The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz

Local Hour: "Nerd Boy"

Date: September 9, 2025
Location: Elser Hotel, Downtown Miami
Hosts: Dan Le Batard, Stugotz, Chris Cote, Zaslo (guest)

Episode Overview

This Local Hour episode is a post-mortem of an apocalyptic loss by the Miami Dolphins, exploring the collapse of optimism around the team, the local fanbase's desperation, and the broader NFL narrative ridiculing Miami. The hosts blend their trademark humor, vulnerability, and unchecked fandom, touching on sports culture, fan identity, team leadership issues, and even broader social discussions on accountability (notably in reference to Tyreek Hill and Inter Miami's controversies).

Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Wrestling T-shirt Dispute: Setting the Tone

• Timestamps: 02:20–04:00
• Stugotz arrives proud of his Brett "The Hitman" Hart shirt, seeking validation and sparking an opening wrestling debate.
• Chris Cote, a Shawn Michaels fan, (jokingly) warns dating fans of Bret Hart: "Ladies, if they're a Bret Hart guy, run for the hills." (02:48)
• Sets the "stirring the shit" energy: playful, petty, competitive.

2. Dolphins “Apocalypse” Loss: Stats and Overreactions

• Timestamps: 05:35–18:38

Collapse by the Numbers

• Dan runs through several bleak stats:
  • Dolphins: 43 yards in the first half—fewest since 1991 (08:46)
  • Colts scored on all seven possessions—the first in this century (08:51)
  • Multiple 15-play drives by Colts
• Zaslo picks the "43 yards in the first half" as the most damning stat, emphasizing "they were playing a different sport in 1991." (09:53)

What Went Wrong?

• Defenders and former Dolphins even knew the team's weaknesses:
  • "We just took away his first read and it's kind of over.” – Xavien Howard, as recounted by Stugotz (10:26, 13:13)
• Tyreek Hill’s decline noted; no 30+ yard catch in a year (11:17)

Broader Fan Reaction

• Chris Cote sums up the mood:
  • "We kept the faith and then they give you that effort. As unprepared as any team has ever looked." (16:32)
• Dan calls out the familiar "overreaction after week one," but says for Dolphins fans, "it doesn't feel like an overreaction after the way that game was played" (15:10)

Most Telling Moment

• The best play for Miami? "A blind side sack and [Tua] got right back up and he didn't fumble." (17:46)
• Dan: "Best play...he got up." (17:54)

Shift from Hope to Hopelessness

• The sense of annual optimism is replaced by gallows humor and dread.
• Zaslo: "Where's the cavalry coming for this team? ...They've got nothing. Zero." (20:54–21:18)

3. Leadership, Culture, and the Mike McDaniel Vibe

• Timestamps: 21:59–25:45

• Fans now turn on Coach McDaniel’s quirky style: "It's not cute anymore." – Stugotz (22:28)

• Dan admits discomfort moralizing, but asserts: “This was a deal with the devil, man. They sold their soul for 18 months of speed.” (about Tyreek Hill and the team’s willingness to overlook his troubling past while he’s producing) (24:49)

• Chris Cote: “When this team faces adversity, who is the leader? ...all the things that were cool about [McDaniel]...how does that work when you feel like your franchise is at a crossroads…” (25:45)

4. Tyreek Hill’s Off-Field Problems and the Deal with the Devil

• Timestamps: 23:13–25:22

• Dan confronts the audience and himself for “laundering” Tyreek Hill’s image and ignoring patterns of alleged domestic violence as long as he delivered on the field.

• Quoting new allegations: “This person has always been a danger to women and children. He was that with the Chiefs, before the Chiefs, and he's that in Miami.” (24:26)

• “If we're gonna talk about him this much, let's take some culpability on all the hope he created around here.” (24:49)

5. National Sports Media Pile-On: ‘Nerd Boy’ & The Analytics Backlash

• Timestamps: 26:23–31:55

• The Dolphins, especially Coach Mike McDaniel (“Nerd Boy”), become the laughingstock of the league.

• Rex Ryan’s mocking: “Their team has no respect for their coach, and they play like that. They're soft. Every part of this football team...” (28:39, paraphrased)

• Chris Cote: “There are a couple of teams...the entire nation just enjoys reveling in their misfortune...But these guys who thought they were good, the nerve. This coach who thought he was smarter than everybody else." (30:06)

• Dan: Only three Dolphins are nationally relevant: Tua, Tyreek, McDaniel— “their holy trinity of what it is that's going up in flames.” (30:53)

6. Organizational Stagnation: Chris Greer's Tenure

• Timestamps: 31:55–32:19
• Chris Cote: “Chris Greer has been around for nine years and eight months. It's the longest tenured NFL GM ever without a playoff win. …You don't get to keep that job for a decade without a playoff win.” (32:01-32:19)

