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Dan Le Batard
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Zach Lowe
The comedy movie event of the year.
Mike Ryan
Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice.
Zach Lowe
Now streaming only on Hulu and Disney.
Nico Caceres
Time to party.
Zach Lowe
That's a great attitude. It's a time traveling ass kicking movie event.
Nico Caceres
You sound insane.
Zach Lowe
Starring Vince Vaughn, James Marsden and Asa Gonzalez. I thought you were a clone.
Nico Caceres
Well, clones aren't real, dummy.
Zach Lowe
And time machines are super grounded in reality. Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice. Rated R. Written and directed by Ben David Grabinski. Only on Hulu and Hulu on Disney.
Mike Ryan
For bumble subscribers, this is the Dan Levator show with the ST Podcast.
Dan Le Batard
This episode of the Dan Leitard show is presented by DraftKings. DraftKings. The Crown is yours.
Tony
I'm gonna bring the energy for this.
Dan Le Batard
Baseball. I'm baseball.
Guest Caller
This is a good show you're doing. I decided to watch pitch clock.
Dan Le Batard
Pitch clock is coming at.
Tony
It's incredible.
Dan Le Batard
Hi everybody. Baseball pitch clock is coming at you
Tony
on the pitch clock.
Dan Le Batard
Baseball pitch clock is coming at you.
Guest Caller
Can I tell you something?
Dan Le Batard
Baseball pitch clock is the pitch clock.
Tony
Hey, baseball coming at you now.
Dan Le Batard
Hi everybody.
Zach Lowe
Pitch clock will be featured in the next hour. We have a United States senator joining us in the next hour. We have Tony's friend joining us this hour. Jeremy, you're doing a live show. Pitch clock at 3 o' clock with good get. Chris Cody you were able to get. You were able to secure Chris Chris Cody as a guest. What are you guys trying to do today at 3 o' clock also, Ethan.
Tony
So we're going to be watching basically every game that's happening. Opening day. That was opening night last night. This is opening day. This is what baseball's about.
Dan Le Batard
The good stuff.
Tony
It starts at 1 o'.
Nico Caceres
Clock.
Tony
So we'll be getting the back end of the first game today. And then a whole bunch of games started, 2, 3 and 4. So we'll be watching all the games, updating people there. But we will also be playing a couple of our Pitch clock style trivia games. And we're just going to have a segment called Guys naming dudes where we'll be talking about players from the 90s. Dudes naming guys could be either.
Dan Le Batard
Okay.
Tony
However you prefer. Guys naming dudes, Dudes naming guys. But we're going to be talking about old school names that make you happy, like Ronnie belliard. Also at 1:30pm the episode of the Pitch clock from today that previews everything happening in the season with Adnan Virk. That'll be live at 1:30 on our YouTube page. On that YouTube playlist where Adnan will tell you that Logan Webb, who got lit up last night, is gonna win the Cy Young in the National League.
Zach Lowe
All right. Great work by Adnan Verk. He allowed seven runs last night. And that information will long season.
Mike Ryan
I immediately stopped what I was doing when I heard Ronnie Belliard.
Zach Lowe
See, I'd go earlier than that to Rafael Belliard because I'm just older than you guys.
Mike Ryan
You're trying to out Bellayard him.
Zach Lowe
I was. It's a off. And I believe I've got the bigger belly. Yeah, bigger belly.
Tony
Hit that one out of the belly.
Zach Lowe
Can you guys let me finish my jokes before making yours?
Guest Caller
It was so obvious he. I was trying to land a joke. Jeremy.
Nico Caceres
God almighty.
Mike Ryan
Jeremy's unfunny in that chair too.
Zach Lowe
Marlins TV if you want more of Jeremy's, if you want more meeting I'll
Mike Ryan
actually be interrupting in stadium host at
Tony
Lone Depot park this week starting opening day.
Zach Lowe
I'll be here with us today. Oh, my God, you guys. Tony's friend is here with us to celebrate flag football. But before we do that, I just, I want to get to something a little bit more serious because Pukinakua is putting the league in a very difficult spot because he's about to make more money than any of the wide receivers. And he most resembles everything that has happened with Antonio Brown toward the end of his career. The details of this kind of meltdown ran Antonio Brown out of the league after he got a number of different Chances. And I want to go through some of what is happening with Puka Nakua because he's now being accused of anti Semitism for the second time. He's also not even denying. It's not even just an accusation or an allegation. He. He's not denying that he bit a woman. His lawyer is not denying that he bit a woman. Now I want to show his lawyer for a second so that you guys can see who Levi is who is representing Pukinakua as he gets in the game here of trying to correct some of the optics around what surrounds the second best receiver in football. That's Levi McCathern. And he looks the part that. What are you shaking your head about?
Tony's Friend
That's not Levi. Whatever. That's. That's Champ kind with a couple extra lbs.
Nico Caceres
Whammy.
Mike Ryan
Whammy. You're trying to have a thought provoking segment here on Puka Nakua. You can't come out the gates with that photo. I just.
Zach Lowe
That's.
Mike Ryan
Now I'm lost.
Zach Lowe
That is the lawyer. That is the lawyer for Puka Nakua. And I don't know what to do with everything surrounding Puka Nakua because basically all I know about this person as a human being right now is he's exceptional at football. He plays a physical kind of football. That makes me wonder if his head's right given all of the details around his story.
Mike Ryan
Yeah. And he's had some controversial opinions about CTE as well. I don't know if it's because his star continues to ascend and he's, you know, one of the bigger sports stars in that market and in the league. He's highly productive. But his off season has to be concerning for the LA Rams. Like, I don't think it's unfair to say all of this behavior is super concerning and strange because it's not just the biting accusations, the antisemitism. I guess it's manosphere adjacent too, because he did that Aiden Ross stream that started a lot of issues for him. It's his quotes. But there's also a lot of videos of him partying and maybe partying a little too hard. Videos of him passed out, which certainly just that alone would be concerning for the LA Rams. He seems to get after it. And his family's had issues too. He's had siblings, like steal a car. He's had another sibling assault a fan at a UFL game while he was in uniform. So this would be very concerning if I were less than Sean McVay and the LA Rams. Like, this is. This is not good. And this could be the sign of things to come. And I don't think you're out of line. Even though there was actual, like, felonious behavior as we crescendoed, this is early stage Antonio Brown type of behavior that we were all kind of laughing at with the Raiders and then it got out of hand quickly. And I worry for Puka.
