Local Hour: Pablo Torre Found Out

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Speaker 3 Listen.

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Speaker 15 who said soon.

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Speaker 18 Football. Football.

Speaker 20 Football. Football.

Speaker 20 football.

Speaker 7 Hey, hey, hello. It's me, Pablo, here to

Speaker 1 football.

Speaker 22 You love, love that slightly cliched chant that I, as an American, am contractually obligated to also say. Football.

Speaker 22 I'm interrupting this because I am going to join the show, I think, to talk about a new, now not so secret episode of my show in our new partnership with the athletic that's coming up soon.

Speaker 1 So, finding out, find out, foot, find, you know, right?

Speaker 23 Okay.

Speaker 10 I have a journalistic judgment question to ask the group. Should we start with Pablo Torre dropping at 5 a.m.

Speaker 10 a Pablo drop that I suspect will be the biggest story in sports once all the editors and writers wake up and start chasing what Pablo is reporting?

Speaker 10 Or should we talk about how Greg and Billy both think that the Dolphins have a must-win game this weekend?

Speaker 17 A must-win?

Speaker 10 A must-win. Billy and Greg.

Speaker 2 And Big Mac, just so that we're not making it seem like we're two kooks that think that.

Speaker 10 Must-win, they have said

Speaker 10 week one. It seems a truly asinine thing to say.
You want to explain it to me?

Speaker 26 I would love to, yeah.

Speaker 26 And I say it in the context of how it would seem to be so asinine because I hate it when people use the word must win when it isn't literally a must-win and it's two words yeah the only time it applies really is a game seven in the finals or something like that but I will say this expectations are so low for the dolphins particularly relative to the hurricanes but in general expectations are low not expected to be a playoff team

Speaker 26 in Indianapolis is not very good Okay, Indianapolis is a team they can beat, dare say should beat even on the road.

Speaker 26 And so I just think if the Dolphins Dolphins lose this game Sunday, their whole season sags right out the gate.

Speaker 26 I think they need this win in a big way just to entice the fans, just to get the fans a little bit excited, which they're not right now.

Speaker 9 The Pablo story is back to football.

Speaker 27 He's exactly right.

Speaker 29 Here's the problem is that some people, Greg, and Dan seems to be one of these people,

Speaker 2 don't seem to understand every game counts exactly the same.

Speaker 4 So if this game was being played week 17, you'd say that's a big game.

Speaker 30 That's a must-win.

Speaker 21 They got to win this.

Speaker 30 But they're playing that game week one.

Speaker 2 So you got to win the Indianapolis.

Speaker 30 Daniel Jones is their quarterback.

Speaker 2 If you can't be Daniel Jones, I'm scared of Daniel Jones.

Speaker 10 The Colts overcame the fact that they had a quarterback playing for them who didn't know how to play quarterback, who had started like all of 15 games in college and the pros and would appear to be something of a bust.

Speaker 34 Yeah, like, are we forgetting? Like, I understand what you're saying, the Colts, they're not very good.

Speaker 27 The Dolphins and Colts both won eight games last year.

Speaker 34 Like, the Colts are definitely looking at the Dolphins with the exact same mindset. You know, if we don't beat that team, you know, our season sunk, too.

Speaker 37 And, like,

Speaker 34 it felt good when they announced Daniel Jones. And so it's like, nice, Daniel Jones sucks.

Speaker 10 Right.

Speaker 34 He's better than Anthony Richardson.

Speaker 14 Yeah, arguably.

Speaker 10 No, he's better than... No.
What do you mean, arguably, Greg?

Speaker 26 Daniel Jones is a bust.

Speaker 11 Uh-huh.

Speaker 26 Nobody likes Daniel Jones.

Speaker 12 Greg, Greg played the Giants.

Speaker 10 He won a playoff game. Anthony Richardson started 15 games, made about seven good throws, got hurt a bunch.

Speaker 35 Great throws.

Speaker 10 And and doesn't know how to play quarterback because he doesn't have the reps of having played quarterback. Like, that's Daniel Jones knows how to play quarterback.

Speaker 10 The Colts have to be at least a three-point favorite in the game, are they not?

Speaker 9 One and a half.

Speaker 26 One and a half, which means the Betters think Miami's a slightly better team. If they're going to be beaten, it's going to be by Jonathan Taylor, not Daniel Jones.

Speaker 10 No, no, no. If the Colts are at home and a one-and-a-half-point favorite, I understand what you're saying, that three points go to the home.

Speaker 10 team, but if the Colts are favored, the money is saying that the Colts are going to win the game. They're favored to win the game.

Speaker 26 But you know how odds go.

Speaker 10 I do, but the Dolphins are on the road. This is not a home team.
This is not the better team playing at home than is the Dolphins. This is the better team being the Colts because they're at home.

Speaker 38 In Dan's defense, it's weird for you to hear the line and say, well, that suggests the Dolphins are three points better.

Speaker 40 I don't understand how that.

Speaker 39 No, the line suggests that the Colts are one and a half points.

Speaker 26 Well, which means the Dolphins are one and a half points better on a neutral field.

Speaker 1 You guys don't.

Speaker 6 I get what he's saying, though, because usually the home team gets a minus three.

Speaker 42 Thank you.

Speaker 40 Some gets a plus one and a half.

Speaker 9 Thank you.

Speaker 27 There's some math there.

Speaker 38 There's One game that gets played in that league on a neutral field, and it's the last one.

