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Don La Greca
So good, so good, so good.
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Peter Rosenberg
How did I not know Rack has Adidas?
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Don La Greca
Still just so many good brands.
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Podcast Host/Producer
This is the Don Hahn and Rosenberg podcast.
Don La Greca
That sounds like heaven to me.
Podcast Host/Producer
Listen live weekday afternoon starting at 3 on 8 80, ESPN, the ESPN New York app, and your smart speakers.
Don La Greca
Oh, yeah,
Peter Rosenberg
Don Han and Rosenberg on ESPN New York now. Don, you teased us with something.
Don La Greca
Well, it was just a question because you understand these things better than I do, but I saw somebody mention on social media with the Drop Madness that Something can get 1.5 thousand views but only get 530 votes. So is that people viewing it and not voting or going back and viewing to see what the. What the results are? Why would you click on it, not vote? I double the. Triple the amount.
Peter Rosenberg
That's. That's. That's. I think it's because people can. The whole view of a tweet, like, doesn't mean anything.
Don La Greca
Okay.
Peter Rosenberg
It's just like, I think it literally went by people's eyes.
Caller Chris
You could scroll past it without even
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knowing you scroll past it. That counts as a view.
Caller Chris
If I'm not.
Peter Rosenberg
That counts.
Don La Greca
Really? That's cheating.
Peter Rosenberg
It is like, that's. That's why it's nonsense. But.
Don La Greca
Okay, I was just curious about that.
Peter Rosenberg
Now I teach something as well.
Don La Greca
Yes.
Peter Rosenberg
The WWE's Celebrity hall of Fame induction this year is, I thought, a fun one. It is Dennis Rodman.
Don La Greca
Yes.
Peter Rosenberg
I saw this, which I thought was a pretty cool. An interesting. And listen, WWE hall of Fame is sort of a silly thing in the first place. The. I mean, just in terms of, like, they put people in it sometimes who you're like, okay, well, like, they were well known, but I don't know if they were great. The celebrity wing is obviously particularly. You know, these are people who showed up for a moment. These are not pro wrestlers. But I will say in the case of Dennis Rodman, at the time, Don, I don't know how much you remember about this, but at the time at which he showed up in wcw, he was very impactful. And then of course, when we watched the Last Dance and you kind of saw it from the other side of The Bulls perspective of them being in the middle of their Bulls dynasty run and one of their most important players, like, hey, I can't be there. I got to go do wrestling. It's pretty insane.
Don La Greca
And so he is in the Hall.
Peter Rosenberg
He will go in in April. It's official.
Don La Greca
Also want to congratulate Mike Westhoff is also going to the hall of Fame as well. Pro Football hall of Fame, Wow. A specialty teams coach now they do their ceremony in June rather than with the rest of the guys a little bit later on I guess because they're just too many to do all at once. So I had a conversation with him today. He wanted to tell me that he was going in and I thought that was amazing because we had worked together for so many years and hopefully around the time of the ceremony, since it's gonna be like in late June in Canton, we'll try to get him on. So good for him. He was really excited about it.
Peter Rosenberg
I mean, listen, the hall of Fame is, it's not bad.
Don La Greca
Well, he was, every time I talk to him, he's complaining about all the different rules because they've taken like all the coaching out of special teams now. But boy, he, he just, he knew what he was doing. He was way ahead of his time. And you don't care about special teams until either they screw up or do something really special. And he seemed to always be a coach of something that the jets would do especially that would be really just turn the game around. Block kick, block punt, kick return. He was really innovative and they've taken a lot of that away in the NFL.
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Don La Greca
Did you see the other thing in the Speaking of the NFL that's been suggested? I forget who I saw. I don't know if it was Ian Rapaport. Somebody had had sent out that one of the things that's being floated by the players that if the NFL goes to an 18 game schedule that a player there will be designated days off for players. So none of the, none of the entire roster will play more than 17 games.