Zach Lowe
Early stage Antonio Brown behavior is about as large an indictment I can make of a athlete in that sport. And Antonio Brown represents for me something that I simply had not seen before or experienced in my entire lifetime covering sports, which is you've got to guy who's got a pristine reputation rebounding from homelessness in Miami to becoming a professional pillar who appears to get addicted during the social media age to social media. And all of a sudden, the access we have to him is too much access. And we see someone go full blown crazy on us and we don't know enough about CTE to understand. Is that happening because of the hit he took from Vontez Burfick? The style of play that Puka plays combined with all the other elements here make it so. This is not a star on the faded end of his career like Antonio Brown was, who still got several chances and won a championship as some of this stuff started. This is a guy who's going to vie for the biggest contract in the league next year if he can keep his behavior correct. But the attorney and him are not even denying the biting allegation like that.
Mike Ryan
No. There's a damning photo out there.
Zach Lowe
The lawyer is saying it was just horseplay, but the photo is a bite mark on a human being. That is. That. That looks like it's aggressive.
Tony's Friend
That's why my dad always told me no jugo de mano. That was a very important piece of my childhood. Is no jugo de mano. Don't do that. You know, it always ends up bad and it does.
Zach Lowe
But this isn't Jugo de mano. This is Julio de Vientes.
Tony's Friend
I know, but it's still all in the same category. You could do with fill in. Fill in the rest of the Literally translated into hand games. But it's also roughhousing. That kind of. That kind of play.
Zach Lowe
Let's play. I guess we got to do refrand now. We're there already now. I wanted to do serious, thoughtful se. But we're now at Hue Mano.
Tony's Friend
And you didn't expect that.
Zach Lowe
I know.
Mike Ryan
Replaying the music after we do the thing again.
Zach Lowe
Yeah. We're doing It. We're going to do it again. We're going to revolutionize the industry is what we're going to do by playing the imaging to things after we've already done them. This is good music for Tony's friend, too, to just welcome him in.
Tony
Good subject matter, too.
Zach Lowe
All right.
Tony's Friend
We don't need to spin the wheel. We know what it is. Juego de mano. Every Latin kid who is ever born knows Juego de Mano because it is generational, because it transcends every family. Everybody knows you do not play Juego de Mano. If you have a sibling, if you have a cousin, if you have anybody that is your same age, you get into horseplay, you get into roughhousing, you get into things that you shouldn't because you start playing around, but it never ends up that way. Juego de Mano always ends up seriously. Starts as a joke, ends very serious, ends with everybody going to timeout, everybody getting the belt at one point or another. It's the truth. You want me to be honest?
Mike Ryan
That's the truth.
Zach Lowe
That is the truth. Tony tells the truth. Who is your friend, Tony? This is.
Tony's Friend
Glad you mentioned them. We're gonna bring them back over. Nico Caceres, QB for the USA flag football team. Right there, buddy.
Zach Lowe
How does it feel We've ever had.
Tony's Friend
We need to be better about being USA first here, but if you want
Mike Ryan
me to be honest.
Tony's Friend
But that's not the point. The point is, really, buddy, how does it feel? Fnatics champion.
Nico Caceres
It felt. It was incredible. First of all. There we go. It was incredible. First of all, to showcase what we could showcase on national television on Fox was amazing. And then shout out fanatics because leading up to the. To the event, to the actual game, it was incredible. All the events they had planned out throughout the week, all the guys they had showed, showed that we're contemporaries in that space. So it was pretty amazing. They showed respect. Yeah, 100%.
Mike Ryan
Now, did that respect start before the festivities or after you started kicking their ass?
Nico Caceres
So before the festivities. But funny enough, on Wednesday after the draft party, we went upstairs to the little, like, rooftop they had there. What? And Saquon Barkley. Cool. Cool dude showed mad love the whole time. Was like talking like, oh, how are you guys going to pull my flag? Blah, blah, blah. And we were like, well, you can't jump, you can't hurdle. There's no context.
Tony's Friend
Were you teaching him the rules as. Did he know that already or were you like, nah, everything you do in the NFL, you can't do they knew
Nico Caceres
it to some degree, but they didn't know about, like, the no jumping, that type of stuff. So they found out.
Zach Lowe
Well, take us through, though, what your expectations were versus what ended up happening. For those of you who do not know, incidentally, the pros, Joe Burrow, Tom Brady, Stefan Diggs, Rob Gronkowski, they're, I believe, I'm guessing, that they thought they were going to win. I believe that most of the people watching thought they were going to win without understanding that flag football is totally different from professional football. It's quickness. You don't need strength for anything. It's just you have to be super quick, super precise. How did it go compared to how you thought it was going to go?
Nico Caceres
I always knew, and I could say as a team, we always knew we were going to win the game. I would say we felt confident. I mean, we do this all the time, so it's a difference there. They're picking this up on a week. Some. Some might have been training for it, but for the most part, they're training for the NFL. Like, that's what their job is. Right. So we always knew, we had confidence that we were going to win. I just thought personally that we were going to get more scoring from them because of the. Who they are, per se. But you could tell how much the rush affected stuff, that they're only seven yards away. They didn't have a blocker, so that affected things. And then the nuances of the game affected it also.
Zach Lowe
So you. So it was easier than even you thought. You knew you were going to win. You did not know you were going to blow them out, Correct?
Nico Caceres
Yeah.
Zach Lowe
And so it was easier than you thought. You, like, there wasn't nerves or anything. You guys were convinced. Yeah, they're not going to be able to do the things we do. We've trained for years for what we're doing. They haven't trained for any of this. And it's a different sport.
Nico Caceres
Correct. And I think that was on full display.
Guest Caller
But say it was easy.
Nico Caceres
They're still NFL players, so I'm gonna give them their respect.
Mike Ryan
He's kind of doing that. One thing that really jumped out in watching it is guys like Saquon in the NFL, they look super explosive, but power is such a huge part of their game, and power's not really needed all that much in this sport. Like, the better athletes on television were on Team USA because they were just so much quicker. That was crazy. But it's not just that. It's not just, okay, I got A guy that knows how to play on this smaller field and with these rules, like Devonte Adams all time is like one of the greatest goal line target guys ever. And your DBs are Blanket, probably a top 10 receiver.
