Hour 1: Shut Up, Paul Maurice Is Talking (feat. Paul Maurice)

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This is the Dan Labatar Show with the Stu Gats Podcast.

Two-time Stanley Cup champion Paul Maurice will be joining us here in a few minutes.

The preseason has begun and the Panthers don't seem to be taking it terribly seriously.

Matthew Kachuck was going to jump into the pool with Pat McAfee.

Matthew Kachuck, everyone speaks highly of Matthew Kachuk.

Everyone likes everything that guy's about.

He gets it, man.

And he's been such a great ambassador for the sport.

Last week, I said,

including LeBron,

name a more impactful sports acquisition in this pro market.

When you apply the context of where the Panthers were as a franchise, it's not even

particularly close.

The impact, the game-changing impact, franchise-changing, altering impact that Matthew Kachuck has had.

And from observing him and hanging out with him, some, I've always known he's been a great ambassador for the game because he's a good talker, he's always eager to do these interviews with everybody.

But to see, you know, fans, Miami's an event town, Miami still has a long way to go in terms of being a hockey market.

There are a lot of people that are going up to him.

Just curious, what is this big hoopla?

And every child that goes up to him, it's not just a pat on the head and a picture that would make somebody's day.

It's a sit-down conversation.

Make sure I give you my time.

He was happy to talk to everybody guy knows he just gets it what a great ambassador for south florida sport he's the first ever hockey player to make picks on college game day

he's a star his play deserves being a star but his attitude and his approach to fans and the sport and making people fans of his and the sport i i can't say enough good things about the guy i think he's Perfect.

I think he's everything you want.

If I'm Gary Bettman and I ask him, who do you think or who do you want to be the face of your league?

I pick Matthew Kachuk.

He plays for the two-time championship team.

He's engaging.

He's arguably the best American player in the league.

He's exactly who you want.

I told him, I wanted to make sure.

I mean, you know, somebody's told him in the last couple years, but I wanted to make sure to hear from me.

And I told him, like, you have any idea how horrendous this franchise was for most, for my entire life

before these last couple years?

I wanted to make sure he knew, Dan.

Is it weird for like a 50-year-old to be saying that to a 27-year-old?

Not 50, number one.

All right.

You know how important you are to be.

I didn't say it like that.

You mean so much.

I've been around happy before.

All right.

There's no star struck here.

I didn't sound like a jerk like that.

Get out of here.

I'm so happy.

My kids beat me up.

You know what?

Like.

The old one's here today, right?

He could just come and smack you across the head.

He's not the one that'll challenge him.

Yeah, that one's not old enough.

He's not allowed to.

Well, you don't think you could take him?

I think it'd be a fair fight, sizing two of you up.

There were some people that were a little disappointed in Matthew Kachuck being the game day picker.

I guess they wanted Dwayne The Rock Johnson or some superstar.

But to have that guy go out there decked out in UM gear, holding up UM hockey jerseys, and then be like, no, I'm going to go to the game.

I'm going to pull up with a huge Panthers cooler with about six of my teammates.

Hey, this is Anton.

Let me introduce you.

Go up to a tailgate, listen to all sorts of bad bunny, and just like throw them back and just enjoy the day.

That dude has a VIP treatment waiting for him at a hard rock stadium.

No, I'm going to talk to the team.

I'll be right back.

I'm going to leave my cooler here.

I want to be amongst the people.

These guys are great.

We're going to get to Paul Maurice in a second, but first I got to make fun of me, myself, and Chris Cody.

I will again remind you that while giving you betting advice a while ago, Orioles starter Trevor Rodgers was going in the game, and Chris Cody bet against the Orioles only because it was Trevor Rogers.

And my only analysis is: you throw that guy out there, you're gonna get an ERA over five.

Since then, go ahead and play the stat of the day music so that people can hear just how good Trevor Rogers has been this season.

Start of the day, start of the day, it is the start of the day.

Start of the day, start of the day, it is the start of the day.

Start of the day, start of the day, it is the start of the day.

Start Start of the day, start of the day.

It is his start of the day.

Dan, to make this even worse for me, my exact quote when I talked about Trevor Rodgers months back was, if I know anything in this world, it's you bet against Trevor Rodgers.

No pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball has had 17 plus starts in a season and allowed fewer earned runs than starts.

17 starts, no one's ever had fewer earned runs than starts.

Trevor Rogers has a chance to make history this season.

With his 17 starts, he's allowed 16 earned runs all season.

And I said months ago, if I know anything in this world, you bet against.

Trevor Rodgers.

Are you aware of just how long baseball's history is and how many pitchers have thrown baseballs in that sport?

For that to be what haunts us following that analysis.

You understand how many people, how many arms have thrown baseballs without being as good as the left arm that Trevor Rogers has had this season.

I don't get it.

Because he wasn't that good with them.

No, he was terrible.

I'm not going to lie.

I haven't watched a single start with the Orioles.

What's happened?

Since the 1880s, people have been pitching.

The Orioles are also a team that I told you would be great for 10 years because of their farm system.

They've been betrayed by

pitching this year.

And also, at least the Braves have injuries to look at.

I'm making excuses for them.

They suck.

Well, the Orioles ran into the Yankees this weekend, and there was a baseball storyline that I was actually into because of the local times because Giancarlo Stanton hit his 450th home run

of his career against the Orioles.

I didn't know he was that high.

I didn't know that he was up to

the Hall of Fame.

He's apparently the fifth youngest to reach that number.

And obviously, you're talking about all-time greats.

In terms of modern era, it's just Maguire and A-rod.

And A-Rod was played when he was 18 years old that got to that number quicker than Giancarlo Stanton.

I don't know if he has, I know the production later in his career and he's been hobbled by injuries.

I don't know if this is a guy that could be in that conversation, especially given where he is in age.

But I would love to see him have a healthy go at it because he's still got incredible.

I think all 500 home run guys are in the Hall of Fame.

I don't know if the sport has changed so much now that there's a lot changing.

Is that right?

Oh, yeah.

Jose Kinseco is the

leader of Dayrod.

Yeah, how much of that

is steroid speculation.

And Giancarlo being built a way that he has, but he's had the benefit of playing in this era where they have all this rigorous testing, rigorous and error quotes.

I mean, I don't know, but he's never...

Remember when he was approaching that home run record, everyone's like, finally, this is a legit one, potentially.

That's why the Maris family was there he's not a guy that has steroid allegations following him like the others you you just outlined yeah i i think he's a hall of famer and keep in mind he's done a fair amount of time on the injury list like he would be over 500 if he were healthier i want to talk about home security for a minute for the longest time i thought it was just alarms and sirens that once somebody breaks in you deal with it but when you think about it that's already too late that's reactive I had my car broken into on my property a while back.

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Don Lebatard.

Florida claws back from down 2-0 because they were getting their asses handed to them by Toronto to then get lit a fire

underneath them by their head coach Paul Maurice, who did the thing.

Remember how the run was sparked last year?

Stugats.

He called him a bunch of P's and B's.

He did the thing again.

Called him a bunch of P's and B's.

And then, boom, five unanswered.

You win the division.

This is the Don Lebatar show with the Stugats.

There he is.

Does it make you happy to see him, Zaslow?

Does it make you happy?

Look at this man.

He has brought championship.

Look, Zaszlo, he's whispering.

Hey, come on.

Look at

The man who travels.

Awesome.

There you go.

That's my guy right there.

That's my coach.

We appreciate that's commitment, my friend.

That's casual fans.

No, that's the guy who cuts his vacation short to root on the home team.

That's something.

That's props to you.

Oh, man.

Props to you.

What do you mean props to me?

Props to you.

You brought so much joy into my life, coach.

Thank you.

Yeah, it was nice.

Nice old journalist.

Stop talking.

He's saying nice things about me, Greg.

Sorry, you're right.

No, we all share it together.

That's the great part of these runs, right?

Everybody's got a story, and everybody's stories is important.

Everybody,

you know, like families get together.

Families

ostracize somebody who can't win a game when they're in the room, so they stick them upstairs.

I mean, that happens at my house, right?

I got a young kid that has to watch it from the bedroom upstairs, can't watch it the main floor.

We just can't win.

So we got our priorities set.

Paul, when you got to South Florida, what did your greatest dreams look like?