7. Fanbase Boiling Point & Next Steps

• Timestamps: 34:07–35:54

• Is it overreaction or the end? Dan: “Please tell me that after week one it’s an overreaction to say everyone saw on Sunday that the Dolphins season and the architecture of it is over.” (34:36)

• Chris Cote: “This is Waterloo right now. Like they're going to be boots to asses if they lose this game to the New England Patriots.” (35:08)

• Dan mocks the progression: “You can’t go from must win to Waterloo to the boobirds in week two.” (35:25)

8. Inter Miami, MLS, and the Spitting Scandals

• Timestamps: 36:07–41:56

Spitting Incidents

• Four high-profile sports spitting incidents in 10 days, including Inter Miami’s Luis Suarez.
• Stugotz: "I can't root for Inter Miami right now." (39:03)
• Chris Cote & Dan discuss the tepid response and minimal punishment from MLS, plus Inter Miami fans priced out and feeling alienated.

Absurdity of Soccer Violence

• Joking around Suarez’s history: “Four or 40, he's teething like he's four, he's 40. This guy's like, almost 40 years old.” – Dan (42:19)
• Chris Cote: “At least Busquets is throwing hands.” (42:27)
• Dan muses: “Never Mind a famous athlete. He's got multiple bitings.” (42:19)

9. Miscellaneous: Biting, Spitting, and Head-Butting

• Timestamps: 42:27–44:00
• A humorous detour about whether any form of on-field fighting is “cool.”
  • Dan: "No one thinks biting is cool."
  • Chris: "Headbutting is fine...rather cool.” (43:06–43:11)
• Dan shares a wild real-life story of a friend patiently head-butting a biker—memorable for its absurdity and the candid banter that follows.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Dolphins’ collapse:

  • “It’s not losing 30, like you’re down 30 nothing. And that’s not happening to anyone else in the league.” – Dan Le Batard (15:10)
  • “He got annihilated on that play.” – Stugotz, on Tua’s blindside sack (18:05)
  • “I was expecting his entire head to roll off the field. So I’m like, all right, that’s a good play.” – Dan (20:19)

• On Tyreek Hill:

  • “This was a deal with the devil, man. They sold their soul for 18 months of speed.” – Dan (24:49)
  • “You should have said all that on the front end because it was all true.” – Chris Cote to Dan, about Tyreek's allegations (24:49)

• On McDaniel:

  • “It’s not cute anymore.” – Stugotz (22:28)
  • “This team played a game so putrid...the laughing stock in the league is the team that you’re laughing at...because everyone’s looking at it and saying, oh, that’s all doomed.” – Dan (26:56–28:01)

• On NFL media schadenfreude:

  • “This is a victory for everyone who’s against analytics.” – Dan (28:54)
  • “This league is so silly. It really is.” – Chris Cote (29:16)

• On Inter Miami and spitting:

  • “I can’t root for Inter Miami right now.” – Stugotz (39:03)

• Comic relief on biting/fighting:

  • “Does anyone think biting is cool? ...Headbutting is fine. Headbutting’s rather cool.” – Dan & Chris (43:06–43:11)
  • “One of the most impressive things I have ever seen in my life is a very patient...friend of mine...just gets out of his car and headbutts him and leaves him in the street...crumpled.” – Dan (43:22–44:00)

Key Timestamps

• Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels shirt debate: 02:20–04:00
• "Football is back" song: 05:35–06:24
• Dolphins' disastrous stats & breakdown: 08:31–13:00
• Tyreek Hill’s struggles & off-field issues: 11:17–25:22
• McDaniel criticism and national ridicule ("Nerd Boy"): 26:23–31:55
• Fanbase desperation & media schadenfreude: 34:07–35:54
• Inter Miami/MLS spitting scandal: 36:07–41:56
• Biting/headbutting as “cool”: 42:27–44:00

Tone & Takeaways

• Self-aware and unfiltered: The hosts frequently reflect on their own cognitive dissonance as sports fans and admit the cyclical nature of fandom—celebrating problematic or doomed teams/players until reality (and sometimes morality) demands a reckoning.
• Miami-specific pain: The Dolphins’ futility is both a sports and civic identity crisis, compounded by how gleefully the nation and media pile on after a hyped, analytics-driven era comes crashing down.
• Cultural criticism: Personalities like McDaniel and Tyreek Hill are lightning rods, and their struggles become cultural fodder for narratives around “nerd” coaches, analytic skepticism, and the ethics of fandom.

For Listeners Who Missed It

If you're a Miami sports fan, this episode is a cathartic, comedic, yet brutal group therapy session. If you're not, it's an insightful examination of how a single city's optimism—around both its football and soccer teams—can become the national punchline in a matter of days, and what that's like for those who care the most. The show is unafraid to mix sports talk, moral reckoning, and pure goofiness, walking the line between absurdist comedy and serious commentary on the state of sports culture.