Nico Caceres
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
So like, you guys know the angles, you know how to manipulate the playing surface. And there was one moment during the broadcast where you were essentially explaining the game to Gronk and he was really receptive. But in my mind, in all of sports, I can't imagine a more difficult person to explain rules to anything when it comes to rules of any kind than Gronk. So how did that go?
Nico Caceres
Actually, it was the complete opposite. I mean, he was just asking a bunch of questions like when do you know, like what it's on the broadcast? Like when do you know when to go? And stuff like that. And I had to relate it. I played tackle football. I played in college at a small D3 in DC but I had to relate in that way. I was like, oh, when do you know when to go in? I'm like, oh, it's like a package. It's like, you know, if it's two tight ends, you're in the game. If there's one tight end, you know you're in the game. So it's similar in that regard.
Dan Le Batard
Oh, folks, look at me. I'm in my 30s, which is old enough to know better and somehow still young enough to ignore that information pretty regularly. Like, you know me. I'll have a couple drinks, normal adult behavior, nothing crazy. And then the next morning my body reacts like I have made a series of terrible decisions with no supervision. My sleep score tanks. I wake up confused. Suddenly even replying to one text feels like a full task. But that is why I have discovered and gotten into Cheers Restore. Alcohol hits differently now. It affects your brain, your sleep, your liver, all of it. And Cheers Restore is made for that. It's a dual action after alcohol aid designed to support your brain and your liver after drinking. And the origin story is wild. It started with a Princeton student researching dhm, which is this compound tied to alcohol related effects in the body. It's in Walgreens CVS 7 11, basically everywhere. It was on Shark Tank. All I do is take three capsules after my last drink or before bed. And the next morning is way less dramatic. Same night out, way better morning with Cheers. For a limited time, our listeners are getting 20% off your entire order by using code dan@cheershealth.com just head to cheershealth.com and use code dan for 20% off. After your purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them the Dan Levittard show sent ya.
Mike Ryan
Hey, Roy, buddy.
Tony's Friend
Yo.
Mike Ryan
You know that energy shift when the game gets good and everybody all together in unison knows to stand up on their feet? Oh, absolutely, Mike.
Tony's Friend
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
You've been at many big time sporting events. You know that moment quite well. That's what it's like when you take your first sip of Cuervo.
Tony's Friend
Oh, delicious.
Mike Ryan
It's the signal that says, we're not checking the time anymore, pal. It's when small talk turns into stories. Cuervo, man. It's that high five. A random stranger effect. That's right. The game is popping. You're hugging people you never met before. That's the kind of energy that Cuervo brings. It's so smooth, so delicious. That's the Cuervo effect. Keep it Cuervo.
Tony's Friend
This episode is sponsored by Better Help. March is one of those months where we talk about celebrating women. And it's very, very deserved. Because when you actually look around, a lot of women in our lives are carrying a ton. Work, family, relationships, expectations nobody know notices or sees. I start thinking about the women around me. My wife, my mom, my sister, my friends, my co workers. People who somehow take care of everybody else while still trying to hold it together themselves. And it's a ton to carry. Therapy can be a place to put some of that weight down. It can help you figure out what's yours, what isn't, and how to set better boundaries so you're not running on empty all the time. BetterHelp works with fully licensed therapists in the US and they handle the matching process for you. You fill out a short questionnaire and if your therapist isn't the right fit, you can switch at any time. With more than 30,000 therapists and over 6 million people served, it's the world's largest online therapy platform. With an average of 4.9 out of 5 session ratings. Your emotional well being matters. Find support and feel lighter in therapy. Sign up and get 10% off@betterhelp.com DLB that's BetterHelp. H-E-L-P.com DLB Don LeBatard to US residents.
Zach Lowe
Oh, wow, that's pretty.
Mike Ryan
Think I haven't been practicing, Stu?
Zach Lowe
I didn't realize we had a substitute. Complicated legacy brought to you by headquarters.
Tony's Friend
441 Power Line Road. Second down to 9.
Mike Ryan
This is the Dan Levatar show with the Stugats. There was one Moment in your second game, it was the founders Brady. Brady checks into the game. He immediately evades pressure side steps and finds Gronk in the corner of the end zone. And then Gronk like, then ends up like pulling his hammy. But right then in that moment, you're like, oh, shit. All right, that's Brady to Gronk. Like, all right, maybe these guys can hang.
Nico Caceres
Yeah, 100, a thousand percent. Like, Gronk was a massive.
Mike Ryan
You guys didn't have an answer for Gronk.
Nico Caceres
Gronk is a massive human being to get around playing any sort of football. And I think it showed in flag football. And he loved it. Like, he was asking, like I said, a bunch of questions, hung out, talked with us all week. So he was into it and he was like upset that his hammy wet.
Dan Le Batard
Who was talking the most smack on the other teams? It had to be Logan Paul.
Nico Caceres
Logan Paul was up there, but honestly, Logan Paul at the same time was like, he rushed one play, he rushed at me and I threw that double pass back to Hoosh. And he was like, did I do my job there? And I'm like, yeah, you did. Don't worry about it.
Mike Ryan
They ran Logan the entire game. I was so impressed with his athleticism because he was drenched in sweat. They were just sending him full sprint the entire.
Nico Caceres
That's. That's what rushers are, man. I mean, and credit to them. It's something in flag football that gets overlooked that rushers but how important they are. And it showed. We have a really good one in Sean Thread Flash, who's the same guy who ran the route on Luke Keakley. And I mean, it showed how much of a difference maker he is in the game.
Tony's Friend
Luke Keakley.
Guest Caller
Were any of the pros particularly angry at the way you guys were beating them?
Nico Caceres
Not really. I think if it was during the game, to be honest with you, it was all in the makeup of like making the game like bring attention to it, to be honest with you. But none of them were, I think, were truly angry about it. I think the more it realized how different the game was. When we actually got into the game,
Mike Ryan
there were cool moments in the broadcast where you can tell, like, oh, like these guys realize this is tougher than we anticipated. Like, Hopkins catches that touchdown, you kind of see the competitive spirit there. But then how much fun did you guys have breaking their will? Because there were points where they capitulated too. And Jalen Ramsey wasn't talking as much towards the end.
