The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz

Hour 1: The Fan vs. The Fanatic (feat. Brett Favre's Sister?)

Date: December 18, 2025
Hosts: Dan Le Batard, Stugotz, with Chris Cote, Mike Schur, Zach Harper, Trista, Juju Smith-Schuster, and Jeremy

Main Theme:

This episode is a classic mix of sports, pop culture, personal confessionals, and signature banter, focusing on the evolving line between fandom and fanaticism in sports, laced with hilarious takes on table manners, sports controversies, and the intersection of sports and movies. The team navigates everything from the discomfort of big Miami events to GM youth movements in baseball, with diversions through bad-movie nostalgia, food etiquette, and the latest NFL headlines.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Support for David Samson and Community Generosity

[02:02–04:15]

• Dan opens with a heartfelt discussion about David Samson's personal difficulties and the charitable auction effort for St. Jude's.
• Mike Schur and Ariel Helwani have both patched up feuds with Samson to support the cause.
  • Dan: "David Samson is trying to do a good thing at an impossibly hard time...Mike Schur has broken his feud with David Samson. That was a real thing."
• Emphasizes the capacity for sports figures to come together during hardship.
  • Mike Schur: "Helwani said something similar...I was very touched by it."

2. Dan’s Internal Debate: To Attend the Fight or Not?

[04:19–11:01]

• Dan expresses ambivalence about attending a big Miami MMA fight, citing the divisive crowd, his desire to pay for tickets as a principle, and the PR nature of these events.
  • Dan: "I kind of want to go to this fight, and I kind of don't want to go...I felt really alone in my own city with what everything that was about the worst parts of Miami that I don't want to be around."
• The gang riffs on what food would be most disgusting to eat out of a bag at a public event ("spaghetti," "shepherd’s pie," "milk steak"), and etiquette on spaghetti eating: spoon-or-no-spoon?
  • Trista: "Get over yourself. If I see someone twirling pasta with a spoon at the end of it. Get over yourself." (06:03)
  • Dan: "I've gone through 57 years of my life not knowing some base, very basic thing about table manners." (06:30)
• Juju Smith-Schuster and Zach Harper volunteer as Dan’s companions, joking about levels of celebrity and access.
  • Stugotz: "Going with me places is like going with damn near MC Hammer somewhere." (11:38)
  • Zach Harper: "No better access in my life than having juju by my side, man." (12:21)

3. NFL Thursday Night Football: Bigger Than Ever

[15:13–18:28]

• Excitement and gravitas build around the upcoming Thursday Night Football matchup—labeled as the biggest yet.
  • Dan: "We used to make fun of Thursday Night Football. Now it's Al Michaels and Kirk Herb street calling the single biggest Thursday night game..." (15:13)
• Chris Cote highlights the rarity: first time two 11-win teams have played on TNF.
  • Chris Cote: "This is the first time that two 11 win teams have matched up on Thursday night..."

4. Puka Nacua Family Drama & Athlete Controversies

[18:07–22:58]

• Discussion turns to Rams WR Puka Nacua’s rising fame and recent controversies involving him and his brother Samson Nacua (who was arrested for stealing a car belonging to a Lakers player).
  • Dan: "Puka Nakua has been on that show [Aiden Ross stream]...he said the refs are making calls just to be on television."
  • Chris Cote: "His brother who plays in the UFL slapped a fan…then yesterday…he was arrested for stealing a car." (19:51)
  • Zach Harper: "I guess the car had a tracker in it, but again they valet parked it." (20:50)
• Cautionary tales are drawn between the behavior of young stars and the infamous Antonio Brown saga.
  • Zach Harper: "What was Antonio Brown doing? He's live streaming from the locker room...I think this is very familiar."
• The show hesitates but doesn’t ignore that antisemitism has surfaced in this story; they’re uncomfortable and aware.
  • Dan: "I don't want to just skip past the anti Semitic parts of this. It's not a great time." (22:29)

5. The ‘Dentek Bucket’ & Football Pick Segment

[23:24–28:30]

• The show’s signature fantasy punishment game returns, with the crew drawing random NFL teams and swapping picks, complete with mouthpieces for sponsorship purposes.
• Comic relief as everyone banters, swaps teams, and complains about unlucky draws and owed punishments.
  • Dan (dryly): "That was fun. It wasn't really." (27:59)
• Show pokes fun at the elaborate and sometimes chaotic nature of the “Bucket”.

