Transcript of The Windshield Wash Relay + Previewing CFB Week 1 with Jessica Smetana | Hour 2

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

It was, in all fairness, a hell of a game for A.J. Dewey.

Thank you.

How many career interceptions did A.J. Dewey have?

4.

How many did he have in that game?

3. That's noteworthy.

It is, just not when you're eulogizing Chuck Norris.

Number 77.

That was a muddy field. It was the AFC Championship Game, wasn't it?

See, look who remembers.

14-nothing, the Dolphins beat the Jets because of— That's right, you! Because of A.J.

Dewey.

77 ran it into the end zone off the right arm of Dick Todd.

Uh, the gas station address, and there is quite the crowd gathered because our partners, the best teammates we have ever had, uh, they have decided on DK Game Day To give away free, uh, free gas in Miami and all over the country, in Dallas and Atlanta and other places as well. Uh, DraftKings Sports Gas Station, the address is 15290 Northwest 7th Avenue, 33169. Uh, we have the Show Olympics going on out there. Jessica will be delighted to know that Tony lost the football tire throw competition to a man whose winning throw didn't get Fully through the tire. That's how it goes around here. We will check in with Jessica in just a second, but let's check in with Jeremy first. Jeremy, what information do you have for us? That crowd is substantive out there. You are sweaty. You're saying it is hot as balls. I don't think of balls as hot. I don't know how that expression ended up getting so popular. I think of it as swampy more than hot. But Jeremy, what do you have for us out there at the DraftKings Sports gas station located at 15290 Northwest 7th Avenue.

Really glad you looked for another clarification from balls to hot and swampy. But yeah, Dan, it's hot as balls whether it's swampy or hot. They made a really good decision here. All of the folks that come through to get free gas, they stay in their car so they get the comfort of air conditioning no matter where they're going at any of these DraftKings locations. We have to turn your car off. The air would not be on when they're sitting there pumping the gas.

We're just being technical.

It was important that you do that.

DraftKings Sports is live in all 50 states in partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours, y'all. And remember, Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, LA, and Miami between 10 and 2. So keep on coming by to the address that Dan told you about. We're in our final competition of the Show Olympics, and this is going to be a huge one. This is the windshield wash relay. So rules are pretty simple. You're gonna get one half of the windshield with the squeegee, then you're gonna dry it off. Then you're gonna run around to the other side, do the same thing. I got a stopwatch here, alright? I got a stopwatch. I'm gonna be the one doing the time. And just so that we all know, if you go to our free-to-play game, you could see you can take a chance on under 20 seconds, 20 to 29.99 seconds, 30 to 44.99 seconds, or 45 seconds or longer for the fastest official time in the windshield wash relay. So Tony's gonna go ahead and go first. Tony, you ready for this one? All right, Tony, on your mark, get set, go! All right, there goes Tony. Clever decision not to lift.

Now he's drying it off. I do see some water in the middle, but that was a good move. That was a good move. He got all of the windshield here. Now, ooh, interesting to go top-down for the rest of this. And time! Stop! That is 15 points.

That, I mean, there's got to be a penalty of some sort. That's a slide. They did a horrendous job.

9 seconds.

Who cares what time he did? He made a mess.

Yeah, let's make more of a mess of this free-to-play game as well. Damashek, good job. We've got—

Don't attack me.

Matthew Coca, you're up next. Here comes Matthew Coca, and he's finishing his energy drink.

And Tony left the window It's dirtier than it was when he started.

Yes, Dad. Go!

And there goes Coca. A lot of water for Coca. A lot of water. Here goes one stroke. It splashes.

Bottom up!

And then an extra couple of strokes. He's, he's going for here. He runs over to the other side. I think we're gonna be in real trouble here. He missed a stroke.

What the hell is happening over there?

He's getting the rest. And it's still pretty streaky, but we'll call that time 20.

These poor cars deserve better.

seconds. Zaz, you ready to go? All right, Zaz, on your mark, get set, go! Go ahead, Zaz.

What's Zaz gonna— is he just gonna urinate on it?

Oh, there he goes. He's in the car just using the wipers. Smart. Okay, that's smart. Nobody said what the rules were. This is why the rules are important. This is why it's important.

12.38 seconds for Zazlowe. We do see him literally cutting corners there, but congratulations to the cuck. He is the winner. Yay, Zazz.

