The Big Suey: Rotten Eggs with Dianna Russini

Man, banks love their little gotcha moments, don't they?

Overdraft fee.

You missed a payment?

That's a fee.

Processing fee for what exactly?

Like for printing the receipt?

Come on, man.

Time gets it.

Every dollar counts.

Set up direct deposit and suddenly there are no monthly fees, no maintenance fees.

Payments can even arrive up to two days early.

Folks, that's not banking.

That's a head start.

Learn more at time.com slash dan.

Things happen, right?

Life happens.

What are you going to do about it?

Well, guess what?

Chime offers free overdraft, up to $200 on debit card purchases, over $30 billion already spotted to members.

And with 47,000 fee-free ATMs, more than the top three national banks combined, access is everywhere.

Could have used this when I was younger.

Work on your financial goals through Chime Today.

Open an account in two minutes at chime.com slash Dan.

The chime.com slash Dan.

Chime.

Feels like progress.

Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank.

Banking services and debit card provided by the Bankwork Bank NA or Stripe Bank NA, members FDIC.

Spot me eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply.

Timing depends on submission payment file.

Fees apply it out of network ATMs, bank ranking, and number of ATMs, according to U.S.

News and World Report 2023.

Chime checking account required.

Listen.

That's the sound of the fully electric Audi Q6 e-tron.

The sound of captivating electric performance.

Dynamic drive.

And the quiet confidence of ultra-smooth handling.

The elevated interior reminds you this is more than an EV.

This is electric performance redefined.

The fully electric Audi Q6 e-tron.

I'm Scott Hanson, host of NFL Red Zone.

Lowe's knows Sundays are for football.

That's why we're here to help you get your next DIY project done, even when the clock isn't on your side.

Whether that's a new Filtrate filter or Bosch and Cobalt power tools, Lowe's has everything you need to feel like the MVP of DIY.

So get it done and earn your Sunday.

Shop now in store and online.

Lowe's, official partner of the NFL.

Welcome to the Big Sue.

Presented by DraftKings.

Why are you listening to this show?

It's a podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan Lebetard podcast.

I'm sorry, I'm not going to apologize for that.

In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging.

I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's prize if they're just there.

That hasn't happened to you guys.

I've done it.

And now, here's the marching man to nowhere, fat face, and the habitual liar.

This episode of the Dan Levittard show at Stu Gots is presented by DraftKings.

DraftKings, the crown is yours.

He's not wrong that if Clayton Kershaw had Eugenio Ramirez surgery, it would be different than Tommy John's surgery.

So good point.

305-486 GUTS is the telephone number if you want to get in on calls and calls in 2025 calls.

That was good shit right there, dude.

Don't apologize for it.

Don't I hear the little shame in your voice.

You challenged them.

They brought it there.

Pioneer or near a pie?

Diana Rossini is going to be here for all of your football needs in a second, but I just want to pause the show for a second.

I didn't do this in the local hour and I should have because Ray Hudson is an international legend.

He's a national legend, and he's a local legend.

I mean, he started soccer down here with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers and has been one of the most entertaining personalities anywhere in sports broadcast worldwide for, I'm gonna say, 30 years, because maybe before that.

And I just want to introduce you here with some sound from Ray Hudson so that you hear him calling a messy goal, and all of his calls were poetry.

I can't believe that he's retiring because he's a voice for literally 50 years.

This is courtesy BN Sports.

Again, the menacing man arrives and sinks his flaming spear into the hearts of Real Madrid.

Messi born in the crossfire hurricane and he is jumping Jack Flash.

The defenders are left with bees flying around them.

Messi, you could drop a tarantula into his shorts and he'll still be cool.

I doubt that.

Put it on the poll at Lebertard Show.

If you dropped a tarantula down Messi's shorts, would he still be cool?

You should hear Chris Whittingham the way he talks about what his face does when he's next to Ray Hudson and he hears something like that break out.

And the child in him is mesmerized because he can't believe he's standing next to Ray Hudson.

Yeah, I grew up with Ray Hudson as not just the voice of soccer for what felt like a niche sport in this country for so long.

And as the tide rose, his calls became more and more profound.

My favorite color commentator in soccer easily.

You mentioned the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, also an impressive run with the Miami Fusion.

And not only should you hear Chris Whittingham talk about what Ray Hudson does when he's making those calls, but you should hear Ray Hudson talk about Chris Whittingham when he was on an episode of Golas and how he credits Chris Whittingham for giving us this little run.

We got to hear Ray Hudson call Champions League soccer.

It's been so cool.

Man, I cannot tell you how happy I am for Whittingham because he's climbing around in his dreams and he's helping.

He just helped Ray Hudson have his League Corso moments at the end of his career because he was genuflecting before someone he knew to be a broadcasting legend.

I actually wondered about this the other day when Tony, we were talking about Tony and the idea of getting into radio and what a bad idea I thought it was to

get into radio.

