Hour 2: B-B-B-B-B-BAD QUARTERBACKS

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Speaker 9 This is the Dan Labatar Show with the Stoogats Podcast.

Speaker 10 Start of the day, start of the day, it is yes, start of the day

Speaker 10 Start of the day, start of the day, it is yes, start of the day

Speaker 10 Start of the day, start of the day, it is yes, start of the day

Speaker 10 Start of the day, start of the day, it is yes, start of the day

Speaker 11 Stat of the day, presented by Amazon Prime Video. Thursday night football is on.
The Minnesota Vikings take on the Los Angeles Chargers. Coverage begins Thursday at 7 p.m.
Eastern only on Prime Video.

Speaker 1 We have

Speaker 11 how we're going to do this this week, Dan, is we have competing stats of the day.

Speaker 3 I'm going to give a stat.

Speaker 3 What just happened to you there?

Speaker 3 Explained to me everything that just happened there where you pointed to me and then started talking and then just ran and tripped over your feet.

Speaker 1 Get it together.

Speaker 3 Tripped over your feet.

Speaker 11 Trying to set up what we're doing today, Dan.

Speaker 12 Let me try it again. Take two.

Speaker 3 Okay, but you said you wanted it. You said you were going to do the stat of the day music.
You said you were going to get us off to a roaring start. And now look at us.
Stop

Speaker 3 playing about.

Speaker 1 He didn't say any of that, Dan. Come on, be a teammate.

Speaker 1 Lift him up.

Speaker 1 It's not like we seize on every mistake on this show. Here's the stat to beat.

Speaker 11 Okay, I'm going to say this stat, and then we can go around the room if anyone wants to compete.

Speaker 11 But I got news for you. You're not going to beat this one.

Speaker 11 On Sunday, the Chiefs had 30 first downs.

Speaker 11 Also, on Sunday, in the same game, the Raiders ran 30 plays.

Speaker 11 Try to beat that.

Speaker 3 You gave that stat yesterday. So good.

Speaker 6 It was worth repeating.

Speaker 3 He gave that stat yesterday. These are recycled stats.

Speaker 4 It's so nice, he said it twice.

Speaker 11 Yesterday, I just casually worked it into conversation.

Speaker 5 Today, gave it as a stat.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 13 Here's my stat. I'm going to try to beat it here.

Speaker 1 It shouldn't be very hard.

Speaker 3 This was a stat we already had yesterday. So all you have to have is a new stat.

Speaker 3 Like this game's very easy to play when all you have to do is produce a stat the audience doesn't know because they weren't listening yesterday when it was said and then recycled today. And stole

Speaker 3 this is like

Speaker 1 stole.

Speaker 3 This is sponsored, and you're bringing a stat from yesterday that's 24 hours old.

Speaker 11 Damn good stat. Try to beat it, Roy.

Speaker 13 All right, this is from the Falcons 49 of this game. Christian McCaffrey had more rushing yards than both teams combined.
McCaffrey had 129 yards to 107 for everybody else. Oh my God.

Speaker 13 He led all players on both teams in receiving yards. He had 72, and he scored more points than the other team.

Speaker 1 Somehow, both points.

Speaker 3 These stats stink. Somehow.

Speaker 1 And Atlanta had somehow this. I think I got one.

Speaker 1 I think I got one. Whoa, I'm not done.
No other player in the Super Bowl era has done all that in the same game.

Speaker 1 Bad game. Atlanta has Bijan Robinson on it, so that's impressive.

Speaker 1 The craziest thing about this football season is everyone on San Francisco is hurt, except for the guy that everyone thought would get hurt.

Speaker 3 Who's made of bones at this point? And those are two truly terrible stats of the day.

Speaker 1 And if I my stat is fantastic, it's a great status. My stat is better than his.

Speaker 3 Your stat is great, but it's stale. It's a stale stat.
It's 24 hours old. We're moving really fast in this.

Speaker 1 Stats can't get stale.

Speaker 11 There, I said it.

Speaker 3 You got to come up with a fresh stat.

Speaker 6 Per NFL Plus,

Speaker 4 after Dan declared their season over, the Panthers have won three straight games for the first time since weeks one through three of 2021.

Speaker 11 So Jeremy wins just because it's fresh?

Speaker 1 Yes. Oh.

Speaker 3 And it makes fun of me.

Speaker 3 And I was thinking about this this morning because I was thinking, I proclaim the Panthers season dead because that team is uninteresting and I don't want to watch them play the rest of the season.

Speaker 1 So don't watch them.

Speaker 11 I feel like if they had Packers jerseys on, you'd have a different attitude.

Speaker 1 Hold on. Or Alabama jerseys.

Speaker 12 Or Tampa Bay Rays jerseys.

Speaker 3 No, I just want, look, they are

Speaker 3 this is what's going to happen. I'm going to give you my honesty here on what it is that I'm doing with Carolina.

Speaker 3 Because they have the schedule of feeding off the shit that is that division, and now they get to feed on Jets and Dolphins as well because they're playing against the AFC East.