And have you already exceeded them?

This is so far beyond that.

And

it's beyond the winning.

And I want to be hypocritical or full of it.

You win a standing cup.

Everything is going to be pretty good, right?

Like, you can probably get through anything that's not real good if you're winning the cup.

But

beyond the cups, the professional experience here is fantastic, right?

These men are incredible to work with.

They work hard.

They don't mind being pushed.

They want to win.

They take care of each other.

They're good.

You know what?

They treat each other great, but they also treat everybody else, right?

The equipment guys, the medical guys, the flight attendants, everybody.

They're very appreciative of the situation that they're in, and that makes coming to the rink a lot of fun.

How unusual is it?

I see them vacationing together with their families.

And

how unusual is what looks like love to me among your players?

How unusual is that?

Well, I do think it's part of the culture of our sport.

So

the game, the demands of the game kind of drive men together, if you would.

It's an 82-game schedule, full-contact, high-speed sport where you play with pain, right?

You don't lay on the field.

You get up and you play with it.

So there's a connection that happens with them.

And because there's 82 games, there's an awful lot of highs and lows.

And I think that makes the wives and the extended family close.

And then you add in just great memories, right?

They're just fun.

The guys are fun to be around because they won together.

So I think we have that, but we have that on the road too.

They have big group dinners.

They spend an awful lot of time with each other because they love each other.

Last year's team better than the original champions?

Probably a higher talent level through a better depth and possibly better role definition when you look at kind of what happened to our team when Greer, Nosic, and Gadjovich came back into the lineup.

They're a defined style of play, which is different than everybody else's.

So we had,

I don't know, texture is the word in my head, but we had a different look on each line, a different feel.

So we could play the game in a bunch of different arenas and a bunch of different styles and be successful.

Coach, we've seen the clips.

over the few years that you've been here where you're not afraid to grill your guys during the game, to yell at them during the game, to motivate them the way that you do during the game.

You don't see that in the other pro sports here in this country.

What is it about hockey players where you're still able to coach them like that?

Yeah, it's a great question.

So it's part of maybe even the fun of it, right?

Like, first of all, I got a tremendous amount of respect for these players, and they know that by the way I treat them, and I know that by the way they treat the cold coaching staff.

But you get into those games now, they're wired too, right?

Like you've had way too much coffee by the time you hit the bench.

You're wired.

You get into those playoffs games.

So it's not a personal assault to them.

It's we're trying to get the whole group to another level.

And they're all smart enough to understand that's what's going on.

So they're in on it, right?

Like they're

kind of feeding off you.

There's times where

you're just trying to reach the energy level on the bench, or now we're at a point that we've all agreed on playing the game a certain way.

And when it's not being played, you don't have to jump on them right away.

We talk about it, we talk about it, but that you hit a threshold where you need to get their attention back on the game.

I don't do it nearly as much as maybe I would have done it in the past.

I don't need to, but when it's done, it's done, right?

So when they come back to the rank the next day, that's over.

We'll deal with it and move on.

There's no doghouse.

There just isn't.

We're here to perform every single day.

We're not hitting that mark.

every day.

We're going to have our failures, and we need those.

So when you're having your failures, maybe let them go a little bit because you know what they've done and you've seen it, but you just can't let it go too long.

Paul, can you give us an idea of what the last few years have meant to you on the most personal level beyond hockey?

Because when you got here, you were the most accomplished, longest-serving coach, the winningest coach in the NHL history who had never won a Stanley Cup.

And now you've won two in a row.

What has that meant to you on the most personal level?

Ah, that's, you know, I don't even know that I fully sorted that out yet, right?

That that will be a backward-looking thing.

I can tell you, I'm trying to, you know, I answered the question earlier and I still don't have a great answer because I'd be lying to you if it's in the Stanley Cups didn't make all the difference.

They made a huge difference.

But where you get some kind of joy in your life is doing something that's possibly

that has some value outside the game.

So just being around these players.

and seeing a different look of pro sports, right?

Like we have about eight or nine guys who took less money to play here.

You just don't see that, right?

It just doesn't happen.

And there's a reason for it because

you've got to look at the Florida Panthers as kind of like the total compensation package.

