this 6-foot-tall, a 6-foot-tall guy who isn't especially strong-armed, like, what, he's definitely gonna, uh, set the NFL world on its ear?

Chris, I'm with you. I'm not a booer either. Although, you know, in WWE, I go to a WWE show, I'll boo, you know, come on. But I, I'm not a booer at sporting events. I just— it doesn't make sense to me.

I agree, you are delightful. You're not a booer at all.

Thank you. And we can agree though, he's going to be mercilessly booed by the home crowd.

He will get booed, I agree.

Like heavy boos when he runs onto the field for the first time.

Aaron Boone.

There's no shot he doesn't get booed.

Yeah.

Boog Chompy.

And, and he's probably gonna play into the second half too.

Which is like, we should be like, if we were gonna be those fans of like, you think you're cool? You're carving us up here. It's the 3rd preseason game. The fact that you're playing in this is embarrassing for you.

Yes.

Devin Booker.

Yes, the fact that he's possibly playing for a job in the 3rd preseason game.

Look around who's playing in this game, bud.

Yeah.

I don't— I know I just flipped. I went from let's not boo him to like, hey, you.

But it's like, you're emotional.

But if he's gonna be like, hey, I'm— if he's like, you know, feeling himself, then don't be feeling yourself. You're playing in the 3rd preseason game.

How would you feel?

Okay, let's also check yourself.

He leads a drive, he leads a big scoring drive, and then as he's coming off field, he's feeling himself.

That's, that's when I would— that's when booing would be— he knows better than that. I don't actually— he might not, as from—

I don't think he knows.

That's kind of embarrassing though, right? Like, you got a big you know, drive for a touchdown in the 3rd preseason game in the 3rd quarter, you're still playing and you're fired up about it.

Will he have more money by himself than every person on this field combined today? Dave, I've called on you. You're like a teacher. Go ahead.

Well, I'm curious, is, uh, is Miami— obviously as a foreigner to your lands, you know, is Miami a booing sports town? Like Philadelphia is the worst of the worst. They are very proud Good question. The fan base is, and the local media, they love to puff their chest out about the fact like, hey, Philadelphia is too tough for a lot of athletes. Like, are you sure you're really helping the case then? Are you really doing the best you can for your teams if you're booing guys out of town and you're breaking them emotionally? Is that too much sway? Are you really helping out the local sports collectives? Is Miami one of those towns? Because I think LA and Miami are associated as sports towns like, ah, the fan bases have better things to do, they're out there on the beaches, they don't really care. What's the reality?

This is a good question. I think Miami is completely average when it comes to are they a booing town. Like, it's certainly not along the lines of the big ones like Philadelphia, New York, if they'll boo their own players when they're not performing well. But I definitely also don't think it's this apathetic fanbase that's just all, you know, hey, everything's okay, we don't care enough not to boo. I think they're your average, we will boo you if you deserve it.

Who are the non-booing fanbases that you're speaking of?

Oh, I mean, like, can you imagine you're at a New Orleans Pelicans game and they're booing their own players? Of course not! There's no way that New Orleans fans are booing.

You need people in the crowd.

You need humans in the stands.

Yeah, so it counts though. That counts then, yes. So that counts then, yeah. San Jose, at a San Jose Sharks— are San Jose fans booing? I don't think so.

Oklahoma City, never boo.

They would never boo. That's right. They would never boo there. Remember when the— what's that paper called? The Oklahoman?

Yes.

When they did that story, remember, where they were critical of Durant?

Wasn't it critical? They called him Mr. Unreliable.

It got such a poor reaction from the fans. They released a retraction of the headline!

Shout out to Barry Trammell who wrote it, but the funny thing is like the actual column was like a really balanced, like, good article.

No, but the headline was too mean.

The headline, whoever picked the headline basically got him in trouble.

Right, so though that's a city they don't boo, I, I think Miami is like completely average in this regard, Dave.

Do you think, you know, Romo's in the news, Tony Romo is back in the news. Apparently he has accepted responsibility. I love when people do that. I love the, the the my bad guy when you're playing pickup basketball, like who shoots the ball, he's covered by 3 people and you're open underneath the hoop, and then he shoots an impossible 3-pointer airball and he goes, my bad. Yeah, that wasn't in question, man. Everybody understood it was your bad.

Tony Romo should have stood strong. He should have continued to claim no responsibility.

No, no, no, it was her.

It was her.