Nico Caceres
Jalen actually. So the second play of the game. I threw a post to one of the guys going by Revelt and DeAndre Hopkins, Devonte Adams were like, do you know that's Jalen Ramsey?
Zach Lowe
Like, what are you doing?
Nico Caceres
And I'm like, I'm not gonna. Like, I'm like, you can't be scared of them because that's how you lose the game. So it was just about playing our game and trusting our process, and we have a bunch of great coaches, and it just worked out that way.
Zach Lowe
All Cubans, right?
Nico Caceres
Yeah, all Cubans. Three for three on Cubans.
Mike Ryan
I've never heard a coach on a Fox broadcast say, oh, yeah, to get his attachments. As soon as I heard that, it was a DiCaprio meme. I'm like, that guy's from Miami. That guy's gotta be from Miami.
Nico Caceres
We have a couple of plays. Linea, Cajita. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Zach Lowe
Well, I was gonna ask if you were speaking in Spanish because they wouldn't understand you. You don't even have to, like, cover your mouth with a play sheet because you could just. Oy. Yay.
Nico Caceres
Yeah. George is our head coach. He's been doing it. He's probably the greatest, like, in a different format of all time, quarterback wise. So he knows a lot, and it's easy to communicate with him, Especially against maybe not so much the South American countries, but against your Japan, your Germans and Spanish.
Tony's Friend
Are you.
Zach Lowe
Are you. You guys are the gold medal favorite?
Nico Caceres
Yes, sir.
Zach Lowe
Who's. Who's the silver? Like, who's the big challenge?
Nico Caceres
So it's usually Mexico always gives us a hard game. We just played them a month ago. We won by a point. Yep. Mexico is very good because they play it like us. They play it year long, and they do it all the time. Panama is very good, and I would say Japan and Italy would be the next ones after.
Dan Le Batard
How many countries would have also won what you guys did?
Nico Caceres
I think all of the other countries would also give them a game just because of the nuances. I just don't know about how much. I think we're the physically most imposing country that could compare. So I think that's why we would have the edge over all the rest of the country. So I'd be interested to see how that goes.
Zach Lowe
Who were the NFL players who most underestimated? Where you could just tell, well, Hoosh, for example, changed his entire tone before the game, felt disrespected, felt that people didn't understand, was quoted as saying, I'm better than Mahomes, and then didn't quite walk all that back. But was so moved by how gracious the NFL guys were throughout that everything he said since then wasn't the victory lap I was expecting him to take. Because those guys offered you the respect on the front end. But who underestimated you guys?
Nico Caceres
I. I don't want to say it was underestimate. Like, everybody underestimated us as a whole because I think like, for the general, like population, like you think, like, really think about it, it's flag guys who some work full time jobs, right. Compared to the best in the world athletes. So it's easy to go that route, underestimate us. But I think the more they realize going into Saturday what they got themselves into, they realize it was that much more of a different game.
Mike Ryan
So the disrespectful stuff when this came out about in the Olympics and NFL players wading in the water saying that they would like to be a part of it, you guys probably, I know Hoosh was vocal taking an exception to it. Like, guys, this is a totally different game. Just because you've done this in the league doesn't mean that you can come take our job. But who out of those two teams do you think? NFL guys that can actually give it a go, Go for the Olympic team?
Nico Caceres
I would say it. The hard part is, is the fact that their OTA season and whatnot coincide with.
Mike Ryan
Right. But Odell had an incredible catch and he's out of there.
Nico Caceres
There's no doubting receivers, talent. Like, no one's going to sit here and say Justin Jefferson and Odell Beckham can't play at the same time. But at the end day, if you look at like, how much are they really going to commit their bodies to it? Because like, as you see, like Hoosh and Velt And Pablo, the three guys running around, they're 5, 8, 1, 45, maybe fly, but they fly. So it's just a completely different place down a completely different body type.
Mike Ryan
I was gonna say it's Gronk and Logan Paul, strangely enough. Yeah, the rusher. Like, you just let him go.
Nico Caceres
I think Gronk would be very good at flag football.
Tony's Friend
By the way, who's. Who's the defensive guy that as you were playing, you're like, oh, I can key in on this guy. And like, he can't stop me because he sucks. Was it the box?
Dan Le Batard
Was it the boxer? Terence Crawford?
Nico Caceres
Maybe Bud Crawford there will be that.
Dan Le Batard
You're talking about Bud Crawford on the broadcast. They're like, they seem to be targeting Terence Crawford. He's the only non football player.
Nico Caceres
So I won't sit here and disrespect a. Arguably a Mount Rushmore boxer of all time. But he was leading up to the event, he was talking like, oh, I. Whatever. But that was a guy that every night sat there, talked it up with us, his team talked it up with us. There's no better guy that we met this weekend than Bud.
Zach Lowe
But he also talked and underestimated you. Correct.
Nico Caceres
At first. And was targeted at first.
Zach Lowe
And then you targeted him. Then you targeted him as a specific weakness.
Nico Caceres
At first. But then, hey, listen to me. If I understood that ball a little bit more, it might be a pick. Like, that wasn't the best throwing ball I threw all weekend, but hey, Velt ran a great route and it got there. And like I said, great dude. Pound for pound. Boxer. No. Bud Crawford. This is crazy.
Mike Ryan
It's crazy. Even in flag football, the quarterbacks don't want to say anything.
Zach Lowe
Take us through the specifics of the awe and the expectation when Brady hits Gronk, when you realize what you're in the middle of. And Mike texted me that he got goosebumps with Brady walking out
Mike Ryan
because you knew that he was watching in the locker room, like, oh, shit, these guys are good. So, like he's going over with his coaches and he does the trot out there and he's looking intense. And then his very first play, he recaptures the magic with Gronk. I imagine for everybody, even the pros, gotta be like, holy shit, he still has it. Like, that's cool. Grady to Gronk one last time.
Nico Caceres
But it's exactly what you're saying. It's unbelievable. It's radio Gronk. Like, there's no denying that. And the other thing is the fact that, like, Gronk moves. Like, I don't want anyone to underestimate that. Gronk could move on that field.
Mike Ryan
That's my main takeaway. It's like, if he doesn't pull his hammy, I'd love to see how that game played out because Gronk still is unguardable and he still has the gifts. Like, he can go.