Peter Rosenberg
Really?
Don La Greca
Yeah. I don't think you can do it.
Peter Rosenberg
And neither do I.
Don La Greca
Because first of all, you're talking about a 53 man roster, right? So you could definitely rotate them. But like how do you do it? Like how do you pick what game my starting quarterback isn't going to start? And what if you get caught? And now it's late in the season, you need the game. He hasn't taken the game off yet and I got to set him.
Peter Rosenberg
Yeah, I don't know how you go about doing that.
Don La Greca
Just go to the 18 games for God's sakes. You know, I mean if you were gonna put up a fight, we know what you're doing. Once you went to 17, and this is on the players too, once you went to 17, you had to know they were going 18. So if you didn't want to go to 18, you should never have agreed to go to 17 because they were not gonna sit there with an odd number of games. They weren't. They were just setting you up. And they'll take away a preseason game, but I don't think that's a good idea either. These Guys are ill prepared to begin with.
Peter Rosenberg
That's the thing also. I know, right? Like, as useless as the preseason is, as the preseason's gotten less and less important or and there's less games, you absolutely see the result in the product. Like the proof is in the pudding.
Don La Greca
Yeah, it really is.
Peter Rosenberg
Like, it went from like the first week or two, they'd look rusty to now it's like October, Don, it's mid October now. Like, I feel like when. Excuse me, I feel like when Steve Young used to tell us the first month of the season is the preseason. Yeah, I feel like since he used to say that, which probably, I don't know, 10, eight years ago, whatever it was, Don, I think it's two months now. I think it's legitimately two months.
Don La Greca
It's definitely the entire month of September. And I really think you're going into October for. You could say, all right, everybody is at full strength. Everybody's starting to figure it out. And it's going to get. You take two preseason games and go to 18, that's going to be even less time to prepare. It could take you deep into October. And listen, I understand you got 18 games, but if it's taking you seven, eight games to kind of get your sea legs, your season's over for a lot of teams. And we certainly know what that's like here in New York where everything seems to be over by the time we get to Halloween.
Peter Rosenberg
Well, the nice thing about the 22 game season they're going to land on Don is that, you know, you're still alive. You get to mid November, the, you know, you could be five games under.500, but with, with six, with 12 more to play, you're in good shape.
Don La Greca
I know, I remember. I think you do too. There were two buys and that was back in 1993. It was fine. And now you get, you're spreading out football. So if you go two buys, you still have games. Even though your team's not playing, there's still games. So an 18 week season becomes a 20 week season. And what's, what's the big deal about that? It's still way shorter than all the other sports. Well, baseball season starts what, it's March, late March. It's like seven months. Football's only five. So you had a couple, you had an extra week of buys. You're going to get there. But don't start messing around with guys sitting. And I don't need designated load management. That's not going to help this sport. You see what it's done to the NBA. We still, we open the show with it about what's bigger, football, what's bigger, basketball or baseball in this country. There's no question that basketball is taking a hit with a lot of things that have happened here. I don't want that to happen to football. Now. It won't hit as bad in because there's only X amount of games with whether it's 17 or 18. But Peter, I don't need teams throwing it away. It's bad enough. Week 18 now is like a throwaway for a lot of teams. They've already clinched a spot. Nobody's playing. I don't want, I don't want that to be two, three weeks of the season where nobody plays, nobody cares.
Peter Rosenberg
Don, I have some game time brought to you by Tullamore. Do Irish whiskey because when it's game time, it's Tullamore.
Don La Greca
It's shutty time.
Peter Rosenberg
Yeah. Knicks Nets coverage following us on 880 at 7. St. John's Northern Iowa on 1050 at 7.
Don La Greca
There you go.
Peter Rosenberg
And Don's Devils are in Washington take on Alex Ovechton and the caps at 7. Tullamore due the original triple distilled, triple blended and triple cast matured Irish whiskey. Be sure to grab a Tullamore Dew or try the new Tullamore Dew honey during today's action. Glasses up to enjoying Tullamore Dew responsibly.