All right.

Can I go home?

Yes. Thank you, Jeremy. Appreciate it.

I'm going to get some free gas and head back to the studio.

All right. It is really hot. And this is where it is that I want to start with Jessica, because it was hot. It was hot at the Rose Bowl for USC this weekend.

LA Coliseum.

LA Coliseum. Excuse me. You and Tony. And Lincoln Riley. I want to get into this, though, because Lincoln Riley is saying that there's a false narrative around how few people were at the USC UFC game against San Jose State. Listen to Lincoln Riley here getting mad at us because people weren't at his game.

Just, it's, this is, this is UFC, right? People are going to pay attention. People are going to have an opinion. It's part of being a blue blood school. Uh, I don't buy into a false narrative. Uh, I think that comes from a lot of people that don't follow our program, uh, and most of those who have never set foot in the Coliseum. The reality is, during my years here, attendance has gone up every single year. As has our play in the Coliseum, including running the table last year in front of a lot of epic atmospheres. And I expect that to happen again this year.

And now listen to Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire sort of making fun of the whole thing.

Not to take any shots because I have a lot of respect for, you know, USC and Lincoln Riley. But man, it's really awesome to be playing in Lubbock, Texas, knowing we're going to be playing in front of 60,000 and it's going to be warm. It's going to be every bit as warm as it was Saturday. The great thing is we got some really tough people at West We have a great fan base in Texas that love their football and they're going to show up. And no matter what the weather's like, there's not going to be any excuse of why they're not going to be here for us.

So not going to take a shot. Don't want to take a shot. Well, I'm going to take a shot because they can't handle the weather. What are your thoughts here, Jessica?

I love that Lincoln Riley said it was a false narrative because this was a documented thing that happened on television. And I also love that he said most of the people peddling this narrative have never stepped foot in the Coliseum. Yeah, that's That's actually the point. That's what we were talking about. Not enough people stepping foot in the Coliseum right now.

I actually thought, though, that what was interesting about this, Damashek, is if it's a noon game and some of the players' parents are saying, well, my wife passed out, there were 15 people in the medical tent. They were saying it was a bit of a heat emergency. It was 97 degrees. I don't really blame fans for not wanting to watch anything in that weather.

Well, as Petros Papadakis, USC alum and voice in Los Angeles, pointed out, The issue isn't so much the heat as it is the state of the program and how Lincoln Riley does, or more accurately, does not engage the history of USC and the fan base. And now there's, you know, some distance between the program and Lincoln Riley and the fan base.

You make good points. And Jess, I'm sure you saw the comps. Same opponent, similar temperatures, even similar time of game. the stands were way more full. At least the optics provided that.

Well, this is the other piece of context, Dan, which is that this San Jose State game was added in Week 0 after the cancellation of the Notre Dame-USC series this year. And the USC faction of this has been saying that they want to play Notre Dame in Week 0. They want to move that rivalry game that's historically been played in October, November to the opening week of the football season because it's better for USC's schedule now that they're in the Big Ten, even though this was already a non-conference conference rivalry before they joined the Big Ten. It was just a Pac-12 and independent non-conference rivalry, not Big Ten independent. So nothing has really changed in that respect. But they were complaining a lot throughout the offseason that Notre Dame wouldn't move this game to Week 0. And then they played in Week 0 when it is typically, yes, very hot outside. It's the last week of August. And now there is complaining that it was a bad opponent and it was too hot, so no one would show up. But they would have showed up if it was Notre Dame and blah, blah, blah. So This is definitely a sort of crisis of their own making.

But I also think that— I talked to Lucy this week about it on our podcast. She said when she went to a USC-Utah game 3 years ago, when USC was really good, they also didn't have a full attendance at the game. So it is something that sort of transcends just this moment in time. But my real thought about all of this and the reason that we're still talking about it on Wednesday is that the reaction from a lot of USC fans is That it's clearly something they're very sensitive about. And if you as a college football fan base let people into a little thing that you're sensitive about, everyone else is going to pounce. And there has been a lot of LA West Coast condescension about like, well, obviously people are going to your Texas Tech games. You live in like a little crap hole in Texas. Well, there's nothing better to do there. And so the fangs are out, the claws are out. And people are not happy with it. So they're just— we're still going like we're— it's been 4 days and we're still going with this. And I think it's great.

