The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz XX
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[14] This is the Dan Levatore show with the Stugats podcast.
[15] I found interesting Stugats, and I was surprised.
[16] Perhaps I should not have been.
[17] I was surprised at the reaction, how outsized I thought it was on social media yesterday as a divisive force, when I mentioned pretty casually in a conversation about LeBron James and what his excellence has been in the modern age for 20 years of largely unblemished work.
[18] I called him today's Ali, and a lot of people really objected to that, which I understand.
[19] It's a bit of a rhetorical trick, right?
[20] It's impossible to be Ali today.
[21] And if you were to be an athlete being Ali today, you would be having.
[22] to tackle things like Gaza and Ukraine and just an assortment of things that I don't think it's possible for anybody to be Muhammad Ali today.
[23] But what I was saying, or what I meant to say, is this is the athlete that America puts in front of everybody for this generation as the representation of our athletic, grace, dominance, and excellence.
[24] You'll only get a few of them.
[25] Ali was the Ali of his time because of all the political stuff, but Jim Brown and Bill Russell were doing it too.
[26] Ali was bigger than them to the world.
[27] Michael Jordan came after that.
[28] Tom Brady will never be that.
[29] I'm talking about generational excellence that holds that flag and it means something because the excellence holding the flag is less better than the flag is itself over the last 20 years.
[30] And so what I'm saying is, that for our time, in this specific time of social media ravage you, and there was no textbook on how to navigate this.
[31] Ali Jordan didn't navigate this kind of cruelty where we're going to climb into every crevice of your life, have way too much access to you for you to actually be a myth.
[32] You're going to be too human because we're going to change all of the ways that you're covered, and then you're going to look like you pale in comparison to Ali and Jordan.
[33] Gordon, when you do not, because you have circumnavigated something over 20 years with uncommon grace.
[34] But of course, he is not and can never be.
[35] Nobody can politically what Muhammad Ali was.
[36] Impossible standard that he said.
[37] But I think the blowback that you're getting when you say that about LeBron is Ali's wife.
[38] When LeBron had a chance to do something on an international scale, China, Hong Kong, that whole deal.
[39] She said he is not Muhammad Ali.
[40] That's correct.
[41] His wife said that.
[42] And he would tell you that he sat that one out in the name of sneakers sales.
[43] Again, I'm saying the modern day, Ali.
[44] It's the important qualifier and diluter on the front end, understanding that nobody can be that.
[45] I can't say there will be a modern day Jackie Robinson.
[46] I'm simply speaking, as American icon, that you can be proud that he represents your country and your generations.
[47] Because there are only three of them.
[48] there are only three of them ever and what I'm saying is he goes he gets the bronze medal in that class and it's something that should be celebrated instead of disgrace I had the same reaction as some of these folks on social media had when you said that it was like ooh because you can't like you said you can't match up their experiences to that they're reacting from right Muhammad Ali went through all this stuff growing up he experienced these things he turned to you know the nation of Islam he taught the teachings of all these things and LeBron can only do so much as he experienced, can only respond to what he experienced.
[49] And I think he is doing that with the schools, with, you know, bringing these young people into probably situations that they couldn't have if they were left to their own devices.
[50] But I do think he is lacking in that his voice doesn't always really have the weight to it that you want it to have.
[51] Right.
[52] When Muhammad Ali or somebody of his stature would speak about something, he would take the time, probably do some research, and then come out and say something about it to where you understood, oh, okay, this is a very reasoned human being.
[53] He obviously looks at things from different perspectives.
[54] I think with LeBron, that's lacking.
[55] I'm not saying it needs to be there for the best basketball player we've ever seen.
[56] Maybe it's just, yeah, it kind of hurts when you hear those two names together because he's nowhere close.
[57] It is a diluted form in the modern age.
[58] He has not used his voice as much as I would have liked either, but he's used it more than Tiger and Michael and most of the other people who have been in the role that he's been in to not sit out the black stuff, to not sit out some of the race stuff.
[59] And he's done more than other commercial spokesman.
[60] But I think that's what Dan is saying.
[61] It's impossible to come close to the standard that Ali set and the things that he went through.
[62] So modern day, okay, I'm more with you.
[63] But it's not, I'm not even just talking about though on, you have to have the combination of excellence that endures forever and is beyond unassailably all of your peers.
[64] I don't know who you go to on second place on who holds that flag with more grace in the modern age among athletes.