And I wondered to myself if we can even build radio stars like that anymore.

Can you even have a future Ray Hudson today?

Is there somebody today that 50 years from now, they're going to retire and you're going to be like, that's one of the best voices to ever call games.

Can it even happen anymore?

Or does that end with Vin Scully and that era of broadcaster?

No, I think it happens, but I don't think you have people that come out the gates with this type of energy.

Here's another guy, Kevin Harlan.

He had to grow that character over time because when you get into play-by-play, they tell you to kind of zap that stuff out of your personality.

Can you imagine if Ray Hudson burst on the scene talking this way?

Somebody would tell him, hey, cool it with that.

Stop making it about you.

You kind of have to buy some credibility with the audience over time.

But I do think, look, he's a little bit more polarizing, but I think Gus Johnson will kind of feel a similar way for some folks, especially

those that, I think the best sport he did was college basketball and feel a certain way.

Kevin Harlan, as I mentioned before, but it's hard.

It's hard for new guys.

And Chris Whittingham is one of those new guys.

And it was really, really cool to have Ray say such incredible things about Witty's ability to call soccer.

That's a very difficult job that Witty has, and it's made easier when you have a partner like that.

Same, I'm sure Phil Shane thinks a world of Ray Hudson.

Ray Hudson and Lee Corso in a matter of weeks is tough.

Diana Roussini is becoming a legend in this business.

She's the senior NFL insider for the athletics.

She's the host of the Scoop City podcast.

And her football information is second to none.

She is wildly informed.

She spent a lot of time at Vikings Camp.

We'll get to that story in a second and football.

But I need an update on your son's obsession with eggs.

A little weird child is growing in your home who loves eggs and is putting them all over the house.

Have you found any rotting and what is happening here with this young boy and his egg obsession?

Yes, first of all, thank you to all the viewers and listeners of the show who have reached out with their theories as to why my two-year-old has an obsession with just holding eggs around the home.

He does not eat them.

I think we have to make that clear.

He just likes to hold them and walk around the house morning and night.

We've been trying to talk to him about it a little bit more because my thought is something's up, right?

This has been going on for, I think about two months now.

It was the summer when it started.

And he won't really answer me because he's two.

So this morning, I was actually putting him in in his car seat and he was looking over my shoulder and he said, Mom, egg, egg in the tree.

And I didn't really have time to stop because I had to get him off to daycare to get back to work.

And I actually just thought he was making it up.

And so I dropped him off and I came home and I pulled in the driveway and I'm like, you know what?

Let me just go look at the tree.

What was he talking about?

And there was an egg in the tree.

So he was right.

So not, he just has this obsession.

He sees them.

He wants to hold them.

He didn't put it there, right?

A bird laid an egg.

It was a bird laid an egg and he spotted it.

And by the way,

it was tiny.

I don't even know how this little boy saw it.

But he was right.

So he's got some superpower.

I don't know what this means for us in terms of what Joey will turn into one day.

Probably nothing.

It's not a great superpower.

And I'm sorry that Dan asked you if your kid put the tree, the egg inside the tree, knowing he's two years old and had to climb this tree.

Yeah, well, this is the way

the way Diana describes her life, I do envision this child as a bit of a spider monkey.

Puts things in the microwave like the cell phone.

I think this child can climb around the house.

Well,

look, the way I'm imagining her life is she's picking up the phone and someone's yelling about Vrabel and there's a child climbing on her head.

Yeah, that's close.

I had to take them for shots the other day and my husband can't believe I did it.

But I knew Joey was going to be scared because his brother was going to get the shots first.

So I brought an egg.

And I just, so Joey held an egg while he got his shots and he just, he didn't break it.

He just held it while he had

a comfort egg.

It's his comfort egg.

It's so bizarre.

It's an emotional support egg.

The thing is, it's not like he just has one.

Like even today, um, at school with show and tell, bring in your, uh, your stuffy.

And Joey doesn't have one.

So I'm like, do I just send him with an egg?

Like, it's just,

there's, I have no understanding of this.

Um, but, but, yes, um, we have found more eggs.

We found um, an egg in the back of one of their little uh trailer trucks.

Um, and they also have like a Lightning McQueen little car.

No smells yet, no smells of rotting eggs have been in the house yet.

Okay, we're we're in good shape, and and someone, one of the listeners messaged me that I need to be careful, um, for ants and bugs.

So, um, I'm on high alert here.

Okay,

add another thing to my plate, you know?

Yes.

Football is crazy this first week.

And we haven't talked at all about last night's game that just seemed to me like the Bears would win that.

And I'm still not used to first-time starters at quarterback winning football games, looking competent.

And just league-wide, none of these guys throw interceptions.

Like, I'm just used to.

Somewhere there's going to be a Zach Wilson who goes out there and throws five interceptions.

But he did throw the interceptions.

Well, he did.

I was going to say, he was terrible.