It's not just about the money, but they have friendships.

They're brothers in there.

They care about each other.

So they get to come to the rink like that every day.

That's part of South Florida.

The weather's great.

Mr.

Violich treats us great.

We're in this incredible practice facility.

The staff here tries to move them forward, make them better.

there's not a lot of conflict about getting better they want to get better we want them to get better so you get to have this completely different pro sport experience and hopefully at some point that that that that gets emulated that the that that this is looked at a way that you can win it doesn't you know we we want to work harder than everybody in the league but we also want to have more fun than anybody in the league so we laugh we joke uh we enjoy our days here and that for me has been

you know i'm again i'll go back to it when you win you get to enjoy your day a little bit differently, right?

So I'm aware of that impact it's had, but the players first.

The players have had a greater impact on the coaches, I think, than the coaches have had on the players.

Three straight Stanley Cup final, you basically played an extra season of playoff games.

How are you going to work around this wear and tear?

Yeah, we're not going to try to.

So, well, I'll give you an example.

Our veterans haven't been on the ice yet.

So we pushed training camp for those guys one week back.

And it will probably view from the outside that you're trying to get them more rested, but that's not the case.

What we're trying to do is get another week of training time so we we go hard here so the first time that we hit the ice on Thursday they can't individually train anymore there's nothing left of them so we gave them another week so they could train and that would be the piece that's missing but our season ended a week earlier last season right so we finished on the 17th instead of the 24th so we get another week of training i understand they're not training that week they're celebrating but that has to happen then they have to recover and rest and we got to get all the injuries taken care of, and then they start training.

So we pushed train camp back a week.

So we got another two weeks of training for them.

The early routine returns on their fitness level is outstanding.

We think we've made improvements and it's hard for these guys to make improvements now just because they're at that marginal rate.

None of our guys are getting 10% fitter.

There's not 10% left.

for them to get more fit.

So they've trained harder and then we're going to go real hard and we're not going to spend any time worrying about fatigue or overuse because everybody's tired in January.

Everybody is.

So you just got to get used to it.

Coach, who's the craziest guy you've had in your time with the Panthers?

I'm thinking back first year, Radco Goudis.

You had Lomberg, seems like a wild man.

Gajovich last year.

Kachuk seems like he's got some screws loose.

Who's the craziest guy?

Yeah,

I can't pick a dude because, so what's great about what you just said is you mentioned a bunch of guys that aren't here anymore, but they're still, their personalities stay, they're still part of the group.

Like we still tell stories about those guys.

And then even, you know, we've had, we've got this un,

I'm almost like a weird bunch of guys.

We've got an incredible bunch of different personalities in that room.

And we encourage that.

Like we're not trying to make them all one player.

We're just getting them to all play one game with their different personalities.

But we got, we get in northern parlance, we got some beauties in that room.

I mean, we do.

Goalies are strange.

Do you coach Poprovsky or do you leave him alone?

Yeah, I talk to him.

He's an incredibly interesting guy.

You want to talk about an interesting life and things he's been through.

The way he trains, I don't know anything about goaltending.

I know a little bit about body language of goaltenders and kind of what they go through.

They carry a different kind of pressure than anybody else.

I mean, other than a shout out, they don't get the same kind of payoff, right?

They don't get the score goal.

They don't get to score the game winner.

So it's a completely different mentality in that.

I just try to get to know them, get to feel what they need from the coaches.

We got a guy named Robbie Talash here who's the goalie coach and he's brilliant.

So I just leave him to that.

Robbie, the last two years has basically laid out the regular season schedule and other than one or two games kind of on illness, we haven't made an adjustment to it.

So

we go into the

go into the coach's office in between periods.

I don't do this to Sergei anymore because he's just been too good, but you complain about a goal or two and then the goalie coach kind of gives you a knowing nod and say, okay, you've had your say.

Now now, move on.

It's a nice

Robbie does a great job of telling me I have no idea what I'm talking about without making me feel that.

So, that's how that works.

All right, so your answer was no, I don't coach him at all.

I talk to him,

coffee, all right.

If we hit each other at the coffee places, we'll talk how the family is, how the kids are.