You all saw the video. But people always still hold that up in the year of our Lord 2026, like, no more pressure on anybody in sports than the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. Do you sense that that's true? I think that's a laughable thing to be saying this deep into the millennium.

I think at this point in Dak Prescott's career, I don't think that that is an accurate statement.

No.

But do you think there's more pressure on a Dallas Cowboys quarterback than there is in any other NFL team?

Maybe like right when Dak Prescott got the job for the first time, I would say that, yeah, that feels like that's a very pressure Does Malik Willis have any pressure on him?

No.

With the Dolphins?

No.

Feels like he had zero. But I think, like we've talked about, there is a sneaky pressure on him because it's easy to say in August, like, no matter what happens, man, you are all set, you're paid out, and just go out there and ball out and make us feel good over the course of 17 games about 2027. I think that reality is going to be very different if they're you know, 2-15.

I, I—

it's easy to say it now, but Halfley's employment is going to be in question. Malik Willis, is he really the franchise QB? We're not going to draft Arch Manning or otherwise. I think that once you see 2-15 on a piece of paper, it's going to feel very different.

So this is the thing with Malik Willis. He actually starting has the easiest things, like just be competent. If you're just competent Everyone's gonna be head over heels like, oh, this is so fun to have a competent quarterback again.

Run for a few first downs.

Yeah.

Ooh, that's fun!

Yeah, just, just, just don't be a complete fuck-up, right? But then as the year goes on, and if you're Malik Willis, you're like, I kind of want to stay a starter in the NFL. I like this. So that's when the pressure starts to ratchet up, I think, internally for him, that I got to play well enough to convince these folks upstairs Don't go sniffing around in the draft for a Manning or something or other. Make sure you stick with me. But the reality is right now to begin the season, oh my God, this guy's on cloud nine. He can do no wrong other than doing wrong.

Booby Gibson.

So that's tonight. Dolphins-Falcons.

I am—

I, I do wonder if Tua steps in it postgame no matter what happens. Like, what's, what's he gonna say postgame?

Again, I think they're gonna be like, so how did you feel about the booze out there?

Um, I didn't really hear them.

He's gonna say something like that. Or it's like, uh, yeah, I, I heard a lot more cheers actually. He's gonna, he's gonna give us some alternate reality, which by the way, I don't think he's lying. I think in his scrambled egg brain he does hear cheers and probably like, people, you're doing great.

That's the ringing, Tua. That's not cheering.

Jeremy, put it on the poll. Is Tua going to claim that he didn't hear the boos tonight?

Boo Tagovailoa.

Dan Levitar.

Jon, can you rate my Al Pacino from that billiard scene in Carlito's Way if I do it for you? I think it's pretty good.

Yeah.

Jonathan Sassolo.

You think you're big time? Well, you're gonna die! Big time! That is, on my infamous scale of 1 to 10, that's a, that's a 7.6.

Solid.

Good job.

Good job.

That's a Sui nominee right there.

This is the Dan Labattar Show!

I want to bring something from the NHL yesterday. Getting closer to hockey, man. Is anyone like super excited for the Panthers like me?

Uh, yeah.

I'm so excited. I'm so excited.

Roy, you're a credentialed media member.

Yes, I am.

You are just brimming with happiness, Roy, when I bring that up.

Oh, it's Friday.

So, Connor Hellebuyck, who you may remember before the Panthers signed Jacob Markstrom— traded for Jacob Markstrom, excuse me— the Panthers were rumored to be in on Connor Hellebuyck, who might be the best goalie in the NHL. And it was said that he has requested a trade, and like every player in the NHL, it seems, has a no-trade clause. So he has to approve the trade. And very similar to Brady Tkachuk, when you have a no-trade clause, like Brady Tkachuk, you just say, yeah, the only team I'm gonna approve a trade to is Florida. And so then Ottawa has to trade Brady Tkachuk to Florida, or they can keep him, but, you know, if you want an untenable situation, otherwise you're trading him to Florida. And so Connor Hellebuyck wants to play for the Panthers. Panthers couldn't make the deal happen because he makes a lot of money and that's a difficult trade. And so they wound up— you know, it's a salary cap sport, and it's not like the NBA where it's kinda like a soft salary cap. NHL has a hard salary cap, all right? There's no negotiating it. And so the Panthers ended up going in a different direction and they traded for Jacob Markstrom.