Dan Le Batard.

If I may say for a second, Miami, they were simulating the snap count the entire game and they were clapping at the line of scrimmage. And the only thing I want to see clapping are them cheeks on Mrs. Met in my face, Mike Schur. All right. So that's one thing.

Jessica Ismatana.

They're a bunch of cheaters, Dan. And you know who should be cheating? Mrs. Met on Mr. Met. And he can watch if he wants.

This is the Dan Levitan Show.

I want to talk to all of you, though, about the idea, though, that it is scientific fact that it's going to keep getting hotter and hotter. A Division II running back ended up dying on the field, on the sideline last weekend after a touchdown was scored. And when I was in Malibu this last week, I was surprised because I was not aware aware that all of their beachfront property, all of it, had been burned down because 100-mile-an-hour winds made it so that fire went across a 4-lane stretch of highway that it should not have burnt across. Because again, 100-mile-an-hour winds. I would assume that the heat is going to be a problem in college football for the players and the fans going forward in a way we're never coming back from. Like, it's, it's only going to get hotter from here. And I think that the Miami team's practicing in this weather? I think it's cruel to have football players practicing in this weather when our guys can't stand at a gas station for an hour because of how hot it is. How is it that this is going to end up impacting college football, uh, crowds?

You, you guys really think this is just a USC thing where it's about the program and not about the fact that people were in medical tents and passing out in, in the stands?

People were not just not at this game because of climate change. Like I said, they have had attendance issues in the past because of what Petro spoke about, the state of the program, and just sort of like a lack of enthusiasm about the program. Other games where they haven't been at noon in August have also suffered from this as well. But to your point, though, I generally agree with you. moving the season up a week next year. So this is going to continue to be a problem. And college football has always been played in very hot climates that are going to get hotter. And I think everyone is sort of, I don't know, just wishing this problem will go away and putting their head in the sand like they are with all the other aspects of the heat death of the universe that, you know, no one really wants to face.

Well, specifically about it, specific to the heat, I do assume that I am fighting a losing battle by saying we need football played outside. I mean, more every time, with the exception off the top of my head, the Bills are the only team that's built a new stadium that doesn't have a dome on it.

So yeah, but there's plenty of shade.

20 years from now, that will not be an issue, right?

I mean, this sport is famously played in the fall and winter. Yes, it's hotter at the start of the season. Venues are also changing. I know Dan was mentioning, you know, having our teams practice in here. I've been at the practice field. It is hot. I've also moved from the indoor practice field where a lot of the drills are held, then out for the scrimmage part of practice, so they're not out there very much. There are not a lot of antiquated venues now in pro sports, certainly, like the LA Coliseum where there's no shade. But, you know, September games, August games, it's hot. The 2 hottest sporting events I've ever been to have been in front of packed, sold-out crowds. Cam Ward's debut at Gainesville, the hottest place I've ever been in my entire life, packed to the rafters. And the World Cup match in Philadelphia where the temperature on the pitch was 140 degrees. Not a seat that was empty in that place.

And to be fair, it was legit miserable in Southern California over the weekend, as you experienced, Dan. Unusual humidity and otherwise. The locals don't like that. They may be a little bit delicate about that.

Jessica, what were your thoughts from Week 0?

I have so many thoughts. I really, really liked the late game, the Memphis-UNLV game that I was able to stay awake for because I'm in Central Time right now, which is God's time zone. I thought that Stanford, who Miami will play this Friday night at Stanford. They looked like a competent football team with their new head coach. Bill Belichick getting his first big win of his career at North Carolina so far, I thought was really fun. And I love that it was played in a sort of like slop bowl type way because at the end of the game, it just felt like a classic Belichick win. It was like we didn't really have the juice on offense, but we gutted it out and we were smart and our defense kind of carried it for us. And now we get to take a happy plane ride back to Chapel Hill on Aer Lingus.

LSU football officials are confirming that Saturday's season-opening home game against Clemson will be the most media and celebrity credentialed game in Tiger Stadium history. That's, that's all Lane Kiffin, right?

