Ben Johnson had critical thoughts on the passing game then walked them back, why?

Summary

Dan Bernstein Unfiltered | 312 Sports

Episode: Ben Johnson had critical thoughts on the passing game then walked them back, why?
Date: December 3, 2025
Host: Dan Bernstein
Producer/Co-host: Matt Abbatacola

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Main Theme & Purpose

This episode dives into Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson’s recent comments about the team’s passing game: his initial critique, why he softened it, and what it reveals about the culture around the Bears and quarterback Caleb Williams. Dan and Matt also reflect on coach accountability, the role of honest criticism in sports, and the potential dangers of organizational or fan-driven censorship of coaching candor. The episode then branches briefly into other sports topics like Chris Paul’s bizarre Clippers exit, the chaotic world of college coaching, and a humorous raccoon story.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Ben Johnson’s Passing Game Critique & Walk-Back

• Initial Honest Critique

  • Johnson originally candidly stated the Bears are “winning in spite of our passing game, not because of it, and none of us are pleased with that right now.”
  • Bernstein calls this “a legitimate, correct observation. Honest. More importantly, honest observation from the head coach of the Chicago Bears.” [05:15]

• The Walk-back (Why Soften the Truth?)

  • In a subsequent media session, Johnson clarified, “It's easy to construe [my comment] as I’m not happy with the quarterback. That’s not the case whatsoever. He continues to get better each and every week… I couldn’t be more pleased with how he played last week.”
  • Johnson urged: “Throw [the stats] out the window. He’s doing a really good job managing the ball game.” [05:56]
  • Dan expresses discomfort at seeing Johnson “sounding a little defensive,” noting, “I don’t like him sounding like he got chastised or humbled or felt that some word got to, ‘hey, Caleb doesn’t like what you said.’ ... I want to know why he felt he had to clarify what he said.” [12:03]

• Why Did Johnson Walk It Back?

  • Dan speculates on internal or external pressure: “Is this all of the cult of Caleb that is not allowing the head coach to criticize the quarterback? ... Caleb Williams is one of the least accurate passers in the NFL. Period, paragraph. And they're winning. And I still think he's good, but these are all facts and we don't have to ignore them.” [14:36]
  • He asks, “What was the mechanism that resulted in him wanting to offer the walk back of his comments? Was it from outside or was it from inside? Was it both?” [17:56]

• The Importance of Coaching Candor

  • Dan insists, “Let Ben Johnson coach and get out of his damn way.” [16:14]
  • He worries about setting a precedent: “I don’t want this to become habitual. ... That’s what’s cool right now is the coaching. ... Are we emasculating him? ... Who made it a priority for him to walk back that critique?” [14:36]
  • Matt supports that Johnson’s critique “was about the entire passing game. It wasn’t just about Caleb Williams.” [16:18]
  • They agree that honest critique is essential to team growth, especially headed toward playoffs: “The passing game's gotta be better. Why isn't he allowed to say that?” [13:50]

• Notable Quotes

  • “We’re winning in spite of our passing game, not because of it. And none of us are pleased with that right now.” – Ben Johnson [05:15, cited by Dan]
  • “So let Ben Johnson coach and get out of his damn way.” – Dan Bernstein [16:14]
  • “I want it to stay this honest. So I’d like to figure that out. I’d like to be rooting for a team that doesn’t have to be worried about that shit.” – Dan Bernstein [19:12]

2. Bears Passing Game, Team Identity & Playoff Aspirations

• The Reality of Current Winning (and Its Limits)

  • The Bears are 9–3, but the passing game is clearly trailing the rushing attack.
  • “This passing game is going to have to win games for the Bears. ... The NFL is not going to change for the 2025 Bears. They will have to pass the ball better to win anything important.” – Dan [17:23]

• Statistics and Quarterback Performance

  • “Caleb Williams is one of the least accurate passers in the NFL… leading the league in off target throws.” – Dan [16:02]
  • Matt clarifies, “Any criticism of Caleb Williams is accurate... he is one of the least accurate passers in the league and that’s going to come back and bite you in the ass.” [16:46]

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3. Around the Sports World

Chris Paul’s Abrupt Clippers Departure

• Chris Paul, a franchise icon, was suddenly “sent home” by the struggling Clippers amid unclear circumstances, prompting comparisons to schoolchildren being sent back from a trip or summer camp [39:09–44:04].
• Dan: “There’s clearly some tension here. Otherwise you don’t do this.” [43:09]
• They anticipate more details to emerge about the peculiar timing and handling.

College Football Coaching Carousel

• Dan decries the egos and power of high-paid college coaches: “It would be more fun if all these vainglorious baby emperors all got the comeuppance, like Dabo Swinney’s getting right now. Every single damn one of them.” [24:44]
• Lane Kiffin is called out for allegedly holding Ole Miss hostage during his exit for LSU [25:08–29:53].
• Dan floats the “billionaire rule” for these coaches: “I’m going to assume that you’re awful until proven otherwise.” [24:44]
• Discussion of coaching instability, transfer portal chaos, and a push to hire Ed Orgeron at Tulane, more for entertainment than program health [32:12–34:55].

Blackhawks, Connor Bedard, and Hockey Notes

• Dan describes watching Connor Bedard (“the best player out there by a mile”) and marvels at his unique talent and playmaking [47:41–50:41].
• “You don’t have to be much of a hockey fan to like watching Connor Bedard. The moment the puck is on his stick, you can’t take your eyes off him.” – Dan [47:41]

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4. Notable Lighthearted Segments

“The Drunken Raccoon” & College Antics

• The show closes with a humorous news story about a raccoon breaking into a liquor store, echoing tales of youthful overindulgence and the inevitability of not learning from one’s mistakes (“He’ll be Gary.”) [52:10–59:03].

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• Dan Bernstein, on Johnson’s original quote:
  “We’re winning in spite of our passing game, not because of it. And none of us are pleased with that right now. That is a legitimate, correct observation. Honest. More importantly, honest observation from the head coach of the Chicago Bears.” [05:15]

• Dan Bernstein, on candor:
  “Let Ben Johnson coach and get out of his damn way.” [16:14]

• Matt Abbatacola:
  “The criticism that Ben Johnson was talking about Monday was about the entire passing game. It wasn’t just about Caleb Williams.” [16:18]

• Dan Bernstein, questioning the walk-back:
  “I don’t like him sounding like he got chastised or humbled or felt that some word got to… I want to know why he felt he had to clarify what he said.” [12:03]

• Dan Bernstein, on NFL realities:
  “The NFL is not going to change for the 2025 Bears. They will have to pass the ball better to win anything important. And it’s okay for the coach to say that. It is okay.” [17:23]

• Dan Bernstein, on college coaches:
  “I’m going to apply the billionaire rule to college football coaches that at this point, especially major Power 5 coaches, that I’m going to assume that you’re awful until proven otherwise.” [24:44]