[65] What's the distant second when I tell you, hey, Tom Brady doesn't represent like this to the world.
[66] Not to your country, because in your country, the way he represents.
[67] represents is the reaction to that is to make him more polarizing than I ever consider him.
[68] I don't think he should be as polarizing as he is.
[69] I'm really confused by the number of people who are insistent on diluting his excellence by degrees because they want him to be something better than what he is, which is only better than any of you are at anything, any people criticizing him for what he is, none of you are as good at what you do as he is at what he does.
[70] That is I can go across the globe on his critics and I will find not a one, not a one Stugats who can say they are as good at anything they do as he is at what he did.
[71] I'm curious Dan, do you remember the criticism of Jordan being as loud as you hear it for LeBron?
[72] What I remember first is ball hog on him and then after that I heard a lot of why doesn't he use his power for anything other than selling sneakers.
[73] Yeah, and because Republicans buy sneakers, too.
[74] Well, it was just a, that's as loud as selling out will ever be articulated by somebody in that position.
[75] Like, that is the very, that is the very definition of, if you buy my sneakers, I will not use my power.
[76] That is, that's what, Michael Jordan got plenty of that, but I will tell you that the people not doing that, that his choice there, the reason he gets to be the icon that he is, is because there was no social media for those people to continue to tear him down so you would hear everybody saying it because it was not the media that was saying that about Michael Jordan.
[77] Like that was not, that would have been a whole lot of people saying, why doesn't he use his power in a better way?
[78] But this is why I say LeBron what LeBron navigated in these 20 years of we're always watching you and we're always there to criticize with cruelty is not something that existed before him.
[79] Well, second place, because you asked the question, is on his own team, I think.
[80] Steph Curry.
[81] Steph Curry is that superstar who has come up without any faults, you know, without any controversies.
[82] He also says nothing.
[83] He says nothing when it comes to the controversial subjects.
[84] He says nothing when you talk to him about, you know, anything sort of negative ties to his church in North Carolina.
[85] He just doesn't say, he says what sounds like the right things, but he stays neutral right down the middle because he knows.
[86] And this is the thing about LeBron is if we, those critics, whomever you speak of, want him to be whoever it is, Kareem Abdul -Jabbar or or this very loud outspoken person, they're just going to scream louder at him.
[87] They're going to disagree with his opinions, and they're going to make him seem more of a negative product, more of a negative result because of what he is saying.
[88] They'd probably just tell him to shut up because you're dividing people.
[89] So playing it down the middle is one thing.
[90] But the thing I think, again, with LeBron, is it doesn't seem like he's invested in a lot of these topics, and yet he's willing to answer them.
[91] And I think the best possible one, or example of that, was the China question.
[92] He sat in front of a microphone.
[93] He answered it.
[94] It was cringeworthy, and it was bad.
[95] Also selling out.
[96] Yeah.
[97] And I think everybody will always hold everything he says and compare it to that.
[98] Is anything as good that he has said or done as cringeworthy as that was?
[99] I admire LeBron on a lot of different levels, and he's not perfect.
[100] But this is a guy, when he's a teenager, they're calling him King James, and ESPN is televising his high school games.
[101] And he doesn't live up to expectations.
[102] He exceeds them.
[103] And he still is doing that.
[104] at age 40 in the NBA and in Paris.
[105] And off the court, I think he has said plenty.
[106] I think he's stood up on societal and social issues, dating way back to Trayvon Martin down here in Miami, or when he was in Miami.
[107] Izzy rightly gave flowers to the school he founded in Akron.
[108] What athlete does that?
[109] And it's thriving, and it's important.
[110] And I think he's done plenty on and off the court.
[111] He doesn't have to be Muhammad Ali to be admired.
[112] The part that I'm confused by, I really am.
[113] J .J. Borea?
[114] The part, other than J .J. Barreya, the part that confuses me is that we would live in an ecosystem where being the fourth best of all time makes people scream at each other about, well, he's not Kobe.
[115] or like, I just don't understand the screaming at each other that diminishes his excellence because we need to put him fourth instead of second.
[116] Like, I don't know.
[117] Get you tinfoil.
[118] I'll go the rest of my life without understanding it.
[119] Why the need to put the bar in a place where you have to put somebody and tear them down from second place to fifth place because what?
[120] Well, I think people are starving for someone who was like Muhammad, an athlete that is willing to say anything about anything, whether it's here in the United States or internationally.
