Hour 1: Zaslow Pulls a Greg Cote

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz

Episode Title: Hour 1: Zaslow Pulls a Greg Cote
Date: March 2, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Dan Le Batard, Stugotz, and the crew broadcast from the Elser Hotel in Downtown Miami, sharing their sharp, comedic takes on sports, pop culture, and the madness of modern life. The hosts dive into stories from the NFL Scouting Combine, debate the semantics of the word “ginger,” and deliver their signature blend of absurdity and insight on topics ranging from skyrocketing blow pop prices, to the business of college sports, to Floyd Mayweather’s prodigious spending (and return to boxing at 49). The show exemplifies Le Batard and Stugotz’s style—equal parts freewheeling banter, cultural observation, and irreverent humor.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. NFL Scouting Combine Highlights and Dissections

(00:08 – 08:59)

• Dan’s Recap of Combine “Big Stories”:

  • Diego Pavia’s nonconformity and lack of “maximum humility” rubs people the wrong way.
  • Reuben Bain’s “arms are too short” for scouts’ liking, sparking debate about the importance of wingspan for edge rushers.
  • Jennings Dunker (“my hero,” says Dan), a massive Iowa offensive lineman with iconic “hair metal” style, becomes a focus of fascination.
    • “This is 80s music. This is Poison. This is…Yes. This is a big guy with a mullet.” (Dan, 00:28)

• The 'Ginger' Debate:

  • The crew gets into whether “ginger” is a slur or not.
    • Juju: “You know how I feel about that word…” (01:12)
    • Dan: “I believe that it should be pejorative because you’re attacking a minority…” (01:22)
    • Chris: “I don’t like the word either.” (01:16)
    • Juju: “I am scared of that word.” (01:18)
  • Lots of jokes about who is “allowed” to use the term, culminating in riffs on intra-community usage.

• Fun with Combine Miscellany:

  • Sam Darnold’s paleness is compared to Dunker’s.
  • Crowd at the Combine heckles Georgia QB Carson Beck, possibly just for his “face” (03:51).
    • “People just hate Carson Beck. I think it’s his face.” (Dan, 03:54)
  • A reporter humiliates himself by failing to bench press 135 lbs. after mocking athlete “softness” (06:36).
    • “Why would he subject himself to do that? … That’s 135 pounds.” (Dan, 07:21)
    • “You can’t just quit when it lands on your chest and is that light!” (Dan, 08:54)

• Bench Press Records and Their (Non)Significance:

  • The crew reflects on the all-time combine bench press record:
    • Justin Ernest (Eastern Kentucky), 51 reps, never played in an NFL game.
    • “Pretty impressive to me. Whatever. Who cares?” (Dan, 09:50)
    • “Would you believe I never played football, but I did more bench presses with 225 while in a football setting than anyone has ever done, including Larry Allen…” (Dan, 09:52)

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2. Absurdity of Modern Consumer Prices

(11:03 – 18:29)

• Dan’s Shock at Airport Blow Pop Prices:

  • He recalls paying $2.29 at an airport for a single Blow Pop, expecting it to cost $1.
    • “No, that’s not silly, man. That’s not silly. Come on.” (Dan, 12:06)
    • “Put it on the poll, please, Juju at lebatardshow: Is $2.29 too much for a Blow Pop?” (Dan, 18:29)

• Airport Snack Choices Met With Bemusement:

  • The crew clowns Dan for picking a Blow Pop as a grown man, especially to freshen “airport breath.”
    • “A grown man at the airport with a sucker.” (Stugotz, 15:38)
    • Dan explains he just wanted one piece of gum: “You can’t buy a single piece of gum.” (B, 17:02)

• Mortgage Gripes:

  • Chris abruptly shifts the discussion to how his “fixed interest” mortgage went up $600 without explanation, venting about the confusion of modern home ownership.
    • “I have to figure it out for myself…this is insane.” (Chris, 17:40)

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3. Business and Chaos of College Athletics

(18:29 – 24:49)

• School Debt and Lawsuits:

  • University of Cincinnati sues QB Brendan Sorsby for $1 million after transferring to Texas Tech, who “stole” their quarterback.
    • Dan: “I don’t understand how it is that Mike’s guy, D$ from CanesInsight, keeps putting out that the FSU program is $437 million in debt…” (18:54)
  • The FSU athletic program’s massive debt is dissected; speculation about private equity, super-leagues, and existential risk to traditional college sports models.
    • “Ultimately where this all goes is some kind of uniform super league…you’ll have owners, you’ll have private equity firms, and they’ll be treated like actual private franchises.” (Chris, 20:46)

• The NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) Arms Race:

  • Texas Tech’s transformation into a “titan” via aggressive NIL spending amazes the group.
    • “Lubbock, Texas is nowhere land. The idea that that exists as a place that is now buying premium college football and basketball talent…is unbelievable to watch.” (Dan, 24:23)
  • Mahomes’ brand and donors’ increasing power are changing the landscape, as are high-profile former players (like Andrew Luck) getting directly involved as fundraisers.