But yesterday, for the first time, Connor Hellebuyck spoke, and Connor Hellebuyck said yes, he has in fact asked for a trade. And so yesterday on— I believe it's on TSN— yesterday on TSN, you have one of the analysts who Compares the Florida Panthers to the LA Dodgers.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the office of Gary Bettman because, you know, he is, he has kind of shooed away the idea that there's an issue with state taxes and with, you know, Southern teams. And hey, when they weren't any good, it didn't matter. But if he ends up in Florida, how do you— like, you've got a Dodgers situation on your hands all of a sudden. Like, you've got— you got a lot of teams in the league being like, well, what are we supposed to do? These players are just basically mandating this is the only place they're going, and teams are capitulating and giving it to them.

This is so stupid. For 27, 28-some-odd years, no one brought up Florida having no state tax, and that's a reason why the Panthers have an advantage over other teams. The Panthers have an advantage over other teams Because they're good. Because they're good and they're really well run. And then you could also add in the, hey, no state tax. But this has been a thing forever and it's never benefited the Panthers, apparently until the last few years. But more importantly here, Roy, how is it a Los Angeles Dodgers type situation when there's a salary cap? There's a salary cap. How could it possibly mimic what's going on in baseball where the Panthers just get all— like, Connor Hellebuyck can say it till he's blue in the face that he wants to go to the Panthers, but there's a salary cap! Also, the Panthers have nothing that they are willing to part with to give to Winnipeg. Yeah, I mean, I just, I don't understand. It's such, it's such a tired— and, and who was it that first— oh, it was Paul Bissonnette, right? It was Bissonnette like a couple years ago who was like, oh, Panthers, you know?

Yeah, he started the entire thing.

Yeah, everyone taking less. He's like, these guys, everyone's taking less money because of the taxes. The NHL may have to do something about this.

or no state, maybe they have a different type of salary cap for the Florida teams. Get the hell out of here. How could it be anything like the Dodgers? There's a— Dave, there's— Dave, there's a salary cap. How is it anything like that?

Because again, blur your eyes a little bit, and I understand the specific differences that you're pointing at, but it's Miami, Florida. LA. People in the Midwest have a chip on their shoulder about like Oh, those fancy pantses think they're better than us. This perpetuates that when you become a borderline dynasty like the Florida Panthers. People already resent living in South Florida and you think you're better and all of that kind of weird, that vague sort of resentment of people who live in Sunbelt cities and all of that. And then if you make it that, as you say rightly, the thing that really pushes it across the line is they start winning Stanley Cups.

Yeah.

And now you're really, really resentful if you're up in Canada, if you're up in Alberta, you think chicanery, something ain't right here, this ain't fair.

E2 Booster Einen.

I am very excited though for the Panthers. It's gonna be fun, man.

Everybody's gonna hate them.

It's gonna be really fun. Everybody's gonna hate them.

You're the evil empire. You're the evil empire or veering towards that, and you're not an empire just yet, but what you are is the modern-day Broad Street Bullies. That's the other thing people are not going to like. People don't like the style of hockey that the Panthers win with and that they are doubling down this particular offseason. If people haven't been paying attention, they're just getting heavier and meaner and they're going to play a, you know, on-the-line, if not across-the-line brand of physical hockey that a lot of people don't like.

P-A-N-T-H-R-S.

David Booth.

So if the Panthers are right around the corner, the Heat are also right around the corner, Jeremy. You were, you were ranting and raving this morning about the Miami Heat. What were you saying?

Well, they just signed Nick Richards yesterday.

Oh yeah, that's right.

And so that's their 14th roster spot.

I mean, we like that as a backup big man.

As your 14th roster spot, I think that's a great pickup. Again, this is a guy who's going to have to vie for minutes behind Bam, Giannis, and Bobby Portis. But like, yeah, like in case, in case of emergency, break glass kind of guy. That's a great pickup.

It's also behind Jović for the time being. Now Richards is more of a pure center, and that's really the advantage here. which is if you need a big body, you don't have to do the thing with Jović that he has hated.

Not a shooter.

In the past years, which is having to play the 5 defensively. Jović is going to get his opportunity to play the 4 and try to salvage what he's been. But I saw Ethan Skolnick point this out. What you say? What this Heat roster looked like around Jimmy Butler the day he was traded, which is, you know, sabotaging everything about 18 months ago. Okay, so this is just a season and a half ago. They went one season without having Jimmy, and now this is the roster. So when Jimmy Butler was there, it was Jimmy with Thomas Bryant, Alec Burks, Haywood Highsmith, Jaime Jaquez, Kevin Love, Josh Richardson, Duncan Robinson, Khalil Ware, Tyler Herro, and Terry Rozier.