[121] And I think people view LeBron James as one of the guys who could do that.
[122] If he got himself informed that if he didn't care about selling sneakers and he decided not to, and that was disappointing to people, Dan.
[123] Stugats, in terms of the power that gets squandered here, I agree with John Amici when he says, you tell me if you think this is wrong, that the power that LeBron James has, if he dedicated himself maniacally to ending world hunger, he could.
[124] I mean, first of all, tell me something John Amici says that I don't agree with.
[125] All right, that's going to be the more difficult one.
[126] But yeah, I think with LeBron, I just, look, does he want to be this person?
[127] I don't think so.
[128] I think we see him more so even than Michael.
[129] He cares about what people think about him.
[130] He did not like all the booing.
[131] He wants to stay as neutral as possible on these subjects while he's playing, at least.
[132] After he plays, who knows?
[133] Maybe he lets out some more political opinions, but as of now, he seems to be doing it the right way.
[134] And whether you say, you know, other athletes will take that sort of a sacrifice and give up a little bit of their career, a little bit of their fandom just for these purposes, maybe he thinks there's plenty of time because 40, not that old.
[135] In terms of ending world hunger, I get what you're saying, but so could Taylor Swift, so could Beyonce, so could Elon Musk, so could Bill Gates.
[136] I mean, it just takes money and a voice, and he has the voice more than the money, LeBron James.
[137] But I'm not going to fault him because he's not ending world hunger.
[138] You know what I'm saying?
[139] Put it on the poll, Juju.
[140] Do you fault LeBron James because he's not ending world hunger?
[141] It's a lot to put on someone.
[142] I mean, he's just one man. Dan, you really like that photo, didn't it?
[143] Seems like that photo has brought out so much in you.
[144] I think the most important part of this is to remember, comparison is the thief of joy.
[145] And we're robbing ourselves an opportunity to celebrate this man, because we keep comparing them to what people are so sensitive about.
[146] If we can just try to just put down the phones, put down your Twitter fingers, and let's just applaud LeBron for what he's actually doing.
[147] Like right now?
[148] I mean, yes.
[149] There you go.
[150] Don't celebrate too much.
[151] Don't celebrate too much.
[152] It hasn't won the gold yet.
[153] That's right.
[154] That's right.
[155] Thank you, Jessica, for that proper bit of perspective.
[156] It's not the photo, Izzy.
[157] It's that I don't believe that we get very many chances in real time to appreciate history while we're a part of it.
[158] And the thing that actually got my attention on this was seeing and hearing Dwayne Wade and Carmelo Anthony on their podcast sort of try and reframe how their careers could have gone if they'd made different choices while the guy is still playing out there and they're well behind him and they're the greatest I've seen.
[159] On the Olympic team.
[160] They're among the greatest.
[161] I've seen it, and because we've spent the last 20 years comparing him to the ghost of Michael Jordan, it just illustrates again and again that he has no peers.
[162] He's got no peers in the modern age, and I'd like that history appreciated now.
[163] We didn't allow Ali and Jordan this while they were coming up doing it.
[164] We only gave it to Michael after he won six in a row.
[165] I think LeBron is the only reason I don't feel really old, because he's still in the league.
[166] Like 2012 feels like yesterday.
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[178] Don Levitard.
[179] Is there back in my day?
[180] There is, actually.
[181] Are you not going to tell anyone?
[182] Wait a minute.
[183] You guys.
[184] It's a Tuesday.
[185] Stugats.
[186] Here's your guy.
[187] Greg Cody, with Back in My Day.
[188] Okay, here it is.
[189] Okay, here it is.
[190] Sorry Adultery We are back We're rated for this one This is the Dan Levitar show With the Stugats I wanted to get to this earlier And I failed to get to it earlier So let me get to the expertise of Izzy Gutierrez and Greg Cody As it comes to the dolphins At least telling us publicly We have a quarterback For the next four years We have been talking about The Price Tag on that for a while.
[191] I really thought it was unusual the way that the money became so important that Tua himself is going to a microphone and chanting to the crowd.
[192] So weird.
[193] Show me the money.
[194] Really weird.
[195] Athletes are so much better at hiding that usually.
[196] It's not saying the quiet part out loud, pretending that they care about other things more than that.
[197] It's also going to be used against him if he plays poorly.
[198] Oh, I mean, that's coming off of what?
[199] I mean, he's making $23 million or something.