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4. The Economics (and Absurdity) of Floyd Mayweather’s Career

(29:02 – 39:18)

• Mayweather’s Return to Boxing at 49:

  • The crew assumes he’s coming back for money, not for love of the game (29:02).
    • “Nobody goes back into the game of possibly being hit and embarrassed…simply because they love boxing a great deal. At the age of 49…” (Dan, 29:33)
  • Jokes about Mayweather’s spending and lifestyle:
    • “It’s the price of Blow Pops that has brought him back into [boxing], I’m sure.” (Chris, 30:01)
    • “He probably has a dozen homes and three dozen different people holding his mortgages…” (Chris, 29:48)

• Floyd's Legendary Fiscal Irresponsibility:

  • Yet, as Dan points out, “It really is hard to blow that much money and end up in a situation where you have to fight at 49…” (Dan, 31:53)
  • Crew details Mayweather’s earnings: Over $1.2 billion in career fight earnings.
    • “Your spending has to be so fiscally irresponsible to lose the amount of money that Floyd Mayweather has lost that it is almost beyond anything that is reason.” (Dan, 30:53)

• The Difficulty of Going Broke at That Level:

  • Discussion of athletes who have made (and lost) massive fortunes—Mayweather, Phil Mickelson, Neymar, and others.
    • “When you guys are saying it’s easy to spend $1.2 billion, I’m again going to tell you that it’s not quite as easy. … We are talking about the most fiscally irresponsible athlete there has ever been, ever.” (Dan, 38:27)
  • Trista brings up how “all the handlers that always take percentages of entertainers, gross figures…all of a sudden you’re broke.” (Trista, 37:18)
  • Remarkable tidbits about Floyd’s investments/spending:
    • $400+ million real estate deal in NYC.
    • Spotted carrying/ spending $80,000 in Louis Vuitton backpacks and spending $500,000 in a single sitting (36:21).

• Where Does This End?

  • “If he cannot get his spending in order because he’s gotten used to a lifestyle that’s asinine…what do you imagine 60 is going to look like for Floyd?” (Dan, 36:42)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Combine Objectification:
  “Every year at this time, we start objectifying these people in a way that’s meat market-y…” (Dan, 04:47)

• On “Ginger” Among Friends:
  “We could say it to each other.” (Chris, 02:52) “They can say it with an A at the end. Ginger.” (Juju, 02:56)

• On Airport Prices:
  “I just paid $9 for a cup of coffee. … What is the most you guys think a blow pop costs now?” (Dan, 11:00)

• On the Business of College Sports:
  “Ultimately, where this all goes is some kind of uniform super league alignment from the top 50 some-odd schools … and football is siloed off on its own.” (Chris, 20:55)

• On Mayweather’s Spending:
  “He probably looking at this, saying like this makes the most sense… he is, or has been, a businessman as an athlete that almost doesn’t have a peer because he owns all his own stuff as an independent.” (Dan, 30:53/36:21)

• On Athlete Fortune:
  “We are talking about the most fiscally irresponsible athlete there has ever been, ever. If he can blow this amount of money, … there’s never been anything close to this kind of fiscal irresponsibility in the history of sports.” (Dan, 38:27)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• NFL Combine Recap and ‘Ginger’ Talk: 00:08 – 03:34
• Combine Benching Shenanigans: 06:36 – 09:38
• Airport Blow Pop Rant: 11:03 – 12:36 / 15:06 – 16:41
• Mortgage Price Gripe: 17:12 – 18:29
• College Sports Debt & NIL Business: 18:29 – 24:49
• Texas Tech as New Power: 24:23 – 25:13
• Mayweather’s Reckless Spending and Boxing Comeback: 29:02 – 39:18

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Tone & Style

This episode is classic Le Batard Show: fast, funny, a little chaotic, and whip-smart. It oscillates between insightful sports analysis and completely off-kilter riffs on language, economics, and snack prices. The banter is playful but sharp ("murdering the show with your bare hands"), and the cast doesn’t shy away from difficult (or outright absurd) conversations, whether on college football’s future or the “slur” status of the word ginger.

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For New Listeners

If you didn’t catch the episode, expect to laugh out loud, question the mechanics of college sports, and maybe reconsider your next airport snack purchase. And you’ll walk away with a better understanding of why Floyd Mayweather might need another payday, and why a grown man at the airport with a Blow Pop is worthy of 10 minutes of national debate.

Transcript

[A]

This is the Dan Levator show with the Stugats podcast.

[B]

Having had some time here to cool off and be alone with my thoughts and see all of the ways that I am flawed, perhaps publicly, you guys can help catch me up on some things that I've missed. Last week from the scouting combine because I thought that there were three big stories from the scouting combine, okay? Diego Pavia is himself, and so people don't like when a quarterback goes in there or any player and isn't maximum humble inside of the system. Reuben Bain's arms are too short. And then this man, Jennings Dunker. Oh, my hero offensive lineman from Iowa and from your hair metal band past. This is 80s music. This is, you know, this is poison. This is. Yes. This is a big guy with a mullet.