Speaker 23 So the Dolphins and Colts are actually London.

Speaker 36 No, no, no. No, Friday.

Speaker 36 One Friday.

Speaker 10 The NFL starts Friday with a game on a neutral field.

Speaker 27 Thursday. It starts Thursday then.
Tricky League.

Speaker 10 It starts tomorrow?

Speaker 36 Yeah, but tomorrow.

Speaker 12 But the Brazil noticed it.

Speaker 23 No, I thought Brazil.

Speaker 9 No, no, but he goes hit your outboard.

Speaker 26 The Brazil game is Friday, De Dan's point.

Speaker 17 Hold on a second.

Speaker 44 Would tomorrow night have been going on and you wouldn't have been watching?

Speaker 10 Well, Friday night would have been going on and I wouldn't have been watching because I didn't know until yesterday when it scrolled across on YouTube.

Speaker 10 I'm like, wait a minute, there's a game Friday night as well?

Speaker 17 Brazil?

Speaker 24 I was not aware of it.

Speaker 34 A couple high-profile teams playing tomorrow night.

Speaker 10 Yeah, I just World Champions.

Speaker 9 I heard.

Speaker 10 Big game.

Speaker 10 Thank you for watching.

Speaker 28 Ever heard of kickoff? Game of the year.

Speaker 10 Must-win, guys.

Speaker 9 Yeah, yes. I mean, figuratively.

Speaker 45 We're going to take your word for you.

Speaker 2 You didn't even know the season started tomorrow.

Speaker 1 What do you know?

Speaker 47 How are Dolphin fans going to feel about their season if they lose that game?

Speaker 39 They're going to feel like it's over. So that's why it's a

Speaker 39 little bit more difficult.

Speaker 10 Oh, but wait a minute, though.

Speaker 10 The Colts fans, how are they going to feel?

Speaker 2 Who cares about Colts fans?

Speaker 10 If they lose that game, they're not people. Colts fans are looking at that and saying that the Dolphins are an eminently beatable football team.
That is ripe. for total collapse.

Speaker 10 I know a big deal was made a few days ago that they didn't make Tyreek Hill a captain, which was only the easiest and most obvious decision that Mike McDaniel has made since he's been coach of the Dolphins.

Speaker 46 No, falsehoods.

Speaker 21 That was a sign that Tyreek Hill actually is a captain. And we talked about this weeks ago.

Speaker 30 And we said the captains are going to come out.

Speaker 2 And Tyreek has been someone that, you know, is at odds with his teammates.

Speaker 21 He's been named a captain for years now.

Speaker 30 And if he's named a captain, we know he's not a captain because he accepted that role.

Speaker 2 However, if he's not a captain, it shows he is a true leader. And he says, you know what? I'm going to step down.
I'm going to take a step back.

Speaker 30 And he's really a true captain and a leader on this team by not accepting the label of captain.

Speaker 10 What the hell are you talking about?

Speaker 2 No, he's right.

Speaker 30 It shows growth and leadership and maturity.

Speaker 14 Okay.

Speaker 26 It's very important to note that Mike McDaniel does not pick the captains. It's a team vote.

Speaker 1 It's a player vote.

Speaker 26 I think it's very significant that the players themselves demoted Tyreek Hill because they were fed up with him refusing to go in a game late last season and then making all these uncaptain-like, unleadership-like moves on social media before finally retracting with his tail between his legs.

Speaker 26 He, as Tua said, and I give Tua credit for this, on opening day of training camp, Tua comes out and says Tyreek has to earn back the respect of the team.

Speaker 26 And apparently, he hadn't when they voted for captains.

Speaker 1 I think it's a big deal.

Speaker 48 I'm going to have to side with Billy here.

Speaker 9 Thank you.

Speaker 39 They probably all got gathered in the locker room, and Tyreek Hill probably stepped forward and said, guys, I shouldn't be captain, which is a true captain.

Speaker 48 It could be.

Speaker 14 It could be.

Speaker 11 It's a leadership move.

Speaker 45 Nonsense.

Speaker 10 Good correction there. I thought that Mike McDaniel had made that decision.
The players making that decision.

Speaker 29 He doesn't make any decisions. It's fairly

Speaker 9 decision.

Speaker 50 Isn't it one of those things, though, where all the votes go to Mike McDaniel? So he's sitting in the office counting the votes. I mean, he can kind of say, whoa, whatever.

Speaker 29 Chris Cody finds out.

Speaker 27 Right in ballots.

Speaker 46 Voter fraud and Dolphins captain election.

Speaker 2 Nothing's stopping him.

Speaker 10 Put it on the poll, please.

Speaker 50 Now players are going up to Tyreek, like, hey, man, I voted for you.

Speaker 51 I don't know what happened.

Speaker 11 Yeah.

Speaker 21 And he's saying, I'm a leader. I don't need this, guys.

Speaker 49 I think for the betterment of the team, you guys be the captains this year.

Speaker 10 Put it on the poll, please,

Speaker 10 at your leisure at Lebatard Show.

Speaker 10 Did the Dolphins players make Tyreek Hill the captain, and did Mike McDaniel then jerry-rig the vote?

Speaker 33 Well, that's one view.

Speaker 21 If the correct probably view is that Tyreek Hill said, you know what, for the betterment of the team and the organization, I'm going to step down.

Speaker 31 I don't think it's a stretch to say he's laying down the foundation for Walter Payton Man of the Year.