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [03:13] – Dan first introduces frustration with Ben Johnson’s walk-back
• [04:26] – Details of Johnson’s original (critical) comments
• [05:40] – Johnson’s clarifying, defensive statements
• [12:03] – Dissection of what may have led Johnson to back down; organizational/fan pressure
• [14:36] – Discussion of honest critique and the “cult of Caleb”
• [16:14] – “Let Ben Johnson coach and get out of his damn way.”
• [17:23] – The necessity for a better passing game if Bears are to meet higher goals
• [39:09] – Chris Paul’s exit from the Clippers
• [24:44] – Thoughts on college coaches, corruption, and chaos

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Tone & Style

• Signature unfiltered and witty style; plenty of sarcasm, cultural references (“get comfortable being uncomfortable”), and banter
• Dan mixes pointed sports analysis with humor, using sharp language especially when targeting sports hypocrisy or managerial overreach
• Matt is a supportive, slightly more reserved counterweight, chiming in with specifics and affirmation

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Useful for Listeners Who Missed the Show

• The episode powerfully voices worry about outside influence stifling honest coaching—“what we’re celebrating right now is the coaching”—and makes clear that Bears fans should want and expect the same candor that’s led to winning.
• The show also provides entertaining sports-world updates and breaks up the intensity with comic relief and storytelling.

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Summary Table of Key Segments

| Timestamp | Topic | Speaker(s) | Highlight | |-----------|---------------------------------------------------|---------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:13 | Intro to Johnson Walk-back | Dan | Introduces main concern | | 04:26 | Ben Johnson’s initial critical comments | Dan | Quotes Johnson’s “winning in spite” line | | 05:40 | The walk-back: Johnson clarifies critique | Dan | Reads Johnson’s defensive second statement | | 12:03 | Analysis – Why the walk-back? | Dan, Matt | Theorizing about outside pressure/fan culture | | 16:02 | Caleb Williams' accuracy issues | Dan | Stats: “Leading the league in off target throws” | | 16:14 | "Let Ben Johnson coach and get out of his way" | Dan | Key quote | | 17:23 | Importance of passing game for playoff success | Dan, Matt | “The NFL is not going to change for the 2025 Bears…” | | 39:09 | Chris Paul’s Clippers exit | Dan | “Sent home” nature of star’s dismissal | | 24:44 | NCAA coaching carousel critique | Dan | “Assume you’re awful until proven otherwise” | | 47:41 | Connor Bedard/Blackhawks impressions | Dan | “Best player out there by a mile” | | 52:10 | Drunken raccoon story | Dan, Matt | Comic closing anecdote |

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For Chicago sports fans, this episode underlines both the delight and the responsibility of having a frank, fearless head coach — and the risk of losing that edge to outside sensitivities or institutional caution.

Transcript

[A]

Dan Bernstein unfiltered. Unfiltered on 312 sports.

Is Dan Bernstein Unfiltered, brought to you in partnership with my bookie. I'm Dan Bernstein. That is Mattabanacola. And he is hurting.

He doesn't feel good. He got the flu. He got the goop. And when I like you test. No, you have actual flu, right?

[B]

Yeah. It's like a goop test.

[A]

Yeah. And were you negative or positive for goop?

[B]

Negative for goop.

[A]

Okay. For the goop. You don't want a goop?

[B]

No. I'm gonna go to the store and get some later, though.

[A]

All right. Are you drinking a lot of clear liquids?

[B]

I am.

[A]

Okay. Like broth and Pedialyte and all that?

[B]

Yeah, but I'm not.

[A]

I'm not hungry, though. I don't care. Make yourself some food. Have some, like, even if it's just saltines or like scrambled eggs or applesauce or just so much work. I know, but. I know. Make sure you have something, though. Your body needs something, so just make sure. I can get you some ginger ale or something.

[B]

No, no, you're not your mom's ginger ale either?

[A]

No, not Vernors. No. Canada Dry. And then. And you'll have that. And then you can sit on the couch and watch game shows and. And then you can watch, like, the weird shows like Green Acres and Courtship of Eddie's Father that comes on.

[B]

And then I think we're a few decades off.

[A]

Then maybe that'll bridge your way into, like, Three Stooges or Little Rascals. And then you start into the afternoon game shows, and then you're. And then you're probably good up until, you know, the national news and then the local news and then something on prime time.

[B]

Other sports on tonight.

Brooklyn.

[A]

You can watch the Red Hot Bulls against Brooklyn.

[B]

Parker still alive or is he dead?

[A]

I think he's dead.

[B]

Okay, so he's not doing prices right anymore.

[A]

Drew Carey is doing prices right?

[B]

Really?

[A]

I think so. Is he really? I think he has been for a long time. I think most people never heard of Bob Barker. It's like the people who don't realize that Art Fleming did Jeopardy. Before Trebek. Art Fleming, the guy who really was the face and voice of Jeopardy. And then they brought it back with Alex Trebek. Is it. Are you. Is that a lozenge? Are you lozenging?

[B]

I am lozenging. Wait, so Jeopardy. Was on before Alex Trebek was hosting Jeopardy.

[A]

Of course. Oh, yeah, that was like the remake. The Alex Trebek version was the remake of Jeopardy.

[B]

Well, the remake's better than the original.

[A]

It's certainly bigger, I think. Although don't tell that to Art Fleming, who I'm pretty sure is definitely dead.

[B]

Although who's coaching or coaching?

Who's hosting it now? Is it Ken Jennings? Is it the. Okay, the guy who won a lot?

[A]

Yeah, it's Ken Jennings.

[B]

So he's the Jeopardy. Coach now?

[A]

Coaching. Now he's coaching Jeopardy. My brain is shot.

[B]

I didn't sleep last night either. I was up a lot.

[A]

Tap the sign.

Think like a champion today in the form of a question.

[B]

All right.

[A]

Okay. You're.

[B]

You're.

[A]

You're.

[B]

I'm done. I'm gonna sit here and just watch you.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's probably your best bet. I'm. I'm a little concerned about why Ben Johnson is walk back his perfectly correct and valid observation about his team. I didn't like that.

You're the coach of the Chicago Bears. When you have an observation that we're all seeing, you don't have to walk it back and you don't have to be scared of criticism. This is, I think, the first time it seems like Ben Johnson was a little knocked back, and I don't know why. I don't know what got to him. I don't know who within the organization told him he had to do this or what happened internally to make him do this. And I don't want to read too much into it, but I definitely want to note that this was. Something obvious happened, especially the way it's juxtaposed this directly. So let me walk you through this, and you tell me if I'm. If you think I'm coming from a reasonable place here as I try.

He said.