Yeah,

uh, fill in the blank for me here a little bit, rapid fire.

The toughest player I have is blank.

No,

I

there's a toss-up in between Sam Bennett and probably Aaron Eckbud, but here's the problem.

I got four guys in the back end who separated shoulders last year in the playoffs, right?

Like over grade one shoulder, and they never missed a game.

So if I give you one guy, I'm being disrespectful to Sam Bennett, who played an entire playoff round with a broken foot and didn't tell anybody.

So,

you know, like that was a grade two knee sprain that Sam Reinhart suffered.

I don't know who the toughest guy is.

Whoever the most injured guy in our room, that's the toughest guy we've got.

The best leader I have is blank.

The best leader?

Yes.

About an 18-inch steel one for pike fish.

You guys know freshwater fish.

Yeah, because it goes back to the strength of our room.

There are different leadership styles in our room, but it's the guy that we need that night.

That's the best leader.

What was your reaction when Bill Zito told you that he got Brett Marshawn?

What was your reaction when that happens?

Well, I've desensitized to it now.

So I'll take you back.

The summer that I get the job, he calls me and he says, I think I can get Matthew Kachuk, but the price is going to be pretty high.

And I got off the phone.

I thought, you're crazy.

You're not getting Matthew Kachuck.

Like, I mean, it's just not happening.

And then he calls back 15 minutes later and says, I just made the trade.

So now.

You know, we've, over the course of the years there, we've added these players.

Seth Jones would be the next one.

He started firing out Seth Jones' name like in the summer, last summer there might be a guy that we could and I'm thinking there's no way you're getting Seth Jones so so when he says the Brad Marchon one was unusual because it's a half hour before the trade deadline and I'm packing my office up because nothing it's over right there's nothing else gonna happen and that one that one surprised me to say the least did you dislike him before that oh of course yeah absolutely

I don't think as much as Matthew Kachuck.

I think I disliked Matthew more than Brad.

And the reason I didn't mind Brad as much is when we played them in the game sevens, in the seven game series and beat them.

He gave an interview about game five to the Boston, to a Boston reporter, and it was perfect.

It was like incredible leadership things that he said.

He was very respectful for how hard we play.

He wasn't complaining.

He wasn't whining.

It was a full-on brutal series.

It was a battle.

There were guys going after each other, but

he handled it like such a leader, such a man.

And so I had a little more room for him.

I didn't fully appreciate,

believe it or not, how good he is.

So I don't think that you fully, I mean, you watch the games, but you almost need to see him in practice every day to see the skill set that they have.

And I don't know that I fully appreciated how good his hands are.

But Chuck wasn't a leader, what you're saying before he got here.

He's just kind of like a scumbag that he hated.

What are you doing?

Yeah, I'm not going to attach myself to that word.

I'm going to leave that one to you.

No, but

for all the reasons, right?

He's in Calgary.

I'm in Winnipeg.

We play each other an awful lot.

We played each other in the playoffs.

And he has that ability to get, he has an incredible ability to sense what a game needs.

And he'll get through a lot of nights very quietly.

Now, he might score, but he's not starting any fires.

But if he needs to, he has a great sense of when and how.

Coach, my final question is, I love you.

I love you too.

I love you too.

Thank you.

I love you too.

Okay.

I appreciate it.

So the question says, there's medical help for that, fellas.

There are good professionals out there.

You guys can go see.

They can help you.

So much.

They love you too.

You love him now.

You told him to his face the way you told me.

Don't worry about that.

Everybody's allowed to be wrong once.

Don't worry about that.

I called you the murderer of fun when you first got here.

But that would be accurate.

That would be fair.

Thanks, Coach.

That would be fair.

The first part was we had to get to a whole bunch of hard things, so there wasn't much fun.

And I had that exact meeting in January that year, and there was a little bit different language, but you're not allowed to have fun in the NHL when you play like that.

So you're right, I did kill the joy.

You were 100% right.

I knew it.

Good seeing you and congratulations, coaches.

It was nice to be talking to you.

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Talk to your doctor or pharmacist today.

Sponsored by GSK, Don Lebatard.

Our Panther group chat, we're confident against the lightning.

This is a different team.

You're a Panther group chat.