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Podcast Host/Producer
My day kicks off with a refreshing Celsius energy drink. Then straight to the gym. Pre K pickup back home to meal prep. Time for my fire station shift. One more Celsius. Gotta keep the lights on when the three alarm hits. I'm ready. Celsius Live fit. Go grab a cold refreshing Celsius at your local retailer or locate now@celsius.com
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Don La Greca
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Podcast Host/Producer
Thanks for listening to the Don Han and Rosenberg podcast.
Peter Rosenberg
I didn't listen to anything you just said.
Podcast Host/Producer
Catch the show on demand whenever you want. Just subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
Don La Greca
Hey, everybody, it's the Don Show.
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It never ends.
Don La Greca
Those are facts. The Don show starring only Don. Good for me. It's the Don show starting now. Tweet that. Hey, Don. Great that they still use that even though there's Only less than 9 minutes left in the show. But a show is a show, right? 1-800-919-3776. You want to get in on the last Call crew before our coverage of the Knicks and the Nets right here on ESPN New York. Want to thank Kofi. He's. He's our conscience. He's the one that, you know, helps us with stuff all the time. He's like our unofficial and unpaid statistician on the show. And he reminded me was Mike Florio on Rich Eisen, where the idea was floated about designating a day off for every player so that in an 18 game season, none of the players would have played a full 18. I think it's a. It's an idea. I'm not going to say it's a bad idea. I just don't think it would work. How do you designate a day for your quarterback to take off at a game where like every week is going to be big? You look at the Giants, right? Like people think this team can win eight games, maybe nine. Well, that means they're gonna be playing some very meaningful games. They can't throw games away. And all of a sudden, Jackson dart, sorry, he's designated to have this game off and you lose and you miss that, miss the playoffs by one game. That would be devastating. But the one thing I wanted to bring up here is, and this was sent to me by our producer, Anthony True, Anthony Pusick, who that it was mentioned. I just want to be able to punch it up here for you. I had it here and then it disappeared on me that Aaron Judge has said that he wants to participate in the next WBC and the LA Olympics. And that is Chris Kirschner that tweeted that out. Now, what I find interesting about this is not that he wants to play in the next wbc, but that he wants to play in the LA Olympics. Well, right now, baseball is not an option for the Major League Baseball player. So when I hear Judge say that, what pops into my mind is, especially with all the Accusations that the players in America didn't care about the wbc, that if the players rally and make this a point to want to play in the Olympics, where they want it, put in the cba, which they're gonna have to, and force Major League Baseball to take the allotted days off from their schedule for the players to go to LA and play in the Olympics. If the players want it, they'll get it. Now they have to give something up in the cba. But if they really want it, because I saw it in the NHL, the players really wanted to play in the Olympics. They made sure they put it in the cba. The owners wanted the relationship to be pure so they didn't have any more work stoppages and they gave it to the players. But what line are the players willing to go for this? Would they say, okay, we'll accept the salary cap? The the owners aren't just going to give it to them. They're going to want something back in return. And really, the players are happy with the current system, what the possible lockout, and it's going to happen on December 1st, and we'll see if it affects any gameplay, is the owners are going to want a salary cap and the players are going to say no. And oh, by the way, while we're fighting on the salary cap, we want to make sure you carve out time for us to take off in 2028 to go to the Olympics and every four years to do that, like they do in the NHL. Okay, we'll let you do it. You're going to have to accept the salary cap, so we'll see how far it goes. But the fact that Aaron Judge says he's going to, he wants to play in it tells me that it looks like it's something that very well could happen, but it would have to be collectively bargained. And we're going to find that out during the course of the winter how badly they want it and what they're willing to give up because they're going to have to do something. And it really would be a shame with Ohtani and Judge and the Dodgers and the Yankees being good and ratings being good, coming off a phenomenal WBC to see there be no baseball in 2027. And I know from the NHL standpoint, when you start fighting for things like a salary cap, and they have fought for that, the owners, for a long time and have never gotten it, and now you've got teams possibly like the Yankees, that might be for a salary cap, they may be willing to go to war for this. And I can't imagine there not be games affected during that CBA negotiation. You just hope it's not a whole season. And you do hope, at least for me, that if they do end up canceling all season, that you straighten out your problems at the end of the day so we never have to go through this again. That's what you have to hope. Because if you're just going to pacify, put a band aid on it, then every three, four years have to go through this stuff. It doesn't work. It just doesn't work. 1-800-919-3776. Let's go to Chris in Monmouth County. You're on ESPN, New York. What's up, Chris?