Speaker 28 I do.

Speaker 10 I wish you'd let that silence sit, Greg. Why wouldn't you, really, Really? Really? So you object to Billy's contention that Tyreek Hill might be NFL Man of the Year.

Speaker 36 It was important.

Speaker 34 If he didn't say anything, someone may have thought that Greg agreed.

Speaker 10 I wanted the silence. If we could have just stared at him for five seconds, it would have been funny.

Speaker 26 You let it sit for 2.5 seconds.

Speaker 10 You didn't let it sit. Not in close.

Speaker 40 A quick clock on that at 2.5 is quick.

Speaker 34 I know your 2.5 seconds.

Speaker 21 Some people, by the way, have also said Walter Payton Man of the Year is really the most important trophy that you can win, not the Lombardy.

Speaker 53 Yeah, laughable.

Speaker 17 Craig, can you get a a little closer to the Lombardy?

Speaker 50 You're trying to disannoy me at this point.

Speaker 26 The NFL says it's their biggest trophy, which is ridiculous. No offense to Walter Payton.

Speaker 49 Or Tyreek Hill, potentially. Rest in peace.

Speaker 9 Right, exactly.

Speaker 37 Sweet president.

Speaker 1 Or his son, who Dan thought was a bathroom attendant.

Speaker 36 Yeah.

Speaker 26 No, it's crazy, though. Come on.

Speaker 10 I did not think he was a bathroom attendant. I thought he was at the kiosk handing out tourist pamphlets.
I did not think he was a bathroom attendant. That is not how far in extreme my racism ran.

Speaker 26 i simply made him the convention center pamphlet handler which is also insulting your glasses are also fogging i know they're they're poorly it's the coffee i think i i think they're poorly what they're they're i my they were fitted wrong for my head so they sit too close the cody eyeball the cody nose i'm the cody nose nose um no they're it's badly designed i'm not going to say who the you know eye doctor is that i go to because i don't want to mcgillicuddy no no it's it's not McGillicuddy.

Speaker 10 Greg, the coffee, what's happening with the fogging of the glasses is that your coffee's hot and you are fogging the glasses by drinking coffee.

Speaker 18 Yeah. I love coffee.
Coffee.

Speaker 27 Everybody loves coffee.

Speaker 26 It's the American drink.

Speaker 9 No, not everyone.

Speaker 14 Yeah.

Speaker 8 Some people don't like it. Yeah.

Speaker 10 Put it on the poll at Lebatar Show. Does everyone love coffee? I learned something that I did not know when I was in Hawaii.
I guess, evidently, that

Speaker 10 coffee prices have exploded because of the tariff situation.

Speaker 10 It's one of the things that have happened where we don't have a lot in America of the kind of soil that you need to make some of the best coffee. So you can do some of that.

Speaker 10 You can find some of that in Hawaii and where else, I guess, Puerto Rico might have some climate that you would want for coffee, but we don't make coffee well and America is addicted to coffee.

Speaker 10 Put it on the poll at Lebatard Show.

Speaker 10 Does everyone like coffee? Because

Speaker 10 have you guys seen the coffee prices explode in a way that you're noticing it, the way that people noticed that egg prices were exploding? Nah.

Speaker 37 A little bit.

Speaker 28 A little bit.

Speaker 26 Like, I buy 10K cups of an unnamed brand. It was always $9.99, you know, basically a buck a cup for years.
And now it's like $12.99, $13.99. That's pretty big.

Speaker 10 I thought Zaslow was going to bring in a plane stick today. What happened?

Speaker 24 Oh, I broke it.

Speaker 10 Yeah, good job.

Speaker 36 Good job. Good job.

Speaker 17 Why can't someone remind me?

Speaker 34 I got to remember everything. You blew it.

Speaker 10 You got to remember to get everything I got to remember to get a plain stick at Dunkin' Donuts when that's your thing. You said yesterday, that's my thing.
I'm gonna bring it in tomorrow.

Speaker 34 And now I'm annoyed because now I'd really like to eat a plane stick right now.

Speaker 10 And everyone said it, and then we put it on a poll, and 85% of the people said they didn't know what a plane stick was. And you were gonna show us today what a plane stick was.
I've let everyone down.

Speaker 10 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 28 It's okay, we're used to it.

Speaker 34 Yo, you don't have to agree so quick, Greg.

Speaker 7 Bricks of Cuban coffee are out of control, if you're asking me, Dan.

Speaker 29 Like, Yava Bustello, they used to be like $1.99 or something for like a brick now, down near $5 now. It's crazy.

Speaker 10 put it on the poll as well at Lebatar's show. Have you noticed that coffee prices have exploded?

Speaker 54 Hey, listeners, it's Mike.

Speaker 42 Hey, Billy Gill.

Speaker 54 Hey, hey, Billy, as a proud member of your inner circle, remember when we were hanging out last weekend?

Speaker 49 Oh, yeah, fishtail palms.

Speaker 54 Fishtail palms, the great memories we made, kids playing in the pool and in our hands, a nice ice-cold pan of Miller Light.

Speaker 41 It was so hot out.

Speaker 33 I know, but it was so cold in my hand.

Speaker 52 We took that for a sip. It was crisp.
It was refreshing.

Speaker 42 Oh, man, there is nothing like cracking open a Miller Light with your crew and your inner circle bones.

Speaker 33 Hell yeah.