Yeah. This is going to be a massive game. And I'm actually really happy that it is being played on campus because these types of games are usually ones that are in Charlotte or Atlanta or wherever the Kickoff Classic games are. And so this is going to be a really, really exciting game. And I know a lot of people are really burnt out of Lane Kiffin coverage in general because everything going on with the NFL training camp players coming back to college and the 24-hour vigil that ESPN held for him when they were trying to figure out if he was going to leave Ole Miss or not and everything that's happened Since, you know, the fake dog, allegedly. But I am kind of happy that college football does have a character like this because it takes the attention away from, from like all the other stuff and like people who aren't really as hyperfocused on the ins and outs. Like they get, they get a little Lane Kiffin thing and they get to enjoy and be angry with Lane Kiffin. And so it's fun and I'm happy that that's there.

Mike, would you do me the favor of looking up whether technically and scientifically balls are cooler than the rest of the body?

Well, that's why they're outside the body.

Yeah, yeah.

But it is still like you said, well, I thought of that more as like a swampy thing. Swamps are hot.

Uh, yeah, but if the balls are cooler than the rest of the body—

I mean, you gotta be something, man. Like, honestly, like, hot as balls has been a saying forever, and you're like, well, technically it's swampy. That's the whole point.

It's hot as balls.

You're sitting on the balls. The balls are in between your legs. They're in your shorts. You're on top of the balls. They're warm.

The weird one is when people say it's colder than a witch's tits. What is that? How do we know the temperature at all of the bosoms?

I guess because they're pointy, like witches' hats are pointy and they're very— I don't know, I get the sense that witches are very angular.

We are not sitting on our balls, and I feel like—

You are currently sitting on your balls. I would bet money.

I'm not.

No, indeed.

I'm not sitting on them.

They're more resting near where I'm sitting.

I like Smetana telling us our business. You're the least equipped to weigh in on this.

That's what you think. Do you guys see Kacey Musgraves has like this giant disco scrotum that she sits on at her concerts?

Yeah, I saw that and I was like, is that what I think it is? And I think it is that.

Anything else from week 1 that you're, uh, finding more interesting than Lane Kiffin?

Well, what about— before you answer that, Jess, This is Alien Predator kind of stuff, right? Are we forgetting who they're playing?

What do you mean?

They're playing Dabo. I mean, there's nobody to root for in this game.

That's the problem.

I—

yeah, there's the balls. There's the sack, the disco sack. I respect it. Honestly, I like what she's doing.

Those are truck nuts.

Yeah.

Yeah, those are exactly— thank you, Chris. Yeah, I think LSU is going to win. I think I am pretty down on Clemson the last couple of years. Like last year, I thought they'd at least be good enough to win in conference and then they might lose to LSU and like maybe they'll lose a good— to a good conference opponent, but like they'll be fine. But no, they were pretty brutal last year. But Dabo's trying to reinvent himself. He brought back Chad Morris as the offensive coordinator who he had a lot of success with in like the 2010s eras of Clemson football. Their defense has been like fine. It hasn't dropped off quite as much as the offense. But I don't know. I think LSU is just going to be ready to go. It's a— it's a night game. It's a home game. I think it'll be a lot of fun. So Yeah, I actually— is it a night game? I think it might be an afternoon game, but either way, I'm with you, Dave. I think it's definitely Alien versus Predator vibes, but I kind of am rooting for Clemson just because I miss the days of Dabo doing like his fun wordplay.

Like I saw him say something over the week that was like he needs to stay in his lane or something like a Lane Kiffin wordplay joke, and I missed that, and we don't get enough of that when, when And they're down in the dumps and they're not getting as much national media attention.

Jess, are you with me that I think that a game is being overlooked this weekend and come CFP final selection time, we're going to revisit this Louisville-Ole Miss game in terms of what it establishes for conference narratives at the start of the season? I think this game is gargantuan.

Yeah, I think that Jeff Brohm has a, you know, an upset Up his sleeve every season, and there Louisville's very good defensively last year. But I don't feel that great about the quarterback situation just because I haven't really seen Lincoln Keenholz play before. And I think Ole Miss is going to have a great defense to start the season. And I I just really like Chambliss and Lacey for Ole Miss. So I think that they're going to win that game. I know it's like a touchdown spread right now. I think the other interesting game, if you want to talk about like in. And then a non-conference thing that maybe we'll look at for some points of comparison later in the year is UCLA and Cal. They're 2 teams with brand new head coaches. Bob Chesney is a coach that's very highly regarded because of what he did at Holy Cross and at James Madison, and someone that I think a lot of people thought would be up for the Penn State job, but he ends up at UCLA, who just fired their athletic director. But don't look at that. Focus on this team. They are going to be a team that I think gets better throughout the season.