Nico Caceres
Yeah, it's incredible. And. And especially in flag football where you can't get a rat, like, you can't play play through his body. You can't play contact. So getting around Gronk, you say flag
Zach Lowe
football, you can't do it. They couldn't do it in the pros.
Nico Caceres
Yeah, exactly.
Zach Lowe
The single greatest NFL combination there's ever been.
Nico Caceres
Joe Montana and Jerry Rice have an argument to that.
Mike Ryan
Oh, wow, he's doing.
Dan Le Batard
He's got takes.
Tony's Friend
This guy's got takes, by the way.
Mike Ryan
Yeah. But I think, like, you guys should seriously consider Gronk because you can't get physical. And in flag football, the body types are totally different. It's all shorter dudes. Gronk is such an advantage.
Zach Lowe
He just did a great thing right there because he's got me thinking now. Yeah, Rice is the best receiver ever. Gronk, the best tight end ever. Montana, Mahomes.
Nico Caceres
Kelsey.
Zach Lowe
Yeah, those are the three. But when the reason.
Guest Caller
Brino, Clayton. What are we doing?
Zach Lowe
The reason that I think of.
Nico Caceres
Wait, Dan. Dan, I have a question for you. Round out your top five, then we'll take a little bit of a break. Round out your top five, take it for a walk.
Mike Ryan
Dan.
Zach Lowe
I'm gonna go ahead and put Drew Brees to Michael Thomas on there over Jimmy Graham.
Tony
Fun one.
Tony's Friend
Breeze to. Graham was on stage.
Zach Lowe
That too. Let me think for a second here, because the. The thing about Gronk, right, Obviously Jerry Rice in Montana is unstoppable for a ton of different reasons, but all Brady throwing the ball to a spot on Gronk when he's six, seven is not a guardable play by any human being that's ever existed. What is happening to us? Is it. Is it a guardable play? Do you believe if Gronk had played the rest of that game, do you think it's any different?
Nico Caceres
I think it's closer for sure. I. I don't. I'm not gonna sit here and, like, kid with you. I think it's closer. Don't get me wrong. Because you even saw, like, Jalen Hurts was hitting Gronk at ease also. So I think he makes a difference for sure. But I still think that. How do I put this? When we're scoring at the rate we score at. If you, like you saw the championship game, they try to slow the game down, try to keep it in their court. Because if you try going score for score with us, eventually we're just going to outscore you. So I think that's where we would have ended up, like, breaking apart if Gronk would have played. But I think it's a closer game for sure.
Mike Ryan
Philip Rivers, Antonio Gates.
Tony's Friend
That's a good one.
Dan Le Batard
Are there any guys in the NFL that you could see, like, that guy could. Would be a better flag football? Did they do a good job of getting the right players for this? Like, would Kyler Murray be, like, a better flag football quarterback than he's thought of as an NFL quarterback, Lamar Jackson.
Nico Caceres
I think those two are the obvious ones everyone's going to point to after the game. I also think that there's two like something I noticed how much ground Jalen Ramsey covers. So I think like Stingley and certain are two other ones that could potentially like, okay, they. I could see them playing in that game next year. Receiver wise. I think man, Devonte Adams, Odell Beckham, like those are. Those are the cream of the crop. Like yeah, obviously Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase. But I think already Adams and Odell are all timers right there.
Tony's Friend
With somebody like Amon Ross St. Brown, who's more quick, not as big, but like can. Can be shifty in speed.
Zach Lowe
Nico, thank you for being on with us and congratulations. Thank you. We appreciate it. Can we give him a better USA chant? These guys are going to be stars during the Olympics. You might not know them now, but you're about to know them because they're going to make you proud.
Tony's Friend
We also have a gift for you. We have Nico being able to diagram the play that he threw the post corner.
Zach Lowe
I think he ran well. Let's do it. By way of conclusion here, let's punctuation. We'll have Nico. We'll use the telestrate. Did you guys tell him to draw a penis?
Tony's Friend
No, I didn't even lay that trap. But you just did, so he might go ahead.
Zach Lowe
No, nobody uses the telestrator correctly. We haven't used it right. Once we have this great device in the modern age and we don't use it correctly, let's go ahead and just
Nico Caceres
blame it on Tony.
Zach Lowe
Let's go ahead and do this with Nico.
Dan Le Batard
I like this guy.
Zach Lowe
Let's go ahead and show me.
Nico Caceres
Hey, I'm here for the hot takes too. Not about this, but about NBA specifically because Tony thinks Conqueror is better than Cooper flag.
Tony
He does.
Tony's Friend
Okay.
Dan Le Batard
All right. Walk us through this.
Tony
Famous for you.
Mike Ryan
You really cut him off. Did you know that Aaron Judge is older than Anthony Davis?
Zach Lowe
Let's go ahead and do this.
Nico Caceres
So pretty much we ran spread and we saw how deep Luke Keakley was here. So Luke Kely's here. And usually in flag football when you get a spread concept, you usually get some sort of man to man. So we knew that. That Harrison Smith and who's were locked up.
Mike Ryan
That that's it. That is. I'm gonna count that.
Nico Caceres
That's a day one ball from the side. From the side.
Mike Ryan
That's a handball speed.
Nico Caceres
Logan, Paul and the center were locked up. And then with the Slot receiver. And Luke Keakley being so far back, we knew we could run a triple move on him. So that's what we did. It's called a post. Corner post. And that's exactly. Yep. Pcp. And that's exactly what we ran.
Zach Lowe
No one in the NFL is ever that open.
Nico Caceres
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
There was nobody in 15 yards.
Dan Le Batard
Maybe because Luke Keakley was playing strong safety.
Mike Ryan
He was. He was like, unda in that game. Keakley was upset.
Nico Caceres
Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's probably no. He tried so hard and he is such, like, that is someone that epitomizes, like, great tackle football. No one here is going to say, like, can speak good. Like, how good? Luke.
Dan Le Batard
But the wrong body type.
Nico Caceres
Yes, 100%.
Mike Ryan
He was very clearly frustrated and he does everything 100% and emotional. You could tell, like when he just started grabbing the opposing team as opposed to trying to rip at their flags because he was so frustrated that it got to it.