On. He said this Monday, Ben Johnson said there are a number of passes that we've been talking about where we've got to fundamentally be correct. The primary receiver, when he's open, we've got to make sure we hit him. So they talked about the post route in the back of the end zone that was missed. They talked about the throw that was short. There was the. When Odunze was short in the corner and there was the one in the back of the end zone to Olamide Zacchaeus on the post that was out of his reach. And then there was this comment that I think is the one that really hit home from Johnson. We're winning in spite of our passing game, not because of it. And none of us are pleased with that right now. It's a Great quote. We're winning in spite of our passing game, not because of it. And none of us are pleased with that right now. That is a. That is a legitimate, correct observation. Honest. More importantly, honest observation from the head coach of the Chicago Bears. And then here's what he said yesterday.

When I made that comment yesterday, meaning Monday. It's easy to construe it as I'm not happy with the quarterback. That's not the case whatsoever. He continues to get better each and every week. I couldn't be more pleased with how he played last week.

I know what the stats say. Throw those out the window. He's doing a really good job managing the ball game.

And then Williams later said, yeah, take the stats out. Well, no, I think that's unreasonable to ask people to take the stats out. If you want to talk about a given game. Yeah, they're nine and three. And everything he said was absolutely true. They won on a day where the passing game was bad for the most part. So what made him walk it back? What made him soften it, especially because of what we celebrated and what bugs me a little bit. I'm not saying a lot of us think this is some sort of crisis, but I, I don't want this to become habitual. I don't want the head coach of the Bears who's riding high right now, who is going to get coach of the year votes. I mean, Vrabel is obviously the coach of the year, but who's certainly the coach of the conference and who is getting all kinds of attention. That is absolutely well deserved and being celebrated. He's the de facto Mayor Johnson, as many have said. But it's because of the coaching and it's because of the fearlessness. This is the same guy who said, get comfortable being uncomfortable.

He said it. Ben Johnson said, get comfortable being uncomfortable. So what's wrong with him saying we're winning in spite of our passing game and none of us are pleased with that right now? You shouldn't be. I'm not pleased either because regardless of these 12, it's the next games that all we understand matter more. Not just the next five, not just two against the Packers. You know you're headed into Lambeau, you're a six point dog or whatever, you are still with a ton to prove and an opportunity to win something this year.

Don't walk it back. This passing game is going to have to win games for the Bears. Let's be very clear about that. The run game's awesome. They're great at it. Whatever we want to call the guard, center guard. And I don't know what we're coalescing around for what we're calling that group, but there's been a lot of support that's been coming in for Department of the Interior.

[B]

I also saw the one today that said the beef curtain.

[A]

No, thank you.

[B]

Instead of the iron Curtain, the steel Curtain. Now there's the beef curtain.

[A]

No, there's a double meaning there. That is gross. And it would be cute if not for the double entendre there that I think makes it gross. But Department of the Interior is cumbersome but strong sounding. I just don't like the fact at this particular current time it's a reference to something that is usually considered a stable aspect of government. Just don't. As long as we don't start messing around with what you're calling anything on defense. Because who. Boy, that's. That's. There. There's going to be some people resigning or getting fired in the actual thing there very. You mean the Department of War, Whatever it is. There's. There are going to be people who are continuing to clean up really, really bad stories that are full of lies. And the ide. Throwing an actual admiral under the bus is not sitting well with people on. But just don't get me started on that because that's really bad. And it's, it's. It's going to get worse before it gets better. And.

[B]

Yeah. And just do not go after Admiral Akbar either.

[A]

Well, that's my. I'm certainly hoping they don't throw him under the bus. Did you order the double tap? Did you. Did you blow up people who were. Who survived the first one? Talk to the squid. Yeah, it's a trap. Camera moves down at that cabinet meeting, the president's asleep. And then there they go over there. There's Admiral Ackbar. I shadowed a trap. Damn it.

[B]

Yeah. He's like, I'm not gonna answer that. It's a trap.

[A]

Your question's a trap. Shut up, Piggy. You're stupid.

[B]

The Ben Johnson stuff.

[A]

Don't call me Piggy. You're a squid.

[B]

The Ben Johnson stuff is interesting because he. In his answer Monday, he wasn't. He wasn't just completely destroying or going after or criticizing Caleb Williams. He was talking about the entire passing game. He talked about the receivers not running their routes, not running the routes to the right depth. He was talking. I mean, there was.

[A]

Of course he was, but anybody with a brain knows that. That's my problem here. And you're not supposed to talk. Go drink your ginger ale.

[B]

Sorry.

[A]

Have your soup. Do you need me to make you soup?

[B]

No, we're not going to make me soup, Chicago.

[A]

I make. I make awesome soup.

[B]

I know. I'm sure you do. You're gonna bring it over today.

[A]

Can't you email soup now?

[B]

Soup now.

[A]

Can't you. Is there something, some technology that allows me to text you soup?

[B]

No, it's called somebody invent that.

[A]

Somebody invent that. I want to make homemade soup.

[B]

Yeah, you need like a. Like a homemade version of doordash.

[A]

No, I just. I just need to be able to make soup and then text it to you.

[B]

No, you make it and have someone pick it up and deliver it. Like a home version of doordash, where it's not being picked up at a restaurant, it's being picked up at someone's home and then delivered to whoever they want.

[A]

I like it. You do that with drugs.

Now that I think about it, that would be a really good business to do just like that. Except with recreational drugs.

[B]

Oh, recreational. I thought you meant like Sudafed or.

[A]

That works too well. Sudafed? Are you kidding? It's harder to get Sudafed than it is to get weed.

[B]

Yeah. Why do I have to show my license to get it?

[A]

Why is that? You need, like, a retinal scan and a rectal print to get Sudafed. Because then they sell you. They get the fake Sudafed that doesn't work. Sudafed, phenylphahydrine or whatever.

[B]

Yeah, the stuff that doesn't work is you can just grab it and walk away.

[A]

Yes, go pay. But the one. That's how you know it doesn't work.

[B]

Right. And the one that you need to get is the one behind the pharmacy.

[A]

That's the one that they make you jump through hoops. You need a real ID and a passport and all that. Just a million dollars in cash.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Well, I want to read this second comment again by Johnson. When I made that comment yesterday, it's easy to construe it as, I'm not happy with the quarterback. That's not the case whatsoever. And when you heard him, he sounded a little defensive. I don't like it. I don't like him sounding like he got chastised or humbled or felt that some word got to, hey, Caleb doesn't like what you. You said, and I don't know that that happened. I want to know why. I want to know why he felt he had to clarify what he said. Who came to him and said somebody was unhappy with it. I hope it's not stupid fans who don't realize that what he said was absolutely true. Is this. Is this all of the cult of Caleb that is not allowing the head coach to criticize the quarterback? What he said was 100% true. We're winning in spite of our passing game, not because of it. And none of us are pleased with that right now. It should be. None of us is. Not. None of us are. But we'll overlook that because none is. Not one. Not one of us is. Not. Not one of us are. None of us is pleased with that right now. Of course not. Because now the expectations are higher again. The passing game has to be better if they're going to win playoff games and win at Lambeau. It's got to be better. Beat the Lions, beat that Browns defense, beat the Niners, win the super bowl. Anything you have as a, as a goal from here on out, whatever you have. Get to double digit wins, get a buy in the playoffs. Anything, whatever you're in. Whatever. Maybe your goal isn't to win the super bowl, but anything from now, the passing game's gotta be better. Why isn't he allowed to say that? And.