No, no, I think there's a lot of people.

No, but dude, you're so wrong on that.

We've been terrified of this team forever.

And I think there's a different energy where the Panthers want the lightning.

Stugats.

I want t-shirts made for this Panther run.

What could be this Panther run?

Our Panther group chat.

We're not afraid of the lightning.

That's a tagline for World RAR 3.

This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats.

He said some stuff there that I have not heard.

He did not say that.

Actually, this

stuff was

put it all on you like a real pro.

Yeah.

That was not what I thought was interesting from what it is.

I had not heard that stuff on Kachuck, on Marchand.

I was not aware of the acquisition and how that went down because it sounds like it sort of went down the same way that Tyreek Hill went down for Mike McDaniel, where you're getting a call, and as the coach, you don't believe that something is going to happen.

And then 15 minutes later, it actually happened.

Did you guys get that Pike Fisher?

That went way over my head.

Pike Fisher made a leader.

It was funny, though.

It's on the reel.

You got a leader.

He said leader.

I was thinking leater, like he, you know, that's the metric system.

Exactly.

I'm trying to figure it out something I need to know.

I was just like, yeah, great answer.

You're so funny and charming.

You're funny.

What other sport does the coach specifically not know how to coach a certain player on the team?

I bet that's coming with goaltenders, though, right?

Right, that's what I'm saying.

Yeah, I mean, they're a whole different ballgame, those guys, especially when they're Russian, they don't speak the language.

Well, the language is part of it.

Let's go get that to a spot.

Frank Robinson one time told me while he was managing the expos that he didn't even speak to Vladimir Guerrero because he didn't want anything to get lost in the translation, so he just left him totally alone and just let him hit the baseball and didn't want anything to be misconstrued in texture or tone when he was talking to him because he thought he might be feeling reprimand when he's not reprimanding him.

Bob speaks English.

Yeah, he does.

But still, that position, though, is just different.

Yes, yeah, everybody will tell tell you.

It's like closers.

They're just like certain positions that there's like an accepted level of idiosyncrasies.

But the baseball manager knows about pitching.

I think they know the basics.

I mean, I'll take your word for it.

I just nodded along to a fishing reference I didn't get.

We're not fishermen around here.

I believe that Jessica is the only accomplished fisher person that's got an award.

Yeah, and he used to wear a hook on his hat.

Okay, that's good.

His friend Tom gave it to him.

Congrats, Roy.

Dad, you're Sol Life too, aren't you?

I am.

Yeah, Yeah, Greg is Sol Life.

I fish.

Yeah, I've been, you know, hellibent fishing in Alaska.

That kind of thing.

You charted a boat one time.

Sure, I did.

A couple of times.

Over the weekend, Bill Parcels was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame at the age of 84 years old.

And during his speech, he articulated that he wished he had done some things differently.

I saw this recently with Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones, where you get to your 80s all of a sudden and you start re-examining both your mortality and the life it is that you've led and where it is that you let some small grievances get in the way.

So it's nice to see some of these folks put down their petty.

But I did think it was interesting that

Bob Kraft personally

inducted Bill Parcells because that's usually done by vote with the Patriots and the fans had voted in Edelman.

Edelman, one of the most amazing stories in the history of football, a seventh seventh-round pick from Kent State, having those kinds of

numbers.

But I did think it was interesting that Kraft decided to do that with Parcells, and I wonder if he will do the same with Belichick.

And I wonder how much putting Parcells in has to do with the pettiness going on right now between

Belichick and Kraft as Belichick loses 34-9 this weekend to Central Florida, and his team has no chance at any point in the game.

Well, Kraft has said that he's going to build him a statue once he retires, and he's no longer an active coach.

So I think that he knows he won that situation, and he's going to honor him at some point in time.

He's just still coaching.

People are enjoying what's happening to Bill.

Oh, and not just.

I love it, but also Mike Lombardi, who has often...

People hate Mike Lombardi.

Oh, Mike Lombardi has made some enemies.

Mike Lombardi, when he thinks he's smarter than you, he lets it be known.

He took a lot of shots at Miami this offseason two.