JJ was terrible.

the takes were flying diana and then in a fourth quarter in which they scored 21 points just totally made some tweets age poorly immediately what was your takeaway that was super impressive yeah it it shifted quick right like do you see all the people backing it up like oopsie like went a little too hard there um and i have my own fun with the minnesota vikings fan base anyways because we had we had reported a lot in the offseason that there were conversations about possibly bringing in aaron rogers and fans didn't want to hear it because JJ's the guy.

And I spent a lot of time with the Vikings this summer.

And look, Kevin O'Connell is sharp.

He's obviously a great teacher.

He has a true understanding of the position, but he was preaching patience too.

Like he's never, JJ McCarthy's never played in an NFL game and he's coming off an injury.

So what he did last night was just absolutely spectacular and just credit to his moxie.

And I just think what he did last night changes the direction of this entire team because they can say what they want about what they thought of JJ McCarthy before the game, right?

Because you heard, how many quotes did you see coming out of Minnesota?

If you didn't see him, I'll tell you.

It was like he was the chosen one.

And it was, it almost felt over the top at times.

And guess what?

You win a game like last night and he lives up to all of it.

And that changes the dynamic of that locker room and just the way we view this Vikings team, which is a team that is built to win a Super Bowl.

Diana.

Diana, how close were the Vikings to, instead of going with McCarthy, to either paying Darnold or actually bringing in Rodgers?

Yeah, so going back to free agency when they had to make that decision, it wasn't easy from what I gather.

Like they had serious talks because remember, they had Daniel Jones there too, right?

So Daniel Jones, he wanted to be the starter.

He didn't want to have to come in there and compete.

And the Vikings were like, hey, we're going to sign you.

Come back here, compete against JJ.

And if you win the job, you're the starter.

daniel's like nah i can just go somewhere else make more money and pretty much have a better shot of winning right because you know from daniel jones' perspective

competing against the draft pick the top choice is gonna be a tougher uh challenge especially when they want jj mccarthy to work whereas the anthony richardson experiment had already kind of been out uh and obviously daniel jones seemed to have made the right decision as did the colts as for sam darnold there were definitely tons of discussions what what do you do he was fantastic in the right

This is what I want to ask you, Diane, and I want to speed her up in a second with the music, but

I want to ask one more Vikings question because

you're saying here they're built to win a Super Bowl.

I do not believe they are built to win a Super Bowl.

I believe that what Sam Darnold did with them last year was a bit of a mirage that then got exposed in the playoffs when Sam Darnold became Sam Darnold.

Are you expecting J.J.

McCarthy to be better this year than Sam Darnold was last year?

Because I'm not.

I'm not assuming that J.J.

McCarthy in his first year can be better than Sam Darnold.

So I don't think the Vikings are any kind of Super Bowl chance.

No, I agree with you.

I do think there has to be a bit of a patience.

At least the fan base needs to be patient here.

But when you see what he was able to handle last night in Chicago in the fourth quarter and bouncing back from a pick six, bouncing back from the turnovers and really just a poor performance for three quarters and rally his team team to win a guy that just doesn't lose.

Look, I don't want to overreact.

It's week one.

I get it.

But for an organization that put all their chips in, Kevin O'Connell, Quasi, this ownership, everyone said he's the guy.

This gamble seems to be working out based on just this one game.

And look at the way Kevin O'Connell can coach.

It doesn't really even matter at this point who the quarterback is.

He's able to figure out how to run an offense through his quarterback, even if it's a little simple.

Because that was some of the the criticism here was that, oh my goodness, unleash this kid.

Like he's got the training wheels on.

Well, the training wheels came off.

Thursday night, football is back.

And it's only on Prime Video.

This week, the Washington Commanders take on the Green Bay Packers with both teams determined to prove their worth.

Something's gotta give.

Coverage begins at 7 p.m.

Eastern with football's best party, TNF Tonight, presented by Verizon.

Not a Prime member, not a a problem simply sign up for a 30-day free trial it's the commanders and the Packers Thursday at 7 p.m.

Eastern only on Prime video restrictions apply see amazon.com slash Amazon Prime for details

what does Zinn give you not just smoke-free nicotine satisfaction but real freedom Freedom to do what you love and choose your rewards.

With Zin Rewards, you can redeem points for premium tech, outdoor gear, and gift cards to your favorite retailers.

Find your Zinn and keep finding rewards that fit your lifestyle at Zin.com slash rewards.

Warning, this product contains nicotine.

Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

You know what nobody tells you about being a new dad?

It's not just the diapers and the wipes, that's obvious.

It's the hidden stuff, the baby swing after we already purchased the other baby swing bouncer, the pack-and-play, the 20 different bottles, because apparently my kid hates every single one, except the most expensive one, which is the glass, by the way.

Don't get me started on late food delivery orders with my wife and me too tired to even look or cook or think about food.

I'm staring at my bank account like, where did it all go?