On the same day that we're seeing all the pictures again of he took his shirt off, there's more chaos at the Wiener Circle. And there's a circus going on there at Wiener Circle. And there's people dressed up as mustard and there's the fire engine there playing Bear down, Chicago Bear. That's all fun, but remember, what are we celebrating? We're celebrating the coaching, not the removal of the shirt. You don't do that after you lose. You don't do that when you're bad. Remember what we're celebrating? We're celebrating having a coach who can say what he said without walking it back. That's what we're excited about.

That's what's cool right now is the coaching. And then when you're. Are we emasculating him? Are we trying to who and what pushed back against him? Who made it a priority for him to walk back that critique? That's the words of the Tribune's Phil Thompson right here. It's saying Johnson walked back his critique. He clearly did. And if you listen to the tone, it's obvious that he did. He shouldn't have to because what he said was right. It was completely right. Caleb Williams is one of the least accurate passers in the NFL. Period, paragraph. And they're winning. And I still think he's good, but these are all facts and we don't have to ignore them. We don't have to create a narrative. We don't have to protect him. The only people that have to protect Caleb Williams are his offensive line, the running backs, the tight ends, whoever is involved in literally protecting him on a given play. That's not our job. It is not your job as a fan to do that either. He doesn't need that. He's a grown up and I would hope that there that the criticism he's getting internally is real. He says he wants to be coached and I believe him. But right now the accuracy numbers are trending in a bad direction.

He's also, I believe, leading the league in off target throws.

[B]

Yeah, that's correct.

[A]

Leading. He has more off target throws than any regular quarterback in the NFL.

So let Ben Johnson coach and get out of his damn way.

[B]

Yeah, and there are, you know, a lot of things that Caleb has improved on, has gotten better. But again, the criticism that Ben Johnson was talking about Monday was about the entire passing game. It wasn't just about Caleb Williams and.

[A]

To feel the need, even if it was quarterback.

[B]

I know, but, but, but the point is that he was, he was talking about the whole passing game. He was talking about the receivers not doing their jobs to the best of their ability. He was talking about the entire thing and to feel the need to walk it back is really, it's curious.

[A]

I don't like it.

[B]

Really curious because again, he went after the entire passing game. It wasn't just Caleb Williams. But any criticism of Caleb Williams is accurate. And when he was talking about throw the stats out, I hope he was just talking about that one particular game against the Eagles because it was a, there was a greater difficulty in the pass game on that particular day and those stats looked pretty worse. I think it was his lowest completion percentage of the season for a game. And if he meant that like throw those stats out for that game because of the circumstances, fine, I'm fine with that. But not, not overall, you can't because he is one of the least accurate passers in the league and that's going to come back and bite you in the ass.

[A]

Yes. If you want to win a Super bowl, you can't have that. He's got to be better and they've got to win because of him, not in spite of him. That's the fact. They got to. They're going to have to pass to win. The run will be taken away. The run will be complimentary. The NFL is Not going to change for the Bears. The NFL is not all of a sudden that the, the physics of the NFL and all of the environment that governs this league is not going to change for the 2025 Bears. They will have to pass the ball better to win anything important. And it's okay for the coach to say that it is okay. It's more than okay for the coach to single out the quarterback if he thinks it's the quarterback's responsibility. That's what we're celebrating. That's why we're excited to have Ben Johnson here and then to somehow neuter him or I want to know how or why. What was the mechanism that resulted in him wanting to offer the walk back of his comments? Was it from outside or was it from inside? Was it both?

Did somebody come to him? Did Caleb come to him and say, hey, man, I don't like being called out like that? I don't, I don't know. Is he just hearing from his barber? Is he hearing it at the grocery store? Hey, don't be so hard on Caleb. Why, why you gotta call up Caleb like that? I don't know what the reason is, but either way, to see him buckle a little bit from, from his statements that are absolutely true and real and honest is too bad. Because that's what we're celebrating. That's what I'm celebrating. I don't know what else anybody else is celebrating because you can, you can take your shirt off, you can leave your shirt on, you can have free hot dogs, you can pay for hot dogs. What I care about is the coaching.

And I like the coaching and I want it to stay this honest. So I'd like to figure that out. I'd like to be rooting for a team that doesn't have to be worried about that shit.

Because they're too confident and.

Have too much conviction in what they're doing and who they are to feel that they have to be in any way pushed around by outside forces and outside opinions.

Let them do their jobs and let this guy do his job. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. He said it and I loved hearing it then. And then the moment somebody's uncomfortable, he's got to walk it back or he feels he has to. So.

I would hope that they can be more confident, I guess, in who they are and what they're doing.

[B]

Yeah, I just think that if, if anybody heard his comments Monday, if you thought that he was singling out Caleb and Caleb, only then you didn't hear the whole comments. And that wouldn't surprise me from some Bears fans who are really protective of Caleb Williams and I can't imagine, and I would hope not, that Bears fans would be able to impact the head coach.

[A]

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Is it wrong? As much as I am saying that I like Ben Johnson, like his coaching, is it wrong? Is it somehow a character flaw in me to get to the point where I basically am rooting against every major college football coach that I just. It would be more fun if all of these vainglorious baby emperors all got the comeuppance, like the Dabo Sweeney's getting right now. Every single damn one of them. It would be fun if they all could lose. I just feel that way sometimes. It's sort of like what I said the other day about. I think I'm going to apply the billionaire rule to college football coaches that at this point, especially major Power 5 coaches, that I'm going to assume that you're awful until proven otherwise.

I'm just. I'm just going to default to that because the power balance is just ridiculous. And with the stuff Lane Kiffin is doing. And. Yeah, I'm going to paint with a really broad brush here because I want to. And the broad brush gets more paint on things. If I had one of the. What do they call it? What's the blower thing with the trigger? Sprayer. What do they call that? This thing?

[B]

A blowgun.

[A]

I don't. I don't paint very often. No.

[B]

Yeah, it's sprayer.

[A]

So if you wanted paint sprayer. I paint with that, if I could.

[B]

That works the concept.