Speaker 3 They might stumble their way into nine or ten wins that I don't want to see in the playoffs because they're not good enough.

Speaker 3 And they might stumble their way in because you get to beat the Saints, and Baker Mayfield somehow can't have, you know, he's going to be down seven receivers by the time he gets to them late in the season.

Speaker 1 They destroyed Atlanta

Speaker 1 and they beat Dallas. Their resume isn't as flawed as you're making it.

Speaker 8 Also, can I make you a little bit intrigued with now Bryce Young? High ankle sprain. Guess who's up next?

Speaker 1 Red Rifle.

Speaker 6 Revenge game against the Bills.

Speaker 1 There is a conversation surrounding Bryce Young that I'm interested in because I don't know why I do this to myself, but I sat down in front of a television. Well, it's because I had money on it.

Speaker 1 I sat down in front of a television to watch C.J. Stroud and his offense play football.

Speaker 1 Woof.

Speaker 1 Remember the conversation, and I guess it remember that list that I put together yesterday?

Speaker 3 He's going to say one-year wonder on C.J. Stroud.

Speaker 1 They made the playoffs his first two seasons. He wasn't nearly as good as he was his rookie season, but the rookie season was incredible.

Speaker 1 He was unbelievable, making every throw super athletic. He himself is now saying, like, I've gotten old.
What are you talking about? Well,

Speaker 1 I would rather have Bryce Young at this point, and that was not the discussion.

Speaker 3 Can I analyze something with you guys, though, that gets forgotten and wherever it is that it's superhuman Joe Burrow, who can't be shaken of confidence, even as his body falls apart, on the difficulties of playing the position?

Speaker 3 Because I think the humanity gets inside. It gets lost inside the helmet.
So I ask you this question. David Carr is the single best college quarterback I have ever seen, Fresno State with Pat Hill.

Speaker 3 And then he gets to the Houston Texans and gets sacked so much that they run him right out of the league because you cannot be sacked 55 times in that league and keep your confidence.

Speaker 3 You have to have confidence in that pocket. It's a terrifying place.
It's violent and scary and you can get hurt. CJ Stroud was protected for many seasons, but that franchise can wreck a quarterback.

Speaker 3 And when I do the quarterback analysis, so much goes into this.

Speaker 3 I want to explore this with you guys because I think it's fascinating.

Speaker 3 Clearly, the way they do the measurements, Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold have unique skill sets that would make them good at the quarterback position, but then they have to go through a million different things.

Speaker 3 That means burning up the Browns organization to the ground or failing in New York where it hurts to fail, learning whatever they had to learn. The measurement was right on what they are physically.

Speaker 3 Top five talents, they can play in this league, but it is a buzzsaw to be sacked. Cam Ward has been sacked 27 times this season and has five fumbles.

Speaker 3 Learn it, eat it in seven games, best college player. Your team is terrible and you're going to be terrible too.
Learn it fast, get ruined or get better. Do it fast.
I mean, do it faster than ever.

Speaker 1 I'm a huge jackass and Cam Ward fan, right? I love Cam Ward. I think it's really interesting that everyone who watches tape says this guy is going to be good.
Surround him by the right talent.

Speaker 1 He's off to a worst start than Will Levis was. And if you watch these games, and I watch every single snap.

Speaker 5 This team is worse than what Cam Levis was given.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and certainly the coaching staff, I mean, it's and Vrabel matters. And Vrabo matters.
Vrabel does matter. But Cam Ward needs to do a better job of helping his team out.

Speaker 1 And it's not be number one pick great. All right.
I think we, when we apply proper context, we know how difficult that position is under the circumstances that he's playing it.

Speaker 1 But be better than Will Levis is a low mark to clear. And he's got to do that.
But we started. CJ Stroud, same thing.
I'm not going to say for three years, pressure up the middle. You know what?

Speaker 1 Deal with the pressure up the middle. That's the fact of you playing football now for this franchise.
Do better, or they'll find somebody else.

Speaker 3 It's not just pressure up the middle.

Speaker 1 They know exactly what they're doing on defense and neuter C.J. Stroud, and he doesn't have an answer.

Speaker 5 How much money did you have on this game last night?

Speaker 1 No, I had the Seahawks. Jack asked, meet Jack Shit.
Yeah, I mean, I'm not saying that.

Speaker 4 I'm not surprised Cam Ward struggling.

Speaker 11 He didn't even have as good of a fall camp as Carson Beck.

Speaker 4 And that guy just threw four picks in a college football game.

Speaker 1 Jack?

Speaker 3 Jack shit is the name tag that Jeremy is presently wearing.

Speaker 1 It's just like, why?

Speaker 1 the excuses that we that were presently that I have made more excuses for CJ Stroud over the course of his career than I have waxed poetic about him and there is plenty of poetic wax thin line between excuses and explanations and when I'm telling you that these jobs are hard.