Caller Chris
Hey, Don. Happy Friday. Thanks for taking the call.
Don La Greca
No problem.
Caller Chris
I listened to you for a long time with Michael. Peter before that, you know, the Four Horsemen, like years ago. I mean, I have a random question.
Don La Greca
Yeah.
Caller Chris
I wanted to ask you. I'm not saying it's not real, but you, you hear all the time, NFL, mlb, NBA. Let's just call NHL. Player gets traded. And the analysis is, well, you don't understand what it's like on the players. They gotta, they got their kids in school, they got to move their family, they got to look for a new house. And I always think about, like, wait a minute, the seasons are not year round. If a guy lives in make it up Princeton, New Jersey, and he gets traded to Pittsburgh, he's not automatically moving his kids and living in Pittsburgh because half of the, of the season he's traveling on airplanes and in hotel rooms. Anyway, I guess my question is, how real is that narrative that these guys got it? They got to sell their house, they're gonna look for a new house. I don't, I just don't, I don't really buy it. I'm curious what you think. You're always, you're curious about those things.
Don La Greca
It depends on the contract situation. So, like, let's say you trade for a player who's a rental and it's contract over the end of the year, what's most likely gonna happen since they don't know where they're gonna be, are they gonna stay in New Jersey? Are they gonna get, you know, go and sign with Pittsburgh or something, is that the family will stay in the city that they originally played in and he'll just live in a hotel or something until the season is over. And then they'll assess the situation where it becomes dicey. Chris is a guy that's under Contract, he's got four years left on his contract. He gets traded to the Rangers or to the Yankees and He was in St. Louis. Well, the kids are in school, they just bought a house. Well, now the wife's got to sell the house and then they got to buy a house in New York. I mean it's, it's a lot to
Caller Chris
do right away, but not right away. I mean they gotta see how it plays out. I guess the analysis I always hear on every sports radio or tv, it's always like, it's always that heavy handed, they gotta move and this and that. And I always kind of chuckle because I'm like, I don't know if these guys actually move, if the wife and the kids like their neighborhood. Unless to your point, they're gonna be there for a solidified period of time. Right. Like Aaron Rogers bought a house in Montclair, New Jersey. Yeah, like you had a house in Pittsburgh, in la. Like, I just, it's always, to me as a sports fan, is it real or is it just like a play in a fun way?
Don La Greca
Listen, and Chris, thank you for the phone call. If I, if I got traded, I got eight year old twins and I got a wife that I love and I get, it's baseball season and I get traded in April to St. Louis. Well, and I've got four years left on my contract, which means now we're going to be living in St. Louis. All right, well, the kids are in school, so they've got to finish school. I'm not going to pull them out of school until we get to the summer. And then you got to sell the house all by the way, the wife's going to have to do this all by herself because now I'm playing baseball and April, May and June for three months I don't see my family. I mean, I know it doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but it'd be a big deal for me. As much as I would love playing the sport that I play and making millions of dollars to not see my family for three months while all this is going on. Listen, is it the end of the world? No, but it could be a pain in the neck. You know, Nick Buxtad got traded to the Devils. I was talking to him the other day and his family's still in St. Louis. They're gonna, you're gonna sort things out. But for the rest of the season, you know, he's not gonna see his family. Maybe see him on the weekends, whatever. I mean, I mean, I know you're making millions of dollars, but you're missing your family. Still missing your family. I don't care how much money you make. If you're not seeing your kids for a couple of months at a time, it's gonna stink. Or you're living in a hotel and you're talking to. Well, it's. It's a thing. Is it the end all, be all? No, but it's a thing. Weird call, but I like weird calls. I'm gonna be off on Monday because I gotta travel to Dallas with the Devils. So I'll seek talk to you from Dallas on Tuesday. Knicks basketball coming up next.