[A]

Yeah, whatever. Whatever gets. Whatever gets paid everywhere. That's what I'm using here. Because Lane Kiffin, man. And then he's making up a story that an Ole Miss fan tried to run him off the road. Did you hear that? Like, on my way to the press conferences, he's, like, making up a scene out of Goldfinger or, like, a dance. Daniel Craig, James Bond, Casino Royale. Nobody's trying to run your dumb ass off the road. Come on. How do you know? As an old misfan. Some guy with, like, a rebel flag out there. I'm old.

[B]

Get you.

[A]

Coach, you better use your oil slicks in your ejector seat, because I'm coming for you. Come on, man. You really said that. And then to find out what Lane Kiffin did to his players. All this talk about, my players want me to stay. My players want me to stay. This is the report from Sports Illustrated, and I want to thank DBU listener Pam for sending this along. This is. This is according to si. So the messy breakup came to a head Sunday when Kiffin announced he was taking the LSU job, and the Rebels named defensive coordinator Pete Golding their permanent coach ahead of a presumed playoff run. Kiffin was clear in his hope to coach Ole Miss in the playoffs, an intention that athletic director Keith Carter was not going to allow. So once Kiffin's decision was made, Ole Miss held a team meeting Sunday to name Pete Golding their coach. Kiffin wasn't present at Carter's request.

In Kiffin's statement released following the decision, he mentioned his goal was to guide the Rebels through the postseason, quote investing everything into a playoff run with guardrails in place to protect the program and areas of concern, unquote. He said Carter denied the request despite Ole Miss players asking him Carter to allow Kiffin to remain through the cfp. That. That's what he said. That's what Kiffin said.

It's not true. Rebels players were immediately confident in Golding and the succession plan, praising the move on social media, exclaiming optimistic messages when seen leaving the consequential team meeting. One of Kiffin's reported tactics to remain with Ole Miss through the postseason was to take offensive staffers with him immediately if the request wasn't accepted. So let's be clear about what he did. He told Carter. Let me coach the rest of the year here or I'm taking everybody to LSU with me right now. So he held everybody hostage. Players got wind of that plan, according to Sports Illustrated, confronted their now former coach after the school showed no interest in letting Kiffin finish out the year. That was according to a report from CBS Sports's John Talty. I'm not making him go. Kiffin told the players they can do whatever they want. So that's. That's some weasel shit there. Offensive coordinator Charlie Weiss Jr. Co offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Joe Cox. General manager Billy Glasscock. What are we doing here?

I'm just waiting for this list of names to keep going.

[B]

All the Cockboys.

[A]

Seriously. Special teams coach Willie Jumbo Penis. What? Where are we going here?

I can only hire coaches who have Cock or Cox in their name. You know how things work here at Ole Miss. Dammit. All right, so Joe Cox, general manager Billy Glasscock.

[B]

It's very fragile.

[A]

Sorry. Several other staff members, including Lane's brother Chris, are Expected to head to Baton Rouge. Several defensive coaches are reportedly staying at work under Golding. Now, the CBS report said Kiffin believed until the very end Carter would relent and let him stay through the postseason. That didn't come to fruition. Both sides appear ready to move in separate directions, which obviously we know they did, but that's some. That's weasel stuff, man. Well, you better let me stay. I'm gonna take everybody right now. The players didn't want him. The players, like, get out of here. Leave our assistant coaches, you go do what you got to do, and we're gonna try to win a national championship. And then he's trying to paint it where he's holding the players up as some sort of human shield. Everybody, they all wanted me to stay, and they. They got rid of me and forced me out, despite what the players wanted. Not true.

[B]

We remember what he said, too. He said that the national media wants him to coach Ole Miss through the playoffs.

[A]

Really?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Oh, I didn't hear that. And where is that from? I didn't know that. I thought coaches didn't care what the media said.

[B]

Well, it depends what they say.

[A]

Ah, I see. But all these. And do I have it right? Penn State doesn't have a coach yet?

[B]

Yeah, that's correct. They were going after the guy from byu, and then some rich people came in and said, hey, you can't leave. Here's a big bag of money.

[A]

And apparently there's. There are rumors that super agent Jimmy Sexton is still chapped, that they fired James Franklin and he's now down at Virginia Tech. And because they did wrong by his guy somehow, that he's not steering his guys, one of whom just took the UCLA job, apparently that there's enough openings that he's telling the people he represents to avoid Penn State, so. Fine with me.

[B]

Is he at. Is he at Virginia Tech? Is that official?

[A]

James Franklin?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I thought so.

[B]

Oh, yeah. I'm sure you're right.

[A]

Yeah. There's already people transferring there.

[B]

I know we talked about it a couple weeks ago that he was. The rumor was pretty heavy that he was going there.

[A]

Yeah, I think that it was. I think so. I'm sure you're right. I'm sure you're right. And they also can't even figure out what their calendar is. So basically, they've got. The transfer portal is going to be opening soon enough, and they're already flipping these recruits now who spent a reasonable amount of time making these considered decisions where they want to go to school, and then You've got like a week as it all stands on its ear for them to open everything up and make their new decisions. And this is because the coaches specifically wanted this calendar to fit them and not the players. And it's absolute chaos right now, which is fine because I don't really care. I will say I have one more year of caring about Tulane because that's how long I'm going to be paying them. And so for one more year, hire Ed Orgeron. Apparently Coach Orger one that won't understand by you that Edward said he won't think that they won't offer him that job. He won't stay down there. New Orleans, that old fishing hole down there for coach Orange. He apparently wants the LSU job or the, the two lane job.

Give it to him. Hire him. Why not? How much fun would that be? He's a complete creep. I mean he. And he might, you know, hit on the, you know, trustees wives or whatever at the gas station. He'll. Hey, little lady, how you doing? Pretty good at a boudin ball come with that shake, you know what I'm saying? Like he'll do that. But how much fun would that be? I'm. I'm all in. Because I don't care. Like I say, most of these guys are somehow. They're. They're horrible creeps anyway, so you might as well have a fun one who certainly fits. He knows the area. He's worked at how many SEC schools now. And what I didn't know was Ed Orgeron's eldest son was on John Sumrall's staff at Tulane already. And it's been fertile ground. That's where Bears offensive line coach Dan Roshar was. And now he's the best offensive line coach in football apparently, based on what people are saying. So please, if I can get one thing, I've got one more year to care after this year. I don't care. Do whatever you want. But I have one more year that I care about the fortunes of in any way. And I don't really, but I'm pretending to of of LS area of two lane football. So Higher Ed Orgeron just for entertainment purposes, period.

[B]

Yeah. Franklin is at Virginia tech, okay through 2030. His contract just under 42 million.