They have Nico Iamia— oh my God, I haven't said his name in like a year and I can't say it now.

It's just Nico.

It's a tough one.

Nico.

Yeah, Nico had his moments last year. He was good. And Cal's got a great quarterback in—

JKS.

JKS. Yeah, exactly. And he was a true freshman last year and he was electric. And they also have a new head coach, Tosh Lapoi, who came from Oregon. So I'm very excited for that Big Ten-ACC matchup because I think if both of those teams are at least solid this year, that could be, like I said, like a very good reference point for the rest of the Big Ten and the ACC teams and how we are ranking them compared to one another.

Any thoughts on Penn State debuting the Paterno Family Experience Room?

That says it all. Yeah, what the hell? Like, first of all, like putting his name on anything I thought was like never going to happen again. But I'm curious, was this in the works when Franklin was there? there and then he— they waited to unveil it after he got fired? Because he kind of kept a lid on things while he was the head coach there. Because I know there is factions at play in Penn State land. I don't know, Dave, as a Yinzer, you could probably speak to this as well, but there's got to be a better name for that. Apparently there's a replica of Paterno's desk in it. It's some sort of museum exhibit thing and they're putting their trophies there. This is just one of those things that—

I mean, what's it called? It's a cult. That's what it is. It's a cult that they would do this.

There's Penn State fans that are thrilled about this. They think this is like, finally we're honoring Joe Paterno and it's ridiculous that we weren't allowed to, we're not allowed to talk about him anymore and we can't honor this guy. He's a huge legend. And then of course there's other people who are like, yeah, and then what happened? And I know to your point, yeah, there's still a cult around the Paterno name and the Paterno family and they're getting a museum now.

The Paterno name making a return, less surprising somehow than Nazis making a return. The Orlando Magic home arena hosting a Nazi boxing event. You guys should pay a little bit of attention, at least to what's happening in UFC as well, where there is a Nazi movement as well making a resurgence. What are your thoughts here, Jessica, on the Orlando Magic featuring Nazi boxing event.

Yeah, so this was apparently from the KIA Center, which is owned by the city of Orlando from what I understand, and operated by this group called Orlando Ventures. They put out this statement that I thought was pretty pathetic, which is like, well, First Amendment, you can wave a Nazi flag and it's fine, and there's nothing we can do about that. But that's not my understanding of how business works. I think if you didn't want to you have this event at your arena, you could probably just say, no, we don't wanna have this event at our arena. So I thought it kind of fell flat here, but this is kind of like the increasing normalization of extreme views that we're seeing all over the place. And I think the only way to overcome that is to be like, hey, cut that shit out. Like, we're not doing this. We're not doing this here. Go somewhere else. You're not going to be doing this at the place where an NBA team plays. That's ridiculous. What are we doing?

Check out her weekly Notre Dame podcast, The Echoes. It's with Mike Golick Jr. It will cover you on Notre Dame, all things Notre Dame. I was talking before, Jessica, yesterday about how the University of Miami— I believe this is the most exciting and anticipated season for University of Miami football in 25 years. Where are you on Notre Dame and the anticipation for this season?

I am very excited for this Notre Dame season. But CJ Carr is a very good quarterback, and it's the first time that Notre Dame's had a quarterback returning who played the previous season at Notre Dame in over 6 years now because they've had a lot of transfer quarterbacks. And last year was CJ's first season, so it was his first time starting. I think the defense is going to be fantastic, and I think the schedule is lined up in a way where if they beat Wisconsin on Sunday, they have a nice few weeks to figure out who their primary pass catchers are going to be. That's kind of my big question mark. Wide receivers that, you know, with the exception of Jordan Faison, who was their leading receiver last year, we have to see who's going to be that player. Because last year, Dan, I don't know if you know this, Notre Dame had 2 running backs selected in the first round of the NFL Draft. And they're— so they're both gone now. So that was a lot of the offense. They scored a lot of touchdowns. And so they got to figure out who's going to score the touchdowns this year.