Nico Caceres
So Luke. Luke Keakley is really good friends with our media guy. So they were talking in the week leading up to shout out Ryan Anderson. So they have a great relationship. And even Luke, they did a podcast for the Panthers, and even Luke was like, yeah, they saw me in the middle of the field and I knew it was no good after that.
Dan Le Batard
Guys, 20 yards ahead of him, of course.
Zach Lowe
Thank you, Nico. Appreciate the time and congratulations.
Nico Caceres
Thank you, guys. I appreciate you having me.
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Zach Lowe
Hey, who wants to hear me do
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Zach Lowe
I do.
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Zach Lowe
Zaslo how you love that cat phrase. Bad news for opposing teams in the Triple st. All smiles till the bronze. Clutch again, clutch again.
Mike Ryan
This is the Dan Levatar show with the st.
Zach Lowe
We're going to have pitch clock for you in the second hour of the show as well as Senator Mark Kelly. America's under duress. Obviously we've got a bunch of incompetents in charge of our government and then at the top of it you've got a dementia piece patient who's a felon who is hell bent on making the United States his seventh bankruptcy. And I'm sure Mark Kelly will be interesting on a number of subjects, including our airports being in almost total disarray inside and outside of the airports as ice begins to be used at the airport.
Mike Ryan
But they're giving out water.
Zach Lowe
So we will talk to Mark Kelly about that. I just asked Nico on his way out because I didn't mention what his stat line was for the game. It was 23 of 24 for 332 yards, six touchdowns and no interceptions against a bunch of NFL players. I said how common is that stat line? You just said, very confident guy, 23 of 25 for 332 yards, six touchdowns, no interceptions against the pros.
Mike Ryan
And I guess a cliche doesn't work in flag football. If you have two quarterbacks, you've got two quarterbacks.
Zach Lowe
The Connection. Zaz and he. He was fast with. With the correction about the connection because Jerry Rice and Joe Montana will forever be known as the better connection than the one of Gronk to Brady. But what Mike was saying about the idea of have there been humans alive who can stop those two guys doing that many reps over that many years at the precision of what that chemistry is Because Goff has it with St. Brown.
Nico Caceres
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
I'm not saying best pairing ever. Even though you can make an argument, I think statistically in terms of touchdowns that is. But I'm saying most unstoppable at the peak of their powers. Which quarterback receiver connection. And it's not wide receiver. It's just guy catching a pass is the most unstoppable. And I thought, I thought they proved it. I mean that. Remember that incredible game against the Denver Broncos where everyone on the planet knew where the ball was going? And I think like the same Stafford and Cooper cup had this.
Zach Lowe
You could do it with Stafford and Puka too.
Mike Ryan
You can, you can just. Guys that doesn't matter how well you play against them them, they're getting you
Zach Lowe
Zaslo Circling back around on a conversation that started serious and then I threw flag football and Latin refrandel dia music at it. What do you do in the modern age with all the stuff I'm talking about? If indeed let's not making about. Let's not make it about Pukinaku. I also threw in the funny lawyer with the hat in there just to add yet more levity to a serious conversation. Not my best judgment. In the hypothetical, if I tell you that CTE is going to manifest in a way that leads to a bunch of bad behavior, what do you imagine it's going to look like? If we're comfortable diagnosing TUA on CTE for stuff that happens on the field, what do you do with the only example we have right now? That's a famous one. There are more examples of this. Okay. One of the greatest shootings.
Mike Ryan
Shootings.
Zach Lowe
Greatest isn't the right word. One of the most deadly shootings that there have been in New York City involved somebody standing in front of the NFL building and saying, I'm doing this because of cte and leaving a note, and then was diagnosed with cte, what do you imagine the bad behavior, the reckless behavior would look like that we'd feel comfortable diagnosing? Hey, is that. Is this person a person who's reckless and bad, or is this a person who plays a style of football that has harmed his head and therefore the behavior seems like real lunacy.
Guest Caller
Yeah, I think it's. I think it's what you mentioned. I think it's like the guy who also went to the Kansas City Chiefs facility. Remember? I. I don't remember his name.
Mike Ryan
Javon Belcher.
Guest Caller
Yeah, Like, I think. I think it looks like that where I'm comfortable saying, or as comfortable as I'm going to be blaming CTE because I'm giving guys the benefit of the doubt that they're not just killers, you know? So if something like that happens where we're talking about murder and suicide, that's where I'm more comfortable saying, something must be wrong with their brain. Because what's going on here with Puka Nakua, I'm a lot more comfortable saying, yeah, you know what, maybe he's got concussions, maybe he's got cte. But also maybe it's just an asshole.
Dan Le Batard
Like, I'm more really immature.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, there's certainly a maturity issue there, and that could be an issue too, what Zaz is saying. But all these things can be made worse by a dude self medicating because he's very clearly partying a lot this off season, to the point that he's being filmed partying and being filmed and photographed passed out over there. They're all connected. Look, the sport does a good job of making you accustomed to this stuff. There was a dude that scored a touchdown on Monday Night Football for the Dallas Cowboys and like two weeks later was dead not even that long. We saw him in the end zone in all his glory, and then there was a police chase and he was discovered to be dead via suicide. And we just move on. Like, there's very clearly, as we all know by now and as this discourse has become more and more and more normalized, that while it feels reckless to talk about Puka Nakua these ways, like, that's how it always starts. It always starts there. And I think that sometimes we just brush off, like, oh, it's probably headed for a tragic end, but that'll be years from now. So we don't have to do anything about it now and go out there. I'll draft you in my third round of my fantasy team because you'll be incredible. For me, there's humans here and they're victimizing people too now.
Zach Lowe
So Junior Se out was supposed to have taught us this a long time ago. Right. Because Junior Seau was a good deal before anything that we're talking about. Zaz is going to the examples of death, which obviously should be the most jarring. But it's not merely death that you have to have in order to get people's attention. You need death and fame. You need both of them to be involved. Because I just got Belcher's first name wrong. Mike, I'm assuming. I don't know the name of the Dallas Cowboy that he's mentioning. But it's not just death. It has to be. We've talked before about the idea of when are people gonna talk about how dangerous this sport is in a way that actually alters the behavior. And we've said it's gotta be a player dying on the field to get everyone's attention. And that happened for a few minutes, and then he became comeback player of the year.