[A]

42 million. He's already flipping people. And there are, there are these recruits that have made all of these decisions and apparently now that there's the tiniest bit of instability in the coaching ranks, that is. That is propagating, reverberating down that so many of these commitments are being reopened and the recruitment's being reopened and everybody's going to end up elsewhere. It's not fair to the kids. And some we're going to talk about on forward progress today as well is just what this is doing to everything to scouting, to the players deciding when they're going to enter the draft and.

Whether or not even when they commit to a school. If they're thinking, I'm going to go here for a year and then transfer and they're setting up with their agents, setting up a plan to make their commitment something other than a commitment. It's all. And I don't mind chaos is fun. It certainly gives people a lot to talk about and gives people who still care so deeply about college football because my daddy and his daddy and daddy's daddy and Uncle Daddy all cared about it. Okay, Uncle Daddy, whoever it is.

[B]

I didn't realize Ed Orgeron, he. I didn't know he was at the Saints for a year. I didn't know that in 2008 he was the defensive line coach.

[A]

It's possible he wasn't allowed to leave the State.

[B]

Northwestern State, McNee State, Arkansas, Miami, Nichols State, Syracuse, USC, Ole Miss, Tennessee, USC, LSU.

[A]

Well traveled, well traveled. Coach O. But he is fun. He is fun. Did you ever hear what he said about when LSU fired him?

They said, they said something. They said, well, we're gonna have to let you go. He tells the story. It's. We've got it in the system somewhere, I think. He tells the story. And they said, and they said, well, we're gonna, we're gonna give you $20 million or whatever it is. Oh, you just showed me what you doing to walk out of.

That's the right attitude, right? That's the right attitude. That's the right attitude.

[B]

You're done with me. Okay, that's fine. How much? 20 million. Good. I'm good. Which dollar?

[A]

That's what he said. He said you owe the $20 million. You just told me which door to walk out of.

[B]

That's perfect.

[A]

Okay, goodbye. Thank you so much.

If you're a last minute shopper, and I know it's very common to be that. You know that feeling where you go to your store of choice and the shelves are empty and then you're like, I'm out of ideas. Or you're shopping online and there was such a rush and you missed it or you slept in and then all the sizes that you want are gone and it's somebody for whom you struggle to shop. Well, I'VE got it for you this year. Your solution is right here and I can tell you because I have one of these and it's so much fun. An Aura Frame An Aura Frame is the perfect gift. This is it looks like a picture frame, but it is a crystal clear digital photograph display picture frame up. You can unlimited uploads of photos and videos. You download the Aura app, you connect it to WI Fi and the great thing is as a gift you can preload the photos before it ships and then keep adding anywhere. So you can show whether it's for grandma or whether it's for a friend and you want to commemorate a great time that you had or you want to celebrate an accomplishment or an achievement. That photo can be right on there being displayed the moment they turn it on. So you can personalize it even with a message as well. And you can share photos and videos straight from your phone all year long and especially if you're getting it for yourself like the one that we have here. However you want to customize it, whatever list that you want, you can put the photos on a flipper or you can just put one on there. The Aura Frame comes in a gift box that's included. There's no price tag, so you can't wrap this sense of togetherness or community, but you can frame it for a limited time. You can save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com to get $35 off Aura's best selling Carver mat frames named number one by Wirecutter by using our promo code DBU at checkout. That's a U R A frames.com promo code DBU. This deal is exclusive to listeners. Frames sell out fast, so order yours now to get it in time for the holidays. And you can support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. So it's A U R Aura frames.com promo code DBU for $35 off. So get on that did you see late last night that Chris Paul was.

Terminated by the Clippers? They're using the term sent home.

They just said overnight. Chris Paul, one of the greatest players in NBA history.

And certainly one of the greatest Clippers ever, is off the team just like that. This was announced from Atlanta. It was an Instagram story that popped a little before 2am this morning.

He posted that he had just learned he was being sent home to Los Angeles from Atlanta.

And then right after that, Clippers president Lawrence Frank texted a statement to ESPN confirming that Paul's no longer on the team. He said, we are Parting ways with Chris. He will no longer be with the team. We will work with him on the next step of his career. What happened? What happened? He then said, no one's blaming Chris for our underperformance. I accept responsibility for the record we have right now. There are a lot of reasons why we've struggled. We're grateful for the impact Chris has made on the franchise. So the Clippers would have to waive him and pay out 3.6 million.

Agree to a buyout or look to trade him. And they couldn't do that for another couple of weeks, I think. December 15th. Clippers have lost 14 of 16. He had come back on a one year deal and this was his chance to finish his career with the franchise he spent six seasons with. He's retiring at the end of this year. Reportedly, he's the Clippers franchise leader in total assists and steals per game. This is bizarre for this to happen. When and how it did. I don't know why you wouldn't manage the situation better. I don't know if Paul came to them and said, play me or trade me or get like what Adam Thielen did with the Vikings where he said, look, I want to finish out my career and play more. And the Vikings said, okay, it's all right. And you know that Adam Thielen will come back and he'll sign one of these ridiculous one day contracts and he'll retire as a blank. Because people do that.

But this one's very strange. And we're just gonna start to learn about why this happened and how this happened and why they made some midweek overnight decision on the road to tell one of the best players in NBA history that he's gotta go home.

Things like this. It's like the kid that gets sent home from a class trip for aberrant behavior in the hotel or something like that. You got to meet your parents at the airport. You're getting out of here right now. I think it was a tweet that I saw from Paul Pabst that mentioned it was like summer camp. Like, you always know that story when you're at overnight camps. Like, hey, here so and so got sent home. Why? Oh, I don't know what the rumor is. You know, we stabbed a kid with a pencil or whatever it is, Right.

[B]

You wake up in the morning and he's gone, Right?

[A]

Yeah, right.

[B]

Chris Paul won final. He. He didn't win though, right? He's never won a champion.

[A]

No. And. And he could. He could go ring shop, you know, he. He could do like the Carl Malone of the Gary Payton or that where you find yourself at the end of a bench right now just, just trying to add a ring because somebody might want or somebody like, look, I don't need a 40 year old half a coach with all his strong opinions in the locker room right now. And that gets back to why did they get rid of him where it was. It's one thing to say we're not blaming our underperformance on him. It would be another thing to say we wanted him out of our locker room right now because he was making it difficult on everything we were trying to do. There's clearly some tension here. Otherwise you don't do this. It's a much softer landing politically if there's no bad blood. Something's clearly going on. I'd love to know what. And we will, we will know what at some point soon. This is an all timer. This is a big boy table. Hall of Fame player here. If I give you the career comps for Chris Paul, do you want this list? Statistically?

[B]

Yeah. What do you got?

[A]

These are Chris Paul's career comps. John Stockton, Jerry West, James Harden, Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson, Reggie Miller, Steph Curry, Gary Payton, Clyde Drexler. Wow. Yeah, that's, wow. That's, that's big time wow. And middle of a road trip, go home, get on a plane, get out of here.