Speaker 55 We fist bumped.

Speaker 27 Whether it's, we actually really did. Whether it's that touchdown.

Speaker 7 It didn't make a sound, but it was just like BAM!

Speaker 12 Boom.

Speaker 56 Whether it's that touchdown you didn't see coming or just arguing about fantasy lineups, you and I did plenty of that.

Speaker 55 Miller Light has been the taste that you can depend on for 50 years.

Speaker 58 Brood for flavor with simple ingredients, rich toffee notes, and that iconic golden color.

Speaker 56 And here's a kicker, Billy.

Speaker 27 What? It's just 96 calories. What? 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

Speaker 59 The original light beer since 1975 and still hitting different five decades later.

Speaker 47 Miller Light, great taste, 96 calories.

Speaker 56 Go to millerlight.com slash Dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Light pretty much anywhere they sell beer.

Speaker 59 It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly.
Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

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Speaker 60 Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

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There's no safe like simply safe.

Speaker 62 Don Lebatard.

Speaker 10 You don't remember the idea?

Speaker 36 I was probably like, that kind of thing. Something.

Speaker 26 Okay, no.

Speaker 9 The home run call was that kind of swing, that kind of thing.

Speaker 57 Stugats.

Speaker 46 Oh, it's a good call. Thank you.

Speaker 26 And plus, it doesn't matter who's hitting it. Like, you're not tailoring it to a particular name.
You know, all that jazz. You know, you don't got to do that.

Speaker 17 You just have to do that.

Speaker 9 Oh, that would be a great call. Oh, that's a good call.

Speaker 36 That kind of swing, that kind of thing.

Speaker 62 This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats.

Speaker 10 The Pablo Torrey Finds Out story that I do believe, I don't know, you guys have now seen it. It dropped at five o'clock.

Speaker 10 Do we have any special imaging, even though we're coming in a couple of hours late on what it is that's happening with Pablo Torre? His episode dropped at 5 a.m. this morning.

Speaker 10 He's been working on it for seven months, okay? Because this is his first assignment in partnership with the athletic, and he's coming out with the biggest story I think he's ever had.

Speaker 10 But you guys have now seen some of the story. Did we over-promise and under-deliver? Did we promise correctly? Or did we under-promise and over-deliver?

Speaker 10 Because we normally don't talk this positively about something that's coming out.

Speaker 10 But I really do believe that even in a football week, as soon as people see what the size of this story is, it's got some nuance in it.

Speaker 10 Some of his stories are hard to report cleanly, like just saying, Hey, this thing is so, and it's a fact because you're accusing people of things, and there's lawyering involved.

Speaker 10 You don't want to get sued. You have to, like, you have to make sure that you have your facts right on a story like this.

Speaker 10 You can't be flippant about it, but where, so, so, if anyone here is accused of violating the salary cap with a, for example, an alleged $28 million no-show job for Kawhi Leonard, a superstar that everyone was wondering when the Clippers got him.

Speaker 10 How did that happen? Uncle Dennis was involved. Kawhi was asking for a ton of things.

Speaker 10 Did we overpromise?

Speaker 34 I'll be honest, when Pablo first started

Speaker 34 mentioning this like a few weeks ago, and I got a big story coming out, you know, and David was mentioning, hey, he's saying he's got a big story coming out.

Speaker 34 I was like, all right, it's like, better be a doozy, all right because Pablo's had a couple stories that felt pretty big and you're saying this one's bigger so I'll admit I was skeptical you know is this gonna come out like it's not that big of a thing and then I see it this morning and I think it's a pretty big thing

Speaker 34 I think I think that people are gonna be like I think they're gonna be a lot of trouble with this story I mean heck I was listening on the way in here on Sirius XM on NBA radio that they were all over it like they were talking about the story and Pablo this Pablo that like I think once people are starting to wake up today, they see the story,

Speaker 7 I think it's big trouble.

Speaker 26 Yeah, I normally have below-average interest in business stories and stories that involve contracts, but this is a true blockbuster.

Speaker 26 And I think the size of it, the weight of it, is going to be known when the repercussions come in. Like, is Ballmer going to be suspended? Are they going to be fined? Are the club going to be fined?

Speaker 10 They can't lose draft picks because OKC's got them all.

Speaker 28 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 26 But what are they going to do? You know, is the deal going to be negated?

Speaker 34 No, the punishment should be they have to keep Kawhi Leonard.

Speaker 18 That's the punishment.

Speaker 57 That's punishment played good last year, Zaz.

Speaker 58 They would love to get out from that contract.

Speaker 50 I kind of poo-pooed the last one of these Pablos. This one, this one's big.

Speaker 25 It's a good one.

Speaker 50 Kind of like the Woach has a Woach bomb. This

Speaker 7 is a Pablo. Pablo

Speaker 23 Whoa

Speaker 10 That's the dropping of a Pablo?

Speaker 9 Yeah, he's blown away.

Speaker 1 Like, can you feel it?

Speaker 7 Oh, Oh, yeah, I can't. Is there a Pablo out there?

Speaker 49 It's brisk, but it's not like powerful.

Speaker 38 Maybe that's like a nuke, and this is like the nuclear winner sound.

Speaker 50 Oh, it sounds to me like a Pablo.

Speaker 10 This is the dropping of a Pablo. Get back in the workshop and see if you can make better imaging for that.

Speaker 40 She costs $7,000.

Speaker 36 I feel nervous.