That's where monarch money comes in.

It's like a financial tool belt for everyone, not just dads.

You link all your accounts, your credit cards, investments, even the old stuff from jobs you forgot about, and it lays out in a way that even a sleep-deprived parent like me can actually understand.

Normally, money talks are stressful, but with Monarch, we can track everything together, set goals, and actually feel like we're on the same team.

Less stress, more clarity, and finally a plan for our daughter's future.

Don't let financial opportunity slip through the cracks.

Use code Dan at monarchmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year.

That's 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with code Dan.

Dan Lebatard.

Are you on the fan right now?

Did Mike Greenberg call you yet?

Are you ever going to go back to ESPN?

People think it's so weird you're a writer now.

All those years on TV?

All those years?

And now you write?

Who reads that?

Stugats.

Why did he take a job at the Atlantic?

Mom, I work at the Athletic.

What?

You're on YouTube?

This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats.

All right, so hold on a second.

How many people, Diana, in the league, would you assign that trait, which I would believe to be the greatest of all the traits I could ever give a coach?

It doesn't matter who his quarterback is.

Like, how many people are we giving that to?

Shanahan and him?

Like, how many others are.

Andy Reid?

Andy Reid.

What?

It doesn't matter who.

I understand he has the greatest quarterback, arguably of all time.

He also did it with Alex Smith and got more out of Alex Smith.

And McNabb too.

Yeah, and when McNabb would go out, he would do it with Ty Dettmer, Coy Detmer, Doug Peterson.

Like, it didn't matter.

Chad Henney win a playoff game?

Yeah.

Again, though, if we're assigning value to coaches at every turn, I don't believe I can give any team or its fan base a greater coach trait than it doesn't matter who his quarterback is.

Diana can speak to how highly people think of Kevin O'Connell.

Kevin O'Connell?

Yeah.

I think there are multiple organizations that they could start from scratch and

pick a coach right now in football.

Kevin O'Connell is a top two choice.

Dan, I get what you're thinking in not really counting them as a Super Bowl contender, but they won 14 games and and they did it with Sam Darnold.

Your main problem with them was Sam Darnold.

They got Sam Darnold out of the equation.

Now, I know what's at play here because I thought Michigan won a national title, effectively hiding J.J.

McCarthy.

And for three quarters, getting a lot of those tweets in the first half.

And for three quarters, while I wasn't putting it out there on Twitter, I was like, man, this dude sucks.

That is a bad pick six.

And what he did in that fourth quarter shut me the hell up.

Yeah.

And I think it just

adds to what this has been.

The storyline all offseason was, can he really do it?

Kevin O'Connell seems to think this is the guy.

And despite the fact that he's had so much success with so many other quarterbacks in the past, I don't know.

I think there was some doubt.

Like,

is he really the right guy?

Is this ownership forcing Kevin O'Connell to run with J.J.

McCarthy because they traded up to get him?

And he knew something.

And I think they've got at least something to work with here.

Dan, I'm with you.

Do I think that J.J.

McCarthy in one performance means that the Minnesota Vikings should anoint them as the Super Bowl champs?

No, but I think he showed enough that they can work with that.

I understand what you guys are saying.

I'm just saying my history of viewing the quarterback position, generally speaking, this person can't come in and replace Sam Darnold and over the course of a season be better than Sam Darnold.

Like, just

the history of how it is this sport works.

And so, Jaden Daniels went to the NSC championship last year.

I know, but this is, I have not gotten used to

guy gets there immediately and can be someone who's actually better than what Sam Darnold was last year.

I still am not at a point where I expect rookie quarterback.

Like, that's a great expectation.

I know it's still Sam Darnold, but the numbers Sam Darnold put up last year were worthy of winning 14 games.

Understood, but also what we're doing here, calling him a rookie quarterback.

Remember, he was in that system for a full year.

He didn't play last year, so he did get valuable experience.

He's not working at it from the same level of experience your typical rookie wouldn't have.

Correct.

He, I mean, they, they really, like when I was with them at camp, it it was as basic as it can be in terms of how they were managing him to me because he's a rookie, right?

He did not play much.

He didn't play.

He's never obviously played in an NFL game.

You know what I was thinking about, though, like over the weekend, because we saw Aaron Rodgers look good.

Sam Darnold look good.

Daniel Jones looked fantastic.

He was the best quarterback in football over the weekends.

I think that added to the excitement of Monday night for what J.J.

McCarthy could do because, look, all three of their options looked like they were playing well.

So the fact that they were able to also come out of this as winners, I just think it's

great momentum for this team.

Forgive my interruption.

I just need to speed all of this up because we've got so much to get to.

And

she just casually said that Daniel Jones was better than Aaron Rodgers over the weekend.

Somebody told you a couple of months ago, Daniel.

Seven possessions, seven touchdowns.

It was like ridiculous.

No, it wasn't seven touchdowns.