[C]

Look at him doing drills here.

[A]

Is that a pure ginger, Chris?

[C]

Oh, that is a proper ginger right there. Full.

[D]

What do you think, Juju? Do you think that's a proper ginger?

[E]

You know how I feel about that word. I don't want to be.

[B]

You're scared. You're scared of that?

[C]

Yeah, I don't like the word either.

[E]

I am scared of that word.

[D]

Says it's pejorative. It's pejorative.

[B]

I don't think it is pejorative. I believe that it should be pejorative because you're attacking a minority, but you're doing it with ginger. And it's just a nice word, but juju doesn't want any part of it. If you're listening to Ali, I didn't

[C]

like the word girl growing up.

[A]

I'll be honest with you.

[B]

Okay, so you think it's a slur. You think because juju's avoiding the word entirely on the list of slurs, probably

[D]

low, but a slur nonetheless, I'll give you that.

[B]

But I don't think anyone looks at it as a slur. But now let's rank them. Well,

[E]

I'll do the one

[B]

you need to. On behalf of fellow gingers, rise up if you wish for it to be considered a slur. Because I have heard no one ever say that gingers are being wronged by being called gingers. It's not exactly a term of endearment, but it's sure not a. No, it's not. But it's not a slur. It's not a slur. It's. It's. Look, it does. I don't think it even gets close to cracker.

[E]

Oh, wow.

[C]

I am scared.

[B]

Who gave him the green light? I don't think it's Even I think ginger is. Exists in this space where it is not quite. Quite offensive, but it's just a descriptive term that isn't quite as benign as redhead. But also, I have never heard anyone. I've heard gingers refer to themselves as ginger without.

[C]

We could say it to each other.

[B]

Oh, see?

[A]

Oh, sure, they can say it.

[E]

They can say it with an A at the end. Ginger.

[B]

Can I see a little more of this guy doing drills? It's a great. It's a great name. Jennings Dunker. But it's a lot of red hair. But Chris, I'm not sure. It's a lot of freckles. Those are some pale thighs. I cannot tell from here that there are freckles. And also, can we zoom in on that arm? And also, Sam Darnold is a little bit paler. I think of gingers as being slightly less tan than this person. Not getting a tan in Iowa. The combine is. Where is it? Still in Indianapolis?

[A]

Yes. That's why Carson Beck got booed, because they allow paying patrons to go over there and heckle. Carson Beck, who, by the way, made himself some money, was the most impressive quarterback on throwing day.

[B]

Why is it that. That he was being heckled just because

[A]

they lost to Indiana? Yeah. Also, people just hate Carson Beck. I think it's his face.

[D]

Definitely.

[E]

His face looks like a mugsy cartoon.

[B]

What other scouting combine stories did I miss? Is there anything good that other than those three that I just mentioned?

[A]

The head coach of the Jets, Aaron Glenn, took a nap during the tv. Aaron Glenn got caught, was alerted that he was on camera and had to be startled. We can grab that video for you, Jeremiah Love. Very fast. Why wasn't Arkansas better? Was another question that people were asking Markel Bell. Hey, where maybe Reuben Bain has some physical deficiencies. Markel Bell seems like an elevated human being who is very fast. I don't know if he's going to ever have to run 40 yards downfield, but it seems as though he can do so quite well. The Reuben Bain discourse is interesting because, like, we've always known that he's been undersized. We've known about his wingspan, but I guess people at large didn't tapes speaks for itself.

[B]

The thing about wingspan, that's interesting to me because every year at this time, we start objectifying these people in a way that's meat markety. And it's usually there's some small hand stuff. This is not something that I've heard a lot of though, because you have to have a specific set of things to be a great edge rusher. And usually the Jadavian clownies of the world happen to have hands that reach down to around their knees because they can swing around the edge with that kind of wingspan. But the way that Ruben Bane does it, though, is because he's lower to the ground. He is lower to the ground on the edge rush. When he leans to you and it's all strength. It almost doesn't matter that his arms are short because of how he's using leverage.

[A]

But he will run into times where it matters. In fact, he has run into times. I've seen film breakdowns of when he was going up against ole misses line. That was good. And bigger body types and where your wingspan does matter. Same thing happened to Brett Romberg, who was a center for the University of Miami T. Rex arms who had short arms. It's blocking. You're physically battling someone else and you're at a disadvantage, a clear one if your arms are shorter when you're trying to disengage. So, yeah, Ruben Bane has to be more powerful, has to be a little bit lower, has to be a little bit quicker off the edge. He is all those things. I think he's going to be a real good pro. Will he replicate the same amount of success he had in college going up against consistently bigger body types and wingspans? He's going to have to be really, really great to overcome that stuff. And it's probably why he won't be drafted, you know, top five. If he had normal arm length at the position, the guy would be a bonafide top three pick and no doubter. Yeah.