Speaker 3 The jobs are hard for a number of different reasons including when CJ Stroud is failing he cannot publicly say to anyone if he thinks it's a reason other than him. He can't say it's organizational.

Speaker 3 He can't say it's the coach. He can't say anything publicly.
This is what swallows Tua right now. If indeed C.J.
Stroud is a one-year wonder, what happened last night is informative to me.

Speaker 3 To me, it's informative.

Speaker 3 You know the Detroit Lions are one of the best teams in the league and you know that Baker Mayfield has a lot, but you can't keep losing receivers and keep beating the best teams on the road.

Speaker 3 He already beat Sam Darnold. We know Seattle's good.
If they're healthy, they're good. They've got a great receiver.
They've got big plays.

Speaker 3 They'll beat just about anyone because Sam Darnold is an NFL quarterback who took all of this learning to show everyone he's a top five pick physically. Top five pick.
Baker Mayfield.

Speaker 3 They measured his guts and they made him

Speaker 3 a top five pick. And Cam Ward in seven games can either get wrecked, ruined,

Speaker 3 or he blossoms out of it. But I got to imagine, and my larger point is, this position is even harder than you think it is.
And it's harder than it's ever been.

Speaker 3 You're forcing upon people who are too young a pressurized scenario where they're not even old enough to know you can't say it was the tackle's fault.

Speaker 3 You can't say it was anybody's fault, but yours, Tula, or we'll start talking about whether your brain's injured.

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Speaker 9 Don Lebatard.

Speaker 3 While there's nothing official and conversations are still ongoing, was was that a fake shifter?

Speaker 1 Because it was pretty good. It was excellent.
I feel like there's legs.

Speaker 3 I tried at the beginning and then I lost confidence in it. Wow.

Speaker 1 It was good. It was good.
You got this. There's nothing official.
Yeah, let's see. And conversations are still ongoing.

Speaker 9 Stugats.

Speaker 3 It is trending towards Nick Siriani remaining the head coach of the Eagles.

Speaker 9 This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats.

Speaker 1 You mentioned a couple of examples that you could make the argument: well, the league found you out. How are you going to adjust? Carson Wentz, same deal.
They found ways.

Speaker 1 And I'm not saying CJ Stroud is beyond that, but I'm saying he's got to find that.

Speaker 1 He's got to tap into what Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield did, because I think we're at that point in his career where you got to start wondering, are we going to pay this guy?

Speaker 1 Is this guy really our franchise quarterback?

Speaker 1 Because for as many people on the planet as there is, there are like seven guys that we've deemed are good enough to quarterback the game's most important position and win you a Super Bowl.

Speaker 5 No one doesn't pay the guy.

Speaker 1 No one.

Speaker 5 Everyone pays him. Like, what's the example of, and okay, C.J.
Stroud, fine. What's the example of the guy where it's like, yeah, you know what? Sam Darnold.

Speaker 12 Baker Mayfield.

Speaker 5 Here's the thing with Sam Darnold. That's a good example, except.
They didn't expect Sam Darnold to be anything, and they had already drafted someone at number 10.

Speaker 1 Sam Darnold had the benefit, had the esteemed honor honor of not being the guy they pay twice because he had a career year in Minnesota.

Speaker 1 He seemed like he figured it out, and Minnesota was like, we're going to let you go.

Speaker 12 Well, they would have paid him if they didn't trap McCarthy the year before, though.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 you could have him sit for a couple years. McCarthy was injured for an entire season.
You forget real quick about that.

Speaker 1 They won.

Speaker 1 14 games with Sam Darnold.

Speaker 5 Sitting on quarterbacks. No one does that anymore.

Speaker 8 Okay, but what if you buck the trend and start doing it again, right? Because now you're looking at Cam Ward, Bryce Young, C.J.

Speaker 1 Stroud, like all the...

Speaker 8 you look at Kyler Murray. He's been in the league for six years.
You're like, is he even good?

Speaker 1 We don't know. He was really good as a rookie year.
And then they had answers for him, and he doesn't seem to have an answer back.

Speaker 5 We know the way this league goes now. Like, the only way that you wind up winning, there's two ways with your quarterback.

Speaker 5 Either he's an all-time Hall of Fame level talent who, of course, you pay a ton of money to, or he's a quarterback who is far outplaying his rookie contract. Those are the, there's no in the middle.

Speaker 5 Got a lot of in the middle guys, all right?

Speaker 12 Tua, Trevor Lawrence,

Speaker 12 Kyler Murray, a lot of in the middle guys.

Speaker 5 You only win two ways. Hall of Fame caliber making a ton of money, rookie contract outperforming his contract.

Speaker 1 It's why I don't want to see the rules change because I think defense and defensive minds in that league are at an all-time high right now.

Speaker 1 And if you give a defensive coach an offseason of obsessing over to take away what you're good at, you need to be good enough to take what the defense gives you.

Speaker 1 It's literally Tom Brady's greatest achievement in that he recognizes what defenses are are going to take away and he will play to win the game.