No, ultimately.

He scored.

It wasn't seven touchdowns,

nor was it as many points as Aaron Rodgers put up.

But by the way, how have we not already built in a segment of like rotten eggs?

Like we should be doing

every Tuesday, the rotten egg segment, and we just pick out the worst football.

Aaron Rodgers scored one more point than him.

That's right.

One.

It's Daniel Jones we're talking about, by the way.

Why are you acting like you're not impressed by this?

I mean, Dan's such a jilted jilted lover.

He's just begging for Aaron Rodgers to give him a reason to come back.

It was one more point than them on a 60-yard field goal, and it was one more point than Daniel Jones scored.

They took their gas.

Put it on the poll.

Who was better, Sunday?

Daniel Jones or Aaron Rodgers?

You want Aaron Rodgers back so bad?

He was back.

There's no disputing that he was back.

You want to be back in his loving.

Wait a minute.

Wait a minute.

No, I do not.

No, I most certainly do not.

Aaron, that's incredible.

You got to admit that it's funny to see the four-time MVP swallowed by Jet Sewage look like that in his first game returning to the Jets in Pittsburgh, giving them hope on offense.

So, first question, Diana Rossini, was it real?

Aaron Rodgers or week one?

Aaron Rodgers, is that what he's going to be?

Is that what he's going to be this season?

Yes, I heard he had a great camp that he looked like he was 30 years old.

That was from someone that was around him all summer.

Explain what we just saw then.

How is Aaron Rodgers looking like that there when he looked like that there?

He's healthier and he's got a better surrounding casp at this point.

And maybe there's something about coaching.

I know no one wants to talk about it, but maybe the coaching setup for Aaron Rodgers wasn't spectacular.

The Giants quarterback situation.

I think it's, I mean, not think, it will be Russell Wilson starting against the Dallas Cowboys, but I don't think the leash is very long.

They love Jackson Dart.

I think his personality matches up perfectly with Brian Dable.

They believe in him.

I just think they're waiting for the right moment here, knowing that their schedule is brutal.

It's just a matter of when at this point.

20 extra seconds on Micah Parsons fallout that you didn't report before.

He wanted the Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers, and this wasn't something that he started to think about just a week before the trade happened.

This had been going on for months.

Apparently, they knew it was over way before we did.

They were just going about their business, waiting for for this thing to come together.

You had asked me to go find some teams that were willing to trade

with the Dallas Cowboys with better draft compensation.

And it was the Philadelphia Eagles.

They had a lot more on the table, but of course, Jerry Jones did not want to make that deal, obviously trading to the enemy.

Diane, has Jared Goff done without Ben Johnson, Sean McVay, or Matt LaFleur?

No, even spending some time in the summer, I heard the Detroit offense was definitely going through a little bit of transition, but they were fast.

And that John Morton, the new offensive coordinator there, is a veteran.

Like he's been around the league forever and there's just a little bit of an adjustment period.

They definitely took a step back.

There's no doubt.

Like the Detroit Lions did not look like the same team that we saw last year with those two coordinators.

But I'm not panicked about it yet.

Diana, have you reported exactly how much more the Eagles were willing to offer than the Packers for Parsons?

I did not report the exact amount, but it was more than the Green Bay Packers.

Wouldn't it have to be like double what the Packers were offering for Jerry to send it to Philly?

Oh,

I don't even, I don't know if there's a package that Jerry would have agreed to, like, unless it was like every player on the Philadelphia East.

But what is that exactly given that the Packers, I know they're not in the division, but the Packers are, while not quite as much of a rival, you still traded it to a team that can beat you.

Dan, you know how many teams told me that?

Like, why would you trade to the NFC?

You know, and from what I can gather, too, just from calling around, no one from the AFC really gave a big offer.

But wait, what are we doing with the division there, Diana?

Like, the Packers are the team they can't get past in the playoffs.

It's not the Eagles.

The documentary showed it.

Like, that's the irony of all this, right?

Like, it was in front of our faces.

Jerry put this show together and you saw how many times the Green Bay Packers stood in the way of the Dallas Cowboys taking that next step.

And then they trade their best player.

And their best player is flourishing.

The Greenbee Packers look unstoppable.

Diana, the other quarterback that played last night, he flashed some impressive pocket movement, but then towards that second half, he was missing high.

Maybe like Cam Ward, putting a little too much on those passes.

What was the takeaway from Caleb Williams' performance?

Yeah, I think this is still growing pains.

This is like another organization where all you hear is people say, just give them some patience.

We all want everyone to come out.

And damn, kind of how we started the segment, right?

Like everyone expects these young quarterbacks to come out and just stink.

And Caleb had some good stuff.

He's better than what he looked like last year.

So

I'm all in on the Chicago Bears fixing this.

Diana, the Bills won or the Ravens choked?

The Ravens choked.

That wasn't even, those two weren't even in the same weight class.