Mike Ryan
Well, I also. There's also some behavior here that I don't want to just let slide because he's clearly going through something right now. It could be just like a real immature patch and a guy enjoying being a superstar. Or there could be something like his whole take on CTE is concerning. But there's hateful speech here that he kind of got away with with the Aiden Ross saying, we kept moving on. People generally like Pukinakua, and then it just pops back up again.
Guest Caller
Why does that mean he's going through something? Again, like people who are hateful and behave really poorly. That doesn't mean they're going through anything, right?
Mike Ryan
No, it's bad people. Yeah. No two things can be true is what I'm saying.
Tony
Yeah, that's exactly kind of the feeling here. Right. Like, oddly enough, as we talk about this, I'm thinking about Kanye and like, when Kanye went on his anti se Semitic tirades and it was clearly mental health related. But that doesn't mean you let him off the hook for it. And I don't think anybody here is letting Puka off the hook for this behavior. But I think some of the differences that we're talking about when it comes to this specific situation for some of the others is while there was self harm and then also harm of the people directly close to a lot of these players. We're talking about whether that ends in. In something awful like murder, suicide, or there's domestic abuse that was happening, there's now multiple instances with Puka of being, like, publicly anti Semitic. And whether it was anti Semitism, whether it was, like, we've talked about anti feminism, whether it was Islamophobia, no matter what it is, when there starts to be this, like, hate that goes outward, you have to wonder about what is inside that person's heart to begin with, that might be sort of unlocked.
Zach Lowe
I want to remind everyone though that Antonio Brown's reputation was pristine.
Guest Caller
Pristine, like sounded different, he talked different.
Zach Lowe
I know that everyone now thinks of a certain thing with Antonio Brown because he still has a murder charge on him right now as we speak. Attempted attempted murder charge. Excuse me.
Mike Ryan
In all fairness to Antoine, that is an important, important test.
Zach Lowe
He failed at murder.
Mike Ryan
That's one way to frame it.
Tony
We all have our kinks.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, I'll google it some more because yeah, that one kind of came.
Tony's Friend
It was outside of a dirty boxing event where shots were fired, but we don't know exactly what happened.
Dan Le Batard
Murder strong.
Mike Ryan
We've impeded your thought enough. But it was an important correction. But I've seen this stuff play out, Dan. I wonder what the union has to say about this stuff because I feel like if I'm Roger Goodell watching the news cycle with Puka Nakua, I pick up a phone and be like, can we check up on this guy? If I'm the Rams, I'm like, can we get our security detail around this guy? Can we protect this guy from himself right now?
Zach Lowe
My point on Antonio Brown is when you go from pristine reputation to how we think about Antonio Brown now because the social media addiction allowed us to have an insight and access to, I'm gonna say crazy that we did not have before. And now you throw in the other thing that Mike said about self medication. Okay. The style of football that the Rams play that make it so that you can somehow replace the very physical Cooper cup with Puka Nkua and not really miss a beat. Even though Cooper cup and Matthew Stafford represent one of the greatest combinations you've ever seen. If you watch Higby and their tight ends play, their skill guys have to be so physical that I'm surprised that all of them aren't self medicating. Like there are times I'm watching the Rams receivers and I'm like, that dude's gonna break physically in half. And Puka is the most physical of them.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, it's very rare for physicality to jump off offensively when it's not like a running.
Zach Lowe
No, but that's a blocking out. No, no, but that is. That's a feature, not a bug. They go looking to draft him in the round. They do, because they're like, who's gonna give us five years of you will waste your body for us? Like Pukinakua replaced a guy who had more receiving yards in a season than anyone has ever had.
Timberland Announcer
Correct.
Zach Lowe
Cooper, or was he. Was he second Cooper cup had more yards in a season than anyone. And they went to replace him by finding in the lesser rounds, as they're very good at doing an incredibly physical wide receiver.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, I'm not. I'm not sure to replace him. And now I'm curious to see, like, why. Why did Puka, you know, slide so much in that. In that draft? I'm sure they knew some about that stuff, but there might be people that respond to this. I don't know. If it gets clipped, that'll be like, you guys are overreacting. Come on. This is nothing like Antonio Brown. But when we mention Antonio Brown, Antonio Brown now is a cautionary tale forever will be. That guy was a bona fide hall of Famer, and his last act on a football field was removing his uniform and making a show of it. And we saw it play out right in front of our eyes on our devices. And the seeds of it are not too dissimilar. And I do think that we who cover this sport and who talked about the Antonio Brown thing as it happened, are not being reckless by mentioning that, because there is something clearly a little off here.
Tony's Friend
Cooper cup second all time, by the way, behind Kevin Johnson.
Zach Lowe
I'm doing it purposefully, though, and I'm not trying to be hyperbolic. I'm saying we don't know what any of this stuff looks like. And the cautionary tale we have if someone who went from professional pillar to his crazy, like. And we saw it happen, we saw it happened on social media. And the reason I'm asking, Zaz, what do you think it looks like? It can't be just suicide in the training facility parking lot, like Belcher, like, yeah, that'll get anybody's attention. The build up to it. What do you think it looks like it's. It's reckless behavior. You're drinking too much, you're passing out because your body's in pain.
Mike Ryan
And what's your support system look like because your family also has issues that are concerning?
Tony
I think it looks like Puka, no joke, us.
Zach Lowe
You thought that was a good way to end the set.
Tony
Comedy stylings, Dano.
Zach Lowe
Oh, my God.
Timberland Announcer
Careful, Mike.
Dan Le Batard
You know I have one rule to live by, right?
Mike Ryan
Don't place parlays on multiple long shots. Don't say a game is won when it hasn't hit triple zero.
Dan Le Batard
Always drink your Jagermeister ice cold. That's the rule. Everything else is merely a suggestion.
Mike Ryan
Everything else?
Dan Le Batard
Everything else.
Mike Ryan
Wearing clean underwear every day.
Dan Le Batard
Well, that's a just of personal decision.
Mike Ryan
Brushing your teeth, obviously.
Dan Le Batard
Smart. But not a rule.
Mike Ryan
Never pee pee on an electric fence.
Dan Le Batard
Okay, maybe there are two rules. But the one that is a hundred percent that I insist on completely, Jagermeister must be drank ice cold. Or don't drink it at all.