Speaker 1 He is at no point in Tom Brady's career was he the best and most talented at anything except for that trait. And guys like CJ Stroud need to figure that out.

Speaker 3 And the quarterback sneak.

Speaker 8 And the point to C.J. Stroud, too, like we have some of the smartest football minds on the planet.
Has anybody figured out what the situation is with CJ Stroud?

Speaker 8 Is everybody just like, oh, he just kind of stinks with the bread?

Speaker 3 Laramie Tunsel matters. They traded him before the season.
We forget that. Never mind pressure up the middle.
Also, Delta was important for them. Like they used to have two wide receivers.

Speaker 3 It wasn't just Nico Collins. They had two wide receivers.
Look, there are a lot of reasons all this stuff happens.

Speaker 3 All I'm saying to you, as we obsess over the quarterback position, last night's the quarterbacks who were playing, we have now reinvented golf through system and talent and precision there.

Speaker 3 Like I keep coming back to precision for this reason, okay?

Speaker 3 The Chiefs season was saved because against the Lions, who we all know to be good, when they were down 10-6, they scored at the end of the first half to to take the lead.

Speaker 3 They scored at the kickoff of the second half to take the lead. And look at what happens to change the season there while the Dolphins come out 17-6.

Speaker 3 They score a field goal to end the first half and they come back first play, pick six. Your season's over right there.

Speaker 3 Like in terms of precision, what I'm talking about, the little tiny things that are the reason that football games get won and they're winning organizations.

Speaker 3 Last night, you've got one quarterback in Detroit we all expect to see in the playoffs.

Speaker 3 Don't totally trust that he won't be the reason they lose in the playoffs because four interceptions get thrown don't totally trust it you got baker mayfield who's out there with a crew of receivers that rob gronkowski if you gave him a lot of practice still wouldn't get it right amika igbegbu he's running around shouldn't probably even been playing late

Speaker 1 should not have been playing

Speaker 1 god knows how much they shot him up with to get him out there with baker mayfield shouldn't 50 yards because that guy on one leg will get you 50 yards you got receivers running into one another and in routes and yeah baker was off no doubt and credit to detroit's defense i'm not sure there was a team in the sport that beats detroit last night

Speaker 1 That was awesome.

Speaker 1 It's not often where you're watching a football game with a talented quarterback and a talented team, and you're like, man, this shit looks hard. Calvin Schneider played for the Dolphins.

Speaker 12 I forgot that.

Speaker 1 Baker was missing high, but also, we don't know that if it's

Speaker 1 his normal complement of healthy receivers, if those balls are on target, if there's something that these wide receivers are doing.

Speaker 3 He just beat Darnold in Seattle.

Speaker 3 with a slugfest when he had some of his talent out there because it look we've seen enough so far to know that even mahomes can can be slowed in a way that makes me sound stupid uh if for 18 weeks he doesn't have his primary weapons to me the miracle has been that baker mayfield has stayed relevant without the weapons to me the the lack of weapons sinks everybody like what i just saw this weekend look man what philadelphia pulled out of its bag with jalen hurts oh you're gonna dare me to throw deep all right i'll do it to you that way and i'll have the best game you've seen as a pro because aj brown and senquan keep getting mad at me because they want the ball they want the ball they want the ball.

Speaker 3 And I'm like, no, I'd rather just win 20 of 21 and tush push and learn all the things that need to be learned so I could be the Alabama quarterback whose career isn't what Tuas is about to be because he gets swallowed whole by the organization.

Speaker 3 Jalen hurts what he did to Minnesota. Like when you talk about the fight in the trenches where Brian Flores is inventing things to try and stop the tush push.

Speaker 3 Vikings in the red zone, five field goals, okay? And Wentz kills them with the pick you can't throw.

Speaker 3 Just kills them with a pick six that in a game of precision, Wentz kills them and then kills himself to try and get back in the game. Defense is great.

Speaker 3 Slowing Philadelphia, daring Jalen Hurts to throw deep. Okay, here you go.
We can do that too. We'll do that on the road.
We'll save our season because A.J. Brown's better than your corner.

Speaker 3 And I saw your corner in a game this year have the best game I've ever seen a defensive player have when Rodgers is getting, whatever it was, two pick sixes and a fumble cause.

Speaker 3 And here's my best player against your best player. I'll use A.J.
Brown when I need him.

Speaker 3 That's some shit at the top of the league where, like, when you see how organizations are run, I can't believe what I'm watching on Sundays, the way these coaches are behaving on fourth down.

Speaker 3 Vrabel bent over sick on the sideline because it hurt him up 17-13 instead of kicking a field goal on fourth and two inside the 10. He was going to go for it.

Speaker 3 He had to, but it looked like he was going to throw up. Because we used to always kick a field goal in that spot to make it a field goal lead.
And he's like, no,

Speaker 3 I want Cam Ward back here. I'll go for it.
These coaches are crazy now on fourth and short. And it's the mathematically prudent thing to do because why wouldn't I throw deep to A.J.