[E]

It was also two more stories that came out. One, the USC wide receiver, Lemon, he was giving sassy look. He was serving looks to. After all that, right then they didn't go over too well. As also a reporter, one of our. One of our own guys in the media took upon himself to do his own combine. And this is one of the guys that they say has been talking about Caleb Williams fingernails and the softness of people. And he did a little bench press and we got a video with that. Let's see that video team.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

I was not ready for that.

[D]

Did he say, oh, yeah? No.

[B]

Why would he subject himself to do that? That's 135 pounds. That's not the 225 that they've got to throw up. That's 135 pounds. Why would he subject himself to that?

[E]

Jeremy said he want to do it back here.

[C]

I said, he looks like me. And I said Specifically, I'm not gonna say I could do that because then Dan will make me do it. And I'm not gonna. I'm already saying it. I'm not gonna do it. Nope.

[A]

We have a gym.

[C]

I already have a bad. I already have a bad back and neck specifically because Brian McKinney put me in a headlock, and I'm not doing anything about that. So let's not. Let's not push it any further.

[E]

McKinney hurt me too, in that same situation. So I'm on Jeremy side.

[B]

Can you guys look up for me what the record is? It's still. Larry Allen holds the record for bench press at the scouting combat because I think he did 225, 46 times. And I don't know if anyone has topped it since there. The Larry Allen was somebody who was feared by a whole bunch of violent men who do defensive things for a living. For 46 times at 225, which is. That's really embarrassing for that reporter.

[A]

How did he think that was gonna go?

[B]

I'm just surprised that he had that much trouble, though, with. I mean, you gotta be able to get 135 up off the one time. Like, it can't just collapse on your chest. If you're someone who's criticizing Caleb Williams for painting his fingernails and being soft,

[A]

it was immediate give up.

[B]

You can't just quit when it lands on your chest. And is that light?

[D]

He said, oh, yeah.

[A]

No, that is.

[C]

The record at the combine for reps of 225 pounds is 51, set by defensive tackle of Eastern Kentucky, Justin Earnest in 1999. Larry Allen did it 43 times out of Pro Bowl.

[B]

How was that player from Eastern Michigan, did he play in the pros? Or was he just somebody who holds the combine record and then stopped playing football after that? Because it's not somebody whose game I am familiar with. I don't know whether that person has actually had success in the pros or not.

[C]

Never played an NFL game, broke that record. He was an all Ohio Valley conference pick in 97, played at Eastern Kentucky, and then never played an NFL game despite doing that 51 times.

[A]

Pretty impressive to me. Whatever. Who cares?

[B]

NFL it is. Actually, you know what? I'm with Zaslow on this. There's some guy wandering around the earth telling people and nobody believes him. Would you believe I never played football, but I did more bench presses with 225 while in a football setting than anyone has ever done, including Larry Allen. That guy, that gas bag Levitard won't shut up about. I did it eight times more than he did. And I was. I never played it down football horrible

[C]

at the other drills.

[B]

Right. I think that person actually tells people the bar. Now I think we should a try and get a hold of that person and B, I think that guy tell the way that he retells the story now in old age because it was in 99 is like, yeah, once I did that, I didn't have any need to prove I was stronger than any of them. So I just quit football.

[C]

Ran a 9, 4, 40.

[B]

He must have really been terrible at the other drills. You would think somebody would take a chance on the guy who could bench press to 25, 51 times.

[A]

Probably bomb the interviews.

[C]

Couldn't have been good at the cone drill.

[B]

What have you guys noticed recently when purchasing things you've heard me complain about? I have a new complaint, but you've heard me complain about the way that coffee prices are going up. Get ready for gas to go up, if it hasn't already when it gets to $100 a barrel. But a cup of beans right now. I just paid $9 for a cup of coffee. And it wasn't the most offensive purchase that was made by me in the airport. What is the most you guys think a blow pop costs? Now, I had not bought a blow pop in I don't know how many years, singular. One. One blow pop. And I'm saying that this is what they cost all over. I know that the, the airport goes, you know, with game show prices on stuff. So I know that this isn't normal pricing. But still I was alarmed when I put a blow to blow pop on the counter and then put a dollar behind it. Thinking that. Thinking that too.

[A]

Silly man.

[B]

No, that's not silly. Come on. That's not silly, man. That's not silly. Come on.

[A]

What a strange look. If that person knows sports at all. What a strange interaction. The person on the receiving end just had that. Keep the change. Hey, you guys remember the guy from highly questionable came to my little kiosk? He put a single blow pop on the cashier table and slid a dollar behind it and looked at me like I was crazy. He hasn't been out the house in 50 years.

[C]

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[A]

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[D]

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[A]

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[B]

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[D]

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[A]

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[D]

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[B]

Don Lebatard. But it's just his titties are sitting on the shelf that is his belly.

[A]

Stugats. He said titties like shocked me a little bit. I wasn't quite prepared for titties. This is the Don Levatar show with the stugats.

[B]

Again though, I want to ask the question are you. You guys. Nobody here is surprised that a blow pop is over a dollar.

[C]

Back in the day it was would have guessed the dollar like that. When you said to guess, I was going to say it.

[B]

I didn't even get halfway there.