Speaker 31 What's Pablo's security detail like provided by Metal Arc?

Speaker 43 Because he's pissing off a lot of powerful people who, you know, maybe might try to kill him.

Speaker 10 I don't know if people listening.

Speaker 10 That was not...

Speaker 10 I don't think that people

Speaker 10 necessarily...

Speaker 10 The discerning ones do, but I don't think that people necessarily see what's happening throughout the entirety of media and sports media that makes it more and more difficult with all of these corporate partnerships and all of these teams not caring for sports journalism.

Speaker 10 And as far as I can tell, not sure how much sports fans care for sports journalism until it's done this kind of thoroughly and they then enjoy, of course, the scandal.

Speaker 10 But what's happening throughout sports journalism is resources throughout local news, throughout everything, not just sports, is that it's all being hacked to death.

Speaker 10 by an assortment of efficiency cuts and people not seeing this stuff as important.

Speaker 10 So MetalArc Media has made a substantive investment in making sure that this show can do what Outside the Lines used to do, what HBO Real Sports used to do in the podcast form.

Speaker 10 No one else is doing this in the podcast form in sports. Let's play a clip from Pablo Torrey Finds Out.
This episode dropped at 5 a.m. We will get better imaging for when it is a Pablo Trox.

Speaker 64 Do you remember the first time that you discovered Kawhi Leonard's endorsement agreement with Aspiration?

Speaker 15 Oh, it was within the first 30 days of my employment with the company. And I didn't so much as discover it as I was told about it.

Speaker 4 What was your reaction?

Speaker 64 What were you told?

Speaker 15 My reaction was, what the?

Speaker 15 And I was told, like, oh, these are the major contracts and the major players you really need to be aware of. And we went through a litany of, you know, really, really top-tier name contracts.

Speaker 15 And then, oh, by the way, we also have a marketing deal with Kawhi Leonard, a $28 million organic marketing sponsorship deal with Kawhi.

Speaker 15 And that if I had any questions about it, essentially don't because it was to circumvent the salary cap LOL. There was lots of LOL when things were shared.

Speaker 64 Did you ever see proof of Kawhi Leonard marketing or endorsing aspiration in any way?

Speaker 15 Never, not once. The single largest payment to an individual for marketing that Aspiration ever made has completely evaded all press.
Nothing. He didn't have to do anything.

Speaker 64 In other words, Kawhi Leonard got from Aspiration a $28 million no-show job.

Speaker 15 Yeah, it's amazing. I'm honestly so jealous.

Speaker 15 So jealous. I mean, he's got the dream.
Like, it's within my beliefs to be paid $28 million and do absolutely f ⁇ all as well.

Speaker 10 One of the things that I wrote down on a piece of paper when we left ESPN in terms of aspirational bullet points, there weren't that many, but one of them was,

Speaker 10 I'd like to start something that allows me to use a voice modulator.

Speaker 10 And I don't think we do it particularly well here.

Speaker 39 No, that was bad because that was very clearly Boban.

Speaker 29 Yeah.

Speaker 10 I think it's pretty obvious to anybody who worked with that person who that is. Like, I believe his voice is distinctive enough.

Speaker 40 Oh, a sign-in pronoun.

Speaker 48 Okay.

Speaker 10 That while it is that we're listening to it, we don't know who it is. But I think the people who would be mad that that person spoke would recognize that voice.

Speaker 10 I don't think we use the voice modulator very well.

Speaker 26 So identifiable.

Speaker 25 Unbelievable. What? Yeah.

Speaker 26 That guy, to people who know him, to people who work for that company, how can you know that?

Speaker 57 The voice sounds different.

Speaker 28 Please.

Speaker 59 I mean, what if it's a woman?

Speaker 39 It's possible. In fact, I would say, in my opinion, I heard that.

Speaker 40 I'm like, yeah, it's possibly a woman.

Speaker 27 And to hear you guys speak with such certainty that it's not,

Speaker 27 it probably speaks to the fact that it might be a good voice modulation.

Speaker 10 You know what? I need to slightly take that back because I erred in assuming that it was or is a man.

Speaker 10 Where I don't think I erred is in thinking that we would be bad as a group at voice modulation and that therefore that would be a man because to disguise the voice and have it be a woman would be well done.

Speaker 10 I don't believe we did it that well.

Speaker 39 The second episode of Pablo Torre finds out is we track down whether or not that's a man or a woman.

Speaker 9 Yeah.

Speaker 32 Hey, there's spaces in between.

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Speaker 62 Don Lebatard.

Speaker 15 Let me get some golf ASMR.

Speaker 35 Stugats.

Speaker 15 Oh, me.

Speaker 62 This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats.

Speaker 10 Greg Cody

Speaker 10 wanted us to find when he came in here today

Speaker 10 what I have spoken about before, which is the one time that he was using a voice modulator when he suggested in print, something that Zaslow still makes fun of him about 30 years later, that the Dolphins trade Dan Marino.

Speaker 26 I'm the only person in this room whose voice has been modulated, so I speak from experience.

Speaker 10 Well, Chris has done some voice modulation with a new toy that he has back there that we've given him because, again, the bullet points were I wanted to be good at voice modulation and we're still not good at voice modulation.

Speaker 46 I also snitched on Bomber to Paul. Oops.