Speaker 1 Brown? I've got that in my mind. Fourth and short.
He's a 60-yarder.

Speaker 3 I rarely use throwing to AJ Brown deep.

Speaker 3 That team has dominated the sport for the last 24 weeks. And what they just did to Minnesota is like tear their soul out.

Speaker 8 And the weird thing is, like, they want to play this like control the line of scrimmage game. They want to play complimentary football, run the ball 46 times, play great defense.

Speaker 8 But then they have these moments where you look at them against the Rams. They were down 26, seven, come back.
Jalen Hurts looks like the MVP.

Speaker 8 And then this game against Minnesota, where he looks, again, like one of the best quarterbacks in the league, you're like, why don't you just do that all the time?

Speaker 8 Like, why are you guys trying to play this football brand that doesn't make sense?

Speaker 3 It's interesting to watch the ego check at the door when the quarterback can always play like that. And you're like, why aren't you guys always doing that? And it's what A.J.

Speaker 3 Brown's complaining about.

Speaker 1 He's like, oh, guys, hello.

Speaker 3 Guys, I used to do this in Tennessee. Look what they've become since I became, you know, this guy who you can always throw the ball to, who's always open.
It's a funny thing, is it not?

Speaker 3 Like, we were introduced by Vrabel to A.J. Brown and the idea that Tennessee can play explosive football and will fool another franchise into thinking Tannehill's the answer for six years.

Speaker 4 The Eagles sometimes, in a way, remind me of the big three era heat and that they would always try to win by playing defense and win like 85 to 82.

Speaker 4 And it was like, you have LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosch.

Speaker 6 Why don't you just go score 120 and play with pace?

Speaker 5 And whenever they felt like it, they could.

Speaker 6 But for whatever reason, they decided like, no, we want to be a defensive-oriented team. We want to hold possession of the ball like the Eagles.

Speaker 6 It made no sense then, and it doesn't make any sense to me.

Speaker 3 Siriania is holding them back. They should have won 24 of the last 20.

Speaker 1 Now you're getting to the root of it.

Speaker 3 The anchor meathead is holding them back.

Speaker 3 He's confining A.J. Brown.
They should be slaughtering everyone instead of leading the league in three and outs because they insist on tush-bushing their way to victory.

Speaker 5 I'll tell you, it's going to be cool when they stack the defenders.

Speaker 1 It's a great idea by you, by the way.

Speaker 5 That's going to be a great idea by you. A pivotal moment.

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Speaker 9 Don Lebatard.

Speaker 18 Where the motherfucker Roiz at?

Speaker 1 Bring his ass on here.

Speaker 3 Where's the motherfucker Roiz is a great question.

Speaker 9 Stugats.

Speaker 18 Running, huh? He's running today, huh?

Speaker 1 I'm ready.

Speaker 9 This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats.

Speaker 3 I have two things that I have not gotten to today that I'm at least a little bit ashamed of. The basketball season starts today and also

Speaker 3 because it's a touch confusing to me to see the two-time defending NHL champions being led publicly by Brad Marchand, being led to microphones, to cameras, replacing Kachuk, replacing Barkoff of this iteration of the defending two-time NHL champions are going to be represented in star power by the name of Brad Marchand.

Speaker 3 Zaslow is a resident hockey fan who

Speaker 3 cut short his vacation in order to win one championship for the Panthers in a way that was thanked publicly by Paul Maurice.

Speaker 3 What can you tell me about how I am to feel about Brad Marchand being the face and leader of this team?

Speaker 5 I mean, it's the juicy story right now because they're on ESPN tonight, all right? Like, that's the main reason that you have this impression that he's the face of the team. It's on ESPN.

Speaker 5 They're in Boston tonight, and it's the first time that Marchand is facing his former team in Boston.

Speaker 5 So I know throughout the day today, they're going to be airing parts on ESPN of his sit-down with Mike Monaco, which I'm really looking forward to hearing.

Speaker 5 Apparently, he gave him a lot of time, and it'll be interesting how that crowd reacts to him tonight.

Speaker 5 Like, I imagine there will be a video package at some point in the first period during a commercial.

Speaker 12 He'll give the wave and all that.

Speaker 22 But Martian is coming off.

Speaker 12 A couple things.

Speaker 5 The team's lost four in a row.

Speaker 12 They look like shit.

Speaker 5 They can't score.

Speaker 3 After winning three in a row at home, they went on the road and immediately. And that's not surprising.
What's surprising about that? They're missing two important players to scoring.

Speaker 1 You're going to go to Buffalo with Bernie Pomaly and lose to the listless Buffalo Sabres.

Speaker 5 And Marchand is also coming off a game where he clearly has decided, okay, we need to

Speaker 12 kickstart something.

Speaker 5 He fought that Dallen, and then he ripped up his helmet and the straps.

Speaker 12 It was very, very cool.

Speaker 1 That's as pissed as I've seen Brad Marshan. So he's in like that sweater that I love watching him wear so much.