The Ravens were so much better than the Buffalo Bills, and they just weren't able to come up with it at the end, right?

Their defense let them down they weren't able to come up with any turnovers and josh allen finds ways to win so to me this is just the ravens trying they got to sort out how they can win these big big games because to me when it's the defense that that's the problem in baltimore

that that's bad because that's what you think of with this baltimore ravens team you think defense right historically i'm gonna see if i can trap her though here the best team in football uh this weekend was blank the best

the philadelphia eagles uh if i'd asked you that question with four minutes left in the Bills-Ravens game, what would your answer have been?

Ooh, probably the Ravens.

Okay, because they are.

Yeah, I think so too.

Because the last four minutes of that game are not like, that's not a thing.

That's not something.

It is a thing for them, Dan.

It's a thing for them way more than it's a thing for anybody else.

And you have to start baking that into your analysis because they've shown you at a much higher clip that they do that.

How often are the Ravens going to keep doing this?

They also lose in games that they shouldn't be losing.

They build leads better than most, so they have more leads.

Because they're the best team.

Because they got to win the game.

Because they're the best team.

Yeah, they're super loaded.

Super.

The excuses are out.

There are no more excuses for this team.

They have to do it, Diana.

Since 2021, there are nine different times where they had a 90% chance of winning the game and they lost all of them.

To just support your case there, Mike.

Like, they have to figure out how to get over that hump.

What is it, right?

Like, is that attitude?

Is it effort?

Is it, is it leadership, right?

Like,

who's the Ray Lewis on this Baltimore Ravens defense?

Who's the guy making sure that these guys are going to finish these games?

I don't know that answer.

I don't.

And I think that's something we're to discover this year.

They should count their lucky stars for what's happening in Buffalo because everyone's just looking at Buffalo.

Hey, you guys can't get past the Chiefs.

The narrative here is, what the hell are the Ravens doing?

The Ravens are the most offensively loaded team in that entire conference.

And they're not getting past Buffalo, who can't get past Kansas City.

Chris, why is it that you're laughing at him thanking lucky stars?

Count your lucky stars.

They are.

The guy's a multiple-time MVP.

He's Lamar Jackson skating here.

He's got to do it the same way Josh Allen's got to do it.

But why are there lucky stars?

Patrick Mahomes is making people crazy.

Bundle and safe with Expedia.

You were made to follow your favorite band, and from the front row, we were made to quietly save you more.

Expedia, made to travel.

Savings Savings vary and subject to availability.

Flight inclusive packages are adult protected.

Charlie Sheen is an icon of decadence.

I lit the fuse and my life turns into everything it wasn't supposed to be.

He's going the distance.

He was the highest paid TV star of all time.

When it started to change, it was queer.

He kept saying, no, no, no, I'm in the hospital now, but next week I'll be ready for the show.

Now?

Charlie's sober.

He's going to tell you the truth.

How do I present this with any class?

I think we're past that, Charlie.

We're past that, yeah.

Somebody call action.

Aka Charlie Sheen, only on Netflix, September 10th.

If you thought goldenly breaded McDonald's chicken couldn't get more golden, think golder.

Because new sweet and smoky special edition gold sauce is here.

Made for your chicken favorites.

At Participate in McDonald's for limited time.

Don Lebatard.

Daddy says you're doing a live show on the draft.

Wick, is it channel 7?

Stugats.

Those girls on Eyewitness News, they look good.

They're mothers.

They look good, though.

This is the Don Lebatar show with the Stugats.

Patrick Mahomes, since Tyreek Hill left, only one quarterback in the sport averages fewer yards per attempt down the field.

It's Daniel Jones.

Is the Patrick Mahomes down the field thing done with the Chiefs?

Like, they're not a team that can win 17 straight one-score games again.

Yeah,

I'm not as panicked.

Look, they're dealing with some issues there on offense, trying to find a rhythm.

But again, this is like another team where they always come out of the gate like this.

They're the rotten eggs in September, and then they find

their momentum.

So, look, I'm not freaking out yet on the Kansas City Chiefs.

What are you freaking out about?

You keep saying you're not freaking out.

What are you freaking out about?

Because I'm an adult.

The Dolphins.

The Dolphins.

The Dolphins.

And it's week one, and the Miami Dolphins.

Because I'm an adult.

I told you they were my rotten egg pick for the year a couple weeks ago, and they were exactly what I expected to see, which was horrible.

And I don't know how this gets better, right?

This isn't a team that was bad.

And I think that's where a lot of people are forgetting.

You know, they led the league in completion percentage last year.

What happened?

This is a high-powered offense.

Yes, credit to the Colts defense and Lou Anarumo and everything that they did to confuse Tua because he looked confused, but they forced him, you know, for the second read.

And that appeared to be the key for them.

How are they not prepared for that in Miami?

How many?

And obviously, good.

Diana, how many teams are worse than the Dolphins right now?

Faster.