But I think I said this on my show with Mike this week. We will be in Green Bay. We have a live show next to Lambeau Field on Sunday at 3 p.m. Central. Again, God's time zone. Wisconsin has the ingredients to upset teams this year. They are obviously not the best in the Big Ten, but they have a quarterback who can run, who was very good last year at Old Dominion, Colton Joseph. And they have a defense that has a few really nice young linebackers. So if this is a game that Notre Dame has to grind out, would not surprise me in the slightest. Well, the game— they played Indiana last year.

Well, the great news is that even if Wisconsin dumps him, It will not impact the Irish's ranking because, of course, you can't impact the Irish's ranking even if they lose their first 2 games of the season, as a for instance, right?

Yeah.

Well, they didn't lose their first 2 games last year to an unranked Big Ten team that went 4-8.

No, they lost to a dreadful Florida State team.

That's a—

that's who they lost to.

No, that was Alabama.

Oh, Alabama.

You're getting— Alabama is the team that—

They're the ones who didn't belong in the play-in.

East Carolina this weekend. Exactly. You're getting all twisted up. I've seen people say like, oh, this is the year that the CFP, they're going to go off of strength of schedule more than record. Did we not do that last year when Alabama got into the playoff after losing to Florida State and Georgia and Oklahoma and whatever? I'm going to—

Minor penalty, 2 minutes for adding nothing. What day of the year?

Not me.

Okay.

I deserve that mistake.

You know what I deserve?

Jessica, thank you for being on with us again. The name of the show, The Echo. This is not, not, not, not an echo chamber. It's a Notre Dame podcast. She does it with Mike Golick Jr. Thank you, Jessica. Appreciate the time as always. Thank you.

Dan Le Batard!

The person who insists that—

Dave Demachek!

When they make a list of the great— first, well, the first one is when they say of all time.

This is the Dan Le Batard Show.

So I want to ask you guys something because I have not read this article. They're an assortment of grifting shit stains that do something in the modern age to just traffic in, uh, the stupidities of the day. And, uh, I saw that one of the descendants of these shit stains, uh, tried to reach out to me yesterday. And so they write predictable things all the time, and because they are a largely racist outfit, uh, I think I think that they didn't understand that I was talking about color analysts and they just made it colored analysts. Because I was not talking about— when I said, have you noticed that with Luke Keighley and J.J. Watt, have you noticed with Darryl Johnston, have you noticed with Tony Romo, have you noticed with all of the white cowboys that end up getting the greatest broadcasting jobs, I was not talking about the people who are on the shows that, you know, get a rating of 500,000 people. Talking about the network-sanctioned football-partnered shows on Sundays and Monday and all the other day that get the 10 and 15 million viewership numbers. And that is the framing and accent on the voices that end up being next to the play-by-play guys in the NFL when all of America is watching.

And I was talking about how those color analysts are disproportionately white when the sport is disproportionately Black. And I've talked some about in the past. When the league transitions from its famous great white quarterbacks, the Peyton Mannings, the Tom Bradys, the Ben Roethlisbergers, to the Lamar Jacksons, when that position, the last of the truly white positions, gets, uh, you know, shifted, what you end up having happening in the sport as it transitions is there have to be some measurements not unlike what it is that you see in basketball, that the white people governing the sport make about who they put in charge of being faces, voices for the league and the partnership. And so I was saying yesterday, Dave, that Luke Keekley making an ascendance— there aren't that many white stars that you get to choose from outside of the quarterback position. There are some tight ends, but there aren't usually a lot that end up holding the football who aren't quarterbacks. And so I was saying when every job that comes open goes to a Darryl Johnston or a J.J. Watt or a Luke Keekley, I was wondering why there aren't—

Greg Olsen.

Yeah, why there aren't more Jonathan Vilmas. Do you have a theory as to why it is that that happens that isn't just white people end up hiring white people for white people?

I guess my best swing at this would be that it is the Ryan Seacrest paradox, which is that you want compelling figures out there, but what you ultimately wind up with, with the executives making these decisions, is something that is going to be the least offensive to the biggest percentage of viewers and consumers. And Ryan Seacrest is vanilla, and by definition, he's not going to offend anybody. Nobody's going to necessarily enjoy him, but he's not going to offend.

So I just canvassed the NFL lead color analyst teams from all the major networks. Louis Riddick, it is part of the secondary team whenever they do the doubleheader Monday Night Football game. So I guess he's a part of that mix. There's Logan Ryan, Jonathan Bilma, and Robert Turbin. That's 4. It's certainly disproportionate to what the labor force looks like. I mean, Chris Collinsworth is on there. He's a white wide receiver. Like, when we're talking about the lead teams on all these networks, the lead color analyst is a white man.