Speaker 5 He's in like a mood going into tonight's game. So it'll be interesting if he's picking fights and pulling his Marchand tricks against the Bruins this evening.

Speaker 3 I don't know how cowboy Mike Ryan gets away with any of this.

Speaker 1 What, by admitting that I'm wrong?

Speaker 1 I was wrong about the whole Brad Morshand thing he's our rat he's going to boston right now a city that he once played for but won't be remembered for playing i love dan talking about like marshawn being our vocal leader right now are you longing for this

Speaker 1 that guy never said anything i miss him so it is curious that bread marshawn is a huge star in the sport and naturally i understand why that's where the media goes i'm not so sure maybe roy can speak to it with more authority on this you're around the team more i'm not so sure that that perception is reality i know he's one of the leaders, but the fact that we've made this guy who was playing on the third line last year now the de facto captain with these guys out, I think it insults like some of these guys that have been around, like Sam Reinhardt and some of the other leaders on the team.

Speaker 13 No, I don't really think so because I mean, he's a veteran. He's been around this game for 20 years.
So I don't think that they have that much animosity towards him taking over a leadership role.

Speaker 1 I'm not suggesting animosity. Is it so? Is Brad Morshand now the leader of this team? Because they don't lack for leadership.
I think he potentially is.

Speaker 11 Are we just basing that off of like TNT interviewing him and then him doing the helmet thing?

Speaker 1 Because I'm sure Reinhardt is leading.

Speaker 3 This is all that happens here, and it is the normal thing

Speaker 1 to happen.

Speaker 3 The leader of your team in this circumstance, if he weren't kooky and trying to fight his way through his second language, would be your two-time champion goaltender.

Speaker 12 That

Speaker 1 goaltenders are all weird.

Speaker 3 Okay, but this, I mean, Patrick Waugh was the leader of his team when he was the best

Speaker 1 important traditional

Speaker 1 Patrick Waugh was a psycho.

Speaker 1 He hold him to the goalposts. Yeah,

Speaker 1 you don't want that guy leading your team.

Speaker 1 No, I look Aaron Eckblad is probably the

Speaker 1 maybe it takes a village with Florida, especially with those two guys out.

Speaker 22 Martian's the star tonight. They're in Boston for the first time.
Like that's really what it boils down to.

Speaker 1 I saw a commercial during Monday night football hyping up his return to Boston and his sit-down interview.

Speaker 5 A Florida Panther.

Speaker 1 Yep. What I'm saying is the national perception may not even be that far off the truth, but it doesn't appear to be the truth.
But they've decided it's Brad Marchand, and it's his team now.

Speaker 16 Just win tonight. Thank you.

Speaker 3 There was an interview last week that Marchand did with TNT, and TNT has killed it again with its studio shows. And we've known this for a while.

Speaker 3 This is not new information, but they know how to do the studio show well. And do we have the sound?

Speaker 3 Can we get the sound in moments here about how Marshand is going to be presented as the face and voice of this team, whether he is or not, because he's a bigger star than Reinhardt and Bennett and Bobrovsky and all of them.

Speaker 3 He's an American star. That matters.
Kachuk represented this team before. That's not irrelevant.
Barkov might be the best player.

Speaker 3 Not a great public speaker, not a great interview, not a great personality, not embraced by people beyond hockey because he's a superstar and the people in hockey know that he's transcendent on the ice, but not the kind of personality that's going to be loved beyond regionally well you got to keep in mind that marshan the media converges around him because he's the best quote on the team he he knows how to work a microphone i mean you you've seen on tnt him and paul bizonet have a nice rivalry going brad thanks so much for joining us appreciate it paul bizonette's got about 19 questions for you he has a uh i patch on for trying to get playmaking advice

Speaker 19 no i said that you guys have what are you doing here fellas timeout i said you guys have a big core group and then you guys are familiar with each other's tendencies. All right, Brad?

Speaker 1 And by the way,

Speaker 24 I didn't catch that part.

Speaker 19 Yeah, well, if your ears were as big as your nose, you would have.

Speaker 19 First of all, congratulations on your six-year deal. I'm no rocket Scientologist here, but that would bring you to 43.

Speaker 3 Like, you're going to still be playing in six years, Brad?

Speaker 24 Well, the two choices I have are to keep playing, or I got to come sit and listen to you every day. So I'm going to keep doing this so that my ears don't take a beating.

Speaker 19 We got a new guy on staff, Diener, and I wrote down the question he had. He goes, how does a 37-year-old who's so slow get so many breakaways?

Speaker 24 Can't really hear what you're saying, Biz, because I got my two cup rings plugged in my ears.

Speaker 1 Beautiful. Perfect.
Well played. Drop the mic.
You can't do better.

Speaker 3 You can't do better than an eye patch there in terms of visually. There's just nothing I can put in there that's funny, visually funnier than the eye patch.

Speaker 8 Also, I like the point guard. I don't know who the guy is who's the host of the TNT.