[A]

Is 250 a bad guess? $3 easy.

[B]

It wasn't $3. 275, it was $2.29.

[D]

But why are you. I don't think we're asking the most obvious question is you're at the airport, you're going for a snack.

[C]

It's a great snack.

[A]

I'm with Dan.

[D]

And a blow pop.

[B]

It's not a.

[D]

A grown man at the airport with a sucker.

[A]

And I think the airport shops know that they can jack up the prices because where else are you gonna go?

[D]

Also, did you get a banana?

[C]

You a biter or low and slow?

[B]

I am a biter. And to Trista's question, which is a good one, a real need to get airport breath out of my mouth and didn't wanna buy an entire pack of gum. So instead of buying an entire pack of gum, I just wanted to get out. You guys know what I'm talking about.

[A]

No, we don't.

[D]

You know what airport, it sounds like you might have sleep apnea.

[B]

It's a six hour flight and you're.

[A]

So no gum. Just blow pop.

[B]

Well, it is gum mouth breathing. What do you mean no gum?

[A]

Yeah, there is gum at the center of it. But I wouldn't go to a Blow Pop to make my breath smell better.

[B]

I'm gonna get that taste that airport breath out of the airport.

[A]

The airport? Yeah. That is a result of the airport taste. Yes, clearly.

[C]

Tequila taste.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Put it on.

[A]

Is that what air. That's usually what airport breath is, brother.

[C]

Sounds like.

[A]

What are we doing here?

[C]

Airport breath?

[A]

It sounds like the lounge.

[B]

I think people know what I'm saying when I say you've taken a six hour flight, do you have airport breath? I think people know absolutely what I'm saying. I also think I'm being quite reasonable when I say I didn't want to buy a whole bunch of gum. I wanted a single piece of gum. And you can't buy a single piece of gum. And because I want a dollar with that blow.

[E]

Listen to purse bro.

[B]

Do you guys have something like this recently? Everyone's complaining about how much.

[A]

Yeah. Despite having a fixed interest rate, my mortgage has go up $600 over the last few months. And they don't tell me I have to figure it out for myself. I'm like, well, maybe it'll go down since it went up. It doesn't work that way. Yeah. Who do I call? Because the second I get a mortgage, it changes. Like you get. You immediately get a letter in the mail saying, hey, the person that you signed up your mortgage through, they don't have it anymore. They immediately sold it. They love selling it. Then you get another letter saying, guess what? Hope you didn't get used to them because they sold it. And then, you know, four months later, your mortgage rate goes up. You don't know who to talk to. This is insane. It went up $600 in the last few months.

[B]

I'm not going to blame you for playing my invented game incorrectly, but when I went blow pop, I wasn't expecting you to go mortgage.

[A]

I got one of those good ones. I got one of those like right at the time that you should. I'm telling you, we got less than 3% interest on this bad boy.

[B]

You got that good rate?

[A]

I got one of those Covid rates.

[B]

Pre pandemic ye.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. So imagine all the leftover income that I could have spent on blow pops over the last few months. And then I look at this statement. I'm like, there was something wrong with the last one. But you know what? I got enough problems. We'll give them a month. It went up another couple hundred.

[B]

Put it on the poll, please. Juju at lebatard show is $2.29 too much for a blow pop. And speaking of finances that I don't understand, there are a couple of things happening in the business of college sports that I don't. I don't understand. Cincinnati, the university suing quarterback Brendan Sorby for a million dollars because they want a million dollars for Texas Tech stealing its quarterback. And I don't understand how it is that Mike's guy D money from Kane Insight keeps putting out that the FSU program is $437 million in debt. The FSU athletic program. I don't even understand how you get to $437 million in debt and are allowed to keep functioning.

[A]

A lot of bad buyouts and no on field success, no college football playoffs. And they've spent a ton of money on lawyers to. Thankfully they were the ones that did that because Miami ended up reaping all the benefits from FSU actually being the ones to sell. But this happens. Maryland and Rutgers have also lost a lot of money. There was a story that said Penn State, who's actually had some success in the College Football Playoff. They're losing money over there. Two quick things. There's an S in Keynes Insight and an S in Sorsby.

[B]

Did I not say Keynes Insight?

[A]

I said Kane Insight, which is at my other website that is totally dedicated to the undertaker's brother, the Big Red Machine.

[B]

How does a program exist at $437 million in debt. How do you get out from under? How do you compete in big time college football against programs that are making money? When you're $437 million in debt and you can't get rid because you can't afford the buyout, Right.

[A]

So what happens is they're going to spend another year knowing that it's a nowhere year, but that saves them on the buyout. That's the reality of their situation. They're going to have to get lucky on a coach that is known to develop talent. They haven't really taken that path right now. They're probably going to turn to private equity to get them out of it. But we don't know the rules there yet. I know that they've been talking plenty, but Elliot has said he's a part of a private equity group that is trying to help FSU's financial situation. Ultimately where this all goes is some kind of uniform super league alignment from the top 50 some odd schools there and football is siloed off on its own. And you'll have owners, you'll have private equity firms and they'll be treated like actual private franchises.