John Gruden today uh on the barstool program on fs1 gave this quote when being asked about jordan hudson being on the unc sideline i've never seen anything like that ma'am michael and bardi works for north carolina i've heard him criticize me several times i'm sure he'll produce a tick tock today explaining exactly what's going on over there

did you guys did you guys see the ai version of him kissing i that almost got me for like a split second someone did an ai video because it was jordan and bill belichick on the sidelines someone made an ai video as if like her jumping on him on the sidelines to give him like a passionate kiss.

And there was like three seconds where I was like, she, and then I was like, oh, that's clearly.

What threw you off that it was real when you saw that the score was 34?

His face kind of like changed midway through.

That's a hint.

These AI videos, though, these pictures, they can do crazy things.

This is scary, aren't they?

People are enjoying that.

What people aren't enjoying is that Barstool Wake Up show on FS1.

It's got the lowest ratings in the history of FS1.

Takes Takes time.

It takes time to start something.

I mean, but they've been starting stuff over there that has never started with the lowest ratings in the history of FS1.

Like, they have a massive audience.

It's the lowest thing they've ever seen.

Oh, because I think there's a difference between how people consume things, and I think there's a gulf of difference between how the mainstream tries to get young people to watch things and how young people actually watch things.

They're not watching things on television anymore.

That part seems obvious.

It seems that young people people are simply weaning themselves off of what is traditional television.

I don't know if the rest of you have felt the way that I do.

Anytime I watch CBS, the graphics on football around everything that CBS does, it looks older to me.

Well, CBS was doing a thing yesterday.

No, I don't mean yesterday.

I mean every time.

No,

I'm not talking about...

That was a wig that day.

Purlison Sideburns in it seem off to you

i'm not talking about yesterday just general yesterday was the throwback day was musbergner on yesterday he was he was there he did the uh you're looking live he did the the voiceover at the start and then uh james brown welcomed him on the uh on the on the dais mainstream television in general has a problem in that they've got a lot of old executives who are trying to figure out how to lure young people into old media and Pat McAfee is a response to that when you give someone the ability to use your platform but you're just renting him.

You have no ownership over him.

He's not your employee.

He is somebody who's got his own business and you're borrowing it.

What we are seeing happen, it's not just at Fox.

You guys have seen what has happened to ESPN2, right?

They're just taking podcasts and putting them on television because it's just cheaper programming.

It's just easier to do.

And what you're looking for there, Zads, when I say lowest ratings in the history of FS1, it almost doesn't matter because it's the late-night model.

You just want viral clips.

Like, you don't, you don't care what the, I mean, you want to have daily ratings, obviously, but you'll take a daily ratings hit because you just want stuff to spread on the internet because we're not doing the measurements on this stuff the way we used to.

Which I think they're finding out.

Their interview today with John Gruden's doing numbers.

I think there'll be more of those because the show, as it stands, doesn't seem like it allows itself for plenty of viral moments.

I cannot believe that Chris Cody thought this video was real.

Yeah, we have on screen what Chris thought was actually happening.

Hold on, take it again, guys.

Full screen video.

I don't know it's fake yet.

Don't know it's fake yet.

Don't know it's fake yet.

This is about right here.

I'm like, he couldn't have been doing this.

You should be embarrassed.

This is where I was sure it was fake.

Look legs, man.

I'm embarrassed for you right now.

For the first part, it's just, oh, a little kiss, a little kiss before they go.

All right, this is a bit much.

They would never do this.

They know this would go viral.

All right, yeah.

This is also during a time of the game.

It seems like it's just pre-game.

It's pre-game.

Pregame milling about

incredible.

Didn't know the camera was on them.

People were enjoying, though, again, even though it happened much more quietly than week one, losing at UCF 34-9 when you're just a small underdog in that game, and I was confused as to why it is they were a small underdog in that game.

Losing 34-9 to UCF,

I don't even know how it is that that gets fixed this season.

It's not something that can be fixed this season.

They're going to be bad all season, and I haven't looked at their schedule, but they're not going to be even a bowl team, are they?

No, no, no.

I don't think so.