[B]

Yeah. I'd be really curious to understand the background of this because I don't know, I'm sure, I mean they're 5 and 16, obviously one of the worst teams in the, in the conference. So I don't know if he just had thoughts that people were tired of.

[A]

Hearing or I don't know, I don't.

[B]

Know, criticism for coaching. I don't know, the team itself, I don't know.

[A]

It's going to take some time to find out but to do it when and how they did it is inviting further attention. I don't know what they thought, who in the Clippers organization thought this was a good idea and then to say hey, you know, he might post Something at 2 in the morning that we got rid of him and told him to go home.

There's, there's more. So I guess we will wait to find that out and see who's willing to do the work to uncover some of this stuff. But, but I am, I'm looking forward to knowing. I'm also looking forward to getting my brand new windows that are on the way. They are making sure that everything is just right from the factory. And I think I mentioned before that as they were finishing them up before they, that we set the date for installation, Russ called me. And Russ like, hey, I just want to make sure we match the color on the front. So he said, just confirm that these are the sizes of the windows on the front that we want the edges to be to match the color of the. And a thank you. I'm glad you did that. You know, they make sure that everything is taken care of. And this kind of treatment, this kind of attention is what you will get from Russ Armstrong and Chicago window guys. But you gotta call him. So if you want new windows, you want him to make windows for you and treat you just like he has treated me as. And this is, this is round two of the windows that he's doing. You got to call him 847-302-9171. And you can read all his five star [e-mail] and know that the same people who are going to be in and around my house installing my windows will install yours. Because he's got his crew. He does not use subcontracted labor. And they're great. They are super attentive and clean. And on the day they install, Russ is always, he was texting saying, you know, are they, is everything okay? Is there anything you need? And this is the kind of attention and the kind of customer service that you get. And it even keeps going after the windows are installed because there's a lifetime guarantee with parts and labor. So if your kid who can't throw throws a baseball right through the glass out front, Russ will replace the glass. He'll replace the window absolutely free. He will not replace your kid unless you ask him. And then, you know, maybe he would. But I think it's going to be somewhat expensive. You don't have to wait weeks on end for a replacement because his factory where he custom makes the windows is right here in Chicago. And you will notice that you've got Chicago window guys windows because your heat's not going to go on as often in the summer. Your ac will not go on as often because the windows do a better job of holding in your desired temperature in your house, which is kind of the point. So call 847-302-9171 and check out his five star [e-mail] you know what I did last night?

I was flipping channels and I was all excited because I thought whatever was going on on directv the other night when I was getting all the free channels, and I was watching the Godfather, and I had, like, all of the showtimes and all of the other things, and they were. They weren't. They weren't, like, dark. They were all lit up. And I go, this might be a mistake. And I was. Started flipping, and I said, Zoe said, why are you flipping past, like, 5 11? And I said, because there's some sort of thing that we get these channels. And we didn't. So I guess it lasted a day, or I just missed it. And then I'm like, oh, well. And she said, dad, I don't think we get those channels. I said, I don't think so either. So I flipped back, and I said, whoa, wait a second. What's this? What is this? On national television, it was the Blackhawks and the Golden Knights, and it was starting at just the right time, and it was good. Steve Levy and Kevin Weeks, some familiar voices, and more familiar to me than the actual Blackhawks broadcasters. So.

It was nice. It was fun.

They got some guys who move fast. And I would just say this, that you don't have to be much of a hockey fan to like watching Connor Bedard. He's the best player out there by a mile. You can. The moment the puck is on his stick, you can't take your eyes off him. He does some unbelievable stuff in short areas. And he sees the next pass before. It's not just the first pass. He sees where the second pass is going and sometimes makes the second pass instead of the first pass. And his ability to operate in space and whatever he does, getting that shot off in that tiny, small. That little area, it's like what they would say about how Mick Jagger learned how to dance on a crowded, tiny stage. And even to this day, on these massive stages, he still works in these tiny spaces. That's the way. I don't know if Bedard learned to stick handle in a phone booth, but in small spaces, his ability to get power on a shot is pretty amazing. A lot of guys have to wind up. A lot of guys have to bend the stick and drag it way far behind him. He just sort of pulls it behind his foot and rips it at 90 miles an hour and on target. So he's fun. He's fun. And I think if you like that kind of thing, worth your time to pay attention to whenever he's on the ice, whenever he is in the middle of a shift. So there I did it, and. And I decided to watch him. I didn't have to, but I wanted to. And I liked it. I enjoyed it. Although I think the. The ESPN broadcast, I think it was. Yeah, it's. ESPN was a. A little over the top in trying to promote the game and everything, and they went a little easy on the fact that Carter Hart was the starting goalie for the Knights making his return to the NHL. And they didn't really explain what the sexual assault allegations were, and I had to go and look them up. So I remembered everything that was going on and what that group was, and I didn't. It was. It was eventually too much for me to go down, that the entire inquest of everything with Hockey Canada and all that went on with the allegations and the civil suit and everything, with that group of Canadian juniors that got in trouble for an alleged group sex assault. And then I kind of lost interest and I went to bed. So. Isn't that an unbelievable. That great story? I thought you'd like that.

[B]

That was good.

[A]

Thank you. It was good.

[B]

I'm really glad that you watched Blackhawks.

[A]

I wanted to. I felt like.

[B]

And so your conclusion, though, is Connor Bedard is good.

[A]

He's not just good. Okay.

[B]

He.

[A]

He is worth. It's worth watching a game just to see some of the things that he does. Yeah. Which are. Which.

If you love hockey and, like, you're watching to see, you know, Nazar and these other people do their things. That's. That's one thing. If you're really a huge Blackhawks F, Which I'm. I'm not, but I can appreciate something special. And some of the stuff he's doing is special.

[B]

Yeah, for sure. We were at the game in late October against the Senators when he had.

[A]

His first hat trick.

[B]

And, oh, my God, it's three goals he scored in one game.

[A]

Right. I remember. And you didn't throw your Carthage Firebirds.

[B]

Did not throw a hat.

[A]

No.

[B]

I didn't think I had a hat on, but I wouldn't have thrown it anyway.

[A]

I have a million hats I could. Yeah. What is that.

[B]

What is that hat back there that you put. You have up there now?

[A]

This is the Space Cowboys.

[B]

Is that what some people call you?

[A]

No. Oh, but it is. This is one of Jason's. This, I think, was the Fall league champion. They won as the. They won as the Montgomery Biscuits. They won as the Space Cowboys, and I think as the Savannah Bananas. They had a lock on the. On the fall championship for a while. But I've been changing out these hats, and I've got. I've got plenty of them.

[B]

Yeah. I couldn't tell What? That was back there?

[A]

Yeah. I should change that out at some point.