[200] It's not like he went from a minimum contract to fit.
[201] He was making, what, eight figures already.
[202] That was kind of cringeworthy and a little shocking.
[203] And it kind of what my whole take on the Tua thing is, now we're going to know exactly what type of winning personality you have.
[204] Like, they showed a lot of his personality in Hard Knocks, and he's likable, lovable at times, but is he a guy that somebody's going to follow at this level?
[205] Because now all the pressures on him.
[206] He's a little goofy.
[207] He was way too excited about Christmas gifts.
[208] Way too into the Secret Santa.
[209] Way too into the Secret Santa.
[210] Yeah, he didn't serve himself well by chanting, show me the money.
[211] How about you show me a playoff win?
[212] Well, here's the thing.
[213] Here's the thing.
[214] And when it says all the pressure is on him, okay, it's a pretty small sample, but he hasn't won in the playoffs.
[215] Granted, he's only been one of the two losses in the playoffs in his time.
[216] The Dolphins have lost 10 of the last 13 games in the past two regular seasons and playoffs, which is why they ended up blowing the East title and had to play a really.
[217] road playoff game.
[218] All of that is on...
[219] That's a great stat, by the way.
[220] The last two years, they're three and ten down the stretch.
[221] And all of them, to some extent, are on Tua.
[222] He's been injured for some of those two years ago, but still, all of the pressure is on him now.
[223] All of the money is on him and all the pressure is on him.
[224] But the contract is better and better the more I hear about it.
[225] Okay, only $93 million of that total guaranteed money is fully guaranteed.
[226] guaranteed.
[227] That's 44 % of the total.
[228] His salary cap, I hate the phrase salary cap, because I usually don't delve this deeply into it.
[229] His salary cap hit, the contract was structured, is only $9 .5 million this year, which means they can sign another guard, they can sign a defensive tackle, they can extend Javan Holland, they can rework Tyreek Hill.
[230] Chris Greer did a masterful job.
[231] It took too long to do it, but he did a great job with this contract in a way that works for both parties, the team and tour.
[232] You say it works for both parties, and I just want to ask this because I know that you celebrate this.
[233] You've been behind the chiefs, everyone's behind the chiefs, you lost to the chiefs in the playoffs last year, and their quarterback's cheaper.
[234] Do what with that?
[235] Their quarterback is cheaper.
[236] They have better value at quarterback than the might.
[237] Not just a better quarterback.
[238] They've got better value at quarterback.
[239] We're all doing salary cap games.
[240] We're all experts on, oh, it's fine that the Dolphins are the only team in the league that has three players on offense who are all guaranteed $70 million.
[241] How can that possibly come back to hurt anybody?
[242] The reason that he's this good, we agree, right, is system and those two receivers, correct?
[243] Those two.
[244] This is a big part of it, and a great running game, certainly.
[245] System?
[246] Yeah, but this is the system he's in.
[247] In other words, if he's a free agent, I agree with what Mina Kimes said on this show.
[248] If he's a free agent, he's not probably as valuable, but he's in this system where he is the perfect fit.
[249] So you have to pay him in an exploding quarterback market that all of a sudden has the best quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, has maybe the fifth highest paid player.
[250] My question to you is, you were behind Kansas City before this when you had value at quarterback.
[251] How are you ahead of Kansas City?
[252] And guys on defense, by the way.
[253] But let's just isolate it here.
[254] The best window that they had to do all of this is when Tua was cheap.
[255] In a down year for Kansas City, after they had to pay their quarterback and lose the piece that Tua is eventually going to lose, lost Tarek Hill because they had to pay Patrick Mahomes.
[256] That's how it happened.
[257] That happened to them, and you were behind them.
[258] You went to Kansas City.
[259] You lost to them.
[260] now you don't have the advantages of having value at quarterback.
[261] Now you have a quarterback that you have to pay more than Patrick Mahomes is making.
[262] What do you do with that when you're not a player away and not a game away?
[263] When the championship runs through that quarterback every time and you're still behind them and now it's more expensive to be behind them?
[264] I don't have an answer for that and I don't think the dolphins do right now.
[265] I'm not going to make excuses, although there are a couple of reasons.
[266] they faded late.
[267] Two of their best defensive players were out with late season really bad injuries from which they haven't recovered yet.
[268] Neither has played in this training camp.
[269] So injuries were a factor but I have no other excuse for this team.