Speaker 1 Liam McHugh.

Speaker 8 Okay, I feel like he got very nervous there for a second.

Speaker 1 It's like, all right, Mike Jump guys, okay.

Speaker 14 All right, relax.

Speaker 1 Hockey's come a long way with its interviews.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I mean, the eye patch is just what you wear if you're a rocket Scientologist.

Speaker 3 The hockey player is a notoriously bad quote. You're not wrong when you say Marshawn dominates microphones.
Tonight, basketball returns, and it does better

Speaker 3 with the soap operas than any of the other sports. We just read you.
Everyone's eating up those details on Westbrook and LeBron,

Speaker 3 but I'm genuinely curious from the group here.

Speaker 3 Because LeBron James has spent 20 years as this generation's most dominant American athlete, but he's always paled and failed in chasing the ghost of Michael Jordan and Round Ball Rocks and NBC from a different time.

Speaker 3 Michael Jordan's return with Mike Tarico tonight as voice and face lording over the sport still from on high. Are you guys expecting anything from that?

Speaker 3 Because if last dance brought us together during the pandemic, Michael Jordan coming out from hiding to play the role of Tom Brady, my guess is this is going to hit nostalgia across generations, is it not?

Speaker 5 I'm super excited. Like, they haven't had NBA and NBC, I think, since 2002.
I grew up with NBA and NBC. I am excited for this broadcast tonight.

Speaker 12 I don't know how good Michael Jordan's going to be over the long ball, but look, they've been able to prepare him for tonight for a long time.

Speaker 5 Like, tonight he'll probably be good.

Speaker 1 Hit it, Chris.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I'm into the

Speaker 1 basketball gimmick.

Speaker 1 Basketball. Give me, give me, give me the ball.
You guys, I'm gonna dunk it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Bubba, baby, basketball. Shut up, Jack.
NBC was incredible at covering the NBA, and I'm nostalgic, and I'm hopeful they can just microwave it back up. And I'm super into Michael Jordan being there.

Speaker 1 Look, I follow the sport that Michael Jordan actually is an active part of, and I happen to like his interviews in NASCAR because he has a real passion for it.

Speaker 1 I imagine people are aware of his deficiencies. They're going to produce this thing.
You know who else has deficiencies when it comes to public speaking and being charismatic?

Speaker 1 Nick Saban, and the guy's a goddamn best on television right now. This is how I celebrate Peak October.

Speaker 8 Dan, I was going back into some of the archives of NBC and the NBA, and I think they need to bring back the monologue. The monologue is a missing place that made it feel so.

Speaker 3 The Bob Costas monologue?

Speaker 1 Give me a monologue.

Speaker 2 Give me a monologue, okay?

Speaker 8 Set the table for me. Set the scene.
Make it feel big. This is big, and I need it to match with the monologue.

Speaker 1 They wouldn't do that, would they?

Speaker 3 They wouldn't bring Costas out of retirement just to do like one essay to lead them out

Speaker 3 if Tariqo's in charge.

Speaker 1 Aren't they bringing back like an AI-generated voice to make it feel even more nostalgic? Yes.

Speaker 13 Yes, the guy who intros the actual broadcast.

Speaker 1 They got it right.

Speaker 1 The framing, the AI,

Speaker 1 the old school

Speaker 1 ball rock. Like, just bring back the 90s graphic package.

Speaker 14 Exactly. Good with it.
Yes, recreate that, please.

Speaker 3 Okay, but let's talk for a second here as we talked about TNT in the studio show and what producing and broadcasting requires. To have the correct touch, okay, on NBC returns to basketball.

Speaker 3 You're basically reaching for a whole lot of 40 and 45 and 50-year-olds who want to tap back in to when Michael Jordan and Ahmad Rashad were friends.

Speaker 1 It's what's happening with me, and it hurts me to say I am now one of those 40-year-olds that is looking to tap back into the sport. This is a nice way for me to start.

Speaker 1 There's going to be a basketball game on the TV every night this season, it would appear.

Speaker 3 Well, look at the framing of this. Look, man, so much is about to change.
The Rams just played a game at 6 a.m. and you just saw a football game between Houston and Seattle.

Speaker 3 They're like going to bounce against time zones here to just hit you with as much action as you can as the streaming services are all in the fight for this stuff.

Speaker 3 But NBC returning to this fight, they have to hit the note of bring dad and grandpa from a previous generation. Let's show you what it sounded like when

Speaker 3 when Bob Costas was welcoming you in to the national game of the week with an essay, because you know the Knicks and the Heat hate each other. And

Speaker 3 it's unbelievable soap opera.

Speaker 1 Are you playing the bass, Mike?

Speaker 3 It sounded like hearing a water bottle sing.

Speaker 3 It's fun to do, though, right?

Speaker 8 Good hoops tonight, by the way, boys. We're getting away from the book for the whole point.

Speaker 3 Okay, so yes, thank you for that. Jimmy Butler has some quotes saying there's some, there's, I don't know if we're tired.