That roster kind of sucks.

Okay, so the departure of all of those players, plus what ultimately ends up being the total of 3 first-round picks 18 months later, you've replaced all of that with Giannis, Andrew Wiggins, Klay Thompson, Tim Hardaway Jr., Bobby Portis, Davion Mitchell, and then Simone Fontecchio, Nick Richards, Ryan Conwell, and Myron Gardner.

Look at Ryan Conwell getting a shout out.

With that, you've kept Bam Jović, Jrue Smith, a total spoguy, and Pelle Larsson, who, by the way, I am genuinely of the belief Pelle Larsson, with the leap he took last year, with what this roster is going to be and the role he's going to play, he's going to close games.

Loves Pelle Larsson.

This guy's going to be a 6th Man of the Year, or at least a top 3 candidate.

He's not going to be a 6th Man of the Year.

He'll finish in— okay, laugh at me. He'll finish in the top 3 of 6th Man of the Year voting.

Now we're sure moving a little bit further.

I believe, I believe he will win. I believe he will win.

Can you apologize to us for how much you loved that roster that you said for that first roster that you just like downplayed? You loved that roster at the time.

I mean, the team at the time— Apologize for it. Jimmy, I'm not gonna apologize for it.

Apologize to Jimmy, actually.

Apologize to me.

Apologize to Jimmy. Jimmy had his opportunity. They went into that season in a weird space because of the contract scenario, knowing they weren't going to extend him and were trying to make moves around him to change what was going on there. They felt like if Jimmy brought it that season, that they were going to be willing to extend him.

He didn't bring it.

He went into it doing the absolute opposite of that.

Oh, they thought that, huh?

Yes.

Yes, Chris, I know what happens around the team. I report on the team. Yes. Not me. That's what was going on around the team.

He's so different at a Marlins game.

God, it, it's, it's the ability to, to look at what they did then 18 months ago and see where they are now. And this has been a masterclass of how to run an organization and how to bring yourself—

they're going to be good—

from a strange space into a new one. Normally, when teams lose a superstar, This is a rebuild that takes years and years and years, and the Heat's ability to go grab another one and overnight completely transform their roster to me is really impressive. And I look at what the roster is now, obviously they could use one more bucket getter, but the more and more I look at it, and the reason I mentioned Pelle Larsson having an opportunity to be the 6th Man of the Year, the more I look at what this team looks like, the more I realize ball's gonna be in his hands a lot. The ball is going to be in his hands a lot. He's going to need to be a playmaker. He's going to need to get to the line. And with that second unit, he's going to do it a lot. He'll also close out games alongside Giannis and Bam and Andrew Wiggins. And we'll see who that, that 5th player is going to be. I'm, I'm really impressed with what they've been able to do here. I know that's not a shocker coming from me, but seeing them round out this roster with a player like Nick Richards, they have depth.

They don't have a ton of repeatable pieces. Everybody has a role. And I can only imagine the way Erik Spoelstra feels about that.

VJ Edgecomb, Dylan Harper. There's a lot of 6th Man candidates out there.

You think VJ Edgecomb's gonna come off the bench next year?

You would not have thought Jaime Jaquez Jr. was going to be the 2nd player in 6th Man of the Year last year by any means going into it. And Erik Spoelstra maximized what that player is. I'm telling you, on a team that is going to actually be better than many in the national media are predicting, This guy is going to play a gigantic role. He's gonna play big minutes. He's gonna close down the stretch, and Pelle Larsson is going to— Pelle Larsson is going to be a name that all of you know. He's gonna have huge games. He's gonna have huge moments in the playoffs, and we'll see how you guys feel about laughing at me then.

Market price for Pelle Larsson to win Sixth Man of the Year. Go on, plus DraftKings Sports available now in all 50 states. That means yours. Plus 15,000.

I can't believe there's even a number.

Right behind— he's right behind De'Anthony Melton. Neat Clifford. Cody Williams right next to Obi Toppin. Baylor Shireman.

He's behind Cody Williams?

He's behind Cody Williams.

Well, he's tied.

They're both +15,000.

Okay, DK.

Guy Santos.

Oh, can I ask you something?

Tristan da Silva.

I—

let's, let's, first of all, let's Let it be known, I like Pelle Larsson a lot, but do you think there's a person in the world who would put something on Pelle Larsson +15,000 to win Sportsman of the Year?

Probably Ethan Skolnick.

Yeah, probably Ethan Skolnick.