[B]

But how are you gonna define what the top 50 programs are? Can one of them be $437 million in debt?

[A]

They're gonna have to dig themselves out of that debt. But I do think that, look, it's all. Now we're talking pro franchises in the world of college football. Florida State has immense value as a franchise, as a brand, and it's probably a worthy investment in a decent pay cheaper type of opportunity. For someone that is looking to invest in private equity, there's a lot that needs to get worked out. That's why the president understands that and is at this point conveniently reaching for sports to have some sort of normal conversation which he and his brand so desperately need. This thing's gonna need to be collect bargained and it's going to take time and no one has the balls on either end because they're not wealthy enough on either end to say let's stop sports for a minute, we're too popular. And the money and the revenue is coming in and these TV deals exist and they can't turn off the spout. So they have to build a plane in the sky and it's going to look messy and it's going to look like Brendan Sorsby getting sued for a million dollars because they just saw Duke get some sort of buyout basically is what's the. What can we Lose here couple hundred, maybe a couple $10,000 on a lawyer's bill. Like Texas Tech has money to make me go away and shut me up and that's all that's happening.

[B]

Well, but when you say Texas Tech, you see that Texas Tech basketball is also really good. Texas Tech has now bought its way into the game. And when you say top 50 schools at football, is Cincinnati one of them? Because Texas Tech just stole Cincinnati's quarterback and Cincinnati wants a million dollars in that exchange for finders fee, whatever it is. They want a million dollars. Who stole our quarterback is Texas Tech. Now Texas Tech has to be considered a major player. They've but Texas Tech in my lifetime, they beat Texas once with Crabtree as the quarterback and have not mattered at sports. The rest of the time it's Tumbleweed U. Texas Tech has not been one of the major programs in my lifetime. They exist to be like the seventh best program in the state of Texas as fodder to for the rest of the conference and the good schools. Now Texas, Texas Tech is top 50. Is Cincinnati, the Cincinnati, I don't know

[A]

if Cincinnati makes it to whatever super league Cincinnati made it to, I think the 14 playoff pretty recently against Alabama. They. They've been a decent football program, more known for basketball in their, in their heyday. Texas Tech's basketball team has been good along the way a couple times, certainly in my lifetime.

[B]

Not this good. Not. Not this good. Not top 10 good.

[A]

Didn't they make it to.

[D]

They made it to a final Four in San Antonio.

[A]

Yeah, they had a good basketball team with some good players. Maybe it was Minnesota, but Texas Tech is just knowing what the nil marketplace is. Texas Tech is really, really a titan when it comes to talent acquisition spending money. They have a very large affluent base that makes no bones about what they want. They're in conference that allows for a pretty easy path. As we saw, they made it to the College Football Playoff with relative ease and were given even a buy this year. So Texas Tech, they're going to be around for a long time in this game. I don't know how it all works with Private Equ. You would assume there's some kind of cap which may make Lubbock less appealing because right now they're not really dealing with that.

[B]

The Lubbock Texas is nowhere land. Right. The idea that that exists as a place that is now buying premium college football and basketball talent and that they've gotten into the game is something that is a little bit. It's unbelievable to watch them climb to the top with dollars. Because you can buy yourself into this game.

[A]

Yeah. For older people like us, too. But you have to keep in mind, Patrick Mahomes is a huge brand, and he is very much associated with that school. Has his own brand that is designing uniforms there. If you're an impressionable high school kid looking where to take your talents. The school that Patrick Mahomes went to, that's always putting up points and is very recently mattering in college basketball and mattering in college football. That seems like a lovely place for me to take my time.

[B]

Well, it's happening. One of the interesting things to see happening in the business of college sports is these athletes are no longer paying to put their name on the weight room or something. They're doing what Andrew Luck is doing, which is saying, well, I'll go get the donors because I'm Andrew Luck, and if you give me the rights to run the entire program, I will get people who have money to spend money on the program because I'm Andrew Luck. So they're getting involved in a way that gives. When you see the athletes with money get into the competitive games where athletes are competing against each other with money. I don't know what Gilbert Arenas is doing right now, but the problem Gilbert Arenas had recently is that he's got too many guys in his neighborhood showing up with cars on his lawn and the neighbors are complaining. So he can't do a full studio that has Skip Bayless in his house. Even even though he's got enough money to compete in the media game, he's got too many people on his lawn because he's trying to run a full media empire. And on Tuesdays when he's doing basketball and football shows, there are too many black people in the white people neighborhood. And what's happening is they're like, stop, we got too many. We got too many cars in the driveway here. Gilbert Arenas can't run a media center out of. Out of what is a legitimate studio. He's got a legitimate studio.

[D]

Gigi. It's like J. Cole. I think the neighbors think I'm selling dope.

[E]

This is exactly like that bet to use az. You'll ask my gimmick.

[B]

Wait, what? No, that's not my gimmick.

[A]

No, I was feeding him. I was feeding him a line. No, Greg Cody. No, I. I wanted Zaz to say, you know about that. Too many black people.