Podcast Host/Producer
Thanks for listening to the Don Hahn and Rosenberg Podcast.
Peter Rosenberg
I don't want to know how the
Podcast Host/Producer
sausage is made, but I just want to know. It's good. Hear more of Don Allen and Peter Weekday afternoon starting at 3 on 8 80, ESPN, the ESPN New York app and your smart speakers.
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Date: March 20, 2026
This episode centers on Hall of Fame announcements and debates within major American sports, including the mechanics and implications of an expanded NFL season, the logistics and impact of player trades in professional sports, and MLB’s Olympic aspirations. Don La Greca, Alan Hahn, and Peter Rosenberg dive deep into sports issues with their signature blend of insight, humor, and candid opinions.
“The whole view of a tweet…doesn't mean anything…It literally went by people's eyes.” (01:33–01:47)
“At the time at which he showed up in WCW, he was very impactful…in the middle of their Bulls dynasty run and one of their most important players, like, ‘Hey, I can't be there, I gotta go do wrestling.’ It's pretty insane.” (02:14–03:04)
“He knew what he was doing. He was way ahead of his time. You don’t care about special teams until they screw up or do something really special.” (03:56–04:11)
Don: “How do you pick what game my starting quarterback isn’t going to start? And what if you get caught…and now it’s late in the season, you need the game? He hasn't taken the game off yet and I got to sit him?” (07:13–07:37) Peter: “As the preseason’s gotten … less games, you absolutely see the result in the product. The proof is in the pudding.” (08:13–08:33)
“If the players want it, they’ll get it. Now they have to give something up in the CBA... The owners aren’t just going to give it to them. They’re going to want something back in return.” (16:10–16:46)
“If I got traded…I've got four years left on my contract…it’d be a big deal for me…not seeing my family for three months while all this is going on…It could be a pain in the neck.” (20:51–21:47)
On social media metrics:
“You could scroll past it without even knowing you scroll past it. That counts as a view.” – Caller Chris/Don, (01:45–01:49)
On expanding the NFL season:
“Don’t start messing around with guys sitting… I don’t need designated load management. That’s not going to help this sport. You see what it’s done to the NBA.” – Don La Greca, (10:00–10:34)
On MLB players pushing for Olympic participation:
“If the players rally and make this a point to want to play in the Olympics…put it in the CBA…If the players want it, they’ll get it.” – Don La Greca, (16:10–16:23)
On the real-life effects of player trades:
“As much as I would love playing the sport that I play and making millions of dollars, to not see my family for three months while all this is going on…it could be a pain in the neck.” – Don La Greca, (21:12–21:47)
| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:48–01:59 | Social Media Voting & Drop Madness Explained | | 02:06–03:12 | WWE Hall of Fame & Dennis Rodman | | 03:15–04:35 | Pro Football Hall of Fame: Mike Westhoff’s Legacy | | 06:31–11:24 | NFL 18-Game Schedule & “Player Days Off” Debate | | 13:21–17:55 | MLB Players, Olympics Ambitions & CBA Implications | | 18:23–22:22 | Caller Chris & The Real-Life Burden of Trades on Players’ Families |
This episode is a must-listen for insight into the future of the NFL and MLB, with lively debate, little-heard perspectives, and the unique chemistry of the Don, Hahn & Rosenberg trio.