Speaker 1 That's like an exciting. Sorry.

Speaker 3 Are we tired of the Jimmy Butler stuff? He has told the San Francisco Chronicle, quote, all that noise, all that chaos paid off in a major way. I'm lucky to be part of this phenomenal organization.

Speaker 3 Everywhere starts off great, but then you know someone has to be the bad guy, and it gets to be me. I've always the one doing something unbearable all of a sudden, but that's okay.

Speaker 3 I get to play in this wonderful league with amazing teammates, but being here, they've only got one goal, to keep hanging those things up on the wall. Ain't no hidden agendas.

Speaker 1 That's bullshit.

Speaker 1 What? He's being super truthful. I'm always the one that's making it unbearable.
Yeah.

Speaker 5 No, but what hidden agenda had the Miami Heat had?

Speaker 22 There's one agenda.

Speaker 3 Win.

Speaker 5 Play basketball. Win.
Where's the hidden agenda from the Miami Heat?

Speaker 22 That's why it's bullshit.

Speaker 1 What's he talking about? Man, Jimmy Butler.

Speaker 1 He will always get under your skin. Will you ever forgive him? I'm not forgiven for what? That's how I met.
That's where I met with Zoe. Every time they do the.
And I know he was my boy.

Speaker 1 I knew he was my boy during 2006, but every time I'm like, I remember what you did. 42.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You left.

Speaker 1 He got more money.

Speaker 1 He wanted him to leave.

Speaker 1 You left. He didn't want to pay him.
Yeah. No.

Speaker 1 You're off base. You don't do that.
You're off base. You don't do do what wait

Speaker 1 wait am i not knowing jack right now are you talking to me

Speaker 3 uh tony when you say that the basketball is good tonight if you want to enjoy a night of nostalgic basketball it's the old-timers tonight like they're giving you the star power with a little luca but it's kevin durant out there it's steph curry it's lebron james it's the it's it's the 40 year old league debut like they're not giving it to anthony edwards tonight they're not giving it to any of the new york knicks they're giving it to the people who have run the league for the last 20 years i looked at these rosters, Tony.

Speaker 1 Quint Capella still out there doing it. A lot of old faces in new places, Chris.
Hit it.

Speaker 3 Oh, my God. Are you kidding me?

Speaker 1 Hit it.

Speaker 1 Now.

Speaker 17 Dano, old faces, new places.

Speaker 8 We love doing this during the NFL season, right when the NFL starts. Now the NBA starts, Dano.

Speaker 17 We've got old faces in brand new places.

Speaker 8 Love this game. We're going to start tonight.
He's on one of these 14.

Speaker 11 Maybe you say the team, and then we guess the player. All right, go ahead.

Speaker 1 Yo, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 So first of all, who do we have playing tonight?

Speaker 3 Set it up for the team.

Speaker 8 We are Rockets versus Thunder in the first game on Peacock.

Speaker 17 And then you got these Lakers.

Speaker 8 And we got Lakers, Warriors after that in the nightcap. What team does Marcus Smart play for?

Speaker 1 Ooh.

Speaker 1 Marcus Smart. Washington.

Speaker 8 Again, one of the four teams playing tonight.

Speaker 1 The Rockets. Oh, why would they do that?

Speaker 1 Taslow,

Speaker 3 why did you do what you did after we just covered which teams we were talking about?

Speaker 1 Because I was confident that he played for Washington. Right, okay.

Speaker 1 Probably Houston. He's an L.A.
Laker. No!

Speaker 1 No! He sets an old face in a new place. No.

Speaker 1 Why would they do that?

Speaker 3 He was the heart and soul of the champion Celtics before they became champions. And I was happy every time.

Speaker 5 What's the next one? Always wanted him to shoot with the next one.

Speaker 1 Somebody from local.

Speaker 17 Where does Kevin Love play this year?

Speaker 1 He's a Laker. Utah.
Yeah, well, that's a Utah Jazz. No!

Speaker 1 Jazzlow!

Speaker 1 Jazzlow!

Speaker 1 Jaszlow!

Speaker 1 He's in Utah.

Speaker 3 That's not a team that's playing tonight. See, that's why I guess Washington, you see?

Speaker 1 I didn't say that tonight. I didn't say that tonight.

Speaker 4 I said that for the first time.

Speaker 11 Can I ask you a question?

Speaker 1 Why is Kevin Love still doing this? Love the game. Love.

Speaker 1 In Utah? Yeah. They're paying money, right? You can't love the game.
Need car washes there.

Speaker 1 Good point by him. All right.
We'll probably do a quick one. John Collins.
Where's John Collins?

Speaker 1 Friend of the show.

Speaker 1 He is? Yeah,

Speaker 1 local guy, right? He's He's not a friend of the show. He's a clipper, Dano.

Speaker 1 Aspiration. Definitely not a friend of the show if he's a clipper.
They're not playing tonight. Oh, you're hung up on that.

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