[B]

And he wouldn't do it.

[A]

No, he wouldn't. But no, he said, yo, that's my gimmick. Not realizing that I Was I crouched down? Like, in a whisper? Because I didn't even want the Internet. Unbelievable. I mean, it's red alert. Dan said crackers earlier.

[B]

Hold on, Saslow. What just happened? Is it. Did you get scared, Cody? Did you get scared? Because. Why? What were you saying? That's my gimmick to black. Excuse me?

[A]

I was feeding them.

[B]

You know about that?

[A]

You know about that? Too many black people, Dan.

[C]

It would have thought it was on air for a second.

[A]

First part was my gimmick.

[B]

The second part, not my gimmick.

[A]

Well, none of it was. We were. We were working in the shadows, pal. Like, no one was really alerted to what we were doing. Workshopping your gimmick. I respected the fact that it was your gimmick because I was trying to feed you the line so you could do your gimmick back to the shadows.

[B]

No, but you said that on the air.

[A]

No, I said it on the air, which is something that you're just grasping right now, even though it was very clear to everybody else.

[B]

You know what? I'm sorry to do this to you, Zaslow, but you're gonna have to get out of here.

[A]

I don't think I've ever made that mistake before.

[B]

Minor penalty.

[C]

Two minutes.

[A]

Murdering the show with your bare hands

[B]

and a dismemberment kit in cold blood.

[A]

Damn. D ler.

[B]

The h is captain slappy. Sts is this chum bucket.

[E]

This is the d ler show with

[A]

the st.

[B]

Is Gilbert Arenas back to doing his show, or has he not been able to get it back? Like, Gilbert Arenas got into the game aggressively big. He gave up part of the ownership of his media thing and started his own thing, as many people are doing in the media space.

[A]

But there's too many cars at his house. Too many cars when he tries to have Skip Bayless on. And this is why Texas Tech is back.

[B]

Yeah, that's correct.

[A]

But Andrew Luck has something to do with it.

[B]

And speaking of money issues as we were, I wanted to get into what it is that has happened to both boxing and Floyd Mayweather. Because I'm assuming that most people who are watching Floyd Mayweather, one of the few names in boxing that still somehow matters, because there are very few of them. Comes out of retirement at 49 years old. We're assuming. Right. Everyone's assuming he needs money. Right. Nobody goes back into the game of possibly being hit and embarrassed in front of people simply because they love boxing a great deal. At the age of 49, he's probably

[A]

incredibly confused why someone keeps selling his mortgages he probably has a dozen homes and three dozen different people holding his mortgages lately. That's why he's fighting.

[B]

It's the price of blow pops that has brought him back into, I'm sure, all of it.

[A]

And he doesn't look, from where I was sitting over the last 20 years, didn't seem like he was like, super fiscally responsible. This is the least surprising thing ever.

[B]

Well, you say it's the least surprising thing ever, but can you, Jeremy, just look up for me, okay, the amount of earnings that we're talking about here? Because while athletic money being blown is a bit of a cliche, there are very few athletes ever who have made the kind of money that Floyd Mayweather has made because he's the best in the history of pay per view at making sure that the money ends up in his pocket. He is, or has been a businessman as an athlete that almost doesn't have a peer because he owns all his own stuff as an independent. Your. Your spending has to be so fiscally irresponsible to lose the amount of money that Floyd Madeweather has lost that it is almost beyond anything that is reason. It's not merely fiscal insanity. It's something that doesn't make any sense to me.

[C]

Right.

[E]

And another sign of him maybe in financial trouble is as of February 2026, Floyd Mayweather has initiated a massive $340 million loss of against Showtime Networks and former executive Steven Espinosa. So he's trying to get some bread right now.

[C]

The estimate is that he made over $1.2 billion over the course of his career in just earnings from fights.

[A]

Yeah. I think a question, though, that you should also ask outside of, like, how much has he made is how much has he spent? Because I would say he's fully capable of spending close to a billion dollars in the last 25 years.

[B]

You say that, but not that. Turn into the movie Brewster's millions from the 80s. It's hard to spend that money. It really is hard to spend that much money and end up in a situation where you have to fight at 49 because you're so used to a lifestyle that brings in giant amounts of money that the only way for you to make a giant amount of money is to do what he's presently doing, which is something that somehow will make money because people will still want to watch if Floyd Mayweather can lose because that's where he made his $1.2 million, $1.2 billion. He made it in us watching to see if he'd Lose.

[A]

I don't even think, like, it's just celebrity boxing is so popular because we are obsessed with celebrity culture. And this is the rare reality show in which we can see people fight. You know, like, oh, wouldn't it be awesome if this celebrity got in a fight with this celebrity? Look at the views that Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, AI. Just because, wow, what an awesome fight between two super famous people. Celebrity death match. Yeah. Mayweather doing the exhibition fight with Tyson, who, you know, literally almost died the last time he tried doing this in his training against another celebrity and doing it against Pacquiao, who, you know, them two together, that has cachet. That certainly has a big value. And I think people will watch it well into their 60s if they decide to keep doing it well.