Tony
Damn, that's cold.
Dan Le Batard
Exactly. You're finally starting to get it.
Mike Ryan
Drink responsibly. Jagermeister liqueur, 35% alcohol by volume, imported by mass Jagermeister US White Plains, New York.
Hour 1: Targeting Bud Crawford (feat. Nico Casares)
Date: March 26, 2026
Recorded live from The Elser Hotel in Downtown Miami, Hour 1 of The Dan Le Batard Show features the usual banter from Dan, Stugotz, and the rest of the crew, with a focus on sports and pop culture. This episode is enriched by an in-depth segment featuring Nico Casares, QB for the USA Men's Flag Football Team. The crew dives into the recent showcase game where pros from the NFL—like Brady, Gronk, and others—took on Team USA flag footballers, leading to insights about the differences between the sports, athlete skillsets, and the Olympic potential of flag football. There's also a serious, nuanced discussion about NFL receiver Puka Nacua's off-field issues, including allegations and concerns for player wellbeing.
Context: The show pivots serious as Dan and Zach discuss Rams WR Puka Nacua’s escalating off-field problems: biting allegation, accusations of antisemitism, and questionable behavior documented on social media (05:20–09:08).
Legal Situation: The crew scrutinizes Nacua’s legal representation, mocking a photo of his lawyer and commenting on the optics and the lack of denial around the biting incident (05:56–09:08).
Player Welfare: Concerns are raised about Nacua’s mental health, potential CTE-related manifestations, and parallels are drawn to Antonio Brown’s downward spiral post-brain trauma:
“Early stage Antonio Brown behavior is about as large an indictment I can make of an athlete in that sport.” (07:54 – Zach Lowe)
“All of this behavior is super concerning and strange…this is early stage Antonio Brown type behavior that we were all kind of laughing at with the Raiders and then it got out of hand quickly.” (06:32 – Mike Ryan)
There is a nuanced, layered dialogue on how NFL player support systems often fail to prevent tragic career arcs (38:41–47:54).
Guest: Nico Casares, USA Flag Football QB, joins the panel (11:01).
Pre-Game Expectations: Nico and his teammates were always confident they’d beat the NFL pros, noting that even though the NFL players are elite, flag football is “totally different”—requiring quickness and game nuance over size and traditional strength (12:51–13:24).
Game Insights: The ease of their victory surprised even them due to the pros not adapting quickly to flag-specific rules:
“I just thought personally we were going to get more scoring from them… you could tell how much the rush affected stuff, that they’re only seven yards away. They didn’t have a blocker, so that affected things.” (12:51 – Nico Casares)
NFL Stars’ Attitude: Despite initial bravado, most pros showed respect and curiosity. Gronk showed notably high engagement, asking technical questions; Saquon Barkley was singled out as friendly and interested in learning nuances (11:43–14:41).
Underrated Talent and Style: The crew and Nico highlight how power matters less than agility and know-how; American flag footballers—often “5’8, 145 lbs, but they fly”—are built for a game NFL stars can’t dominate solely through athleticism (24:01).
On Gronk and Game Changers:
“Gronk was a massive human being to get around playing any sort of football. And I think it showed in flag football…he loved it.” (18:57 – Nico Casares)
“If he doesn’t pull his hammy, I’d love to see how that game played out because Gronk still is unguardable and he still has the gifts.” (26:34 – Mike Ryan)
Team USA’s Position: Nico claims Team USA is gold medal favorite but Mexico is tough competition—recently beating them by just a point. Panama, Japan, and Italy are also strong (21:45–22:05).
NFL Players’ Fit for Olympics: The logistical and physical constraints make it hard for NFL stars to fully transition, despite their raw talent (23:24–24:25). Gronk and Logan Paul are humorously suggested as the best candidates for “crossover” success (24:31–24:34).
Targeting Bud Crawford: Terence “Bud” Crawford, the only non-football pro, was “targeted as a specific weakness” but impressed everyone with his humility and camaraderie (24:47–25:24):
“I won’t sit here and disrespect arguably a Mount Rushmore boxer of all time...there’s no better guy that we met this weekend than Bud.” (24:54 – Nico Casares)
Second half of the hour returns to the Puka Nacua conversation, confronting the blurred lines between brain trauma, bad behavior, and “just being an asshole” (39:43–43:52).
Comparing Nacua’s trajectory to Antonio Brown and remembering the wave of NFL suicides, including Junior Seau and Javon Belcher, the panel asks how much is ignored when signs are visible:
“Junior Seau was supposed to have taught us this a long time ago…It’s not merely death that you have to have in order to get people’s attention. You need death and fame.” (41:20–42:13 – Zach Lowe)
“All these things can be made worse by a dude self-medicating because he’s very clearly partying a lot this off-season...” (40:03 – Mike Ryan)
“Early stage Antonio Brown behavior is about as large an indictment I can make of an athlete in that sport.”
— Zach Lowe (07:54)
“I won’t sit here and disrespect arguably a Mount Rushmore boxer of all time...there’s no better guy that we met this weekend than Bud.”
— Nico Casares, on Terence “Bud” Crawford (24:54)
“But what Mike was saying about…have there been humans alive who can stop those two guys [Brady & Gronk] doing that many reps over that many years at the precision of what that chemistry is…?”
— Zach Lowe (37:08)
“I always knew…and as a team, we always knew we were going to win the game. We do this all the time, so it’s a difference there. They’re picking this up in a week…their job is the NFL.”
— Nico Casares (12:51)
“Gronk is such an advantage.”
— Mike Ryan (27:05)
“What do you do in the modern age with all the stuff I’m talking about? If…CTE is going to manifest in a way that leads to a bunch of bad behavior, what do you imagine it’s going to look like? Reckless behavior…self medicating…your body’s in pain.”
— Zach Lowe (43:52–47:54)
The episode masterfully blends humor and irreverence with serious, topical sports discussion. The interview with Nico Casares offers fascinating insight into flag football's nuances, skill separation from tackle football, and the unique pride of representing Team USA. In contrast, the recurring conversation about Puka Nacua’s behavior and wellbeing showcases the show’s willingness to wrestle with uncomfortable but vital issues in sports culture—the intersections of violence, fame, mental health, and accountability.
Listeners can expect a memorable mix of laughs, candor, and layered sports analysis.