Thanks for. To everybody who sent in this story that I just. I got an. An absolute kick out of reading about the drunken raccoon. Did you hear about this?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Oh, you did?

[B]

Yeah, I saw.

[A]

Oh, because you saw the email.

[B]

I saw the story. Yeah. But I didn't. I didn't. I didn't dive into it, though.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Because I want to be surprised during the show.

[A]

All right. Well, it's an AP story, and I think it ends with the wrong conclusion, which is why I bring that up. And before I do, I just want to let you know that December doesn't have to be the most expensive month of the year if you're betting with my bookie. The twelve days of Christmas is coming soon. Daily offers are dropping back to back across sports and casino. That's bet and gets profit boosts, free spins, even surprise drops just for social and telegram users. December is really full of stuff here. NFL bowl season, college hoops. There's all of these chances to cash. So what you do is you go to my bookie right now and use the code DBU for Dan Bernstein unfiltered, and then your first bet is covered up to 500. So then if you go big and you miss on that first bet, you've got a bet back bonus token, and then you get it back. You can't beat that. The code dbu. Go to my bookie, set up your account, make your deposit, and then you're having fun. I actually, I got a text. I'm not going to say from whom, but I got a text for somebody who apparently is. Is writing my. My DBU picks on NBA stuff. And he always texts me when they hit. And I told him, I look, stop. You know, just don't put this on me. It's one thing for it to be, you know, a listener who sends me an email. That's a screenshot of his my bookie, you know, screen on his phone. It's another thing with somebody I know.

So I happy if I can make you a couple of bucks. But don't put that pressure on me. It's bad for my anxiety. But my bookie promo code dbu, bet on anything, anywhere, anytime. Only with my bookie. So here's the story, and I'll just give you the. The AP copy. It's Ashland, Virginia. It says the masked burglar broke into the closed Virginia liquor store early on Saturday and hit the bottom shelf where the scotch and whiskey were stored. The bandit was Something of a nocturnal menace. Bottles were smashed, ceiling tile collapsed, alcohol pooled on the floor, and the suspect acted like an animal because in fact, he's a raccoon. On Saturday morning, an employee at the Ashland, Virginia area liquor store found the raccoon passed out on the bathroom floor at the end of his drunken escapade. And then he became the Secretary of Defense. I personally like raccoons, said Samantha Martin, an officer who works at the local animal control. They're funny little critters. He fell through one of the ceiling tiles and went on a full blown rampage, drinking everything. They took the raccoon back to an animal shelter. The Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter commended Martin for handling the break in confirmed the raccoon had sobered up. Now here's where they lose me. After a few hours of sleep and zero signs of injury, other than maybe a hangover and poor life choices, he was safely released back into the wild, hopefully having learned that breaking and entering is not the answer.

No, that's not what he learned. It's not what he learned because he'll regret it for a little while. And then later in the day he's like, where was that place with all the scotch again? And he'll remember and he'll go back there. However he got into the ceiling, he'll get into the ceiling, he'll get out of the ceiling and he's gonna go find the scotch again. And I know this because of Gary, because he's. This raccoon is Gary who lived across the hall from us sophomore year of college. And he had the room across the hall. And every morning or most mornings, Gary would wake up and he'd end up shambling into our room or knocking on the door or something. And he would look bleary and he would say, never drinking again. I am never drinking again. And if I say that I'm going out.

Just know that I'm not going out and just remind me like, no, Gary, you're. You're in charge. No, I'm never drinking again. And then by 7 o', clock, Gary would be smelling like Drachar Noir and he'd have his hair gelled and he'd say, who wants Chapel Hill? We're going Chapel Hill. Who wants to go to Chapel Hill? Like, Gary, Gary, you said you were never drinking again. No, we're going to Chapel Hill. And that is, of course, sophomore year when we realized that at Duke you really are only going to have fun. I think it's changed now. That's where you went. You Went to Chapel Hill, but you hang with Gary's friends. I learned my lesson with that a couple of times. Well, I. I should have learned it the first time, but I didn't. And then the second time, we ended up shotgunning Old Milwaukees. And then. Yeah, no, Old Milwaukee was good. I liked Old Milwaukee. But literally shotgunning, like, putting the hole with the key and then snapping it. And. And then we took a bunch of mushrooms and went to Chapel Hill. And then we were in a. In the club called Players, and I was. And. And all of a sudden, like an hour later, and I went up to my friend Michael and I like, hey, does everybody in here have a pig face? And he said, what do you mean? I said, all of a sudden, everybody in here has a pig face. And he looks around, he goes, you're right. Everybody in here does have a pig face.

[B]

You mean like, they were unattractive or.

[A]

No, like, literally, like.

[B]

Okay, so you were. You was. It was more than Old Milwaukee.

[A]

Well, I said, we had a big bag of mushrooms.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Mushrooms. Yeah. And then everybody.

[B]

That'll do it.

[A]

Yeah. And then I said, okay, so you see what I see? And he goes, I didn't before, but now I do. And I said, we have to get out of here right now.

And this was before Uber or Lyft or anything like that. And we're, you know, 20 minutes away, so we're like. We had to kind of get out of there. And so we went to Subway and got giant steak and cheeses.

[B]

Well, I love that that raccoon ended up in the bathroom. Like, he was polite enough to go into the bathroom to throw up.

[A]

Well, I just passed out there, maybe. Nice and clean. I don't know. He just. Maybe he just wanted. He felt a little guilty, felt a little sad. But he's gonna do it. I guarantee you. He's miserable right now. But they release. It's like, oh, they're letting me go. Let me go, Let me go. And he's like, okay, all right. So he'll spend his day doing regular raccoon stuff, and the time's gonna roll around, and he's gonna like, okay, I'm gonna. I'm gonna go back to. That was fun. Because he's not gonna remember the bad stuff. He's just gonna remember the good stuff.

[B]

Yep. He'll be Gary.

[A]

He'll be Gary. His hair will be gelled, and he will smell like Drakkar Noir, because everybody smelled like Drakkar Noir before they replaced it with the much less expensive Axe body. Spray.

That college dorm smell of like piles of clothes and and Taco Bell and Axe. That is no, thank you. That's going to do it for Dan Bernstein Unfiltered. Today we'll get to the answers. We'll get the somehow some. By the end of the week, we should have answers to all these questions. What's going on with Chris Paul? Are all can we root for all college football coaches to lose all the time? And why did Ben Johnson walk back his perfectly honest and legitimate comments? So same bat time, same bat channel when we reconvene. And do not miss a special forward progress day. We got a guest today. So when that drops in a couple hours, do not miss it. But thank you for being a part of today's Dan Bernstein Unfiltered, brought to you in partnership with my bookie, Dan Bernstein Unfiltered. Unfiltered on 312Sports.