[270] I have to trust the coach who swears this is the perfect and he's a great coach and he's a smart guy.
[271] Who swears this quarterback is the best quarterback for his offense.
[272] He told us that before he even got started with this quarterback And now he has seen him for two years, and in two years, 54 touchdowns and 22 interceptions.
[273] That guy is going to get paid.
[274] He's going to get paid.
[275] What Tua just got paid?
[276] And if you're McDaniel, you think to yourself, what's the team that has given the Chief's problems over the years?
[277] It's been the Bengals with Burrow, Chase, and Higgins.
[278] I have Tua, I have Hill, I have Waddle.
[279] We can beat them one game scenario.
[280] This is why they're in the sort of the comparisons, right?
[281] When you first get drafted as a quarterback, who you could get compared to, the people.
[282] you got drafted with, right?
[283] And then those same people are likely maybe one or a year apart are going to be getting new contracts the same year as you get the new contracts.
[284] And so those are the ones you compare them to.
[285] The Patrick Mahomes problem I have is he has already separated himself.
[286] When his contract, whenever that's up, he's going to get whatever the heck he wants, he's going to be, should be the highest paid player in the game.
[287] What we are now doing is trusting, okay, hey, Mike McDaniel, if you say your system and those two receivers can then turn Tua into something close to where he's valuable at that number, then, okay, we're good.
[288] The problem is we have not seen it.
[289] We've seen one year where he got a little bigger and led the league in passing.
[290] But to me, I see a bunch of passes that are thrown pretty high.
[291] Receivers got to go up and get it.
[292] If you would maybe hit him in stride, maybe have more yards.
[293] Like, there's still things you can be critical of Tua.
[294] Do I think that automatically he is even two years of improvement good enough to win a Super Bowl?
[295] I don't think so yet.
[296] I don't know.
[297] And that's why the number is what it means.
[298] So it doesn't matter where he's slotted to me. It just means, hey, was he worth this commitment, period?
[299] It didn't matter who it, what number was.
[300] It's just if he is in this group, do we commit to this guy?
[301] Do we feel like he can win us a Super Bowl?
[302] It's amazing how polarizing he is as a quarterback.
[303] I heard this on ESPN last night, guys discussing this.
[304] Why aren't we making a stake about Jordan Love's contract?
[305] No, some people are.
[306] Some people are surprised at the amount of money that he got.
[307] I mean, the reason is, correct me if I'm wrong, the last time we saw Jordan Love, he was, I mean, they were crushing down.
[308] He was a smaller sample size and he was impressive.
[309] And so people fall in love right.
[310] But he went a playoff game on the road, right?
[311] It's not just Jordan Love either.
[312] To your point, quarterbacks you don't think of as 50 million a year quarterbacks have gotten those deals.
[313] Trevor Lawrence, Jared Gough.
[314] I mean, you don't have to be Patrick Mahomes now to command that kind of echelon in salary.
[315] That's just the fact.
[316] That's just the way the NFL is right now.
[317] I think the difference is, is with a guy like Tua, you pay that money, you say, okay, with Mike McDaniel, with Tyree Kill, he can get us one.
[318] With Patrick Mahomes, it's every year you say we can win the Super Bowl this year.
[319] Well, but that's what the – With any receivers, right.
[320] No, but that's what the eight games of Jordan Love was, though, because it ain't anybody out here saying that what they did in Dallas was because of anybody other than Jordan Love.
[321] Like, it's not – this is the thing that happens with Tua that doesn't happen with Jordan Love.
[322] If I tell you right now, take away some of these weapons, now what do you have?
[323] I think you're going to get a lot more doubt right now for Tua than you're going to get for Jordan Love.
[324] Jordan Love is doing it with Romeo Dobbs.
[325] Yeah, and he's doing it in cold weather, and you see him do it outside of the pocket.
[326] With Tua, you have questions about him outside of the pocket in cold weather.
[327] For Tua, it all has to be perfect.
[328] Three -step drop, get it out.
[329] And if it's not that, he becomes an average quarterback.
[330] So that's the difference.
[331] I'll give you the movement, right?
[332] He's not great out of the pocket.
[333] He's bad out of the pocket.
[334] Maybe he's better at that now.
[335] That he's got lost a little bit of a little bit of.
[336] of weight.
[337] It's his accuracy, though, that is bad out of the pocket.
[338] But it's that offensive line.
[339] He doesn't have the same offensive line.
[340] Jordan Love does.