They entered that program with a lot of talk they have a get-wright game though in two weeks they got clemson that's right yeah that's right and we which afterwards we'll find out exactly how old dabo is then and how much time and how expensive it would be to to fire him you saw that on game day uh people in miami were uh wishing for nick saban to come back uh for the return of nick saban did you see this you i guess you didn't from the look on your face no I did not.

No.

I mean, please.

It wasn't on TV.

This was fans interacting with Saban while he was on one of the side sets, just screaming at him.

We have the video here if you want to play it.

You can hear the fans interacting with him.

All right, let's play that.

Come back to the knowledge.

We forgive you.

We pray.

We need your help.

We need your help.

Come on.

One more.

He gave just the hand gesture of like, no, no, no, that's not happening.

He's got a fresh coat out there, and I'm not talking about the blazer.

How old is Nick Saban now?

He's over 75 years old.

He looks fresh and dapper and painted conchapapote in his comparison.

I guess 47, 48 based on the hair.

When did he get red hair?

Geographically, or not geographically, whatever it is, biologically, he says 73 years old.

Two years away from the big five.

Look at the grin on that face when he hears

Miami forgives you.

Miami forgives you, says a child not old enough to offer that forgiveness.

He doesn't speak for all of us.

My favorite part about that is how quickly he dismissed it.

First off, son, someone in Miami had something good to say about him, so he drops his little pointer.

And then, I mean, Tua's on this roster.

Want a natty with him?

Nah, no, don't even.

No, thank you.

Not at all something I ever want to consider doing again with my life.

I saw him recently interviewed where he calls Tua, and I just am so out on Tua right now that this angers me.

One of his favorite players he ever coached.

Like, when it was talking about, like, best.

Wow, that's high praise.

Like, who's the best players you've coached?

He's like, Julio Joe.

He starts naming these, like, monsters, and it's like, and Tua.

And I'm just like, oh, that's so infuriating.

Because he's bad.

I hate Tua.

Because Tua is bad.

One of the quarterbacks that he did some winning with helped

Cal Shanahan's doing that thing again.

They're 3-0.

They're super hurt.

It looks like they've lost Bosa for an extended period of time.

They're without Kittle.

They have white position players everywhere.

They have their backup quarterback.

That backup quarterback is Mac Jones, who we know is not good.

He's also hurt.

Even while winning, though, death taxes and a Mac Jones safety.

I wish I could bet on him.

Mac Jones was so injured in that game.

That dude was limping the entire time and he got super emotional.

It was actually pretty cool to see because his career has not worked out the way that he thought it would.

He was, if he's out, I don't even know who the third string is.

He was legitimately limping painfully that entire game and he cried when Pinero hit that winner.

It's a nice cheat code that the league has where you play nine games.

at the same time

and you're almost guaranteed given how that league is even though you'll get your occasional Seahawks Saints game or Vikings-Bengals game.

If you play nine games, your witching hour is going to have three or four games of crazy at the end.

And it just sort of erased what I was saying earlier.

Go ahead and name the games worth talking about from yesterday.

Name them.

Go ahead.

Bucks, chats.

I think Niners Cardinals is interesting to talk about because of where the Niners are.

And they're going to do that thing where guys start coming back in December and they're going to be a buck in the ass who will end up.

Now, wait a minute.

You can't make 49ers Cardinals a game worth talking about if Jags Texans isn't a game worth talking about.

It was a battle for the top of the NFC West Dan.

Both those teams were undefeated entering that game.

Rams Eagles.

Yep.

I cannot believe Philly came back in that game, which is a weird thing to say about a reigning Super Bowl champion, but the way that they did it just impressed me even more.

Broncos Chargers.

Do we talk about Bears Cowboys?

Nah.

Bad injury to CeeDee Lamb.

I guess you understand that.

I guess it's encouraging for Chicago.

It's funny to hear you say, though, that a team that has won 19 of 20, that you're surprised by how they won, but I am too.

Super surprised.

It was 26-7, wasn't it?

I mean, that's exactly how you're supposed to beat the Philadelphia Eagles with a team that we all think is like, well, that's one of the teams that can maybe be a problem.

They did all the things.

I'm shocked.

Play that music again, please, because there were only four or five games we're talking about.

What's she gonna do with that judges?

You, bad games, bad games.

What you gonna do?

What you gonna do and then judges you?