And that's simply numerically so. I didn't even think I was saying anything that was particularly controversial. What I was asking you yesterday.

It doesn't represent the labor force.

It—

well, and I think though that that is by design. I think that you can say, okay, that when the league is trying to make itself most palatable to the majority of Americans, it is. And you have white people in power everywhere who tend to hire people with whom they have commonalities. You can call that racism if you like, or you could just say race is a factor there, and is human nature, if you prefer to be benign about it. To me, it seems like a fairly obvious thing that I can't help but notice that there have probably been 100 Black Luke Keekleys recently, but the one that gets the job is the white Luke Keekley. That J.J. Watt might be an aberration because he's a bigger star, but generally speaking, in that sport, the majority of stars who aren't quarterbacks They are black.

Well, even the ones that are quarterbacks, I do remember saying, and I think he said this in public spaces, so I don't feel like I'm betraying anything to say, Deion Sanders is, again, I believe on the record about Cam Newton saying he is not a— he doesn't— he's not a CEO, and that's what you have to be as the quarterback of a team. Deion Sanders, primetime? You think that Cam Newton it dresses too silly and is too bombastic. You're saying that primetime? He's saying, yeah, I was a cornerback, I was a kick returner, I was an entertainer. You can't be like that if you're the quarterback of a team. I suspect that television executives have that sort of outmoded, probably outmoded type of philosophy.

The question that I was asking though yesterday is, do people still notice this? That as these things happen in— like, we just got done talking about Nazis, We just got, you know, every day more news about where it is and how it is that people are divided racially in this country in a way that has been, you know, that has been gurgling and bubbling more overtly in the last few years to welcome Nazis out of hiding, out into the public, where it is you used to have to wear a hood to hide your face on some of this stuff. And now some of these people have ended up being emboldened on the extreme ends of this. Obviously, we're in the plague We're talking about the silly nonsense. You do understand how it happens though, right? That the league and its executives want to put as voices and faces on the days that you're watching the most sponsored and lucrative thing that there is in sports, how the, the Black people are largely the ones playing it and the white people are largely the ones critiquing it and examining it.

Well, you know, when Colin Kaepernick happened a decade ago, I and a couple other people were called into a boardroom by executives and told, stop talking about the Colin Kaepernick taking a knee and Malcolm Jenkins raising a fist and so on.

Why?

Why should we? It's the story of this NFL season. And I was told, no one cares what you think about it.

Right.

Don't talk about that. And so offensive on that level, but beyond that, it was explained only 10%— our research tells us that at the extremes, 10% are hardcore right, 10% are hardcore left. Our North Star is the middle. We are trying to serve the other 80%, and that's what dictates their decision-making. And so Colin Kaepernick is associated with extremism.

Kaepernick gave an interview the other day for the first time in a long time and says he doesn't watch professional football. He watches college football because he was blackballed and because of how he feels about being blackballed. But do you guys find it any kind of amazing— I don't know if you still do or if this is tired as subject matter because we've been in it for 10 years— do you guys find it amazing in any way that Kaepernick, when he was the quarterback, that kneeling before the flag is something that gets you blackballed before Deshaun Watson ends up getting blackballed, that you can't play football for having an opinion, but you can play football and start for the Cleveland Browns for doing the things that Deshaun Watson has done.

Are you sure this Nazi thing happened? Because I'm on that publication and they didn't cover it.

Am I sure that the—

Yeah, I'm just checking out, I'm cross-referencing. You would think that, that, you know, it's right up the of what that publication does, and it's just— they're not on that beat.

Just didn't cover it. That's not— they're busy sending mean notes about my commentary and what it is that I have to say. I don't even know what they've written, but I can probably guess given the fact that every time they reach out to me, it's about the same bullshit.

The rationalization of people who were down on Kaepernick and then Malcolm Jenkins raising a fist was, this is going to ruin in the team's effort. This is going to impact wins and losses because you're dividing the team. As a reminder, the end of that story was Malcolm Jenkins with Chris Long going over, a white man putting his arm around Malcolm Jenkins as his teammate. That team won the Super Bowl that year.