Speaker 10 Greg, would you please get in that seat over there where our voice modulator is in the middle seat and see since you I'd like to see if we can get slightly better at the voice modulation here, but

Speaker 10 in front of that he he loved, Greg Cody loved that in 1990 or thereabouts. Can you look at the

Speaker 10 date on that framed column?

Speaker 10 It's probably 93 on the wall on when it is that Greg Cody, the most memorable column Greg Cody has ever written.

Speaker 27 93.

Speaker 10 In 1993, he blasphemed sacrilege. He traded Dan Marino in print.

Speaker 10 And afterward, I thought it was Channel 10 that interviewed him, although he said it was Jim Berry, who I think is still on the air. I think Jim Berry is still on the air.
Anchor chair. And

Speaker 10 he had his voice and his face modulated like you would

Speaker 10 a whistleblower or anybody whose identity you were trying to conceal who was giving you information that was dangerous for them to be known to be giving.

Speaker 10 And so he once did an interview in front of the Miami Herald building that way, and he wanted us to find it for him from 30 years ago.

Speaker 10 And I feel like I would have had to go straight to Jim Berry and ask him to go through things I would have to put in a VCR in order to get them to play because this is so old, it's 10 years before the internet.

Speaker 10 Never mind social media.

Speaker 29 Pablo would have found it.

Speaker 10 maybe pablo can find it so that we can hear a young sounding greg cody but greg let me hear let me see if your voice would be well disguised here if we modulated it here instead of using all of the resources that pablo has hello this is not greg cody

Speaker 18 that kind of thing

Speaker 53 and you know it

Speaker 10 okay now any questions i want the whole show like this um do you you want greg to sit in there all show?

Speaker 27 Must win for the Dolphins.

Speaker 18 Not Greg.

Speaker 14 But I do agree with Greg.

Speaker 36 Why are you talking so slow about this?

Speaker 14 Oner. It's because you can hear yourself.

Speaker 50 It's kind of awkward.

Speaker 1 What do you mean?

Speaker 40 Greg, do you have a back in my day?

Speaker 18 A what?

Speaker 53 I stand behind Greg for not doing back in my days anymore.

Speaker 67 You all have him singing songs and doing so many ancillary things that it's ridiculous and you know it talk faster why are you talking so slow

Speaker 67 I'm talking my normal speed

Speaker 67 this is uh yeah my wife loves this deep sexy voice I'll tell you that

Speaker 9 how would you talk to her with it yeah baby

Speaker 33 what's your wife's name I forget

Speaker 10 you're not Greg so uh yeah I'm not Greg my wife's name is Eileen

Speaker 14 Come on, Eileen.

Speaker 20 Eileen that way, and you know it.

Speaker 50 Come on, Eileen.

Speaker 20 I didn't say that.

Speaker 10 Roy said it. I know.

Speaker 50 I was like, we're doing a duo thing back and forth.

Speaker 10 I have to admit that that is not only an exceptional voice simulator, it's at least in part exceptional because the person speaking is clearly about 350 pounds heavier than Greg Cody.

Speaker 10 You can hear that.

Speaker 20 Thank you.

Speaker 50 We could play a game where you turn around and then someone in here talks and you have to guess who's doing it.

Speaker 18 Ooh, that's a good idea.

Speaker 20 Baby.

Speaker 10 I think we're doing pretty well with Greg.

Speaker 9 Yeah, we just cook.

Speaker 10 Although, I also think that Billy could do all of this better.

Speaker 10 Billy, would you go outside, please go? Because I want to do, what is the pixelation called? I guess that's what it's called. Pixelation.

Speaker 23 You nailed it.

Speaker 9 Yeah, good job.

Speaker 2 Now, if you're telling me to go do something pixelated, people will know it's me because you just told me to do it.

Speaker 9 Right, okay. Which defeats the purpose of the pixelation.

Speaker 10 Let's do something then where no one could ever know it's you. I want you to put on

Speaker 10 it.

Speaker 2 Now they'll know because, again, you're saying the meaning.

Speaker 33 Just say someone should do it, and then no one will know who it is.

Speaker 28 All right, so Greg.

Speaker 21 Greg, why don't you go do it, Greg?

Speaker 31 I could do that.

Speaker 20 If I can find Greg, I'll let him know.

Speaker 9 Okay, good.

Speaker 20 I still can't get over that.

Speaker 18 Zaslo forgot the plane sticks.

Speaker 34 Yo, I don't know why you got to keep bringing that up.

Speaker 44 Would it kill someone to remind me in the morning? I got a lot going on.

Speaker 10 Tomorrow you're going to bring in a plane stick.

Speaker 34 If someone reminds me.

Speaker 18 Bring it enough for everybody.

Speaker 10 All right, someone please leave the room and or someone go into another room, a total mystery figure, and let's see if we can figure out who that person is based on whatever it is, the maximum disguise that we can pour resources into so that we can actually do this correctly before we try the game that Chris is suggesting, which is I have to turn my back to things and figure out who's talking at the microphone.

Speaker 10 We will do that in a moment. And we will also get to the fact that the state of Florida has three teams in the top 15.

Speaker 10 The biggest stunner, FSU, all of a sudden in the top 15, going from 13 and 1 to 2 and 10 to now back in the top 15. That is a roller coaster ride.

Speaker 9 Boy, do they look good.

Speaker 53 The overreaction to their beating Alabama to vault them from unranked to number 10

Speaker 18 is ridiculous.

Speaker 34 Good thing they weren't 10, though.