[341] Jordan Love can be comfortable back there.
[342] Tua has not only uncomfortable from the beginning, but then had two head injuries, and now is back, had a year where he can get some comfort back there, but he does not have the time that Jordan Love had.
[343] That's overstated, I think.
[344] I think the offensive line in the last couple of years has been fine.
[345] Like a few years ago, it was really bad.
[346] It's fine for two seconds.
[347] We got Armstead.
[348] Right.
[349] It's not great.
[350] But when Armstead plays and Connor Williams was in there.
[351] The offensive line has been fine the last couple years.
[352] Well, the quick release is for a reason.
[353] It's to protect Tua.
[354] Yes.
[355] And it's because the offensive line is untrustworthy.
[356] But it's funny because in the second playoff game, the last thing we saw from Jordan Love was at San Francisco in a game in which they could have won.
[357] They were down 24 -21.
[358] He threw an interception on the last play.
[359] And it was a bad one.
[360] All right.
[361] Well, that should be how we define all quarterbacks.
[362] The last pass they threw.
[363] I believe we should agree.
[364] All of us should agree that if your last pass loses the game, you shouldn't get $55 million.
[365] That seems like a fair appraisal.
[366] Just the last thing all of us saw.
[367] Put it in the CBA.
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[383] Don Lebatard.
[384] I don't like Smetty either.
[385] Stugats.
[386] Women stay home in the kitchen where they belong.
[387] This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stugats.
[388] Today's episode is sponsored by Draft Kings.
[389] Stay tuned because you'll hear more about Draft Kings and all it has to offer throughout the show.
[390] Kings, the crown of yours.
[391] I want to get back to something that Cody said all of last week that actually offended me and it took me a week to realize how offensive it was.
[392] You said that no, you said no disrespect to Michael Phelps, but he can't be the number one athlete in the history of American athletics if he's only in a sport that I give a shit about once every four years.
[393] Right.
[394] Your narcissism has never been more on display than saying an athlete can't greater if he's not great when you're watching because you don't watch all the other times he's competing outside of those two weeks that made him great to get to those two weeks.
[395] Well, I'm representing all of sports fans, and in this case, all of American sports fans.
[396] I am the spokesman for the American sports fan, okay?
[397] You can't be in a fringe sport, meaning cricket.
[398] You know, cricket has played in the United States, but if you're the best cricket player in the United States, you can't be.
[399] the best ever even if you're the best in that sport you know swimming is is we care about we as a country not just me care intimately about swimming once every four years pick a stroke am i right yeah yeah butterfly get to the other side of the pool as fast as possible why do i have to do it now like a butterfly that's a good point gregg you are saying what are you watching swim meets on like regularly you over there it's not he just said he doesn't even swim it sinks like a rock The children fly in Dallas every year?
[400] I mean...
[401] It is not that I am watching all swimming meets.
[402] It's that the narcissism involved in saying that an athlete can only be great if you happen to be watching.
[403] Yeah.
[404] And it's not even you happen to be watching.
[405] If you happen to deign to care enough as a lazy person who doesn't care about anything to not understand how that person competed in all sorts of world -class races for four years before getting to the two weeks you gave a shit about.
[406] We weren't watching then.
[407] No, that's fair.
[408] You got to perform when we're watching.
[409] And I'm not speaking just for myself.
[410] Again, I represent all American sports fans.
[411] You know, what's he doing the rest of those four?
[412] For three years and 50 weeks, what's he doing?
[413] He doesn't get it.
[414] Being great at what he does.
[415] It's not on TV.
[416] Yeah, he could be taken three and a half years off.
[417] And then he starts training just for six months before the Olympics.
[418] It's all muscle memory, right?
[419] It is.
[420] On TV, it's just not TV you're watching.
[421] Then it's pressure -free.
[422] We're not watching the CBS Sports Network.
[423] Stop making this about how much swimming I'm watching.
[424] I'm not watching a lot of swimming.
[425] You have not boxed me in on anything.
[426] Let's open up the phone lines.
[427] All the swimming fans across the country.
[428] Give us a call.
[429] Give us the expertise.
[430] Yes.
[431] Non -Olympic expertise.
[432] How are you so comfortable tearing down the greatness of others as if your greatness is such an amazing great.
[433] First of all, I didn't say that.
[434] Second of all, when you begin the sentence with all due respect, you know, you're allowed to be critical.