[B]

But the thing that I'm pointing out, though, is that at 49, he would have no other way of making this amount of money in one place, because it is an enormous amount of money that he will make, though it pales in comparison to the previous amounts that he's made. But I remember telling you guys here when I saw it on south beach, at the height of his earning, right, he and his crew walk into a place that's crowded, it's by the pool, it's a pool party. And one of the guys just takes out of the duffel bag $10,000 in cash to get it for a handful of of beach chairs by a pool. And I remember saying at the time, and I felt judgmental saying it, but I'm like, that's exactly how you go broke, no matter how much money it is that you've made. But, Jeremy, while you're looking up 1.2 billion, I'd love to know any athletes ever who have made that amount of money. Because the boxing game is so corrupt, right, that Don King ran the boxing game. And one of the ways that he ran it is he just puts the suitcase with a million dollars cash in front of Muhammad Al Ali. He just puts it in front of Muhammad Ali and gets him to sign it over for the fight in Zaire, that's going to make him a lot more money that it ends up making. Muhammad Ali. When you hear that Floyd Mayweather is going after Showtime, and because money in these contracts doesn't end up going straight to him, even though he thinks that it does, $1.2 billion still represents

[A]

more

[B]

than Tom Brady is going to be making from all of his ventures, even with a $375 million contract for the last 10 years, like $1.2 billion as an athlete is such a staggering amount of money to blow that I'm going to guess that you're not going to find a whole lot of athletes ever who have made that kind of money. Money.

[C]

Well, and that was just career earnings based off of fights like that had nothing to do with endorsements. So when you look at endorsements and things like that, you had Cristiano Ronaldo, you had some of these tennis players, but like Juan Soto right Now signed a $700 million contract. Sh Ohtani. $700 million contracts. Those are sort of the largest that you would find just in terms of the on field product. But when you add endorsements, Ohtani's right up there near the top as well. Also only making $2 million for the salary right now.

[A]

And he could be super fiscally responsible and just see a huge pile of $100 million lying around and say, well, this is pretty easy. Tyson almost died the last time he tried doing this against a YouTuber. I think I can hold my own there for a little bit. And I'm not too threatened against Manny Pacquiao. It's not like his life is in danger. Taking to the ring here, it's one of the most defensive fighters of all time, going against guys that are well past their prime for an easy few minutes. Mil, I. I get it. He could.

[E]

He.

[A]

He probably looking at this, saying like this makes the most sense.

[E]

Right? He also spent heavily on luxury goods, including a 402 million dollar 60 building acquisition in New York, on top of just carrying around 80,000 in Louis v backpacks in which he was caught spending $500,000 in Louis V in one sitting. Back to you, Daniel.

[B]

The real estate ventures I've heard him brag about. The real estate ventures you mentioned. $400 million. It's supposed to be an investment that's not supposed to be money lost. That's supposed to be something that accrues. That's a place to put your money so that you continue to make money with your money. It is. I'm not kidding you when I say it's really hard to blow $1.2 billion. And when you get to 49 and have to do this, what do you imagine 60 is going to look like for Floyd if. If he cannot. If he cannot get his spending in order because he's gotten used to a lifestyle that's asinine.

[D]

I don't know if it is that hard to spend as much money as he spent, given all of the handlers that always take percentages of entertainers, gross figures. You've got publicists, you've got managers, you've got promoters. They all want a percentage. And then you have a fiscally irresponsible life and all of a sudden you're broke. So I think it's all of the people that suck at the teat of an entertainer, an athlete, et cetera, that makes it really easy to blow through. That plus taxes.

[A]

That's a. And who knows what his tax situation is. That's an excellent point by Trisa where the Internet gathers He's generated $1.3 billion. He's probably looking at taxes handlers, managers, fight promotion fees, saying, I've actually cleared like 450,000 450 million, which is a lot more plausible for him to actually spend.

[C]

There are 11 athletes, according to Sportico, that have ever made over a billion dollars. And this is including endorsements. But the bottom two on that list are Phil Mickelson and Floyd Mayweather. Now Phil Mickelson as well, someone notoriously not exactly great with his.

[B]

Well, but in those instances, we were. What's been reported is that he was also gambling enormous amounts of money, which is different. When you guys are saying it's easy to spend $1.2 billion, I'm again going to tell you that it's not quite as easy. We are talking about the most fiscally irresponsible athlete there has ever been, ever. If he can blow this amount of money, there's that there's never been anything close to this kind of fiscal irresponsibility in the history of sports. Because I'm guessing all of the other people you're going to mention there, Jeremy, aren't having any issues. They may have tax problems. They don't have to come out of retirement at 49 for another big payday because they've gone through all of that money.

[D]

I think Mickelson did.

[A]

It could be a coincidence, but Floyd Mayweather other is smack in the middle of Namor. And Phil Mickelson, those three guys gamble a lot. They wager a ton. Namor is. There's a famous Internet video of Namor on a poker app while his daughter's being sung a happy birthday can lose at gambling.