Speaker 32 They were 14.

Speaker 18 Well, still, my point is well made.

Speaker 20 That kind of thing.

Speaker 10 You not only sound like you're 450 pounds, you also, because of how slow you're talking, you sound like you're slurring. Like you sound like you've had a great deal to drink.

Speaker 20 Right. Well, here's the thing.

Speaker 14 You know, I was born this way.

Speaker 53 You know, don't make fun of my voice.

Speaker 18 Now, I can artificially try to talk even quicker and see how it turns out.

Speaker 69 But this is the quickest it goes.

Speaker 67 Hey, this is the quickest it goes.

Speaker 20 Everybody, this is the quickest it goes.

Speaker 18 Yeah,

Speaker 20 this is the quickest it goes.

Speaker 18 Oh,

Speaker 10 this is the quickest it goes. All right, we go out into the other room where Billy obviously is better at all of these things than we are.

Speaker 10 Let's go out to a super secret person who clearly is not Billy. It's somebody else.
Let's Let's see if we can figure out who this is.

Speaker 9 This is good.

Speaker 19 And the voice is going to be changed.

Speaker 68 Yeah, yeah, you're good.

Speaker 68 So we're talking about Pablo.

Speaker 19 Oh, he broke another story. Big deal.
Wow. We're with the athletic now.
We're breaking serious news. How about this for breaking news? Football starts on Thursday.

Speaker 19 You're releasing a story on Wednesday. And what's the story? Oh, a rich guy did something a little bit sketchy and maybe got around laws.
Who could have seen that coming?

Speaker 19 Billionaires getting their way by not following the law and making up fake tree planting companies. I'm shocked, aghast.
How about this? Philadelphia Eagles, Thursday, football stars.

Speaker 19 Friday, Brazil, Saturday, FIU Penn State, Sunday, Sunday night football. The NFL full slate is back.
Monday. This story has what?

Speaker 19 A day to exist and we're going to throw a big party to find out that all of a sudden these people are not all on the up and up allegedly?

Speaker 51 Who cares?

Speaker 36 Why do we lose it?

Speaker 19 Like, did Pablo not get enough attention as a child?

Speaker 19 And now we have to stop everything that we do every time he puts out a podcast episode and pretend like we've discovered some sort of great thing that's going to change the world. No one cares.

Speaker 19 No one cares about the story. No one's going to care about it.
Everybody's flying down to throw a party. They're sending all these do not report until 5 a.m.

Speaker 19 on Wednesday as if I want to tell my friends about this story anyway.

Speaker 51 Like, I want to talk to my friends.

Speaker 19 Did you hear about Kawhi Leonard and Steve Ballmer? No, no one gives a shit about Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard. Here's a story: they cheated and they still suck.

Speaker 51 They haven't won anything. Why don't you explore that?

Speaker 19 Why don't you find out why they keep cheating and can't win? That's the interesting thing.

Speaker 51 If anything, cheat better.

Speaker 19 This isn't even good cheating.

Speaker 10 You have more shit.

Speaker 19 Who cares about this story? Who cares about the Clippers? Who cares about Kawhi Leonards? Who cares about replanting trees? Fing ridiculous

Speaker 10 i do want to talk about what a great fake business the tree planting my

Speaker 6 god dan if you're talking about fraud the one thing you got to do is make sure that you're not selling something that can be traced back to you right hey yeah we planted the tree see that tree right there we planted it and you're like really wow how much it costs you 100 grand no biggie and you just re and you just multiply that for 28 million dollars you plant a trillion trees everybody's happy you replay the replant the rainforest and you never did anything and you get all this money and it doesn't matter what an incredible fraud fraud.

Speaker 10 I think that that mystery figure was indeed right when he or she shrugs his or her shoulders and says, Oh, big surprise, a billionaire skirting the rules.

Speaker 10 However, one of the shocking things about this to me, many, many years ago, can you look this up for me and see if it is indeed true? Because it might be an urban myth.

Speaker 10 But for many years, the greatest example of cheating in sports with money used to be Eric Dickerson and the way that he was recruited and specifically the way SMU recruited him before SMU went on like this total probation because they were cheating everywhere.

Speaker 10 And the story goes and please look this up for me to see if it's true because I've asked Eric Dickerson and he will not confirm it and I can't remember if it's true or urban myth that SMU offered him an oil well

Speaker 10 that's 40 years ago

Speaker 10 to see that make an appearance in the pros, because of course they're going to try and get around the salary cap.

Speaker 10 And Mark Cuban one time got gonged because he just let Dennis Rodman stay at his house for a while because they're very particular about we're legislating equality here. Bad teams get better.

Speaker 10 We need everything to be competitive.

Speaker 10 When you circumvent the salary cap, as it looks like the Clippers did, to land Kawhi Leonard with a $28 million no-show job that used to be the exclusive domain of colleges and the way that colleges recruited

Speaker 10 before they could pay players is legitimately shocking to me, even understanding that Uncle Dennis and Kawhi were working in the shadows and weren't doing business the way necessarily Ballmer usually does business.

Speaker 61 How unlikely is it to you guys that Steve Ballmer is the only billionaire that tried this in a cap sport?

Speaker 39 Because

Speaker 61 my take after this reporting by Pablo is I think there are some other owners that are getting a little nervous.

Speaker 29 Name names.