Two.

The Panthers.

Faster.

Faster.

Saints.

Faster.

Faster.

I don't know.

Actually, I'm taking that back.

I'd say it's close.

I'd say it's the Dolphins and the Panthers right now.

The 49ers, more injuries.

Oh, man, they can't catch a break.

Brock Purdy,

he's dealing with turf toe right now, a shoulder situation.

The turf toe is a

bigger deal.

We've seen the past quarterback shoot it up before.

I'm not sure what they're going to do, but there's probably a chance he's going to miss the game.

George Kittle is going to be out for multiple weeks.

He's got a hamstring issue.

Juwan Jennings is dealing with a shoulder situation, but he's expected to be okay.

It's just bad vibes again.

I mean, mean, every year.

Chargers, best team in the AC West?

We ran out of music right when Tony was going to ask his question.

It needs the support of the music, otherwise.

I'm going to go fast.

It was going to rat off like six or seven.

All right, let's do this.

Fast, fast, fast.

Chargers, Diana.

How much?

We've been doing this like very fast.

Very fast.

Faster.

But here's the funny part.

I have to go fast, but you guys go slow.

All right.

Well, speed it up.

Tony, speed it up.

I'm sorry.

Chargers, best team in the AWS West.

Yes.

Are the Jacks back?

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

Atlanta, Michael Pennix, interesting.

Yes, very interesting.

Can't wait to see what that's going to be.

And Meka Buka, superstar?

Yes.

Kelsey put a hit on Xavier Worthy.

No.

Okay.

Fair.

Are you tired of Kyler Murray?

No.

He

has a talk of dice.

Wait, why are you sick of cutting line?

I'm so tired of watching him play, by the way.

Kelly Opayo.

He runs around, doesn't know who to throw throw to, never throws the right bats.

I hate him.

Never throws a right bat.

I don't like him.

Rather have him than to a.

His stomach hurt before the game, and he was.

He had diarrhea.

Stomach hurt.

Have you ever done anything in your life with diarrhea?

It's not fun.

Have you

come to work when you have diarrhea?

I do.

And how does that go?

I do great.

I stand in the pocket and I look exactly where I'm going to throw, and I throw the ball and I deliver it.

Tony, he has diarrhea right now.

Thank you.

Do you think it's selfish to show up to work with diarrhea?

Because I'm sure your colleagues don't like it that you have diarrhea.

It's not contagious.

I mean, he's not pooping.

It's not contagious, but it's not pleasant to be around someone, especially if you have to use the bathroom after them.

And Kyler Merstinio.

I'm sorry to do this, Tony, to you.

Don't, don't, Dan.

Don't do that.

Yeah, it's really for the Kelsey question.

I have a penalty I'm trying to hit here that doesn't seem to be working.

It's not a good time.

It's good.

It's the verbal diarrhea penalty.

It's not working.

You told me to go fast.

I do want you to go fast, but when you say things like that, okay, when you say that one of the most

MVP, one of the most electric players to watch in the league at quarterback.

Please, please.

The jig is up with him, okay?

He runs around the back of the backfield.

Where am I going to go?

Over here, over there.

Let me run for six yards and put the ball out.

Please, man, I'm tired of it.

Do you not have to serve a penalty if the imaging doesn't work?

No, I don't think so.

I don't have to leave.

I don't know why it's not working.

Wild Tony Tuesdays.

Here it is.

No, we're not doing Wild Tony.

Oh,

all right.

What's working?

Diana, let's talk about the Jags again.

Liam Cohen really changing things over there, huh?

Yeah.

Come on.

When was the last time you saw the Jags that happy?

Like, something as basic as that.

Like, just watching them celebrate their touchdowns.

I just think they have a plan.

They know what they want to be.

And

Liam Cohen's obviously getting more out of Trevor Lawrence than we've seen in the last two, three seasons.

So

stock is up on them.

Diana, why does Bill Belichick think he's banned from the Patriots facility?

I think this is all high school.

I think

they obviously have hurt feelings.

I think the Patriots have had their feelings about Bill.

Bill's had his feelings about the Patriots.

But I think what makes this a little

difficult for Bill is I don't think Bill has any problem with the new regime of people, right?

Like he obviously likes his former player, the head coach, and he likes the GM.

I don't know if he likes the GM, but he's fine with that.

And this is like Robert and Jonathan Kraft versus Bill Belichick.

And so the fact that Bill is not allowing the New New England Patriot scouts to scout UNC,

I know you can probably make an argument who were they going to scout anyway, but

look, it's all petty.

I don't know why.

Feels high school-y.

Oh, but

go the next step on this, though.

Excuse me, Diana, for interrupting you yet again.

It's been an affliction I've had this particular segment.

When I'm watching Woody Johnson with the Jets, and everyone now knows, oh, the kids are running the place.

And I'm watching Jerry Jones in Dallas and the kids are running the place.

