The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz

Episode: Hour 3: A Game Called Honk (feat. DeMaurice Smith)

Date: April 7, 2026

Overview

Broadcast from the Elser Hotel in Downtown Miami, this episode of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz features a lively blend of sports discussion, pop culture riffing, and an in-depth interview with former NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith. The hour weaves through topics ranging from tabloid scandals in sports media, Miami sports, nostalgic traffic games, and—centrally—a revealing, frank, and often blunt conversation with Smith about his years battling NFL owners, the realities of sports labor, mental health in the league, and the costs of leadership.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Sports Media & Rory McIlroy Tabloid Story

(03:03–11:11)

• Main Topic: Media ethics surrounding the Daily Mail’s salacious coverage of golfer Rory McIlroy during Masters week.
• Perspective: The group is universally critical of the timing and motives behind dredging up old, largely debunked rumors about McIlroy’s marriage, arguing that both sports fans and country club types are pushing back against the clickbait.
  • Quote, Mike (Sports Analyst):
    “It’s an ugly story ... this was so clearly a coordinated effort to do it on this week, to use his name for stuff that has been out there ... It's just salacious tabloid garbage.” (10:23)
  • Dan Le Batard:
    “Whatever the gossip is ... people want dirt. The Internet is born on the idea of give me the unconfirmed stuff.” (07:25)

2. “Bring It Back, Jack”—Nostalgia, Traffic Games, and Public Safety

(11:34–13:08)

• Game Called Honk: The crew jokes about developing a “game” to curb distracted driving by honking at phone-using drivers and using expressive gestures (the De Niro finger-point).
  • Suggestion to bring back coin-operated toll booth baskets as a nostalgic way to focus drivers’ attention.
  • The segment blends humor with a real critique of modern distracted driving.

3. DeMaurice Smith: Inside the NFLPA, Owners, and the Cost of Advocacy

(16:44–43:25)
Main Guest: DeMaurice Smith, former Executive Director, NFL Players Association
Theme: Smith’s tenure—its battles, realities, lessons, regrets, and emotional toll.

a. Smith on NFL Owners & Labor Battles

• Owners' Mentality:
  • “I know the owners better than anyone else in the world ... They only think about one thing: Why are we giving [the players] half a billion dollars?” (17:09)
  • “If you want to understand the billionaire class, you have to fight for everything ... They'll take everything out of your right pocket, they'll take everything out of your left pocket, and then they will charge you for walking into the room.” (20:15–21:09)
  • On collusion: “No one colludes better and more than the National Football League. That's a hell of a slogan.” (26:29)
• On the Difficulty of Union Progress:
  • Smith revisits the decades-long struggle for free agency, citing historic figures (John Mackey, Freeman McNeil, Bill Radovich). He notes that every gain was “a close-contact knife fight to the death” (20:55) and laments how current players often forget that history.

b. Burnout and the Emotional Toll

• Question: “How fried were you by the end?”
  • Smith:
    “Broken ... The thing that broke me ... I had gone through 10 years of homicide [law], I’d gone through 12 years of being a law partner, then almost 15 years at the NFLPA ... Going to bed every night knowing the 10 or 15 things this group can do to you, it's hard.” (21:12)
• Maintaining Perspective:
  • “If you had unlimited wealth and absolutely no regulatory agency ... what would you do?”—a classroom question Smith uses to frame the unchecked power of league ownership. (22:34)

c. Mental Health Advocacy in the NFLPA

• Protocols Developed:
  • The union built a confidential, player-only mental health safety net, separate from teams or medical reimbursement—so “the only person that sees the check is D. Smith.” (24:45–25:39)
  • Smith refuses to comment on individual player cases, citing the stigma and confidentiality at stake.

d. Collective Bargaining, Regrets, and Lessons

• On the Salary Cap:

  • He says without a cap, collusion would still drive salaries down and keep owners’ share high, with players “playing 27 games a year.” (25:57)

• Biggest Collusion Offenses:

  • “If I had to take the two, obviously it would be the one in 2011 because all the teams locked us out ... And the collusion case I filed before I left: the Lamar [Jackson] situation ... For no team to call him … I found that to be the most offensive.” (31:50–33:08)

• Biggest Regrets:

  • Wishing he hadn’t “got away” from teaching the history of labor battles to current players, asserting that deep understanding breeds preparation and power.
    • “Looking at the three years, I now wish I hadn't backed off ... the way I personally backed off of teaching that history had a cost.” (34:26)
  • On negotiation: “Maybe I should have pushed a little further in 2011 ... But [sometimes] you lose the ability to control our work … you stay up awake at night and you try to figure out, okay, where I would have pushed and pulled a little bit more.” (35:43–38:05)

e. The Personal Cost and Shift in His Love of the Game

• Did Smith love football?
  • Often accused of “not loving football,” Smith reveals he truly loved “the players more than the game,” explaining that being exposed daily to exploitation and risk eroded his love for the sport itself.
    • Quote:
      “It became impossible for me to love the game ... I could only do this job if I loved the players more than the game, because, you know, they use the game to leverage against you.” (42:01)
    • Retells advice from labor legend Rich Trumka:
      “When I represented the coal miners, do you think I loved the hole they were crawling into? No ... if you love the people who do the work, it's a hard thing to love ... the hole.” (42:15–43:25)

f. The Modern Landscape

• Challenges for the Next NFLPA Leader:
  • “For the first time in history, someone in the second or third round of this draft will earn less money than they got in college because of [NIL deals]. ... The job in 2026 is 10 times more complicated than the job I took in 2009—really, bar none.” (39:14–39:38)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Smith on Owners’ Savvy:
  “Some of them are brilliant. Some of them I would not consider to be smart ... For that guy to pay as little as $2 million a year to be a billionaire. That guy’s got a really good deal.” (33:15–34:03)
• On his handshake:
  Chris Cody, via Lawrence: “He has a high standard for smart. He also ... my hand still hurts from shaking ... great handshake”
  Smith: “Well, you know, at 62, you gotta keep it in shape, right? ... For the kids.” (34:11–34:22)
• On staying “myopically focused”:
  “The North Star that gets you through the job is to be myopically focused on the interests of the players. ... I gave up my love of football for that.” (39:49)
• On working homicide vs. the NFLPA:
  “Homicide was a tough job ... but it's the best job I've ever had ... I had more fun in that job in a day than I had in 15 years at the NFLPA.” (38:12–38:15)

Segment Timestamps

• (03:03–11:11) Sports Media, Rory McIlroy Tabloid Debate
• (11:34–13:08) “Game Called Honk”—Miami Driver Culture & Nostalgia
• (16:44–43:25) DeMaurice Smith Interview
  • (17:09) Smith on owners as “billionaire class”
  • (20:15, 21:12) On the emotional toll & burnout
  • (24:45) Mental health protocols for players
  • (25:57) Salary cap & collusion history
  • (31:50) Collusion: Lamar Jackson/non-contacted superstar
  • (34:26) Regrets—backing off from teaching labor history
  • (38:12) Comparing homicide law to NFLPA work
  • (39:14) Rapidly changing landscape, NIL impact
  • (42:01) On losing his love for the game, loving the players instead

Tone & Style

The show maintains its trademark conversational irreverence and rapid-fire banter, but pivots to genuine gravity and candor during the Smith interview. Dan and team oscillate between playful groupthink, pointed questions, and giving Smith space to air hard-won truths. Smith himself is forthright, unvarnished, and uses dark humor amidst sometimes bleak outlooks on power and progress.

Conclusion

Hour 3 of this episode is both comedic and consequential. While it opens with sports media snark and Miami driving games, it quickly delivers a rare, unfiltered masterclass on the realities of sports labor, power, and advocacy from DeMaurice Smith, a man who spent 15 years in the trenches. Whether you care about sports labor politics, how power works, or just want a blunt take on why progress is so hard, this episode gives both the laughs and the lessons.