Speaker 10 I thought thought that, and I've never been able to actually confirm this because I thought that

Speaker 10 for a while there, when China was making its way in and the Chinese endorsements were making their way into the sport, that there were creative ways that an assortment of owners were leveraging relationships to get people endorsement money because of the relationships that they had in China that would have been outside of the salary cap and has some promises in it that would allow this.

Speaker 10 But a $28 million no-show job is beyond the pale.

Speaker 10 Like this is to pay someone that much for something that they didn't even have to do an endorsement deal, that the whole thing just seemed kind of bogus because he was hiding behind some plants, some hiding behind some plants and tree planting.

Speaker 34 Do we know for sure that he didn't plant any trees?

Speaker 6 That's what they say. So the thing is, if you're going to go through with a good scam, you got to have the backstory, right? You got to have Kawhi in some Timbalin boots with a shovel.

Speaker 6 You got to have him next to a couple of trees, a little bit of dirt on his face, a little bit of sweat. And you're like, look, he's planting these trees.
What was his no-show job at this company?

Speaker 10 No show. It was to no-show.

Speaker 6 Tree planter? Was he just picturing with the tree? Like, what was his job?

Speaker 10 He was a celebrity endorser, like Robert Downey Jr. They were spending a lot of money on celebrity endorsements.

Speaker 34 I like the LLC that he created to get payment. KW2.
Like, they're really hiding the

Speaker 34 well, I mean, you may as well just named it Salary Cap Cheating LLC.

Speaker 28 KW2.

Speaker 45 Look at the name of the fake company in it.

Speaker 20 Well,

Speaker 14 part of the outrage here is the stupidity.

Speaker 16 The idea that they have a fake company for Kawhi Leonard and don't even go through the pretense of him actually having a job.

Speaker 18 It would be so easy to fake that.

Speaker 16 Have him do an ad, have him do a commercial appear in a magazine. They did none of that.

Speaker 18 But to Mike's point, and he's right,

Speaker 18 I instantly wondered if this team is so hamhandedly trying to circumvent the salary cap, it's got to be going on not only in the NBA, but in every major state.

Speaker 14 I don't think so.

Speaker 10 Okay, you say that.

Speaker 61 The MLS is overtly doing it with Messi.

Speaker 32 I mean, they have rules that designated players can make what they want, but the pot was sweetened with apple, and we just understand the business that Messi brings over to that league, and everybody is okay with it.

Speaker 41 But there is just no way on earth that Steve Ballmer was the first person to think of this and execute it.

Speaker 32 No way. Now, other people may be better at covering up their tracks.

Speaker 28 I assume, I can only assume, that there are teams right now looking into this kind of thing.

Speaker 21 In fairness to Kawhi and Steve Ballmer, sometimes seeds just don't take.

Speaker 29 That is true.

Speaker 21 You know, like, I don't know if you've ever had to like the school project where your kid brings homes like a pumpkin seed.

Speaker 21 You're like, wow, I'm going to have a pumpkin patch in my backyard and now never pay for pumpkins again at Halloween.

Speaker 2 And it just never grows.

Speaker 21 So it's possible they got Dudd C's and they're the real victims here.

Speaker 10 Can you look up for me, please, what are the greatest salary cap scandals in the history of sports? Because we're fascinated by the numbers. Juwan Howard and the heat.
The salary cap.

Speaker 10 Yeah, after that one, Pat Riley had the famous quote that the NBA office made him feel like he had just gone back from the proctologist and they'd stuck a hundred-foot pole up

Speaker 10 because they

Speaker 10 overrode the juwan howard trade but when you guys or the juwan howard uh transaction when you guys are cynical and understandably saying ah this probably happens all the time that's one thing i don't agree with it because they're very vigilant about investigating this stuff and the penalties are harsh and will be harsh but they did investigate this previously and found nothing yeah but now you are super vigilant no but my this is my point exactly it's one thing to suspect it It's a whole nother thing to be able to prove it.

Speaker 10 And it's in public now and it feels proven. That one is what's rare about it.
Like, you can have your cynicisms, but Pablo actually did the work.

Speaker 10 And the facts on this are something that are going to, they're going to have reverberations throughout the sport.

Speaker 54 Hey, listeners, it's Mike.

Speaker 42 Hey, Billy Gill.

Speaker 14 Hey.

Speaker 54 Hey, Billy, as a proud member of your inner circle, remember when we were hanging out last weekend?

Speaker 49 Oh, yeah, fishtail palms.

Speaker 54 The fishtail palms, the great memories we made, kids playing in the pool and in our hands, a nice ice-cold can of Miller Life.

Speaker 41 It was so hot hot out i know but it was so cold in my hand

Speaker 7 we took that for a sip it was crisp it was refreshing oh man there is nothing like cracking open a miller light with your crew and your inner circle bones hell yeah we fist bumped whether it's we we actually really did whether it's that touchdown didn't make a sound but it just bam boom whether it's that touchdown you didn't see coming or just arguing about fantasy lineups you and i did plenty of that miller light has been the taste that you can depend on for 50 years brewed for flavor with simple ingredients rich toffee notes, and that iconic golden color.

Speaker 56 And here's a kicker, Billy.

Speaker 27 What? It's just 96 calories. What? 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

Speaker 59 The original light beer since 1975 and still hitting different five decades later.

Speaker 47 Miller Light, great taste, 96 calories.

Speaker 56 Go to millerlight.com/slash dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Light pretty much anywhere they sell beer.

Speaker 59 It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly.
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