When Belichick says, and he never says stuff like this, I'm just glad to be out from under.

No, there's no owner here.

There's no owner's son.

Like, what the hell's going on in your league where the owner's son keeps thinking that the team is his plaything?

They work hard.

Well, first of all, Woody Johnson's kids are 19 and 21, right?

So that's a, I think that's different when you don't have a lot of life experience and professional experience and you're allowed to weigh in and make decisions for football.

Like, yeah, that's bizarre.

Jonathan Kraft is a grown adult.

I don't, what's wrong with having your son who's part of the ownership group weigh in?

I mean,

what makes Robert Kraft a good owner?

You know, it's like he's just allowing his son to be part of it.

I don't see a problem with that.

Oh, no, you don't have to, but Belichick clearly has one because it's the first time I've ever heard him say anything interesting about the dynamic when he's talking in North Carolina.

Let's play some of the sound here for Diana.

Let's start with Belichick and what it is that he was alleging about his ban from the Patriots facility.

Yeah, well, no, it's clear that I'm not welcome there around their facility, and so they're not welcome in ours.

Very simple.

It's not true, though, because he went to Tom Brady's Hall of Fame event, and no one there has ever said, like someone from Belichick's camp said to me that

a Patriots staffer was wearing a UNC t-shirt in the weight room, and somebody from the Patriots said you can't wear North Carolina gear.

Like they're just caught up in this petty stuff, which is not true because Drake May went to North Carolina and he wears the gear.

Like there's no,

the drama is being built up by Belichick, I think, at this point.

And look, it's obvious that it's almost like he needs them more than the Patriots need Bill at this point.

And you know, because that Vrabel kind of spoke to this and he kind of just seems just over it.

He kind of like rolling his eyes and he's rolling his eyes because this team is not good, right?

Like Mike Vrabel doesn't care about Bill Belichick right now.

He cares about trying to put out a team that looks improved because they didn't on Sunday.

It didn't look any different than it did with Geron Mayo.

And there was so much hype about this Patriots team being good.

And it just didn't look that great, especially in the second half.

So, you know, just knowing.

him well, I don't think he has patience or time for any of this.

And I don't think the New England England Patriots even really care as an organization at this point.

From the Belichick side, I just don't understand how this is okay.

And I know Diana said, obviously, what anyone could say, which is, well, why would anyone want to scout UNC players at this point?

But the reality of it is, for kids who want to go pro on UNC, there's only 32 of those jobs in the world.

And he's deciding to check one of them, one of those boxes off.

We're not going to allow these kids to have an opportunity with one of those 32 teams.

That's bullshit to me.

Well, let's hear Vrabel talking about what bullshit it is that Belichick's not allowed at the facility.

Again, nothing surprises me.

I would imagine that Bill, I mean, he came back for, the best of my knowledge, Tom's ceremony, so that I would have been.

Yeah, I guess he's welcomed back based on the fact that he was there.

So I'll just go by that.

Since his departure as the head coach here, he's been back, and I'll leave it at that.

How much does Mike Vrabel hate this?

He's like, my evidence is that he was there.

Yeah.

He hates them.

I rest my case.

Yeah.

He doesn't want to deal with these questions.

Yeah, I don't think it's, I don't think he doesn't.

He obviously wants his scouts to be able to go to the places that he probably wants them to be.

But I just think when you're the new head coach, returning to a place where you had so much success and there's all this pressure for you to turn a team around and then you lay an egg against the Raiders.

Yeah, imagine coming in Monday morning and that's what they want to talk to you about.

Probably not fun.

Diana, it is nice seeing you.

I remind everybody, she's got a hip podcast, Scoop City, and she is the senior NFL insider for the Athletic.

Thank you for joining us.

Always nice to see you.

We will talk to you again next week.

The thing that I wanted to say, though, about what Vrabel did there, because I mean, you were in Tennessee, you mixed and matched, and you showed us you're a good coach by that one time that you out-clocked Belichick at the end of a game, and we saw you like waste six minutes on Belichick.

And Vrabel is, you know,

that's a bad loss that got swallowed under all the other games this weekend.

The Patriots losing at home to a Raiders offense that's going to be improved.

But Vrabel staring straight ahead, dead-eyed with the choices he's made at life, hoping that Drake May works out and just saying straight to your face.

Nothing surprises me.

That's exactly what you want your coach to say.

You want him to look you in the face and lie to you and just say, there will be no surprises.

I'm incapable of being surprised.

It does not surprise me that Bill Belichick, who used to be my coach and leader, is dating a 20-year-old who's running his life, evidently.

I'm not surprised because

look, he's bored.

Look how bored.

Argued, nothing surprised me.

Again, not that you guys know this about me.

I'm incapable of being surprised.

Not surprised that I lost 20 to 10 in my home opener.

Not surprised.

Nothing surprises me.

Nothing.

Walked into my own birthday party.

Nothing surprises me.