[435] You know, with all due respect, a bronze medal is pretty great, but it ain't gold, so don't act like it is.
[436] All due respect is usually followed with a lack of respect.
[437] I feel like it's almost the opposite.
[438] You can almost guarantee if someone has started a phrase with all due respect that what's coming after that is not respectful.
[439] So end it.
[440] End it with the phrase.
[441] We're correct on this, right?
[442] This is not, does it not put an antenna up for you?
[443] When someone says with all due respect, they're warning you that disrespect is on the way.
[444] It's almost the...
[445] It's right around the corner.
[446] I don't know that there's another phrase like this in the American language that allows us to arrive where you're on guard now for this person is good.
[447] No offense.
[448] No offense.
[449] It's good.
[450] No offense.
[451] Yeah.
[452] offense is coming, right.
[453] No, with all due respect, you have to take a second and you have to take in the respect.
[454] You have to let it sink in so that when the other half of the statement comes, you're not as hurt, right?
[455] So with all due respect, Greg, and then you just give a long pause and just let them sort of feel good about it.
[456] And then you give them the bad news and then they're just neutral again.
[457] Right.
[458] Or you could be, like, incredibly accurate and say with all minimal respect or with all partial respect.
[459] But it just doesn't flow like with all due respect.
[460] So you've got to say do, even though you mean partial.
[461] Which one's better as a threat that the opposite is coming?
[462] No offense or with all due respect.
[463] Which one for you guys brings up the possibility that what is coming here I really need to be alert about because it's possibly offense and disrespect.
[464] With all due to respect.
[465] Really?
[466] It's no offense.
[467] Because you're about to tell me something that I know I'm not going to like, but I have to be okay with it.
[468] No offense.
[469] I can't hold a fence.
[470] Yeah, it's a fine line, but I would rather be disrespected than offended.
[471] No offense is used way more often, though.
[472] Like, people are more likely to bust out, no offense.
[473] It's just like, no offense, blah, blah, blah, where it's like, the other one is like, they are building up.
[474] And I know something's coming.
[475] No offense, Stugots, this camera angle is not great for you.
[476] Okay, now try the other one.
[477] With all due respect, this is not a great camera angle for you.
[478] See?
[479] No offense hurts more.
[480] Let me hear no offense again.
[481] No offense, Stugots, this is not a good camera.
[482] Yeah, that hurts that.
[483] It hurts more.
[484] I just pulled out a random example.
[485] By the way, that wasn't something that I had previously ever thought about.
[486] Because you're saying on the front end that you have a modicum of respect, even though I know you don't.
[487] Well, I think the syllable count here on, with all due respect, brings us very slowly to the understanding a threat is coming.
[488] No offense happens too fast.
[489] No offense doesn't give me the warning I need, the cadence I need to prepare.
[490] for the offense, but I do believe that you're right.
[491] When you say no offense to somebody, that I'm going to be offended, I believe, is a stronger feeling than the feeling of a warning of disrespect.
[492] Because, but I'm going to be offended by disrespect as well.
[493] Am I not?
[494] Am I not also going to be offended by the views?
[495] Normally they respect you.
[496] It's with all due respect.
[497] Right.
[498] But not this time.
[499] Let's see if I'm doing this right, right, Greg.
[500] Like, with all due respect, you were the greatest columnist in Miami Herald history.
[501] No, that's, you're, go sitting in a penalty box.
[502] Go sit in a penalty box.
[503] Is that going to get me to your party?
[504] With all due respect, Greg, there's been better columnists.
[505] That's fair.
[506] No offense, Greg, but there's been better columnists.
[507] Which one hurts more, though?
[508] When you say with all due respect, you got to wrap the disrespect in velvet.
[509] It has to be, you know what I mean?
[510] I'm torn on this.
[511] Yeah, I'm going back and forth.
[512] The reason I'm torn, but this is the reason I'm torn.
[513] You're on the front end taking away my ability to be offended.
[514] Because you're nuking me on the front end by saying no offense.
[515] And now you're saying that you don't intend an offense.
[516] And if I get offended, I'm in the wrong.
[517] You're placing this on my lap.
[518] No offense.
[519] I prefer Carl Hyacin.
[520] Okay.
[521] So do I. Now make it Dave Hyac.
[522] With all due respect, Dave Hyde, he has better takes.
[523] Yeah, we'll disagree on that.
[524] But with all due respect, you normally have a good opinion.
[525] That was a good one.