6. Generational Shift: Young GMs in Professional Baseball

[32:45–37:49]

• Dan reflects on the Nationals hiring a 31-year-old GM, questioning readiness at such age, and comparing with the Moneyball era rise of "whiz kids".
  • Dan: "Were you equipped at 31 years old to run a franchise, to be the GM of a franchise?"
  • Zach Harper: "Absolutely not. Because when you talk about leading ops department, it's not just, 'Oh, what trade should we do?'...A lot of times, when you're that age, you’re in this constant feeling of, 'I gotta prove to everybody I know my shit.'"
• Juju notes that Nationals’ management is even younger than some minor league staff, which sparks more debate about age and leadership.
  • Juju Smith-Schuster: "Their manager is 33, their GM is 31. Every single one of those guys is born after 1990." (36:52)

7. Bad Sports Movies: “The Fan” vs “The Fanatic”

[38:00–43:29]

• Dan brings up obscure movie trivia: the De Niro film “The Fan” vs. “The Fanatic” by Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit), leading to a Cinephobe podcast plug and an impassioned bad movie breakdown.
  • Dan: "Were you aware of there's a worse movie than [The Fan] called the Fanatic by John Travolta?...written and directed by Limp Biscuits Fred Durst..."
  • Zach Harper: "The central character in The Fanatic is played by John Travolta...one of the most famous quotes is ‘Moose is in the house.’" (40:12)
  • Mike Schur & Zach Harper: Bond over deep-cut sports movie scenes and nitpicking radio realism in “The Fan.”
• Discussion strays to sports superstitions—like players and jersey numbers—and real-life consequences of sporting “bad movies.”

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• Dan Le Batard (emotional): "I wouldn't wish what [David Samson] is going through on anybody that I cared about." (02:02)
• Trista (on spaghetti etiquette): "Get over yourself. If I see someone twirling pasta with a spoon at the end of it. Get over yourself." (06:03)
• Stugotz (on event access): "You know, going with me places is like going with damn near MC Hammer somewhere. You know, we just gonna be dancing and having a lot of high fives, bro." (11:38)
• Dan Le Batard (on Miami events): "This is a C or B seen thing and I don't want to be seen by these particular people." (08:47)
• Chris Cote (on TNF stakes): "This is the first time that two 11-win teams have matched up on Thursday night. It's been a very strange NFL season. Feels like a whole new era." (16:06)
• Zach Harper (on AEW): “No better access in my life than having juju by my side, man. Access to everything, private rooms and stuff.” (12:21)
• Dan Le Batard (on young GMs): "GM is different than a coach. And they really are going after the numbers guys trying to get the whiz kids who know better about how to exploit market inefficiencies with the numbers through the data." (34:44–35:45)
• Juju Smith-Schuster (front office youth): "Their manager is 33, their GM is 31. Every single one of those guys is born after 1990." (36:52)
• Dan Le Batard (on bad sports radio movies): "I'm honestly stunned that I placed in front of you a movie that had 150 big cats mauling crew members, and you're more excited about The Fan with Robert De Niro and a sports radio call..." (41:54)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:02] – David Samson charity, show-of-support stories
• [04:19] – “Should I go to this Miami fight?” internal debate
• [05:03–06:49] – The spaghetti etiquette debate (fork vs. spoon)
• [11:38] – Stugotz and Zach on how event access works with celebrity friends
• [15:13] – Build-up to the “biggest Thursday Night Football game ever”
• [18:07] – Puka Nacua controversies, family drama, live stream fallout
• [22:29] – Antisemitism and uncomfortable sides of sports controversies
• [23:24] – “Dentek Bucket” (NFL game pick ‘punishments’)
• [32:45] – Dan on GMs, front-office youth movement
• [38:00] – Movie segment: bad sports flicks and radio realism
• [41:54] – Dan’s incredulity at the love for “The Fan”

Tone & Show Flair

• Original, irreverent, and always informal. The show combines vulnerability (admitting ignorance about table manners), inside jokes (eating spaghetti in a bag), sharp critiques (on young GMs, athlete behavior), and deep-dive nostalgia (bad sports movies).
• Signature blend: Sports commentary that’s less about box scores, and more about personalities, quirks, and cultural meaning—plus a healthy dose of self-deprecation and meta commentary.

This episode is an essential listen for anyone who loves sports talk that isn't afraid to wander, joke, and uncover the beating (often bizarre) heart of what it means to be both a fan and a fanatic.