[526] He plays this game correctly.
[527] How does Izzy play it so poorly?
[528] I don't understand.
[529] I don't understand.
[530] He did it with such confidence, too.
[531] With all due respect, you're a great columnist.
[532] He should sit there forever, Izzy.
[533] Forgive me for wandering too far from that.
[534] this.
[535] I have failed both myself and the audience in talking earlier about Connor Stallions and his documentary on Netflix, which I still have not gotten the opinions of the group on.
[536] I need more information on Jessica.
[537] As you said, it was your grandmother at her 50th birthday, had a stripper called the Italian Stallion.
[538] Is this secondhand information?
[539] Did you happen to be there?
[540] Can you give us some more information on this?
[541] Unfortunately, I've seen a lot of photos and videos from it.
[542] and it was the Italian stallion a young man did he pop out from a birthday cake like what did he just knock on the door in a speedo or was it a horse it was a man my grandma thought it was one of my uncle the look that man just gave you this is where he starts this is what happens we've got about two hours of Greg Cody this is what happens this is what my grandma thought this man was one of her son's friends because he looked like, you know, all the Italian cousins in our family.
[543] And then he started taking his clothes off and then she grabbed his ass and she talks about it every time.
[544] I see her.
[545] It's like a horrifying thing.
[546] She's probably I hope she's not listening to this.
[547] Can we get the sound of grandma Jessica being happy about getting flowers at home because there's something about this enthusiasm being around a 50 year old exotic dancer that is something that I want to summon?
[548] Greg, what has been happening to you lately.
[549] Do you notice that once we get past two hours in on a live show on Tuesday lately, you get a little more delirious.
[550] Like you're doing your own show with more and more nonsense just spewing that you don't give any thought to.
[551] Have you noticed that that's happening?
[552] The visual of a stripper being an actual stallion, a horse at a party for a 50 -year -old woman is funny.
[553] You know, it's the Italian stallion, literally.
[554] But no, to answer your question, I am not delirious.
[555] I'm as sharp as a carpet tack, and I feel fine.
[556] How does that work?
[557] You have the horse coming in on two legs dressed in something, wearing pants?
[558] Like, how does this whole thing work?
[559] Or is it just a horse being nude and non -stripping, like taking off its saddle?
[560] Yeah.
[561] A horse wearing pants would be really, really frightening to look at.
[562] Would he be wearing pants on all four legs or just the back leg?
[563] He's wearing a full suit, and then he disrobes himself.
[564] No, the horse is on natural, as most horses are.
[565] It saunteres into the party, and then it starts, you know, getting a little naughty.
[566] It's naked coming in?
[567] Like a centaur?
[568] Yeah, right, like a centaur almost.
[569] I think if you agitate horses, they can actually get aggressive and humpy.
[570] Oh, my God.
[571] It wouldn't be dangerous.
[572] I was in St. Louis once on a junior college field trip.
[573] No, we were in St. Louis, and they took us, we happened by the Clyde.
[574] In the Budweiser plant, and I saw an aroused Clydesdale, and I don't even want to go into details at the sight of what I saw.
[575] No disrespect, Greg, but you don't have to finish this damn sentence.
[576] No disrespect.
[577] We know what you saw.
[578] We'll all use our imaginations, but the point I'm making is a horse as a stripper in that role is not the strangest thing.
[579] Oh, you've ever heard of.
[580] Let's leave it at that.
[581] With all due respect, please continue.
[582] Yeah, no disrespect meant.
[583] No offense meant either.
[584] Just, I just offended people.
[585] To be clear.
[586] Yeah.
[587] It's just, I want to understand everything that just happened here.
[588] Boom, chickaboo, boom, boom, that's what I'm talking about.
[589] Baby!
[590] Yeah, thank you.
[591] Jessica's grandmother opens a door.
[592] Right.
[593] And what is standing in front of her on tuners.
[594] Two legs.
[595] Two legs for her birthday.
[596] Right.
[597] Or three.
[598] Is not merely a horse not wearing pants because you said all natural, which means no saddle either.
[599] Right.
[600] Aroused.
[601] Also aroused.
[602] That's the image you wanted to conjure for us.
[603] Yes.
[604] Fully engaged, fully engorged.
[605] And you're not delirious.
[606] Right.
[607] You're fine.
[608] Sharp as a carpet tack?
[609] Yeah.
[610] Holy crap.
[611] Holy crap.
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